lkh_lashouts | Entries tagged with media: interviews

dwg.livejournal.com

They're worth the read despite being a lot of the same ol' same ol' from LKH. I've included some of the more...special highlights. This is a great time to start playing LKH bingo. Or drinking.

Ten Terrifying Questions via Booktopia:

6. Please tell us about your latest novel…

A Shiver of Light is the first Meredith (Merry) Gentry novel in over four years. In re-reading the other eight novels in the series I discovered something I hadn’t known before, that the first seven books are really an epic political fantasy series a la George R. R. Martin except with more mystery, sex, and less killing off of main characters.

No Going Back: An Exclusive Interview with Laurell K Hamiton via Barnes & Noble

Readers, especially series-loving readers, don’t like too much change. I actually like character growth and change in a series, but I seem to be in the minority; most people like series to be like a brand name product that does the same thing every time, reliable. When the Anita Blake series changed, it made some readers feel betrayed, because their happy place was now an uncomfortable place for them, and uncomfortable isn’t happy for most people. Uncomfortable is the beginning of growth and change in real life and fictional; a lot of readers were thrilled with the new direction, but the ones that weren’t honestly did feel betrayed. Because I don’t feel that way as a reader, I had no way to anticipate it as a writer, so I wandered blissfully off the path and into the woods, only to find that some of the fans had turned into haters. In their minds they felt I had started the “fight,” because I took their beloved world and characters and changed them into people they didn’t enjoy anymore. In my mind I didn’t know there was a problem, until the first hate-filled spewing began. Now, most of my readers, and legions of new fans, have loved, and continue to love how Anita’s personal life and world have opened up, but I understand some of the hatred now. It won’t make it go away, or make me change what I write, or how, but I think I understand some of why it started in the first place.

Superspeak: An Interview with Laurell K Hamilton via Searching for Superwomen

I’ve lost count of the number of women who tell me that they didn’t know a woman could enjoy sex, until they read my books. Or the number of women who are angry at me, because sex is never that good in real life, and only their friends who were with them at the signings, assuring them that no, really sex really was that. The women who get angry about the sex not being realistic are always wearing wedding rings.

Current Music: Brian Tyler - Lay Aboard Lads (Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag)

blogfloggery.livejournal.com

Link: May 21 2014, 17:50
Disclaimer: This blog entry is verbatim, as originally posted on LKH's Facebook. Copyright belongs to Ma Petite Enterprises.

I'm doing a Q & A on GoodReads for the next few days, so if you want to ask me a question nows your chance., and my answers, I suppose you'd want to read those, too. *laughs* https://www.goodreads.com/lkhamilton

dwg.livejournal.com

Amazon's Kiss the Dead page now has an editorial featuring a side-by-side interview with LKH and Charlaine Harris, where they talk about charcters and writing processes. It's...nothing really new from LKH (no surprise) but it highlights her limitations (this is the nicest way to put it) when put next to Harris. For example:

Does fan response play a part in your planning process?

CH: Not in the sense of changing plot direction in my novels. This is my story to tell, and I have to write it the way I see it. But every now and then when reader response to a character is unexpectedly enthusiastic--or the opposite--I'll take a second look at that character to see why he/she is coming across in a way I didn't expect or anticipate.

LKH: I don't change plot direction for fan reaction either. My story, my world, my books, my stuff, my way. The only people who can change the direction of my novels are my characters. It's their life, after all, so if they're really insistent on a different plot, then they win. I agree that reader response to a character can make me puzzle over them more, but it doesn't usually change how often the character is on stage, or how big their role is, because weirdly if the fans are interested, then I'm already intrigued. Best example is Edward who started out as this cold blooded assassin, almost a bad guy, and now he's one of Anita's best friends, and he's a U. S. Marshal. So, not what I had planned for him.

Read the entire thing here

I pretty much lost it where LKH says "I can't lighten Anita's hair, but I can lighten mine!" in response to a question about readers expecting authors to be their characters. Yes, because we can do so much more in this wacky land of reality, like change hair colour and fly to the moon, whereas it's clearly impossible to do any of those things in fiction. Yup.

On a related note, the product information for Beauty has been updated to reveal that the "steamy outtake" is 33 pages long. Asking $3 for it seems way too steep.

dwg.livejournal.com

Interview with LKH @ Fantasy Book Review - this is for the paperback release of Hit List, so a lot of this information we got the first time round back in June.

However, the lack of self-awareness in this part is making my mind slowly retreat to the back of my skull:

Do you think that Anita is tempted to cross over to the dark side?

‘I think dark and light aren’t as far apart as most people think, and that the day you stop wondering about your choices, and if it makes you a good person, or a bad one, is the day you cross the line. Most people don’t become evil in large spectacular events, but little by little, day by day, one small decision at a time, until one day they aren’t the good guy anymore, and most of them don’t even realize it. That Anita worries about it is a good sign that it’s not happened, and probably won’t. Power is like a gun, it’s neutral; it’s the hand that wields it that makes it good, or evil.’

And yet, I'd hold up Flirt as a masterpiece of how Anita's gone to the Dark Side and has become the thing she says she's always hated. What with the whole enslavement and violation thing. But no! Because she angsts about it and has flocks of supporting cast ready to tell her that she's a good person, it's all totally okay! EUGH, I can feel my skin starting to crawl all over again.

She talks more about how she doesn't read much genre fiction, how Merry/Anita are "strong, sexually liberated" women, and how she's always loved the supernatural but isn't sure why.

Current Mood: busy
Current Music: The Black Keys - Howlin' For You

dwg.livejournal.com

Back in June, LKH did a radio interview with Michelle Wargo for Heartbeat Radio. The podcast is now available, but the audio is a bit iffy in places and Hamilton speaks very fast in others. So because of that, and just in case it goes down, I've transcribed the entire thing. The only editing I've done is to take out a lot of "uh" and "um" pauses and stammering, the rest of the changes mid-sentence are all on LKH.

The interview itself is 14mins of mostly recycled answers, like what is the world of Anita Blake, but there's a new story about how the books are so good that they're an aphrodisiac and some people orgasm just from reading them.

( Transcription here. )

dwg.livejournal.com

There's an interview with LKH by the Examiner: "Laurell K Hmailton discusses 'Hit List', Anita Blake and New Orleans - where it's announced she's the Special Guest Author at Anne Rice's Vampires Ball this year (Oct 29 - if anyone is going, please give us a report!)

( Here's the interview part: )

naeko.livejournal.com

The Mother Of All Paranormal Fantasy: An Interview With Laurell K. Hamilton

It's by some guy named paulgoatallen, which gets my sycophant senses tingling, but I can't quite pinpoint why. He's probably popped up in the past as a hardcore fan, but my brain scrubs clean most things I learn after a few weeks. I don't want to pull apart the entire interview, but here are a few head-tilt moments that jumped out at me.

LKH: I also think the fact that I'm still having a blast writing the books shows.

Really? Because your twitter feed tells a different story.

LKH: I am certainly astonished that a type of book that I was told would never sell back in late 1980s/early 1990s has become the genre that, arguably, saved publishing in these rather dire times.

Her genre saved publishing! Wait. Were we in danger of losing the published word?

LKH: A novel is between four-hundred to eight-hundred pages in manuscript form. A movie script is about one-hundred-and-twenty pages, to one-hundred-and-sixty pages, so how to take 400 - 800 pages and winnow it down to only 120-160?

Maybe start by winnowing your books down to 120 pages? I mean, you could easily cut that much out and not lose any of the finer points. Also, I've never heard winnow used in this manner, so I'm a bit confused, but eh.

To top it off, the comments end (as of this writing) with someone claiming their favorite of all the book covers is the one for Hit List. I'm hoping they are not talking about the American cover /o\

Current Mood: annoyed
Current Music: Snow Patrol - Somewhere A Clock Is Ticking

naeko.livejournal.com

There's a new interview making the rounds from Graphic Novel Reporter.

Laurell K. Hamilton Talks Graphic Novels (and Giant Cobras)

In it, LKH talks about what she does in terms of bringing the comics together, and admits that "it was like Brett reached inside my head and plucked out the image." So the huge thighs and derpy expressions were exactly as she pictured them!

She also mentions that she doesn't read much anymore, because "One of the most interesting things as a writer is that the more successful you get, the less time you have to read others’ work. You’re writing your own." Interesting and a little sad. Not as in pathetic, but just sad as in, there are some awesome books out there that LKH is missing out on because she's too busy "writing her own." Also, slacking off.

Then, of course, she manages to stumble over her word choices and land in a pile of insults. " It’s not like it was years ago. There are beautiful, grownup, and interesting storylines out there." I've not ever been big into comics, but as I understand it, it's been way more than ten years of "interesting" story lines out there. Adults and kids have been reading and loving comics for, what, fifty years now? At least? Sigh. Just because your comics came out, Cupcake, doesn't mean there wasn't anything worthwhile beforehand.

Anita is really at heart the way it reads. The format is based on the old hardboiled detective fiction, which means it’s very, very dialogue-heavy. There are descriptions, too, but dialogue-heavy books are easier to translate. What I’ve been told is that my books are easier to translate than most books.

I think it's not easier because they're better, but easier because you insist on doing all the work. And, by "doing all the work" I mean you refuse to pare down anything.

The whole package wraps up with her talking about how the CoTD comic is indeed happening, and- of course- mentioning her biology degree! It's a good thing, too. I had forgotten all about it! That and her husband's name. Jon Green, her husband Jon. Wait, what's her husband Jon's name again? Oh right. Jon, her husband Jon Green.

dwg.livejournal.com

I posted this on my journal first, so I'm sorry to the people who get this twice, but! News fresh in from Twitterland! So fresh, rigor hasn't even set in!

LKHamilton: I've finished crying over my imaginary friends, but I'm left empty and sort of numb. Stunned with the turn of events. Jan 18 8:44

LKHamilton: I've spent days trying to save this character. I pulled a major metaphysical event to save the day & in the end not enough. Jan 18 8:46

LKHamilton: Death will come, final and complete, and the light in their eyes dulls until the windows to the soul show nothing but emptiness. Jan 18 8:47

LKHamilton: The body is still warm, the flesh still soft, you can still hold them, cradle them in your arms and smell the sweet scent of their skin. Jan 18 8:49

LKHamilton: Death comes soft at first, lay a last kiss on their mouth while the warmth lasts and before the cold comes. Jan 18 8:52

LKHamilon: I'm out of here. I have not the heart to stay. Time to find someone real and get a hug. Should have known what was coming. Sometimes . . . Jan 18 8:55

LKHamilon: . . . even in fiction you can't save everyone. I fucking hate that. Jan 18 8:56

SOMEONE IS GOING TO DIE IN BULLET! This is doubly amusing because not three days ago, in a Q & A for Barnes and Noble, she said this:

Ok, this is a spoiler if you haven't at least finished Guilty Pleasures then please do not read this message. Ok, I've done the warning bit. Anita and I were both traumatized by Phillip's death in Guilty Pleasures. I promised her after that if she cared for a man I wouldn't kill him off. Her way of getting around that was apparently to care for every man we met in the books from that point on. Talk about unforeseen consequences.

I honestly think my subconscious is responsible for the low death count among major and major/minor characters. People dieing, or leaving, when I was very young have left their mark. In real life you can't save everyone, but in fiction, sometimes, you can. We may actually have some deaths at some point, but I think my muse and I would rather not.

Bold emphasis is mine.

I was talking to a couple of people over the weekend and saying that if LKH wanted to keep things as real-to-life as possible, as she claims she does, then she'd have to let some characters die. In my opinion, you can't really have it both ways; either you keep things gritty and real and deal with the tough breaks the story gives you, or you can make it a fancy fictional la-la land where nobody dies and everyone's sparkly and happy. Trying to fudge one just hurts the other, and...well, the books are a really good example to that with the random metaphysics and miraculous saves. So it's nice to see that someone's biting the Bullet.

Umm, on a related note, I went through the B & N forum and copied out the Q & A in more readable format, so that LKH's answers are right after the question and you don't have to scroll around to try and find what she's talking about: Part one and part two. I'm sorting through the Facebook chat in a similar fashion, but I'm going to add more blog links and commentary to it.

Current Mood: pleased
Current Music: Jack Off Jill - Witch Hunt

glimmerfox.livejournal.com

She also goes into a few other details of Narcissus in Chains and the rumor that Micah=Jonboi. This interview has more details on that than any other that I've seen. Ans she actually admits that she wanted Micah for Anita because during the writing she felt so lonely and didn't want Anita to be lonely. So of course instead of having Anita run to Richard, or Jean-Claude for comfort, she should turn to the guy who raped her in the shower.

Again it's an old interview, at this time her newest book is Danse Macabre, but it is a good read.

www.flamesrising.com/laurell-k-hamilton-interview-horror-author/

naeko.livejournal.com

I've been going through the old Lashouts entries and tagging blogflogs and fixing links (you may delete any comment notification emails you get titled "Link fix" as it's only me!). In the course of fixing links, I found this very old interview with Hamilton that brings to light just how long she's been saying the same stuff. Does the 70/30 rule sound familiar? It should! Hamilton's been telling us how it goes since at least '97!

Thrill of the hunt
By Corey Stulce, Lifestyle Editor
July 23, 1997

Some people are unaware that a license is required for vampire hunting in Laurel Hamilton's world.

It's true, though, vampire hunters must be licensed through the state, just as doctors and teachers are. They must also have a court order of execution, otherwise it's considered murder. It's really the only way to be civilized in her world.

"The Killing Dance" is the sixth novel author Laurel Hamilton has released starring her heroine ( and possible alter ego) Anita Blake. Blake is a vampire hunter, and in "Dance" she is dating both a master vampire and a werewolf. Confused? Well, it's all just a part of the vast world Hamilton has created for her characters, and it just happens to be smack dab in the middle of St. Louis.

Hamilton has taken a very original stab at the world of vampires taking away some of their mystery and making her main character a human.

"To my knowledge, I'm the only one who has a world where everyone knows that vampires and werewolves and zombies are real and you just have to deal with that," Hamilton said.

( Read more... )

Then, of course,

dwg and I were talking about vampire hunting licenses and wondering exactly what's involved in getting one. Do you have to renew? Do you have to go have your eyesight checked periodically like with a driver license? Imagine if your eyes started to fail and you hammered a stake into the wrong corpse in the morgue? Or into the right corpse, but in the wrong place. You could be letting a vampire limp away with oak in his shin!

recrudescence.livejournal.com

For all I know, this has been discussed here before, so forgive me if I'm being redundant, but I recently came across this:

VAMPIRES AND WEREWOLVES AND WITCHES- OH MY! How a nice Midwestern girl got caught up in the macabre and developed a cult following

It's an LKH interview that appeared in the Chicago Tribune in mid-October of 1996. It is also kind of hilarious.

( Some choice quotes in bold, my own helpful insights in plain: )

ever-obsessed.livejournal.com

Yep, another newbie, *coughs a bit and looks around nervously, feeling awed*

Hope I'm, you know, doing this right.

The beautiful snark here was single-handedly responsible for me staying sane when I recently got the Flu From Hell so a late and sincere thanks for that, *g*

http://www.writersdigest.com/article/laurell-k-hamilton/

( my first pitiful attempt at snark )

Current Mood: aggravated

auryanne.livejournal.com

Hi folks, long-time lurker, first time poster. I came home to find this magazine from Comic-Con 2007; as you probably know, Laurell is speaking there as a guest this year.There's really nothing ground-breaking in this interview, but I thought people might want to read it anyway. Please pardon the terrible scans, my scanner isn't very good -- but the horrible contrast is their fault, I swear!

Page 1:
http://pics.livejournal.com/auryanne/pic/0012p0aq

Page 2:
http://pics.livejournal.com/auryanne/pic/0012q9bh

Page 3:
http://pics.livejournal.com/auryanne/pic/0012rqhr

alucard66.livejournal.com

http://www.freewebs.com/enchantingreviews/deesreviews.htm

I love the interviewer's random use of capital letters. She almost reminds me of Anne Rice. Most of this interview consists of things we already knew; I'm posting this only because I find it funny how the woman really didn't seem to know much about LKH.

cmagi.livejournal.com

Hi everybody. New user but I've been lurking for a long time. You've probably seen this interview before but I think it's nausea inducing.

"Interview with Laurell K. Hamilton

How did you come to the idea to write books about vampires? Why vampires?

I've loved vampires since I was a little girl. Why vampires and not some other monster? Not sure but my two favorites have always been vampires and werewolves. I guess I prefer monster that can eat you, or at least drink you. One of my earliest completed stories, at fifteen, had vampires in it.

What do you like the most about your books?

That 15 books into the Anita series and I'm still learning new things about my characters and my world.
Are any of your characters' personalities taken from people you know?

Not really. Sometimes a gesture, or some small thing will get incorporated, but I; I’ve never based anyone’s personality on people I know.
Anita, being my fist attempt at first person narration was close to my own personality in some ways. Part of that was accidental and part was to make the writing easier. Our personalities have diverged as our life experience has diverged over the years.

( Read more... )

dwg.livejournal.com

Wow, I'm surprised nobody's taken to this one - I found the link on the LKH.org "hot news" page.

Whole article: The Alien Online: Laurell K. Hamilton on moonlight seduction, Merry Gentry indulges after dark.

( Highlights )

Current Mood: irritated
Current Location: curled up in the corner
Current Music: I Never Came - Queens of the Stone Age (ha!)

briary-flower.livejournal.com

( I got a special message from LKH in my inbox today. )

There was also a little interview that I've uploaded for those who dare. Enjoy!

ps/I'm going to preface this by saying that I don't approve of women trash-talking other women's appearances. I think it's cheap, crappy behavior, and the women who indulge in it should be ashamed. Having said that, what the hell is up with LKH and the lipstick? It is the wrong colour for her. It's the wrong colour for anybody. LKH! If UR reading this - please look into this lipstick issue!

Current Music: Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd

kethryvis.livejournal.com

Okay, here are a few of the highlights, as it were, from the LKH interview in the latest issue of Realms of Fantasy magazine. If you don’t read it, it’s a great magazine and I recommend it. The interview is fairly long, and due to copyright I won’t be retyping the whole thing… but here are some sections I thought might be of interest to everyone. I won’t be flogging them because I won’t be saying anything new. But I was… amused at a few of the things she said.

Note: all typos are mine. Everything is as written in the December 2006 issue of RoF, pages 42-46 and 102 by Paul Witcover. (the academic in me has to cite her source!) [...] is used to notate where I skpped over sections.
( Big long snippets here )

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LKH Lashouts

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Entries tagged with media: interviews

Interviews with LKH

Facebook flog - May 21 2014

LKH's Booktalk Nation video chat

Interview with LKH and Charlaine Harris

Interview with LKH @ Fantasy Book Review

Heartbeat Radio podcast

Examiner.com interview with LKH

Pull out your bingo card! An interview with LKH

Interview about the ABVH Graphic Novels

Tweet flog/Bullet update, Barnes & Noble forum Q & A

Old Interview where lkh again admits she uses calendars as research

A mid-90s interview with Hamilton

Vintage LKH

first attempt at snark - with a sprinkling of Joss

LKH Comic-Con interview

New LKH Interview

Wotmania Interview

Interview: LKH on moonlight seduction

How can she find time for the seduction needed to try to produce an heir.

RoF interview

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