Author: Jonathon

THE HARLEQUIN is number two on the New York Times List. Yay! And drat.
This time what kept us out of the number one slot was Khaled Hosseini A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS. Khaled Hosseini can join the ranks of Stephen King, Nora Roberts, and Janet Evanovich, in the writers that have kept me just out of the hardback number one spot.
Thanks to all of you on-line that have wished me well, and a special thanks to everyone that said I, or THE HARLEQUIN, was number one to them. I really appreciate it, guys, thanks.
I am actually letting myself enjoy being on the list this time. Jon and I just went into a bookstore to pick up a few things, and there I was, my book, in the number two slot on the wall. There was a lovely display in the window and not only THE HARLEQUIN but also STRANGE CANDY in softback. Very cool. I actually allowed myself a few minutes of standing in front of the window display and revelling in it.
Normally, I sort of slink around bookstores when I have a book out. I actually started avoiding bookstores any time a new book hit the shelves. I think it began when we were still doing those four and six week tours. When we got back off the road we were so tired of seeing bookstores that it just ceased to be fun. Also, I began to associate a new book coming out with things like doing twenty-six cities in twenty-eight days. That trip was the NARCISSUS IN CHAINS tour, which was just after 9/11. To say that it was an adventure going through the airports is an understatement.
But tonight I stood in a bookstore and enjoyed seeing my books doing well. I let myself enjoy that we were number 2 instead of bemoaning that we were not number 1. Maybe next time.

To all those father’s out there happy you day. This was a holiday that I always felt left out on. I had no father. Oh, I had one, of course. None of those Midi-chlorian moments or stars in the East. I am neither that good, nor that bad, nor quite that weird. But my parents were divorced by the time I was six months old, so, I never knew my father.
I saw him twice, maybe three times in my entire life. The first was when he came to visit my mother when I was about five or six. He was much more interested in her than in me. It was a grown-up thing that I didn’t understand. My grandmother told the story for years that I played with his good ink pen and he took it back at the end of the visit. She knew how to hold onto a grudge and she hated my father. (No, I am not exaggerating. I was raised on horrible stories of my father. What my family failed to understand was that half of my genetics was my father’s, and hearing how evil and awful he was, ended up making me feel badly about myself. Go figure.) The second time was when my family was off making funeral arrangements for my mother. I was six that summer. He came to the neighbors that were babysitting me.
I’ll never forget how happy the neighbor was when she announced she had a surprise for me. She was smiling, then this man came in. This man I’d only seen once in my life. This stranger, who was tall and dark and no one I knew. Frankly, I was scared of him. Scared that he’d come to take me away. The neighbor didn’t understand that a father is not just someone who deposits some sperm and makes a baby. A father is someone who raises a child. The man that she called my father had not done that. I refer to him as my biological father, but in truth, in my heart, I have no man who has that honorable title.
The third and last time was at my mother’s funeral. I don’t remember that much. It was a time of great hysteria. I mean hysteria. Weeping, wailing, the whole old-testament emotional roller coaster. To say that my grandmother did not take my mother’s death well, is like calling the Titanic a boating accident. My male relatives saw the stranger away. They told him in no uncertain terms that there was no money to be had, and if he came back they would make him sorry. I believe they meant it, and apparently so did he.
He did try to write me some letters, but my grandmother either sent them back or destroyed them without telling me they had arrived. Years later she would apologize for that. She would make amends in the only way she knew how by giving me his social security and all the information she had on him. It took a great deal of soul searching for her to give me the information to find my father if I cared to look. I have some idea of how hard it was for her to admit that I had the right to look for him, if I chose. I didn’t choose.
I have no father, and I never needed one. My grandmother and I didn’t need a man around the house to tote and fetch and do the hard labor, that was my job as I got older. She raised me to be the man of the house because that’s what she needed. She was woman enough for any household. If we needed repairs beyond simple ones done, we hired it done. Though one memorable summer I did help my Uncle Toots (Elbert) roof the house. I follow orders really well, but he quickly learned that you don’t want me coming up with my own idea as to what to do with tools. I just don’t think that way. In fact, Toots is pretty much the only person in our family that has a true gift for tools and fixing stuff, that I’m aware of. It’s apparently not a common gene trait in our family.
I did pick an uncle when I was about 11 to give a father’s day card to, and my aunt promptly divorced him. The lesson was clear, there were to be no father’s in my life, not even borrowed ones.
Then I fell in love in college with a nice young man. To show you what flipped my switch at twenty in a serious way, here’s the list. He was working four jobs and keeping a higher GPA than I was. He read science fiction, and fantasy. He played Dungeons and Dragons. We were willing to admit all this to each other on a Christian campus where reading the stuff or playing the game could get you accused of being a Satanist. I’m not kidding about that. It was pretty frightening.
He was a hard worker, and very serious. I needed that at twenty. He also had the most beautiful shoulder length chestnut brown hair. It had a lovely wave to it, and looked fabulous when he swam under water. He also had the most lovely brown eyes with great lashes. I’ve always been swayed by good hair and eyes.
What I didn’t realize was that the hair was not a fashion statement. It was being a poor college student. The first chance he got to cut it, he did. His reasoning was that he couldn’t get a job after college with long hair. I would spend the next sixteen years begging him to grow his hair long again. He would start to grow it out only in the sixteenth year, when we were separated.
He was the first man in my life. The first man I ever shared a home with. I had no map for it, so I borrowed his. He had a father he loved and who had been there for him like a father is supposed to be. It would take me over a decade to realize that his map wasn’t working for me.
In my thirties, what I wanted in a man had changed. My job was very important to me and I needed a man who understood that. Strangely, Jon had cut his hair by the time we started dating even though he’d had it long most of the time we were friends. He started growing his hair out as soon as I requested it. He understood it was important to me. Jon and I both read science fiction, fantasy, and horror. That was still a must in a man for me. And yes, Jon has lovely eyes, though they are blue and very different from my ex-husbands. I don’t have a preference on coloring in a man, just pretty eyes, nice hair, and I like my men a little delicate in appearance. I also prefer men who are not too tall. If a man was over 5′ 9″ he had to have other sterling qualities to recommend him.
I’ve digressed, or maybe I haven’t. I never had a father. All my intimate relationships with men have been husbands. I have no other model for men. But Trinity, our daughter does. She has her father, and she has Daddy Jon. She truly does feel she has two fathers. She also has Three grandfathers. I had one who died when I was ten. Where I had no male role models she has many. Is it karma, or just ironic, that her childhood is so different from mine?
Trinity gave her father his gift early. I offered him a chance to have her on father’s day, but they had made plans, and she’s okay over here with us. Father’s day isn’t once a year it’s every day. Every moment that they help the kid with homework. (Thank God, both my husbands have been better at math than I am. Trin would have been so out of luck there.) Every day that they help with some problem, tuck them in, read a story, answer one of those hard questions. Father’s day, like mother’s day, is every day.
Trinity gave Jon his gift early because she couldn’t stand to wait. Very her mother’s daughter, I’m afraid. She made a ceramic bird feeder, because Jon, like me, loves to feed the birds in our yard. But it’s not just any ceramic bird feeder, it’s red and has a dragon crouching in the middle of it. How cool is that, and how much does she know her dad? For her father, she made a bowl with his name in it. Something practical, something he might use. That speaks to her father, as well. Both gifts say that she’s paying attention to the two men in her life. They say that a girl tries to date men like her father when she’s old enough. It will be very interesting to see how these two very different men translate into Trinity’s idea of what a man should be. There are so many different ways to be a father, and she is seeing some of that variety, and so am I. Being married to two good fathers has taught me some of what I missed. I guess I do finally get to celebrate father’s day, after all.

I tried to get on blogger this morning and it told me my cookie functionality was not working. I usually yell for Jon or Darla to help on that sort of thing. Well, Darla is at home, it being Saturday. Jon is still asnooze because he likes that last hour of sleep and I like an hour to myself in a people free house. But I’d just watched him fix the cookie problem late yesterday. I saw how he did it, so I thought, what’s the worst that could happen? Don’t answer that.
But the end result, you are reading. I fixed it myself. Yay, me.
I must say that working on the comic mostly via telecommuting with people around the country and out of the country has helped a great deal towards my technophobia. But also the MySpace page and the LKH forums and boards have helped as well. You guys and the comics have all help convince me that maybe tech isn’t evil, it’s just differently organized.
Jon and I did the one audio podcast and it went so well, and was relatively painless, we plan to do more. I’ve now done two video blogs, or is it v-casts? I’m not truly sure if there is a difference between the two terms, or perhaps the tech is moving fast enough that the term hasn’t been settled yet. One video blog for Fanboy TV, and another for Marvel. The one for Fanboy TV is up, though there were technical difficulties, but it worked. The one for Marvel will be up soon, and that one was done in person with me sitting in front of the camera. It worked more smoothly. I guess in video interviews over the computer you need everyone’s software to at least like each other. It’s better when every one’s computer stuff loves each other and talks in that fluid short hand of long established couples, but the software and hardware has to at least know everyone’s language well enough not to fight about it.
Hmm, humanizing the computers. Maybe it’s a way for me to cope and try and understand this brave new world. But my brave new world has cookies in it this morning. Cookies on the computer that I can’t even taste, but they let me talk to you guys. Somehow I don’t think cookies every thought they’d be part of the computer revolution. What’s next? If we’re naming stuff, I vote for chocolate cake next, or maybe just cake. The programmer who’s naming stuff can pick their flavor.

So tomorrow I’ll be redoing the end part of that scene, and letting Jason have sex the way he wants it. In any good relationship you have to compromise. Sex is about compromise and knowing what everyone in the bed enjoys, and not pushing anyone outside their comfort zone. Even if that person happens to be make believe they need to feel that you care enough to give them what they need to be happy.

The word for the day is . . . panic. Why? No idea.
Maybe it’s that whole artistic temperament thing. I try never to use the excuse that I’m an artist to explain away bad behavior or weird behavior, but sometimes you wonder. I have friends that are not arty, and they seem calmer. They seem to glide through a world I have never known where possibilities are more limited and their imagination is a quieter thing. It looks peaceful, this other way of going through the world, but it is not my way.
Jon thinks that the funeral on Monday raised issues about my grandmother, and heck, my mother. Death does that, if you haven’t worked your issues. One death reminds you of others.
Maybe that is it, or maybe some piece of a book, story, or character, is pushing too hard below the surface. Sometimes that can make me jumpy. I walk through the day with that nagging sensation that I’ve forgotten something, but it’s right there on the tip of m mind, but I can’t think what it is, so frustrating.
In USA Today, the paper, THE HARLEQUIN is number five over every book in the country. Most people don’t realize that the USA Today list is sales only. Not just of the new hardbacks, but of every book in the entire country. New, old, hardback, paperback, adults, children’s, Fiction, non-fiction; it all goes into this list. Selling fifth over all is pretty damn good. Of course, MICAH was number one and that would have been nice. What, you expected me to lie or be humble and say five is good, that’s great. It’s five. I want number one. All of us do, that are honest.
But there are some heavy hitters on the list, many of them Oprah picks with either this book or the last one they wrote. Some of them had movie tie-ins with earlier books. I think one book that I’m ahead of actually has a movie coming out soon that ties in.
We’ll find out in a few days how the New York Times list shapes up. Keep your fingers crossed, I am. Frankly, there are such huge books on this list that number two would be terrific. But, yeah, I want number one.
Books get on the bestseller lists in many different ways, including being chosen for the Oprah Book, having a film or tv adaptation made, an author appearance on the Today Show, The Late Show With David Letterman or Conan O?Brian. For better or worse, none of those things have happened to me or my books.
So how did it happen? If I could truly answer that, I could sell the secret to publishers and make a mint. Part is that I’m writing the books I want to read, which means I’m having a wonderful time and I think that shows on the page. But an even more important part is you guys reading this blog right now. Even with all the commercials and interviews I’m doing, what we hear most in line at a signing is that a co-worker, a family member, a friend, a bookseller, recommended my books to you. More than that, you had someone you trusted say, “You have to read these books.” You guys tell me that once you read them, you’re hooked, too, and you become another one of the readers that say to people, “You have to read these books.”
So here’s a BIG thank you to all of you. We’ve done this together. More than almost any other writer on the list, it is my readers and their enthusiasm that has made the difference. Your energy and love of my characters has helped me keep the faith, and keep working my butt off to get the books out there so you can read them. I really am writing as fast as I can, so we can share more adventures, and together can find out what happens next.

I should write about THE HARLEQUIN, because it is the latest book and I want to encourage people to go out and buy more copies. But for the life of me, I’m stumped today on what to write about. This is one of the reasons I’ve never kept a journal or diary, because at some point I always come to a moment when I am trapped between too many personal things. Things that I don’t think should be shared.
We got off tour for THE HARLEQUIN and had a funeral to go to. Jon’s Aunt Kay had cancer, but she’d seemed to be improving, then suddenly there was a swift downhill slide. I believe with all my heart that she is resting now and no longer in pain. But her children, her husband of 44 years, her siblings, her father, and all the rest of the people that have known her for a lifetime mourn her.
That’s it, that’s all I’m comfortable with sharing. If she were my mum, then I’d feel more comfortable with sharing, but because I’m not certain how what I write here might effect those that are nearest and dearest to Kay, I feel that less is better.
Very tired today. Tired enough that I took a nap and felt a little better. I’m looking forward to going to bed tonight just for the sleep. G’night everyone. Hopefully tomorrow will be a little brighter.

Because the Science Center was set up for it’s own merchandise they were cool with us bringing ours. For the first time at a signing we had our shirts, the rubber duckies, and lots of the stuff that is usually only available on-line from us. I signed more ducks at this signing than ever before, because you guys could buy them while you were in line.
The two hottest items were the Jean-Claude tub toy duckies, and the Jean-Claude comic shirt, followed by Anita comic shirts. Several people remarked that is was like being at a concert with the merch. I guess it was, but we didn’t do a tour shirt this time. We did one before and it just didn’t sell that well, so if it doesn’t sell we don’t repeat it.
We are doing a special shirt for Comic Con in San Diego this year, to commemorate our first time there. I’ve seen the graphic from Brett Booth, and it is way cool.
Thanks to the Borders store that was at the signing with books to sell on the spot.
Though the St. Louis signing was smaller than the Atlanta signing we had a lot of people who had traveled quite a ways to get there. As I said in the blog yesterday we had a lot of Canadians. Thanks for coming down. We had people from all over the country, actually. Kansas, Illinois, Texas, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. If I missed some states, my apologies, but we get a little fuzzy some time before we get through nearly three hundred people. Thanks to all of you that put in the effort to drive all that way.
Thanks also to all you guys at the Atlanta signing that traveled from out of state and farther. We had some people that came in from out of country, but Jon and I cannot remember whether you guys came to Atlanta or St. Louis. I’m sorry. We remember you, but not exactly the room you were standing in at the time.
Darla tells me that there maybe a video of the Q and A. We’ll at the very least have an audio of it so that the people that couldn’t make the St. Louis event can hear the questions and my answers complete without having to read through someone else’s posts. Keep your finger’s crossed that the video works out. Then you guys who didn’t get to see it in person, can at least see it in some form.
We’re also going to try to do an audio, and, or video of the wolf howl later this month. We’ll see how it goes. Tech is great when it works. When it doesn’t, well, you figure out what went wrong and try again.

Hi! Darla hijacking the blog once again. This time to address the four things that have been flowing through the email regarding the St. Louis signing.
First, I am hearing from some folks they didn?t know about it. Yes, St. Louis is usually the kick off on release Tuesday. But not this time. Atlanta got that honor so we could do The Saint Louis Science Center on Friday. It was in the blog, on the main website in the Sightings (https://www.laurellkhamilton.com/Laurell/LKHSightings.htm), we sent out a note via the free announce list (which you can sign up for on the Sighting page) and on the MySpace page including the calendar. It also appeared in the Get Out section of the St. Louis Post Dispatch.
I don?t know where else I could have put it for everyone to see. If you have suggestions please feel free to share those!
Second, the crowd in Atlanta was so large you thought there wouldn?t be enough line tickets. Laurell makes sure everyone gets through the line at least once. She doesn?t want you to come and go home disappointed any more than you do.
Third, long lines made you rethink coming. That is why we have line tickets. It is a way to shorten your time standing in line. No one likes standing in line except those folks who were there with friends who seemed to have a great time in line or those who were reading the book.
Fourth, the Science Center costs money. Only if you went in to any of the special features, like the Marvel Superhero exhibit, bought something from one of the shops or had anything besides the cake the publisher sent over. We were in the Exploradome outside the exhibit. When we said free, we meant free. Even the parking was free for this event.
So sorry so many missed it. We will really try and do a better job of disseminating information. But suggestions are always welcome!

The Science Center pulled out all the stops last night. A big thanks to Pili and all her crew that helped everything work last night. Thanks to Al Wyman who did the Q and A with me in their lovely Center Stage. It was an hour long session. I don’t think I’ve ever done an hour before. I think for future we’ll keep it to the half hour we usually do to get us all out of the signing earlier.
It was a good question and answer session, don’t get me wrong. They had a stage big enough for me to pace to my heart’s content without danger of walking off the edge. I’ve done that before. Okay, not stepped off, but backed up and found no stage underneath my heel. I had room to move last night. It was good.
There were children in the audience, and I tried my best not to cuss, or say anything inappropriate. I failed. I didn’t mean to, but once I get into the Anita mind set it’s so hard not to let things slip. Worse yet, with most of the audience not having read THE HARLEQUIN all the way through yet, I said a spoiler. Dammit.
Someone asked me a question from one of the blogs, and I answered without thinking. If I’d just answered the question, I’d have been fine. Who was the scene stealer in the book that I mention in a blog, but couldn’t discuss without giving things away? Answer: Peter, Edward’s stepson. But it’s me, and I’m like essay-question-answer-girl. I had to elaborate what I thought Peter would be doing in this book as opposed to what he ended up doing. Which was a spoiler for those who hadn’t gotten to that point of the book. Not a huge spoiler, but a spoiler nonetheless. The fans in residence were so good about not letting anything slip, and I did it. Jeez.
We had about three hundred, or a little over last night. Much less than the crowd in Atlanta. The Science Center had done their best to get the word out, I’m just beginning to think that St. Louis is not impressed with local talent. You know that whole not a prophet in your own land thing. Either that or it’s the whole St. Louis being the buckle of the Bible belt. I don’t know what it is, but the St. Louis crowds are starting to be smaller than the out of town crowds. I think St. Louis thinks they can catch me next time so why push?
Now to all the St. Louis area people who did come out, thank you. Many of you are people I’ve seen for years in signing after signing. I’ve got some people in line that I first met when they were in high school and now they’re out of college, working, and into their first houses. How cool is it, to see people grow and change and their life progress in small slices of the signings? Very cool actually.
To all the new St. Louis area people, thank you, too. It’s great to see new local faces. I’m tired this morning and don’t mean to insult my home town, but it is an observable result that the crowds here are consistently smaller. Not dising, just truth.
We had a lot of people want pictures last night, which was cool. But it slowed us down for the actual signing. On our end we’re going to try to think of a way to streamline the picture process. If any of you can come up with a way to streamline it let us know. We will take suggestions, because I’m sort of stumped. And none of you should write in and say, stop doing the pictures. The pictures are important to the people who want them. So, we need a solution that lets you guys get the snapshots you want, but makes a smoother or faster process of it. Suggestions welcome. Darla, Jon, Charles, and I are going to be thinking on what to do.
Maybe a dedicated person to take the camera from the fan in question and take the picture. Someone who has no other job in the event, but that. We have people that take the pictures for you guys, and sometimes a person who does just that, but they usually are a store employee and have other duties, as well. I don’t know. We’ll think upon it, you think upon, maybe we’ll all come up with something.
I’m actually going to do something I rarely do, I’m going to end the blog here, and probably write a little more about the signing in St. Louis later. I want to talk about the fact that we had merchandise there for the first time in a big way. I want to talk about the out of town people who drove so far, or even flew. Canada was well represented last night. But I’m off to have breakfast and a second cup of tea. You guys have a good day. I hope the rest of you are not quite as tired as I am this morning.