Tag: Anita Blake

Kiss the Dead tour – Huntington Beach

I swear I’ve been chilled since we got to Seattle, and Huntington Beach was about the same temperature. *brrrr* I needed to bring a sweater, but it was warmer last time we were here, or maybe I’m just remembering it as warmer. Southern California just sounds like it should be warm, even though living her for a few years let me know that most mornings are chilly and it doesn’t usually get that hot, at least not in Los Angeles. But even though I know better I still had hoped it would be warmer. *sigh* and *laughing* at myself. I so know better.
Thanks to everyuone who came out to participate in the show, and to everyone at the Barnes & Noble in Huntington Beach that helped make it all go so smoothly. I know we got some new questions, but I admit that I’m getting punchy at this point in tour and can’t remember them. The only one I do remember is the request for the title of the book that I read to our daughter, Trinity, when she was about eight to ten about the facts of life. The book is at home and I can’t remember the title. I’ll blog it later after we get home and I hunt the book up.

Time to get some food, before we see you all in about two hours. Looking forward to seeing everybody tonight at the Carlsbad Library.

Kiss the Dead Tour – Seattle

I’m writing this blog about our wonderful event in Seattle while looking out at palm trees and Southern California ocean. Much warmer, sunnier, and just different from the great Pacific Northwest. Both have an ocean, but this is all sand and beach goers, and Seattle is more about the city, and what comes out of the sea, rather than dipping our toes in it. Jon and I love Seattle, but I admit that I’m glad to have sunshine and no rain.
Thanks to everyone that came out last night to the Seattle Town Hall, where University Books sponsored yet another great event for us. Thanks to the whole crew, but especially Duane, and Art, who helped keep us secure, and Michael who risked life and limb to take the pictures. We really thought he was going to back off the stage a time, or two. 🙂 Some of the fans said they’d seen us at least three times, or was that four? I know you guys want the new books as they come out, but I’m amazed that you also want to hear the question and answer session, the show, again and again. I’m glad I can entertain you for two hours at a shot, and keep so many of you coming back.
One question I figured I’d get a lot this tour was when’s the next Merry Gentry novel coming out. Most of you knew it was scheduled for December. Last night I asked, “How many of you follow me on twitter, or FaceBook?” Over half the audience raised their hands. I then asked, “How many of you have noticed that I’m having trouble with this Merry book?” Again, a lot of hands went up. I’ve been listening to a lot of Christmas music which is what I go to when I’m really struggling with a book. Merry has not been happy with this book from the beginning, and neither have I. I wasn’t sure what was wrong at first, but eventually Merry told me, if you stop arguing with your characters and let them talk to you, most of the time they’ll let you know what’s wrong. What’s wrong is that to have a book you have to make your main character’s life unhappy. To make an interesting book you have to have things go wrong, and Merry is truly happy for the first time in her life, or at least since her father died, and she doesn’t want me messing that up. She has her twins, the men she’s in love with, and the men she loves, and it’s all good. I honestly think I should have stopped the series at book seven, Swallowing Darkness, but I was still under contract for more books and I still love the world. I also couldn’t imagine never writing about Merry, Doyle, Frost, Rhys, Galen, . . . heck everybody. But if I had stopped with book seven I could have given her that happy-ever-after-ending, and moved on. But I didn’t, I wrote book eight, Divine Misdemeanors, and even that could have been the end, but I left one huge plot point looming. Queen Andais, Merry’s aunt, has gone completely bug nuts and is basically a serial killer except she’s picking on victims that can’t die. If they could die, she’d be torturing her nobles to death. They are fleeing to Los Angeles and to Merry and her men. Andais won’t tolerate that forever, but more than that Merry can’t leave her people to the ministrations of Andais. If I had not added that last bit of insanity to the queen we could have walked away, but I wrote it and now we’re stuck. Merry can’t leave Andais on the throne, but she fears she will die in a duel and orphan her babies, and lose everything. Merry wants to be left the fuck alone, and I can’t really blame her. So, what to do?
I took a day to clear my head and write something else, because sometimes an idea will block the creative pipe. Fifty pages later I had the beginning of the next Anita Blake novel. It was ready to write and ready to go. Okay. I went back to Merry, because that was what was due next. Again, the writing slowed to a crawl, so I took a day, and thirty-forty pages later I had the beginnings of a brand new book set in a brand new world, with a brand new main character. That book is almost ready to write, I just need a little more time to world build, but the character, the voice, and the opening gambit are written and set. It’s based on a sticky note that I’ve had on my wall of stickies for ten years. I love it when an idea finally lets me know it’s ready. Then I went back to Merry, and the book never picked up. I crawled along at a pace that was never going to make deadline. I finally had to call my agent and my editor and tell them it wasn’t happening. There will be no Merry book in December this year. Sorry, guys but there won’t be. Merry has put her foot down and simply doesn’t want her life screwed up this badly. I have tried everything and anything I can think of, but in the end Merry won’t play ball. I’m leaving her alone, and going to let her and the muse that plays with her sit and think. I think we’ll work it out eventually, but I have no idea when. I know we will though, because I have scenes written when the twins are in kindergarten in L. A. and they are fun scenes. We will get there, but first we have Andais to conquer, seduce, or something. I have some ideas, but they aren’t ready yet. It’s cooking, slowly, and in the mean time . . .
If I had still been at two different publishing houses I’d be in serious trouble, because the other publisher would want the Merry book, but this sort of thing is why I decided one publisher in the U. S. would be a good thing, because now whatever book I write is theirs, so they won’t get a Merry book in December, but they’ll get the next Anita book, though not in December. Sorry, even I don’t write that fast. They’ll get the new book when the time comes, too. Whatever I’m working on is something they get to publish and make money from, so they stay happy, and I have the luxury as a writer of actually writing what speaks to my muse, and wants to be written next, regardless of deadline pressure. This is the first time in twenty years, thirty books that I’ve ever had to miss a deadline completely, and just say, “I can’t.” I hated doing it. Hated saying it, but once I worked through the issues of having to do it, it was a huge relief. I should have called it a couple of months ago, but I’m nothing if not stubborn, and I was just sure I could force my way through it. But writing isn’t like making widgets, it’s not just tab B into slot A, if it was then anyone could do it, and you’d get a Merry book this Yuletide season, but there is an element of mystery to it that even I don’t completely understand. I do know that by forcing myself to stay with this book long after I, my muse, and my main character, were done with it hurt me as a writer, and pissed my muse off. She left me for a bit, my muse. She left me to the harsh mercilessness of the blank screen, and no words. I’d never been so empty, not since I was twelve. It was one of the most horrible feelings. I had been disdainful of people with writer’s block. That it was a failure of confidence and that wasn’t really something I suffered from as a writer, but it’s more than that. The muse, whatever it is exactly, needs a certain amount of care and feeding, and trying to force feed this Merry book down it’s throat damn near made us both choke.
My muse wants to play with Anita, and the new story, and other ideas are coming, but only after I came to my senses and stopped treating my gift, my muse, my inspiration, like an assembly line where you can just put a book together because it’s time to do it. I’ve done it that way for twenty years. I have never, ever abandoned a book in place. Hell, I sold the first book I ever wrote, Nightseer. Most writers have trunks of unsold, and mostly unsalable books, but not me. I write it, I sell it, its what I do, but not this time. This time my muse let me know that I had to cut this shit out, or she was packing her bags and leaving, so . . . I cut this shit out. I listened to that mysterious part of me, and I am learning what feeds my muse, what inspires me, and what starves her, and what harms me as an artist.
Eventually I’m pretty sure you’ll get the next Merry book, but I don’t know when. You will get the next Anita book, because I’m writing it now, and you will get the brand new adventure because it’s alive in my head and I’m making more notes, and there will be other short stories, because my muse and I have reconciled like a feuding couple rediscovering that they love each other, after all.

Kiss the Dead tour – St. Louis

Kiss the Dead – St. Louis

We kicked off the tour for Kiss the Dead in our home town, St. Louis, Missouri. Venue was the downtown location for Left Bank Books. Thanks to everyone at the store that helped make the event work so smoothly. I signed books ahead of time, because the ticket admission gets you a signed book, and the show. Yes, it’s supposed to be a question and answer session. What Jon, my husband, and I have come to call, “Laurell and a microphone show.” Anyone who’s ever seen me on stage for a Q & A will understand why we call it a show. I pace and prowl the stage like one of those big cats in the zoo that paces their cage. I’m not sure why I do it, the pacing I mean. I was taught to use most of a stage so that everyone gets a good view, but it’s more than that. It’s something about the energy of the crowd, the night, the event, something that makes me need to move. Years ago people would put me in a chair, but I can’t sit still and do this, I can’t. The only time I’ve sat down on stage was when I came into the event injured, or when I shared the stage at a convention. The latter wasn’t a full two hours, but if I have to share the stage and the microphone I can, and do. I’m all about the sharing if you guys have come to see more than just me. Charlaine Harris and I shared the stage in St. Louis for an event to benefit the library there, and it was a lot of fun. She’s good people, and we’ve known each other for years. But most of the time it’s just me, with an occasional guest spot on the mic from Jon, as we answer questions.
In St. Louis it was a space in the basement, and my microphone was on a cord like a leash to keep me in one spot. It does short leash me, so that I can’t wander as I’d like, and there’s always the chance I’ll trip over the cord. I managed not to do that, but it had been so long since I’d been on a cord that I forgot one important safety tip. I tend to bundle the slack of the cord in my free hand, so I don’t trip. But I also sometimes try to gesture with my hands, I forgot that I had the cord in the hand not holding the mic, and I hit myself in the face with it. All I could do was laugh, and not do that again. Important safety tip: don’t talk with your hands when both hands are full.
I think the original audience was supposed to be about two hundred people, because that’s how many books I signed ahead of time, but as always seems to happen the audience magically grew. Jon and I estimated about three hundred because most ticket holders brought at least one person, sometimes two, to four extra people, sometimes more. Though, I don’t think there were groups larger than that in St. Louis. There were more people than seats, and some stood for two hours. Thank you for being willing to do that.
The bookstore had put a microphone on a stand near the front. That works much better than someone trying to move through the crowd with a mic. It’s much quicker to have the mic set up, so that people can line up and I can answer as many questions as possible. The only issue was the aisle was so narrow people couldn’t line up without getting in each other’s way, so important tip for next time, wider area so we can have the line, and people can move back and forth without having a traffic jam at the microphone. There’s always a learning curve for each new space, and venue, like trying to fit the whole band on a stage, you learn how each space works best. Before someone asks, no we do not travel with a band, it was a metaphor. (For those who thought, of course, it was a metaphor, why did she over explain, trust me sometimes over explaining on the blog saves time and disappointment for fans later. I will leave live music to Neil Gaiman and his very talented wife, Amanda Palmer.) We have had music by S. J. Tucker at one event, she played while I did a more traditional signing, but she kept playing some of our favorite songs, so that Jon and I wanted to dance. It’s hard to sign books and talk to people when you’re trying not to dance. It was a great night, but S. J. is a wonderful singer/songwriter and it was like being at a concert, but having to work the whole time. Wanted-to-dance! *laughs*
We got one new question that I was anticipating, what did I think of Fifty Shades of Grey? No, I have not read the books yet, but lots of people have sent me scenes from the book and asked for my opinion, mostly the bondage scenes, okay, it’s always the bondage scenes. *laughs* Those who’ve been reading me know that I’ve been writing bondage scenes for years. E. L. James may finally have brought bondage into the mainstream, so yay! Anything that makes people more comfortable with their sexuality is a good thing. I’ll probably be hearing this new question a lot this tour.
There was one brand new question from a fan that we first met in Milan, Italy. *waves* Had I thought about a reality show? In fact, yes I had, or rather I’d discussed it with my agent, but in the end we decided not to pursue it. Why? Because I can’t imagine having cameras following me around filming my life. How would that work? I think that about the time things got “interesting” I’d be making them turn off the cameras and get out. Some reality show contracts have clauses in them that dictate under what circumstances you can tell the cameras to leave, or stop, and what they are allowed to film, or not allowed to film. I just don’t think I’d be comfortable exposing my family to that. One of the reasons not to do it, was illustrated in the follow up part of the question. She said, I’d save marriages across the country if I’d do a reality show.
I asked, “What about me doing a reality show would save marriages?”
I can’t remember the exact wording, but the gist was that I’d inspire couples to have better sex by sharing my fantasies on camera. *blink, blink*
“And that would be an example of when I would make the cameras leave,” I said. Though, laying out a line of toys and props, letting the camera do a loving close up of it all, then kicking them out and locking the door has it’s amusement value. But actually filming “fantasies”, um, I think that would be over my comfort level of sharing my life. Ah, nice lady fan, you naughty girl you. *shakes finger at you* *laughs*
We put one of the new business cards in every book I signed. The card had a new bit of technology on it, a QR code. If you use a smart phone to scan it, or have Jon give you the uber secret code at the signing you can get to a secret website that will have Easter eggs that you can only get with the code. For those who don’t know what I mean by Easter egg in this context, it’s extra, or bonus material. Best example is the very last scene in The Avengers where all our heroes are eating shawarma, as Tony Stark, Robert Downey Junior, suggests at the end of the fight. Its just this little scene at the end, but it was totally worth waiting to see it. To see the bonus scene in The Avengers you have to wait through all the credits, to see our Easter eggs you have to be at an event, or get someone who was at an event to share the super secret code with you.
What kind of bonus stuff is there? Little videos and pictures, and some explanation, or written content that isn’t available anywhere else. It is actually the new tech of the smart phones that gave us the idea to try. If all goes as planned I’ll be putting up new content throughout the tour. Something new every day.
We did pictures after the show in St. Louis, and found the images already up on my Facebook that night. You guys are fast! Thanks for making our kick-off for Kiss the Dead so much fun! See everyone in Seattle, Washington next!

Beauty – a preview

So many of you have asked, or said, you can’t wait until it comes out, so . . . Here’s a sneak peek at Beauty the too hot to handle outtake from Kiss the Dead which comes out as an eSpecial May 8, 2012:

“I finally let myself look at that face, and I felt like I had from almost the first moment I’d seen him, that he was simply one of the most beautiful men I’d ever seen. The black curls touched the edge of his face, as if bringing attention to the curve of his mouth, the line of his cheek, and those eyes. They always looked blue, but they were so dark. Midnight blue with their double edge of black eyelashes like dark lace to frame the deepest blue I’d ever seen in anyone’s eyes. His eyes were a blue like deep ocean water, where it runs cold and will eventually spill down into something warm and mysterious, where creatures the light has never seen live and thrive. Those gorgeous eyes looked at me, and there was love in them, but the second he saw me in the doorway, walking toward him, there was lust, desire, and just a heat that brought a blush to my face and an answering heat to my own eyes. Six years after we’d first started dating I was still a little amazed that this most lovely of men wanted me so badly. They talked about burning for each other, and we still did. I never seemed to get over the surprise of turning around and seeing him there. You’d think I’d get used to seeing such a beautiful man and knowing he was mine, but it never grew old, as if his beauty and the fact that he was mine, and I was his, would forever surprise me.”

Beauty, eSpecial, or the Sexy Outtake

Whenever I tweet, FaceBook, or blog, that I had to delete a perfectly good scene because it no longer worked with the plot of the current book, a lot of you ask to see the scene. You’ve even suggested that I share my Anita outtake file with you. Well, guess what, Beauty, the eSpecial that everyone’s been asking me about is an outtake from Kiss the Dead. It’s a sex scene that unfortunately had to be cut, because character decisions made it impossible as written. More unfortunately it was the scene between Jean-Claude and Anita. I really wanted them to have some up close and personal time in this next book, and it was a great scene, and . . . I still had to cut it.

But one day I was talking to my editor, Susan, on the phone, and I bemoaned the loss of the scene. She thought it was a fabulous scene, too, and regretted it’s loss. That was the point that she and I came up with the idea of doing the outtake as my first ever eSpecial. I thought great, and it’s already written, but like much in this whole e-experience that wasn’t quite correct. I had to write a new beginning for the scene, because it was taken out of the early middle of the book where the world, the characters, relationships, everything had already been explained, but suddenly the scene had to stand on it’s own without all the earlier pages. So, I did add a few paragraphs to introduce the world, Anita, and her relationship to Jean-Claude and Asher. Yep, try as I might in Kiss the Dead to give Jean-Claude and Anita their alone time, Asher was just not going to be left out. When things work well between the three of them it’s so worth it, when it doesn’t, well . . . it’s just a freaking disaster. So I did the extra bit up front so the scene would not be quite so naked to everyone who buys the eSpecial, and then it was done. Okay, except for the whole editing part when it came back from New York, but other than that it was done.

But one of the weird things about publishing of late is that e-books are still evolving in how they are handled, and before I’d ever seen Beauty back from New York, before I’d even signed the contract, and sent it back to them, I had people asking me about it on the internet. People were asking what Beauty was, and were thrilled it was coming out on April 24. Since my editor had told me that Beauty was scheduled for a month before Kiss the Dead came out on June 5, I was a little confused. I called her up and she double checked, and the actual date for Beauty is May 8, because the whole idea is that it comes out about a month ahead of the novel, that it’s an outtake for, so . . . No one at my publisher is sure where the first date of April 24 came from, but it is now corrected on line to its actual release date of May 8, so yay, for that!

So, Beauty is my first eSpecial. It’s the first outtake from any Anita Blake novel that I’ve allowed to be published. It’s a very hot, steamy, outtake with Jean-Claude, Anita, and Asher. It comes out May 8, as a sort of preview for Kiss the Dead which comes out June 5.

Links to preordering Beauty –

Amazon Kindle edition

Barnes & Noble nook edition