| Laurell K. Hamilton March 2010 Author of the Month |
 |  |  |  |  |
learn to read until she was seven years old. After learning to read, she absorbed everything she
could get her hands on, taking great interest in “Charlotte’s Web” by E.B. White, learning many
writing techniques that she admits to using today when writing her novels and short stories.
When writing her first story at age fourteen, Ms. Hamilton created a world of horror and from
there continued down a road of darkness. Science fiction, fantasy and horror are the realms for
most of her stories, but in the 1980’s paranormal thrillers had not been established. Laurell K.
Hamilton was in a world of her own and finding her place was going to require a fight.
In 1993, Hamilton created Anita Blake, a character who would eventually take center stage in
nineteen novels. The Anita Blake novels have an immense following, mixing romance with
fantasy, mystery and horror. The novels have even inspired a graphic novel by Marvel. Hamilton’
s other series of novels‑the Ballantine Series feature Merry Gentry a private investigator and Fey
princess.
Hamilton has also put together three short story collections. The first of her collections “Bite”
brought together authors Mary Janice Davidson, Charlaine Harris, Vicki Taylor and Angela
Knight. Her most recent collection released in 2007 brought together her volume of short stories
“Strange Candy” with a new Anita Blake story. This combination was a dream come true for fans.
The eighth novel in the Merry Gentry series, “Divine Misdemeanors” was released in December
2009. Suspense Magazine was recently given the great pleasure to talk with Ms. Hamilton and we
are thrilled to share all she had to say:
Suspense Magazine (S.MAG.): What kind of music can we find on your iPod?
Laurell K. Hamilton (LKH): I listen to Disturbed, Drowning Pool, Seether, Breaking Benjamin,
Nickelback and now Korn. I have lots of that. I also have Sarah McLaughlin, Tori Amos. I have
Audioslave, She Wants Revenge, Flyleaf and The Fray. A lot of the bands that I really like, like
Breaking Benjamin, are recommendations from fans. A fan made me a CD with them on there and
they said if you like it promise me you’ll buy. And I loved it and bought their album. Tori Amos was
a recommendation from a fan. I had never heard her music before. And now of course there’s
Pandora Radio. I can pick a band that I like and want to listen to and it’ll bring up other bands that
sound like them. It’s a great invention.
S.MAG.: What do you enjoy doing on your free time?
LKH: I don’t have a lot of time off, first of all. The idea that you have lots of free time in between is
false from my experience. We just got back from going to some place warm. We like to go on a couples’
long weekend. I like to spend time with family and friends, spend time with my daughter and our
dog. I’m like most writers, if you plan to take time off you can’t. If writing is really your calling as it
is for me, it’s all consuming. My husband is fine with that and understands. But not everybody is
lucky enough to have someone who does understand that. I actually know some writers where the
spouses make rules: “no writing talk tonight”. A group of writers cannot NOT talk about writing. It’
s impossible. My work is very much who I am.
S.MAG.: It’s our understanding that you were a biology major. How did you become interested in
that field?
LKH:I have a degree in Biology and English Lit. I went into college with the idea that I would get my
degree in Creative Writing. I’ve always been interested in Biology. I wanted to be a wild life biologist
or a writer. Then at around fourteen, I read my first collection of fantasy and horror and that was it
for me. I realized I wanted to do that. I was kicked out of my writing program in college for being a
corrupting influence to other students. The head of the writing program took me to her office and that’
s what she told me. She kicked me out of the program. I realized she wanted to "cure” me of wanting to
write horror stories. And when she couldn’t “cure” me, she was out to destroy me. She said I couldn’t
write, that I would never succeed. She wanted to crush me.
S.MAG.: What is your message to those who were not supportive and didn’t think that you would
succeed?
LKH: This particular person—the head of the writing program—didn’t think I couldn’t write. She
actually believed I could and she made a moral choice. She believed what I wrote was evil. And I have
done what she feared I would do. I have gone on to corrupt millions. The thing is I believe in
corruption. Everyone has a choice on what they read and everyone should have choices. Other than
her, no one else didn’t believe in me and if they didn’t I really didn’t care. I am very self-motivated and
very focused. At fourteen or fifteen, I realized that if anyone was going to save me and I was going to
get out of the small town I was in and the circumstance I was in, it would be me. So I had to go to
college and get my degree because no one else was going to save me. People can be very negative. You
have to be constant in your own self. You have to believe in your own dreams. You have to believe!
Why did I think a little girl from the middle of nowhere in a small town of a hundred people could go
on to be a writer when I didn’t know anybody? I don’t know. I wanted to tell stories. It is my path, it’s
what I wanted to do. When you have something that strong usually you have a sense of surety. There’s
something about a bad experience that just makes you stronger. Just to prove to people. I guess I’m just
stubborn in that sense. Tell me something I can’t do, and I’ll go ahead and do it.
S.MAG.: You were inspired by horror stories, so what frightens you?
LKH: I don’t scare easy actually. I can tell you what I don’t watch. I don’t do grotesque movies. I was
never very fond of it. Doing research on real life crime and real people killing others takes my taste
away from it. Once you’ve seen it and know it can happen it doesn’t scare you. Real life crimes scare
me a lot more than fictional.
S.MAG.: If you could help solve a crime would you?
LKH: I would. I’ve had police officers say I would be a great detective but bad in uniform. I have
trouble with chain of command. I think like a policeman. I had to stop doing the research on real life
crime. I’m not Jessica Fletcher. I’m not going to be solving crimes. It’s not what I do. If I could I
would. In real life, police frown on that. I’m really hoping I have seen the last dead body. I much
prefer my dead on paper.
S.MAG.: The Anita books are about vampires and the Merry books are about the Fey. Why have
you decided not to combine these two worlds?
LKH: Book five in the Anita Series had Fey and I thought I knew about the Scottish and Irish
folklore about the Fey since my family is Scot and Irish. When I started doing more research for that
book and the first Merry book. By the time I got done researching, I would have changed what was
done because I found new stuff I had to separate the worlds. I was already in grunts. Anita and Merry
are written in first person narratives. So who would I talk through? It’s that old saying, if I walked
into the room I was already there. I actually don’t think they would get along well.
S.MAG.: You have a large number of male followings. Have you thought about writing from a
man’s perspective?
LKH: I have actually; well I’ve done a few short stories. I have an idea for the future that seems to
demand a male protagonist. That would be interesting to see if I could do it justice because I’m not a
boy. Men and women are different beings, they really are. And I don’t have that masculine energy,
being a woman. So I’m a little hesitant to do a whole book. Also, it being me I don’t know if I could
behave myself the whole book. So if we have sex then it’s going to be how men see sex and how men see
women. And I don’t see women that way. I have performance anxiety just writing from the women’s
perspective for all the men’s parts. Men want to do well so if I were writing from the male perspective
then they’d really want to do well. And also if I do this, the character is physically tall and I am not.
The problems are a lot. If you have friends that are over six feet tall, what they see is not what you see.
It’s a different way of walking the world. For men in general, there’s a sense of security that women
don’t really have. Most men don’t see themselves as potential victims.
Laurell K. Hamilton is an avid blogger. Check out her website and blog by going to http://www.
laurellkhamilton.org.
could get her hands on, taking great interest in “Charlotte’s Web” by E.B. White, learning many
writing techniques that she admits to using today when writing her novels and short stories.
When writing her first story at age fourteen, Ms. Hamilton created a world of horror and from
there continued down a road of darkness. Science fiction, fantasy and horror are the realms for
most of her stories, but in the 1980’s paranormal thrillers had not been established. Laurell K.
Hamilton was in a world of her own and finding her place was going to require a fight.
In 1993, Hamilton created Anita Blake, a character who would eventually take center stage in
nineteen novels. The Anita Blake novels have an immense following, mixing romance with
fantasy, mystery and horror. The novels have even inspired a graphic novel by Marvel. Hamilton’
s other series of novels‑the Ballantine Series feature Merry Gentry a private investigator and Fey
princess.
Hamilton has also put together three short story collections. The first of her collections “Bite”
brought together authors Mary Janice Davidson, Charlaine Harris, Vicki Taylor and Angela
Knight. Her most recent collection released in 2007 brought together her volume of short stories
“Strange Candy” with a new Anita Blake story. This combination was a dream come true for fans.
The eighth novel in the Merry Gentry series, “Divine Misdemeanors” was released in December
2009. Suspense Magazine was recently given the great pleasure to talk with Ms. Hamilton and we
are thrilled to share all she had to say:
Suspense Magazine (S.MAG.): What kind of music can we find on your iPod?
Laurell K. Hamilton (LKH): I listen to Disturbed, Drowning Pool, Seether, Breaking Benjamin,
Nickelback and now Korn. I have lots of that. I also have Sarah McLaughlin, Tori Amos. I have
Audioslave, She Wants Revenge, Flyleaf and The Fray. A lot of the bands that I really like, like
Breaking Benjamin, are recommendations from fans. A fan made me a CD with them on there and
they said if you like it promise me you’ll buy. And I loved it and bought their album. Tori Amos was
a recommendation from a fan. I had never heard her music before. And now of course there’s
Pandora Radio. I can pick a band that I like and want to listen to and it’ll bring up other bands that
sound like them. It’s a great invention.
S.MAG.: What do you enjoy doing on your free time?
LKH: I don’t have a lot of time off, first of all. The idea that you have lots of free time in between is
false from my experience. We just got back from going to some place warm. We like to go on a couples’
long weekend. I like to spend time with family and friends, spend time with my daughter and our
dog. I’m like most writers, if you plan to take time off you can’t. If writing is really your calling as it
is for me, it’s all consuming. My husband is fine with that and understands. But not everybody is
lucky enough to have someone who does understand that. I actually know some writers where the
spouses make rules: “no writing talk tonight”. A group of writers cannot NOT talk about writing. It’
s impossible. My work is very much who I am.
S.MAG.: It’s our understanding that you were a biology major. How did you become interested in
that field?
LKH:I have a degree in Biology and English Lit. I went into college with the idea that I would get my
degree in Creative Writing. I’ve always been interested in Biology. I wanted to be a wild life biologist
or a writer. Then at around fourteen, I read my first collection of fantasy and horror and that was it
for me. I realized I wanted to do that. I was kicked out of my writing program in college for being a
corrupting influence to other students. The head of the writing program took me to her office and that’
s what she told me. She kicked me out of the program. I realized she wanted to "cure” me of wanting to
write horror stories. And when she couldn’t “cure” me, she was out to destroy me. She said I couldn’t
write, that I would never succeed. She wanted to crush me.
S.MAG.: What is your message to those who were not supportive and didn’t think that you would
succeed?
LKH: This particular person—the head of the writing program—didn’t think I couldn’t write. She
actually believed I could and she made a moral choice. She believed what I wrote was evil. And I have
done what she feared I would do. I have gone on to corrupt millions. The thing is I believe in
corruption. Everyone has a choice on what they read and everyone should have choices. Other than
her, no one else didn’t believe in me and if they didn’t I really didn’t care. I am very self-motivated and
very focused. At fourteen or fifteen, I realized that if anyone was going to save me and I was going to
get out of the small town I was in and the circumstance I was in, it would be me. So I had to go to
college and get my degree because no one else was going to save me. People can be very negative. You
have to be constant in your own self. You have to believe in your own dreams. You have to believe!
Why did I think a little girl from the middle of nowhere in a small town of a hundred people could go
on to be a writer when I didn’t know anybody? I don’t know. I wanted to tell stories. It is my path, it’s
what I wanted to do. When you have something that strong usually you have a sense of surety. There’s
something about a bad experience that just makes you stronger. Just to prove to people. I guess I’m just
stubborn in that sense. Tell me something I can’t do, and I’ll go ahead and do it.
S.MAG.: You were inspired by horror stories, so what frightens you?
LKH: I don’t scare easy actually. I can tell you what I don’t watch. I don’t do grotesque movies. I was
never very fond of it. Doing research on real life crime and real people killing others takes my taste
away from it. Once you’ve seen it and know it can happen it doesn’t scare you. Real life crimes scare
me a lot more than fictional.
S.MAG.: If you could help solve a crime would you?
LKH: I would. I’ve had police officers say I would be a great detective but bad in uniform. I have
trouble with chain of command. I think like a policeman. I had to stop doing the research on real life
crime. I’m not Jessica Fletcher. I’m not going to be solving crimes. It’s not what I do. If I could I
would. In real life, police frown on that. I’m really hoping I have seen the last dead body. I much
prefer my dead on paper.
S.MAG.: The Anita books are about vampires and the Merry books are about the Fey. Why have
you decided not to combine these two worlds?
LKH: Book five in the Anita Series had Fey and I thought I knew about the Scottish and Irish
folklore about the Fey since my family is Scot and Irish. When I started doing more research for that
book and the first Merry book. By the time I got done researching, I would have changed what was
done because I found new stuff I had to separate the worlds. I was already in grunts. Anita and Merry
are written in first person narratives. So who would I talk through? It’s that old saying, if I walked
into the room I was already there. I actually don’t think they would get along well.
S.MAG.: You have a large number of male followings. Have you thought about writing from a
man’s perspective?
LKH: I have actually; well I’ve done a few short stories. I have an idea for the future that seems to
demand a male protagonist. That would be interesting to see if I could do it justice because I’m not a
boy. Men and women are different beings, they really are. And I don’t have that masculine energy,
being a woman. So I’m a little hesitant to do a whole book. Also, it being me I don’t know if I could
behave myself the whole book. So if we have sex then it’s going to be how men see sex and how men see
women. And I don’t see women that way. I have performance anxiety just writing from the women’s
perspective for all the men’s parts. Men want to do well so if I were writing from the male perspective
then they’d really want to do well. And also if I do this, the character is physically tall and I am not.
The problems are a lot. If you have friends that are over six feet tall, what they see is not what you see.
It’s a different way of walking the world. For men in general, there’s a sense of security that women
don’t really have. Most men don’t see themselves as potential victims.
Laurell K. Hamilton is an avid blogger. Check out her website and blog by going to http://www.
laurellkhamilton.org.
