Blogflog - Deal Announcement

[blogfloggery]

Link: Deal Announcement
Disclaimer: This blog entry is verbatim, as originally posted on LKH's blog. Copyright belongs to Ma Petite Enterprises.

Publishers Weekly had an exclusive on this news, so I couldn’t share it until after they published it yesterday.

Hamilton Re-ups At Berkley

Bestseller Laurell K. Hamilton inked a new three-book deal with her editor at Berkley, Cindy Hwang. The North American rights agreement, which Merrilee Heifetz at Writers House handled, will bring fans her first new series since 1999. The new books feature Detective Samuel Havelock, who works in the Meta­physical Coordination Unit. Berkley said Havelock exists “in a universe where heaven, hell, and our own world converge,” and “he is all we have keeping the Apocalypse at bay.” Also included in the agreement is a novel in Hamilton’s Anita Blake , Vampire Hunter series and a third book, which Berkley said is “yet to be determined.” Hamilton, according co [sic] Berkley, has sold more than 20 million books.

Comments

[shadwing]

If you check out her FB feed you'll note there are quite a few comments noting the lack of a possible Merry Book with a few holding out hope that it will be the 'yet to be determined' book. But the response to this new series thus far has been lukewarm

[scarimonious]

I guess she's solved the problem as to how a male protagonist can climb the stairs without getting his genitals stuck in his zipper. Truly, how has any female author managed to write male characters before now.

[quillsshadow]

Wow, Berkley are stupid. LKH's books have an audience because they can pass for "feminist", with their "strong" "powerful" female leads. Make the lead male, and that audience won't be interested. And the audience who would be interested in a guy running around gathering a harem and being the bestest speshulest most-amazing-at-everything, aren't going to want to read it from an author who started by writing about "powerful" women.

I can definitely buy that LKH is too dumb and egotistic to realise this, but you'd think the publishers would recognise that they're letting their money-cow walk off a cliff in a way that won't even give them much meat.

[thegrandhighmarysue]

Apparently, this has been finished and will be released on August 17, 2021. She's changed the name from Samuel to Zaniel for some reason. Probably to make it sound more unique, or go with the -iel trend of angel names. I wasn't sure she was ever going to get around to it, and I'm going to buy it just to if it's a trainwreck or not. If anyone's interested I'll post my findings. I'm expecting a lot of LKH-isms in it, regardless of the new character. Or maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised. Who knows?

Here's the current blurb on Amazon:

Meet Detective Zaniel Havelock, a man with the special ability to communicate directly with angels. A former trained Angel speaker, he devoted his life to serving both the celestial beings and his fellow humans with his gift, but a terrible betrayal compelled him to leave that life behind. Now he’s a cop who is still working on the side of angels. But where there are angels, there are also demons. There’s no question that there’s evil at work when he’s called in to examine the murder scene of a college student—but is it just the evil that one human being can do to another, or is it something more? When demonic possession is a possibility, even angelic protection can only go so far. The race is on to stop a killer before he finds his next victim, as Zaniel is forced to confront his own very personal demons, and the past he never truly left behind.