Quote of the day

This was the quote of the day from Jon's Google page:

I am returning this otherwise good typing paper to you because someone has printed gibberish all over it and put your name at the top. - An English Professor

Gee, and I thought my old Writing Prof in college was cruel. She was, but not in writing. Never anything I could take somewhere and prove she hated me.

For those who don't know, I was kicked out of my college writing program by the head of the program. She told me I'd never be good enough publish. I'd never make it as a writer and that I should just give up now. She was much more complete on her listing of my shortcomings as a writer then I am being here. It was a long talk. She reduced me to tears and sent me out into the world to fail.

But her major reason for asking me to leave the writing program was that I was, "A corrupting influence on the other students."

It wasn't the sex. I wasn't really writing sex in college. But I was writing horror and dark fantasy, and heroic fantasy. The stories that I'd offered to get into the writing program at the college had all been horror. They accepted me, then she, the head of the program, decided she could fix me. She would show me the error of my ways and convince me to give up this evil genre writing.

When she realized not only could she not convince me to write something else, but that the other students in her upper level writing class were beginning to write genre, too, she decided I had to go.

So, she called me into her office and tried to destroy me a writer and as a person, really.

People ask, have you sent her all your books? Have you shown her that you did succeed?

That wasn't her point. She didn't try and destroy me as a writer because I couldn't write, she sought to destroy me because I could. She tried to make sure I would never write again, because she feared I would go out and do exactly what I have done.

Corrupt millions.

Mwuh-ha-ha-ha-ha

Eat that Dr. Bush.

A chorus of toads and needing an Anita book fix

I'm sitting here typing this with the window in my office open so I can hear the chorus of toads from our water garden. Last year there was one loan toad. Poor fellow. This year there are more. They are serenading me as I type. Too cool that.

Five pages on A LICK OF FROST. Three pages on the comic for the Special Anita Blake and Edward script.

Though I'll have to cut some of the dialogue. The older and wiser Anita keeps popping into the dialogue with Edward. I can't help it.

I'm writing Merry in the morning. The comic was taking some of the edge off of wanting to start the next Anita book, but the next Anita book is set in Anita's present. The comic is way back when. One of the reasons I don't do prequels is that I'm all about what's happening now. I'm not nostalgic. I don't think wasn't it better when. Now is better.

It was somewhere between book six, THE KILLING DANCE, and book eight, BLUE MOON, of the Anita series that her world became so dear to me. So dear that I miss it terribly when I'm not working with it. Maybe Merry will hit that magical moment, too. But it's not going to be book six. A LICK OF FROST is a lovely book and I'm having fun, and cool stuff is happening, but it still isn't the compulsion to write that Anita is for me.

Maybe when I hit book eight for Merry her world will call as strongly to me as Anita's does now.

I guess I'm the same with fictional characters that I am with real people; old friendships are best; long term relationships are what appeal to me. I've only known Merry for about seven years. Anita's been with me for more than fifteen years, if you count books. If you count her first short story, well, we're talking twenty or maybe even twenty-one years. That's a long time to live in someone's skin.

Back from our surprise vacation

Hey guys,

Jon and I have already gone over some questions on the Brilliance Audio script for THE HARLEQUIN. It's the abbreviated script, so there are always things to reconcile. We've been up fighting the evils of publishing since dawn.

Why has this been the first blog in about a week? We were on vacation.

We'd planned on going East coast for the spring break vacation, then weather reports said winter storms were hitting our vacation spot. That didn't sound like any fun at all so we did a last minute change. The change required us to move our vacation up by a week. We went from have a week to get ready to about forty-eight hours. Eeek.

We decided to go some place warm and mild in climate. Where on such short notice? Florida.

To be precise; Walt Disney World.

Our kiddo is still young enough that she things it's a great idea, and I'm treasuring these high cute content years while I have them. My friends with older kids tell me dire stories of pale people in black writing death poetry. That doesn't upset me as much as it might since Jon and I are still fairly likely to be wearing black and have our own morose streak. I think Trinity will have to pick something else for her rebellion since we're still happily doing the perky goth thing.

Strangely, I was never goth when I was a teen, and emo wasn't a word yet. I didn't do goth until my late twenties or early thirties. I finally got in touch with my inner darkness, and I just stayed there.

We actually went to Disney World in August of last year with some close friends, Joanie and Jim, and their little girl, Melissa. (A little girl who is now taller than I am. Sigh)

In fact the August trip was a promise kept. Years ago I told Joanie -- "If I every make number one on the New York Times List. We'll all go to Disney World to celebrate." Joanie and I had a good laugh because in those days there was no danger of me making the list, and number one was just a dream.

Then MICAH hit number one on not only the New York Times list, but on USA Today list, Publisher's Weekly list, and Nielsen's Bookscan, all in the same week. I called up Joanie, we did that screaming, really, yes, really. The next day she called me back and reminded what I had said all those years ago. I had forgotten, but I remembered. A deal is a deal, our families were off to Disney World to celebrate me making number one.

I keep thinking of that Disney Advertising campaign where they had all those athletes say on camera, "Now that you've won whatever, what are you going to do?" "I'm going to DisneyLand!"

The athletes were paid for their endorsement. I just flat love Disney World. So does Jon, and so does our kiddo.

I have to say it here; I can't resist.

"Laurell K. Hamilton, now that you've hit number one on the New York Times List, what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to Walt Disney World!"

And I did.

Two thumbs up for 300

Jon and I just got back from seeing the 300 at the theatre. Our friends who had seen it were split down the middle. Half liked; half did not. Jon and I both liked it.

It's well worth seeing, and definitely will loose something on the small screen. It's one of those movies that to get the full effect intended by the director and everyone else involved, including Frank Miller, you need to see it big. Because it's a big movie in that old time, old Hollywood way. What do I mean by that?

I mean it's spectacular. If someone dies, he dies spectacularly. If someone rides a horse it's done in slow motion. Heck, deviant sex is done spectacularly. There were things glimpsed in the tent of the Persian King Xerxes that made me queasy. But it was spectacular, and creepily erotic. (I didn't actually see anything in the tent that I didn't know existed, but just because I know people may do it, doesn't mean I want to be reminded.) It was a brief scene, but I'm more likely to remember anything that disturbs me, and write about a version of it later.

The battle scenes were amazing. Though, Jon and I cannot argue with the New York Times review when it said that the Spartans obviously had better gyms. I haven't seen that many six packs outside of a liquor store. But they were pretty.

The Queen and the politics back home in Sparta get a lot more play in the movie than in the graphic novel, and that worked for us. It added the human cost sort of like the wife half of the story line for the television show THE UNIT. (Recently saw it on DVD, and both of us loved it.)

The Persians were the enemy of the Spartans and the story is narrated by a story teller who is Spartan. Which explains why the Persians, the enemy, are monstrous and deviant. It is traditional to make your enemy evil. Because only in making your enemy evil can you kill them with no regard, because they are not human to you. This modern idea in the West to make everyone human, everyone nice, and try to get along, is a very, very modern idea.


I tried not to buy into the movie completely, but by the end they had me. I shed tears for the pretty warriors, and we understood why a line at the end was a curse and not a blessing, if you were a Spartan man. "May you live forever." Live forever, instead of dying a beautiful death.

Happy St. Pat's day, and special news

Happy St. Patrick's Day everybody. Did you see the St. Patrick's Day poster that Brett Booth did of Phillip? It turned out even better than I'd hoped. But as cool as the poster is, I'm not thinking about about St. Pat. I'm thinking about finally being able to talk about the Anita special comic.

Thank God, I finally can talk about it. Not being able to was driving me nuts.

I write what comes into my head, especially when I blog. Because I couldn't talk about the comic special uber-secret Anita project, I kept coming up against a blank wall in my head. I wanted to talk about what Jon and I were doing in the afternoon, but I couldn't, not until it was ready to be announced. It was soooo hard.

Now, I can say with a clear conscious that the afternoon project is the Anita Blake Special comic, and Jon and I are writing it together. He sees script in his head better than I do. I write dialogue better. He understands comics and how they are arranged on a page better than I do. I have an incredibly disciplined work ethic. He reminds me that it's still supposed to be fun.

I must say after a morning of being alone in my office with only my own thoughts for company to work in the afternoon with someone else on a project so different is very refreshing. I don't mean it's different simply because it's Anita and not Merry. Since I working on the next Merry book in the morning. I mean it's a different medium. A different type of story telling. Just different enough to reignite some enthusiasm that had begun to grow pale inside me.

I still love my work and my books and my characters, but it is work. Working on the comics has helped remind me how it felt long ago when it was new. It's funny how even something wonderful can grow ho-hum if you don't come at it with a beginner's mind. Beginner's mind is a term from Buddhism, or Zen, or both. It means to be always new when you look at something, even if you've seen it a thousand times. I'm pretty good at the beginner's mind, but in the last little bit, the last few years, I'd begun to loose that newness.

Jon has been so excited. It's been harder on him not sharing with people because for him comics isn't a late love. Comics has always been one of his first loves. It's been something he wanted to write and work in, as a job. I didn't realize how much of a front runner dream it was to him until we started working on the GUILTY PLEASURES comic. His knowledge of comics has been invaluable. I'm getting my feet under me now, but at the beginning I found it all very confusing.

This new comic will allow me to write about something that many of you fans have been asking about for years. You wanted a prequeal to GUILTY PLEASURES. You wanted to see the first time Jean-Claude and Anita met. Her first time working with RPIT. Her first time meeting Edward.

I couldn't do it for you, because I can't write Anita without knowing everything I already know about her and her world. I can't unknow things. In a novel I'd be doing all that interior dialgoue and reactions, so since I couldn't write a younger Anita whose reaction to everyone was new, I couldn't do a prequeal.

But comics are different. You don't do much interior dialogue. A few wiseass comments, but other than that it's just dialogue and pictures. It means that in this mediaum I can do that prequeal. I can have Anita and Jean-Claude meet because I don't have to delve too deeply into her head. I can show one of the first times dealing with Edward without having to fight not to know he's not quite the bastard we think. Comics has freed me up to show some of the early stuff you would never have gotten to see any other way. It's been pretty cool.

Also, I don't have to describe a room, or clothing. I just say what the room looks like in a general way, and describe the clothing a little. The artist does the rest. It's been very nifty. And that's on the original comic book of GUILTY PLEASURES. Brett Booth has been doing an amazing job.

For the special we are working with a new artist, Joe Phillips. The only way for Brett to have done both the regular comic and the special was if we could clone him like in the old BEWITCHED televsion series, where they were always making two of Darren when he was over worked. But since we can't make more of Brett, we need a guest artist. That's Joe.

So, finally I can tell you what we're doing in the afternoon. Now you know. I hope I don't have to keep another secret like this for awhile. I am simply not good at it. I so would be a bad spy.

Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter Special

"The First Death"

You asked for it and now you get to see it.

This July, Laurell K Hamilton, Dabel Brothers Productions, and Marvel come together to give the fans a look into Anita Blake's past.

This July will see the release of a two issue limited series that take place almost a year before the events in Guilty Pleasures.

In the comic you will get to see the first time Anita and Jean-Claude meet. Anita's first time inside Guilty pleasures, her first serial killer case, and a very early encounter with Edward.

Scripted by Laurell K. Hamilton and Jonathon Green
Art by Joe Phillips
$3.99 for 40-pages of story in each issue.

Look for it this July.

Coitus Interruptus

I did a bad thing the last time I worked on A LICK OF FROST. I ended a chapter, and the beginning of the next chapter is a sex scene. I know better than to stop writing and leave a sex scene as the first thing to write in the morning. Even a few sentences help get me started. But an empty page with sex . . . When I stopped, it made sense. The characters were ready and I was ready, now it's like doing a lot of good foreplay but having the door bell go off before you can get to that next part. You have to get up, answer the door, take care of some business, or something, and don't get back to the bedroom until a few hours later. The foreplay was too long ago, and it's all to start over. Sigh.

So instead of working on the scene, I'm blogging. Maybe I'll do that interview that's due. Or the next Newsletter. There are all sorts of things I can do that are work, but will allow me to avoid the scene. I learned years ago to do just a few sentences anything to continue the heat, so when I sit down the next day, I'm not staring at blank screen. I'm not a rookie. I knew better, but I'd done thirteen pages, and I was tired. I vow to remember that next time no matter how tired that I just need a few sentences on the next part of the scene. It doesn't even need to be sentences that stay in the scene. It can be bad notes, but something to prime the pump and not have to stare at a blank screen.

We have a Blogger Down!

But its back up now.

Anyway. Yes, I did know that the blog was acting funky earlier today. It's my fault. I was installing a new blog engine and it made the site go wonky for a bit. It's fixed right now, but I'm going to be monkeying around some more in the future and trying to get everything running right before I go live.

Hopefully, once I go live, things will look mostly identical to the way they are now. Perhaps there will be a better image gallery, perhaps there will be a more useful archive. a better RSS feed. lots of other nifty-ness.

But for the nonce, it is going to be blogger.

In the not so distant future, it will be something else. Hopefully a better something else.

Sunday, but comics today

We went to the Orchid show at the Missouri Botanical Gardens Sunday. We always try to go, but Sunday was the last day. I thought we were going to miss it, but luckily we did not. The orchids were lovely, as always. We went with Jon's parents and took Trinity. It's always a family affair. Sorry to all those fans who want me to spend my time in cemeteries and morgues, but honestly not my favorite places. I, like Anita, only work in places like that. I don't honestly want to spend my down time there.

We got like a zillion comic pages from Brett today, or it felt that way. Boy was he a busy boy. Great, as always, minor back and forths. I have to say that some things that work on the page of a book, in a visual medium look different like Harvey in the Freak party scene. Drawn body hair is different than visualized body hair in writing, and if we ever do see this scene on film we are so not having some poor actor get extra hair put on him for it. Eww. For those of you out there are aficionados of men with lots of body hair, more power to you. Not my cup of tea. But then if we all liked the same thing in men we'd all be chasing the same people, and there wouldn't be enough to go around.

Good night all.

I just saved a candle and so did you.

I could do my usual rant on the first day of daylight savings for the year. I could curse Benjamin Franklin, but instead I'll just say that this can't be what Franklin had in mind. Franklin wanted us to go to bed earlier and get up with light to save candles. Candles, folks. When's the last time you lit your way with a candle?

Daylight savings maybe useful if you actually run your life to the rhythm of the sun. I think farmers and people who tend livestock still have to get up before dawn and work their butts off, but for the majority of us dawn isn't that critical. Daylight isn't critical to most of our jobs. Many of us work well into the night on a regular basis regardless of the clock. And if we aren't working, we're playing, or relaxing using some sort of electronic device. I read yesterday that daylight savings will save so many barrels of oil? How? Most electricity in this country is made from coal or nuclear, mostly coal. So how does daylight savings save oil? Do our cars run more efficiently in daylight? I don't think so.

No rant this year, just puzzled. Frankly, I think daylight savings is a way for the government, whatever flavor, to feel it's saving energy when in point of fact it probably isn't. It saves whoever is in the White House from having to truly look at ways to cut energy costs and give us alternative fuels. See, we're saving energy. We're turning the clocks forward an hour. Yea!

All I think daylight savings does is irritate most of the country, and make us late for at least one morning twice a year to wherever we're supposed to be going.

Feeling better

Okay, Jon and I both managed to catch a bug. Better today. We continued to do work, but it was hard. And yes, I am aware that by not resting completely you make your recovery time longer. But we got deadlines, thanks. Time, tide and deadlines wait for no man, or woman. The first day, I was too sick to work. Day two I took two one hour naps, but worked. Hell the day I first got six I did seventeen pages. Apparently my muse doesn't get sick at the same time that I do. Lucky.

Then, of course, Jon caught the bug from me. Luckily he doesn't usually get as sick as I do. I am by far the punier of the two of us. We both laid down for a nap yesterday, and we actually slept. Which says just how sick we were.

Today is better yet. Yea! Still not completely over it, though. I'm hungry but a lot of things sound awful still. I've been eating a lot of toast, and green jasmine tea has been my friend.

I did four pages yesterday on A LICK OF FROST, but I had to throw them out today. They just did not work. So I did six pages today, the total redo of yesterday's pages and two more new. I know it was the right direction for the chapter because the pages didn't fight me like they did yesterday. I guess I was feeling worse than I knew, because those four pages were a whole lot of telling and not showing. A rookie mistake, and I am by no means a rookie.

I got the last few notes from the copy edits of THE HARLEQUIN yesterday. I had several people look over the notes for me, because when I'm sick I'm not always thinking clearly. The first step to wisdom is knowing that there is a problem.

Saturday's blog for Sunday

I'm beginning to be puzzled by the blogs. Some of you are really enjoying that I'm answering more fan questions. Other's want more writing advice or insight. Some are missing the little bits about our daily life. I'm left, as with everything I write, unable to satisfy everyone. It's one of the reasons that you can't write to every one's preference, because for every person you make happy, you make someone else unhappy. It seems to be the nature of the beast. Sigh.

There are days when because I know I can't make everyone happy, I just don't want to write anything here. Then I realize I'm a grown-up and I long ago gave up this childish idea that you can please all the people all the time. It just isn't possible. Again, sigh.

So, a blog that will please some of you, but not all of you.

I did eighteen pages yesterday. I believe it is the most in one session for A LICK OF FROST so far. I think the next most is like twelve or fifteen. I'd have to check the calender and that would mean this will never get posted today. So, an estimate will do. The last day that I got close to so many pages I then went into the afternoon session on a different project and a page was way hard. So, lesson learned. I'm finding that afternoon projects on something totally different sort of refreshes me for the book next day, but not if I've done some amazing page count in the morning. Eighteen pages meant no afternoon session on anything. My muse and I were done for the day. But that's okay, we're on deadline, or a wee bit ahead, for everything. Which considering everything we're doing, that's pretty darn good. Hopefully soon we'll be able to tell you everything that's in the pipeline, but down the road we're probably going to be working on things that may not come to pass. Afternoon is for trying different things, new things. Stephen King used to do books that he wasn't sure would pan out. He's stated that he has unfinished books where hundreds of pages in he lost the thread in the maze, and couldn't finish, or lost interest, or whatever. But some of those books became some of his most successful books. (No, I no longer remember the name of the essay or where I read it. So I don't know the title of the books that he completed this way.) If it's good enough for Mr. King, it's good enough for me.