This first newsletter is going to be brute information. Nothing fancy. No graphics. No pictures. Just words. Words to answer your questions, and maybe raise a few more.
I'm sitting at my desk drinking apricot tea with enough sugar to add kick and enough cream to turn it pale and milky. I am a tea junkie, not a coffee junkie, like Anita. Though we're talking real tea. Loose leaf, seeped in a tea toddy, no bags please. Though Bencheley makes a pretty good mint tea. I really do shop for both my tea and coffee at V. J. 's Tea and Spice. Here's the rule for places of business. If something bad happens in it then I'll make it If I have nothing but nice things to say, I'll use the real business. A general rule, sometimes broken, but not often.
I'm using the mug that Anita bought Richard in THE KILLING DANCE. The one with the wolves on it and the quote from John Muir. I do not make up the Anita mugs. Everyone that has ever been mentioned in a book is real. one I purchased or held in my hands, even if I didn't bring it home. I have enough mugs to keep Anita well-supplied for the next eight years or so, if I do one mug per book. I'm going to have to build a second cabinet just for the mugs. But I keep buying more. Greeting card stores are a great place to find them. In among all the birthday cards, and Winne-the-Pooh prints, you can find some kick-ass mugs. Just got to be willing to risk the saccharin jungle to find them. Truthfully I love Hallmark stores. I'll go in spend twenty bucks on cards and feel strangely peaceful. Hey, whatever gets you through the day. Yes, I am more comfortable with my cutesy side than Anita is.
NEW BOOKS:
Book seven, BURNT OFFERINGS, will be a May '98 release. Yes, a year apart. Sorry about the wait. But the books have been moved up to lead title and it was the first open spot. I've finished the rough draft of book eight, no title yet. I have no idea when it will come out. They're talking hardback for it. I'm pushing that the book be an October release, about nine months apart. If the book is written why should you guys have to wait for it?
When I ship a book off to New York, I always feel like it should be on the shelves the next day. I want immediate feedback. I want to sit down at a table over tea and coffee and discuss the book with people who love the characters as much as I do. I'll complain that Anita, or usually one of the boys (Jean-Claude or Richard) are not doing what I plotted at the beginning of a book. I've had several other writers say, just make them do it. I think, you can do that?
Anita and the gang are very real for me. I certainly was not voting for the vampire in THE KILLING DANCE. I am a Richard fan. I hear the screams and gasps of surprise, but it's the truth. But Anita is like any girlfriend. I can give her advic6@but she doesn't have to take it. In fact she usually doesn't. @And don't get me started on Richard. I may have been rooting for him at one point, but I don't understand him. I know what he'll do, but not why. Of all the major characters Richard speaks to me lest. Jean-Claude is always like some dark whisper in my ear. Him, I understand. I may not like everything I know about him, but I know what moves him. And Anita is just a slightly off version of me. She and I started the series much more alike, but as my life and her life have diverged we've become less alike. And strangely more alike. I'm like a character actor. I tend to absorb what I write and it leaks over into my life. I hope I never get mugged while writing an Anita book. I would almost certainly smart off and get myself killed.
NEW VERSIONS:
The Science Fiction Book Club is going to bring out a three in one version of the first three Anita books: Guilty Pleasures, The Laughitq Corpse, and Circus of.the Damned. The three in one is titled: CLUB VAMPYR. They're already making noise about taking the other books as two in one versions. The books have gotten progressively longer so a three in one would be too thick.
My first book NIGHTSEER is going to be reissued from ROC. They share a sales force with Ace (they publish Anita). June '98 is the release date. Anita is selling well enough that my first novel is going to get another chance on the shelves. They are even making noises that at some time in the future if we can come to an understanding that the series might continue. One of the things that I value most about my sales figures is that they are giving me the opportunity to write exactly what I want. I really thought that NIGHTSEER was going to be a stand alone. It does stand just fine by itself but there are more books in the series. The deciding factor on whether they will want the res@ of the books in the series is how well NIGHTSEER sells this second time round.., This was my first book, my first vision. It broke my heart when they didn't want the second book, but the sells weren't good enough, and their faith wasn't strong enough in the books, or in me.
NEW SERIES:
Speaking of writing exactly what I want to write, I sold a new series to Del Rey. Hardback, multi-book contract. No weeping and wailing about me neglecting Anita, please. I have no plans to stop writing Anita. I love Anita and the gang, and have about a dozen plots tentatively worked out. Though events that happen in one book will influence or change the plot line for the next book in line.
The new series is set modern day with the addition of fairies as part of main-stream culture. I want to go play in fairie land, with my rules, and my ideas of what the fey are really like. I've done my research, now I get to break the rules. You can break the rules if you know what those rules are first. Like there is no such thing as real movie zombies in voodoo. At Marcon this year I had someone compliment me on the research I'd done for THE LAUGHING CORPSE. He was a follower of vaudun(voodoo), and thought I'd done a great job. I was pleased, but said, "Except for the movie zombies."
He smiled and said, "But they were such fun." They were, but there is no such thing as a shambling zombie in real voodoo. But I know that. The trick to research is keep as much of the real stuff as possible, so that the bits that are made up seem solid.
A lot of people seem to think if you write fantasy, science fiction, and horror that you can do almost no research. I find the opposite is true. If I expect people to buy vampires, zombies, and ghouls, I better have any fact they can check absolutely correct.
I'm hoping with the new series, and Anita, I'll have a new book on the shelves at least every nine months. Closer would be fine. Though with two series, I don't see how I'll be able to go back to the world of NIGHTSEER any time soon. I write pretty fast, but even I cannot do justice to three series simultaneously. I have so many ideas for new worlds, new characters, new magic, that if I live to be a hundred I won't get to them all. But the quality has to stay high or it's no deal. I won't betray my characters like that.
With the Anita series I had certain things I wished to accomplish. I'd been reading a lot of hard-boiled detective novels that year. In fact I never read an adult mystery until after college. I was strictly horror, fantasy, and science fiction. But one thing that disturbed me in the mysteries was that the female sleuths, even the tough ones, didn't get to do the violence that the male detectives did.
The women didn't get as high a kill count, or get to cuss. How sexist. That was certainly on my mind when Anita sprang into being. The other thing was I'd never seen vampires, werewolves, all the monsters, done quite the way I wanted to read them. There were writers I'd admired, but my vision in my head of what I wanted to read just wasn't out there. So, I decided to write that vision down on paper.
One of the reasons I still enjoy writing Anita so much is that I want to know what happens next. I certainly get surprised now and then, sometimes in big ways. I usually know the beginning of a book, the end of a book, and some major plot points in the middle. I write like I'm building a bridge one plank at a time across a great chasm. I put a plank down and can see a few more feet, then another plank, but I'm never sure how long it will take me to get to the other side, or what adventures I'll have in the middle. I know some writers who plot meticulously, and know every event before it happens. I can't imagine writing that way. I've often said my subconscious is smarter than my conscious mind. Every time I argue myself out of-a character or event early in the book I end up having to add it later after I've finished the rough draft.
Here's an example. I thought Willie McCoy would die in GUILTY PLEASURES. I thought of him as cannon fodder. Lo' and behold he's still with us eight books deep. Who knew? I certainly didn't. But I really like Willie. Anita likes Willie. He gets a girlfriend in book seven, BURNT OFFERINGS. His nickname for her is Angel Fangs. Sounds like Willie doesn't it?
What is my agenda for the new series? Let's call it the Fey series for now. Let's see. I want to play with the fey in a way that no one else has done it, yet. There's some good stuff out there. Emma Bull's WAR FOR THE OAKS comes to mind. But no one has done exactly what I want to read. So, like with vamps, I'll write it myself. My main character, Meredith Gentry (I'm pretty sure the name . is solid, but I reserve the right to change it, if she chooses another name.) is one of the fey. She isn't human. She is descended from both the seelie and the unseelie court, as well as a little human blood thrown in. Her great-grandmother was a brownie. Great-graridfather a human. If you research what brownies really look like, it must have been a dark night, or some very good liquor. Actually I believe grams won over the farmer through love. She'd attended the farm for generations. The farmer became widowed and the brownie became a sort of nanny to his children. This is all background. Meredith doesn't know the whole story, and the reader won't either. I always write dozens, even hundreds, of pages that never make it into the final copy of the book. Things I need to know as a writer that the reader doesn't need, at least in this book. One of the nice things about writing a series is that if you don't use the info in one book, you can save it for another one down the road. I've got an entire file folder of Anita out-takes. I'm already starting a Meredith out-take file. I'll probably write a short story or two using Meredith and her world before I set down to the book. That's what I did with Anita. No, the sho-rter.pieces have never been published. Some of them are publishable, but some were just for me to get the world and the character voice solidly in mind. I will say after I'd written over a hundred pages about Anita and her world I had the voice. I've tried to sit down and write Meredith without this background work, but it's not working. I need the background in my head before I try a full-fledged book. I don't know another writer who works like this, but it works for me.
Which brings me to questions about writing in general. A lot of your letters have asked writing questions. Most asked is how to get started. I'll try to answer that in a short version.
First write. That seems simple but so many people who want to write don't ever seem to sit their butt in a chair and do it. Some writers set a certain amount of time a day, or a week aside to write. I've always had a page count. When I first started writing, I wrote two pages a day, five days a weeks. On my worst day I could do two pages. That's how I wrote my first book. I wrote two pages a day, and did no rewriting. I'll repeat that. Don't do any rewrites until you have a finished draft by the side of your computer. I know too many people who have been polishing that first chapter for years. The record is a woman who had the perfect first chapter for eight years. A first chapter, or even the first three chapters, is not a book. When you have several hundred pages sitting on your desk then you have confidence that you can actually write a book. I mean look at all those pages you have already. It even looks like a book.
You'll have to do some initial research but once you begin to write don't stop for research. Write: FIGHT SCENE HERE, or PARTY SCENE HERE, or WHAT DOES 14TH CENTURY UNDERWEAR LOOK LIKE? Then go on. The second draft you just go back and fill in those holes. Then the third draft you start polishing and cutting.
Hamilton's rule of first drafts is the 70/30 rule. Seventy percent of any first draft is garbage, but thirty percent is gold. But you'll never get that thirty percent without that seventy percent. Admittedly, as I've gotten more practice my garbage quotient has fallen. But I would never have gotten even one book finished, let alone the others, if I'd tried to rewrite as I wrote first draft.
I've given this advice to three people and they have produced books that are now making the rounds of publishers. One of the writers is a member of my writing group, The Alternate Historians. I've read the book and it was wonderful, but she'd gotten caught in the trap of rewriting the beginning until it glowed. Now she has an entire book that glows. Better, huh?
Short stories can be written in a burst of inspiration. Books don't get written by inspiration. Books take day in, day out, work. I used to get up at five A. M to work before my full time job. I didn't have the discipline to work at the end of the day after eight hours in corperate America. No, I am not a morning person, but I wanted to be a writer. So I dragged myself out of bed, to the computer, wrote two pages, then got ready for work.
If I didn't have a pretty solid work ethic having a baby three years ago would have sunk me. Writing with a child is much harder then writing with a full time job, at least it is for me. My editor was afraid that having a baby would take my edge away, soften me. THE LUNATIC CAFE was the first book I wrote after my daughter was born. What do you guys think? Did I loose my edge? Did I go soft? I don't think so.
My editor has never had children. If she'd had one of the little tykes she wouldn't have worried. I've never done so much work, on so little sleep in my life. I still think that if I'd been getting more sleep during the writing of BLOODY BONES that Jean-Claude would never have gotten the upper hand. But sleep deprivation combined with his voice whispering in my head.was just too much. Somewhere in that book is where he changed for me and for Anita. He became less the monster and more the possible leading man. Yikes.
BLOODY BONES is the book that Jean-Claude and I, not Anita, fought the most. We made a sort of truce after that book. Does it show?
Someone on the internet said, he didn't see where Anita could go after book six, THE KILLING DANCE. He thought the series might be over. Not even close.
In book seven, BURNT OFFERINGS, we find out even more about vampires than we have to date. Seven books deep and I'm still coming up with info on my vampires that are not just new to my series, but new to the folklore in general. I'm pretty pleased with that. We actually get to see Anita and Jean-Claude on a date-date in book seven. Book eight is primarily about the shapeshifters, and again I'm still learning new things about them. I won't give any little tid-bits from this book because I'll be spending the next two weeks rewriting it. I don't want to give anything away, nor do I want to mention something that may end up on the cutting room floor.
PERSONAL APPEARANCES:
I'll be at Archon October 3-5 1997. It's in the Gateway Convention Center/Holiday Inn, Collinsville, IL(ST. Louis, MO area). 1(800)551-5133. Guest of Honor is Lois McMaster Bujold. Artist Guest of Honor is Mary Hanson- Roberts.
I'll be at NameThatCon April 17-19 1998. Holiday Inn Westport. Guest of Honor is Nancy Springer. Artist Guest of Honor is Robert Daniels. E-Mail: ntc@juno.com. For more info phone Mary Stadter (314)521-7247.
Yes, I'd been more than happy to go to more conventions, but time and my family obligations make it difficult. If you guys know of a con that wants me, let them send me info. Maybe I can make it. I'd like to go to :at least two extra cons a year.
By the way, the address for the fan club is:
Laurell K. Hamilton Fan Club
2200 Old Highway 21, Suite 162
Imperial, MO 63052
I've had several offers for people who want to edit my newsletter so the address for that may change to soon. I'm also working on a web site. I've had some offers to work one up and keep it updated. There are even a couple of sights out there that are already keeping cyber-shrines. That is what John Green, one of the cyber-shrine keepers, calls his web-page. I cannot locate his web address.,, It's here somewhere on my des@k@on a.tiny piece of paper. If the newsletter-is to go out today I@'ll have to give you the web address next letter.
SIGNINGS:
None right now. Sorry. But there are several in the works. When I know place, time, and date, I'll send out postcards to alert everyone on the newsletter mailing list. Hopefully we can do one within the next few months. By the way if anyone on this mailing list works in a book store and wants me to come do a signing send the info. Mail requests to:
Amy Corley
Berkley Publicity Department
200 Madison Ave.
New York, NY 10016
We would need more than one signing or personal appearance, in an area if it,is distant though. Maybe get something going with a local convention. Maybe not. Here's an e-mail address for messages to me:
Laurellk@ricia.com
Don't forget the k after my first name or it won't go through. People who write there will have futures versions of the newsletter e-mailed to them. And can get up-dates on personal appearances via e-mail.
Those not on the information highway will get a postcard to let them know where I'll be signing and when. My plan is to get the postcards out at least a month in advance.
FUTURE PLANS:
Website. Yes, I know I mentioned it earlier. I'll include some of Paty's pictures of Jean-Claude and Anita on that. A lot of your letters have stated that you'd love to see the pictures.
Thanks:
Thanks to everyone who has written to me. Thank you for loving Anita and the gang as much as I do. Thanks for the cards, the poetry, and the positive energy. On a bad day a good fan letter makes me remember why I'm doing this. I still see writing as a big game of let's pretend. Let's pretend to be dragons, or vampires, for an afternoon. I want to play, and I'm inviting you to come play with me. What could be better?
Thanks for the music to Alecia Hoyt. Alecia introduced me to Tori Amos, and I wrote most of the second half of book eight to her music. Thanks also to Pam Gardner who sent me some Duran Duran. I've listened to it, but I'm not sure I could write to it.
I always write to music. I'll usually pick a tape/CD and play it until I think I'll never want to heat it again. Some characters have music that makes me think of them that I'll reuse from book to book for special moods. I wrote most of the first three Anita books to Depeche Mode, and INXS. Depeche Mode's song "In your Room" from 'Songs of Faith and Devotion' reminded me of Jean-Claude at the time. The music changes as my view, and Anita's view, of the other characters changes. LUNATIC CAFE was composed to U2, and the sound track for Desperdo. BLOODY BONES was U2 and Sting. There is a song in Sting's 'Mecury Falling', "La Belle Dame Sans Regrets" that is all in French. I like that one a lot. Actually if any of you know of other bands that sing in French, I'd love to know who they are. THE KILLING DANCE was U2, Sting, sound track to Desperado, sound track to From Dusk to Dawn, and Ravel's Bolero. Bolero is actually a bit of theme music for a specific character. Guess who? Some songs from Desperado are actually theme music for a particular character as well. Again, guess who? I'm betting someone will guess the first, but not the second.
BURNT OFFERINGS, book seven, was written to Alanis Morissette's 'jagged little pill'; Fiona Apple's 'Tidal', and Sarah McLachlan's 'fumbling towards ecstasy'. Though I found Fiona and Sarah so late in the book that I carried them over to book eight. Mistake. I will never again try to carry music over from one book to another if the projects are back to back. Even if I still love the music it seems to make it hard for me to realize I've switched gears to a new book. Alecia saved me by introducing me to Tori Amos, and I finished book eight to 'Under the Pink'; 'Little Earthquakes'; and 'Boys for Pele'.
Well, that-'s it for the first newsletter. By next time someone will have won the contest and the newsletter will have a name. I know I didn't get to everyone's questions this time around. If there is a question that you are burning to have answered, write to me, and I'll try to put it in the next newsletter.
Sincerely,
Laurell K. Hamilton