News

Bullet is #2 on the New York Times list, and #3 on the Sunday Times list in the United Kingdom! What an amazing first week for the newest Anita Blake novel. And, yes, I would loved to have had #1 on both lists, that would be a goal worth setting, but this is the first time I’ve cracked the top five in the U.K. so #3 makes me very happy. #1 in the U. S. would have been very good, too, but Stieg Larsson is at #1. But I can think of few thinks as sad as dieing before you see any of your books published, and in the middle of writing the fourth of the series, so the books he has now are it, is a true tradgey. Couple that with his live-in “wife” of many years getting none of the profits because Sweden lacks comonon-law rules, and it’s just doubly tragic. With all that, I can’t even be angry about missing #1 because of Larsson’s book. Bullet is my 19th book in my series, and I’m working on the 20th, so the thought that Larsson will never be able to write more is very sad to me. If he was alive and kicking, then I’d fight for #1, though it doesn’t really work like that, but as it is, I’ll have other weeks to be #1. He won’t.

People on Facebook and Twitter have said that the above sentiment is very generous, or nice, or something. Maybe it is, but how else am I supposed to feel? Sometimes I think I just don’t understand the way I’m “supposed” to think, or feel. But before you think I am completely above petty emotions let me tell you some quotes I’ve kept by my computer for a few years now.

“It is in the character of very few men to honor without envy a friend who has prospered.” Aeschylus

“As iron is eaten by rust, so are the envious are consumed by envy.” Anisthens

Anytime I’m tempted to be less than generous to a friend that has done well, or to a stranger that has “kept me” out of #1, or some other goal I had, glance to the side and read these quotes. They remind me that, “Envy eats nothing but its own heart.” German proverb. I like my heat right where it is, helping me be happy for other people, and happy for myself, too.