Celebrating 25 Years of Anita Blake- Interview with Laurell K Hamilton

LKH at a Signing in Lansing, MI

FB: 25 years of Anita Blake. Did you ever imagine the series would go on this long? Do you ever want to move on to something else or is Anita so much a part of you now that continuing her stories is always front and center in your mind?

LKH: No, I was just thrilled when they bought the initial three book deal. It meant there’d be at least a trilogy. I have plans to write other things, new book series, new characters, but I learned writing the Merry Gentry books that I miss Anita when I’m away too long.


FB: Do you have an end to the series planned or will you continue writing Anita as long as the readers want more?

LKH: No end planned, as long as readers and I are happy I’ll keep writing Anita’s adventures.

FB: Anita has changed so much over the years. She started out with very black and white, good and evil viewpoints, especially when it came to the monsters. Now she knows things are often a shade of gray. Is this a reflection of your own personal changes?

LKH: Anita and I were both twenty-four when I penned the first short story about her. She and I both saw the world as very black and white, but somewhere in our thirties most of us begin to realize it’s not that simple. Anita’s growth as a character is also thanks to interviewing real law enforcement officers and military personnel. I have been privileged in having them share their real life experiences with me, all of which were background only, and never used as plots. Watching the evolution from bright-eyed rookie to ten, twenty year veteran helped form Anita in ways I couldn’t imagine.

FB: In Serpentine, there are some interesting interactions between Anita and Olaf. Will you be expanding on this interaction in a future book?

LKH: Probably, but honestly every book Olaf appears in I think it will be his last. I thought Edward and Anita would have had to kill him books ago, but he keeps evolving away from the original concept I had for him into something new.

FB: I really love the books that feature Ted/Edward. Anita has such a unique relationship with him. The Federal Marshals have always solidly been in the non-lover box for her. But she seemed to look at all of them with new eyes in Serpentine. Will things change in future books? Could a horseman ever become one of her lovers?

LKH: Edward will never be in the lover box for Anita. They just don’t see each other that way. They’re best friends and each other’s family, you don’t screw around with that. Anita is more comfortable with her sexuality than she was when we first brought Olaf, Bernardo and Edward on stage, so some of that is shown in her view point. Bernardo has always been described as gorgeous physically, and he and Anita could probably have sex and not ruin their working relationship, but then again maybe not. Again, not worth the risk and Anita’s plate is full of men she loves already. Olaf, just no, nope, not happening.

FB: Many series tend to end once the characters get married. With wedding bells in Anita’s future, will Anita and her men get a happily ever after or will they continue to fight evil long after the vows are said and done? 

LKH: I’ve never understood why marriage is the end, or the happily ever after. Falling in love is easy, staying in love is where the real work begins. A committed relationship is what happily ever after means to me, so the upcoming nuptials don’t single anything ending.

My daughter and I with LKH at Schuler's Books Lansing, MI August 9, 2018

Serpentine
Anita Blake
Book 26
Laurell K. Hamilton

Category: Urban Fantasy /Gothic /Horror

Penguin Random House | Berkley

496 Pages 

About the Book:

Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, returns for her twenty-sixth adventure. Fans of Charlaine Harris and Anne Rice will delight in this series by Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author Laurell K. Hamilton. 'A hardcore guilty pleasure' - The Times Anita Blake faces new, even deadlier enemies as she and the people she loves confront major changes in their lives...

Vampire hunter Anita Blake has managed to overcome everything she faces. But this time there's a monster that even she doesn't know how to fight...

A remote Florida island is the perfect wedding destination for the upcoming nuptials of Anita's fellow U.S. Marshal and best friend Edward. For Anita, the vacation is a welcome break, as it's the first trip she gets to take with wereleopards Micah and Nathaniel. But it's not all fun and games and bachelor parties...

In this tropical paradise Micah discovers a horrific new form of lycanthropy, one that has afflicted a single family for generations. Believed to be the result of an ancient Greek curse, it turns human bodies into a mass of snakes.

When long-simmering resentment leads to a big blowout within the wedding party, the last thing Anita needs is more drama. But it finds her anyway when women start disappearing from the hotel, and worse--her own friends and lovers are considered the prime suspects. There's a strange power afoot that Anita has never confronted before, a force that's rendering those around her helpless in its thrall. Unable to face it on her own, Anita is willing to accept help from even the deadliest places. Help that she will most certainly regret--if she survives at all, that is...

Amazon

About the Author:

Laurell K. Hamilton is one of the leading writers of paranormal fiction. A #1 New York Times bestselling author, Hamilton writes the popular Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter novels and the Meredith Gentry series. She is also the creator of a bestselling comic book series based on her Anita Blake novels and published by Marvel Comics. Hamilton is a full-time writer and lives in the suburbs of St. Louis with her family.

https://www.laurellkhamilton.com/


https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/308294/serpentine-by-laurell-k-hamilton/