Q: What can you tell readers about your new book, SMOLDER? Will we see the wedding? For me, I’m less anxious about Anita’s wedding and more so about some character going all Maleficent and being miffed on an epic scale about not being invited or jockeying for position over table placement!
A: No, the wedding has to wait. First, we need to deal with Anita’s family who hate that she’s marrying a vampire, a new hate group that is killing vampires across the country, and vampire politics that threaten everything that Jean-Claude, Anita, and everyone they love have built. I really want the wedding to go over well, so trying to clear out all the things that might disrupt it first.
Q: I’m always super excited for a new Anita book. Without giving too much away, Richard makes an appearance in SMOLDER. I realize how polarizing a character Richard is. My husband is, I think, in the minority because Richard was always one of his favorite characters. I think it’s because he loves relationships with a little angst, and he likes flawed characters who are often their own worst enemy. I never connected as well with Richard but found him a little more chill in his recent book appearances. I always think his unexpected appearances bring a little excitement because of the complex dynamics between him and some of the other characters. What made you decide to bring Richard back?
A: My husband was also originally a Richard fan, but like so many of his fans he got worn down by Richard’s self-loathing. I honestly thought that Anita would marry Richard early on in the series, but rereading the books over lockdown the seeds of destruction are there from the beginning. But while there is life there is hope for change.
Q: Your Anita Blake, Jeaniene Frost’s Cat Crawfield, and Lynn Viehl’s Dr. Alexandra Keller are all characters with whom I didn’t initially connect when I read the first books in each respective series. As each series progressed or, in some cases, as I got older and my perspective changed, they became some of my favorite protagonists. I’m curious to hear your thoughts about any characters or relationships in this series you think have changed, and if those changes have anything to do with how you as a person or a writer have changed over the years.
A: Some books you grow into and some you grow out of, I’m happy I’m a book series you grew into. Anita is 24 when the series starts and sees the world very black and white, sure of what is right and what is wrong like most of us in our twenties, I think. Then in our thirties we begin to realize the world isn’t so simple. Anita has had that same journey, sped up by her working with the police and now she has her own badge as a Preternatural Marshal. Both she and I would have bet good money that she would never date a vampire, and most especially not Jean-Claude. Now in Smolder they’re engaged to be married. She begins the series very alone with just her work with the police and raising zombies for Animators Inc. and convinced that if she ever falls in love, it will be with Mr. Right. She’s been happily polyamorous for books now and has more than one Mr. Right in her life, plus some Ms. Rights, as well. The relationship didn’t mirror my own journey exactly, in fact I wrote ahead of my own timeline in the books as if my imagination was ahead of the rest of me. I was in a monogamous marriage to my college sweetheart when I started writing the series, then divorced, and happily poly with my second husband, which includes a shared girlfriend.
Q: Some of your books have a cinematic quality to me. In AFFLICTION (one of my favorites), the hospital scene had me thinking of the skeletons in the 1963 Jason and the Argonauts film. Some of the novels that focus heavily on detective work, like SUCKER PUNCH (another favorite—loved the psychological suspense and dialogue), always make me think of the hardboiled detective films of the 1940s. I’m curious about your taste in films and if any films have inspired your work.
A: Thank you, what great compliments. I am a very visual person, so I see in “movies” when I write. I hadn’t thought about comparing the hospital scene to 1963 Jason and the Argonauts. I can see the comparison though. My biggest movie influence on my writing are the old Hammer films especially the vampire ones, and other horror movies featured on the Nightmare Theater hosted by Sammy Terry. I was very young when my uncle would stay up with us kids and then fall asleep. Sometimes so did all of us, but I remember sitting in front of the TV enthralled. I would see some of the films years later as an adult, and let’s just say I saw where some of the themes in my writing and in me might have come from. I’ve actually read more hardboiled detective fiction than watched it, though the mysteries on BritBox and Acorn are some of my favorites. Midsomer Murders (What’s not to love?), Agatha Christie’s Poirot and Miss Marple (Joan Hickson is the perfect actress for the part. Not a fan of the new ones without her. David Suchet is Poirot), Miss Bradley Mysteries (lovely to see Diana Riggs solving mysteries), Karen Pirie (incredibly well done, very intense) Vera (dark and broody and so much therapy needed), Murder in Provence (delightful mysteries and the long term relationship is part of the delight, really hope we get a second season), Madame Blanc (fun and the main actress is one of the writers), Queens of Mystery (charming and quirky), Magpie Murders (wonderful and some of the best editing, direction, and set design, masterful), Signora Volpe (cozy mystery with spies), Murder in Paradise and it’s recent spinoff Beyond Paradise (makes me homesick for the tropics and the new one puts Cornwall higher on my to visit list), Chelsea Detective (well-done hope there’s second season), Shetland (the landscape is one of the main characters), and McDonald & Dodds (delightful odd couple duo, almost a buddy film).
Q: As a comic book fan, I adore when characters from one world cross over into another. Like when Marvel and DC characters mix or the classic Archie Meets the Punisher. If such a thing was possible, could you imagine characters from another author’s series crossing over to come play in your world? As a fan of both, I could see Jim Butcher’s Harry Dresden wandering into the thick of things in a book like DEAD ICE.
A: You’re not the first to suggest a crossover between Jim Butcher’s Harry Dresden and my Anita Blake. Jim and I know each other, but I don’t think we’d know how to make that work.
Q: You probably get asked this all the time, but I want to do a “Where Are They Now?”: Anita-verse Edition. I realize some of these characters may never pop up in a book again in any meaningful way, but I want to check in on some characters that are especially memorable to me to see where they are and if you have more plans in store for them. First, how is Requiem? There never seems to be enough room for him in Anita’s life, but I always hope he’ll find peace somewhere, if not happiness. Other characters I’m curious about are werewolf Stephen Dietrich; weretiger Victor Belleci; vampires Samuel and Thea’s oldest son, Sampson; and werefox Gil.
A: I have a novel planned for Requiem where Anita goes to visit him and his new master of the city. The plot is to find him happy and in love with his new master, but until I actually have Requiem step on stage in the book I won’t know if my original plot idea will stand, or if it will change as I write it. We will see Stephen and Gregory Dietrich again, but I’m unsure what book they will make their next appearance in. I want to follow up on the storyline with their abusive father trying to make amends in his twelve-step program. I have another book plot set in Las Vegas which means the weretiger clan will be on stage, which means we will see Victor again. I have had a plot to follow up with Samuel, Thea, and their eldest Sampson for years, but other book ideas flow from the latest written and the Cape Cod book keeps getting pushed down the line. No plans for werefox Gil, but you’re not the only one who’s asked.
Q: If you could pick one of your books—other than SMOLDER—to recommend to a reader unfamiliar with your work, which one would you pick? And why? Most people say the first book in a series, but there might be other folks like me who don’t always start a series with the first book. Is there a book you think is most representative of Anita or the series?
A: One of the things I love about writing Anita is that I can make some books more pure supernatural mysteries, others paranormal romance, some near pure horror. I vowed that each book opening would be different enough that a reader would never pick up one of the books and debate if they’d read that book before. So it’s harder to pick a single book out of 29 that are representative of the series. Book 10, NARCISSUS IN CHAINS is where the polyamory comes into play. There is still mystery, but the personal storyline does change from there on. But as you know books like SUCKER PUNCH are almost pure mystery and Sucker Punch in particular is the most police procedural of any of the books. I’m so glad that Affliction is one of your favorites of my series, because it has some of the best fight scenes I’d written and definitely the best and most frightening zombie scenes I’ve written. What I’m saying is it’s hard for me to choose a single book that represents everything that the series holds.
Q: Other authors I’ve interviewed have told me that the kinds of books they enjoy reading are different from the kind of books they enjoy writing. What do you like to read? Favorite books? Favorite author?
A: I try to read something totally different from what I write between books, so cozy mysteries are a favorite go-to. I read nonfiction, but it’s sometimes hard to separate that from research for my books. I don’t have a favorite author or books. I could never choose just one.
SMOLDER by Laurell K. Hamilton
Vampire hunter Anita Blake is no stranger to killing monsters. It’s part of her job as a Preternatural U.S. Marshal, after all. But even her experience isn’t enough to stop something that is bent on destroying everything—and everyone—she loves.
Anita Blake is engaged to Jean-Claude, the new vampire king of America. Humans think she’s gone over to the side of the monsters. The vampires fear that their new king has fallen under the spell of the most powerful necromancer in a thousand years.
In the midst of wedding preparations—including getting Edward, aka U.S. Marshal Ted Forrester, fitted as best man—Anita gets a call that the local police need her expertise at a brutal murder scene linked to a nationwide slaughter of vampires and humans, dubbed the Sunshine Murders.
But there is more than just a murderer to catch: an ancient evil has arrived in St. Louis to challenge Jean-Claude for his crown, his life, Anita, and all they hold dear. Even with Jean-Claude’s new powers as king and Anita’s necromancy, it isn’t enough; they must embrace their triumvirate or allow primeval darkness to spread across the country, possessing first the vampires and then the humans. Evil will triumph unless Jean-Claude and Anita can prove that love conquers all.
Romance Paranormal | Fantasy Urban [Berkley, On Sale: March 21, 2023, Hardcover / e-Book, ISBN: 9781984804495 / eISBN: 9781984804518]
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About Laurell K. Hamilton
Laurell K. Hamilton is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series and the Merry Gentry, Fey Detective series. With more than 40 novels published and 20 million books sold, Laurell continues to create groundbreaking fiction inspired by her lifelong love of monster movies, ghost stories, mythology, folklore, and things that go bump in the night. She lives in St. Louis with her family. In her free time, Laurell trains in Filipino martial arts with a specialization in blade work.
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