News

What is the book about?

I hate that question. One, if I could give a sound bite answer then I would probably write poetry and not novels. Two, it isn’t really the question they want to ask.

What they really want to know is why should they read the book, or what will their listeners, viewers, readers, get out of reading Bullet? Now they can’t ask it like that, because it sounds rude. It’s a very aggressive question; why should we read your book, or what will we get out of it? What is the book about, is less aggressive, but more vague.

Why should people read my new book Bullet when it hits stores on June 1st? Maybe they shouldn’t. I don’t know each and every one of them. How can I possibly know if this is THE book they should read? But, what will people, you readers, get out of reading Bullet?

I can tell you what other readers have told me they’ve gotten out of other Anita Blake novels. I’ve now lost track of the number of women who’ve told me they’ve gotten out of abusive relationships because they knew Anita wouldn’t take it. I’ve had men and women tell me that Anita helped them understand what it’s like to be a strong person. The young woman who wanted to be more like Anita, so decided that she’d start with an easy one, she’d wear her seatbelt. (Anita, and I, are both paranoid about everyone buckling up because I gave her the fictional equivalent of my own mother’s death. If my mom had been wearing her seatbelt she wouldn’t have hit that windshield.) The young woman wore her seatbelt a day, and was in a car accident the same day. Police on scene told her if she hadn’t been wearing it she would probably have died.

The teenage girl that told her boyfriend that unless they used a condom no more sex, because Anita would stop the sex scenes and take time to get one. Apparently, I am one, or maybe the only, in the paranormal genre that takes time for that sort of thing. Yes, it breaks up the sex scene, and yes, I guess it’s unromantic, but not half as unromantic as being pregnant, or catching a venereal disesae. (Anita is now on the pill and has steady boyfriend’s that are sleeping only with her so with the regular lovers it’s not an issue. If everyone’s healthy and you’re on birth control it’s not a safety concern, but does mean you have to trust everyone you’re having unprotected sex with, with your life.)

I’ll add a caveat to the above for the men. If you’re not used to wearing condoms they can be a little chilly and the sensation seems to bother some men’s, um, concentration. I’ve actually run into more men that had the problem than didn’t, so if you’re concerned about that practice masturbating with a condom on. It gets you used to the sensation of the condom so that it’s just a part of some potentially really good sex. The ribbed condoms can also add more sensation for the girl and that will only enhance your reputation, or your relationship. It’s a win-win. (Why did I add that last paragraph? Because it’s not fair to tell the women to demand a condom and not explain to the men that it may be normal to have an issue, and I know a solution to the issue, why wouldn’t I share it?)

I’ve now lost track of the number of husbands, fiances, and boyfriends that have thanked me that the women in their lives read my books. One wife told me her husband asked her, “When’s the next Laurell K. Hamilton book coming out?” “Six weeks,” she replied. He joined a gym the next day. “You damn near killed me last time, I’ve got to be in better shape.” Another husband started taking vitamins and eating better for the same reason.

I’ve had several couples where one half is overseas in the armed forces tell me that they read my books to each other over the phone. I was a little puzzled by that, but one wife told me, “We were just telling each other what the kids were doing, or the car broke down, and he didn’t want to tell me what was happening over there. He thought I’d worry. Then I started reading to him, and it was like weeks of foreplay.” I couldn’t argue with her happy smile.

I’ve had police officers tell me that my police work is the closest they’ve read to the real thing. I take that as very high praise, and give a hats off to the real police officers that have answered my questions and let me come and see how they work. In fact my research into real police and real military totally changed the Anita Blake series. At the beginning of the series she is convinced she’s doing right by killing vampires, and that she will make the world a better place, very much like a rookie police officer. Bright, shiny, convinced that if just enough good people are willing to do their duty they can get the bad guys and make everything better. Then the years begin to wear them down. I had the privilege of watching a very good friend go from rookie to ten year veteran. Somewhere between five and especially ten years in, you come to the realization that there will always be more bad guys. That no matter how many criminals you catch, how many murders you solve, there will be more tomorrow. Evil and stupidity seem to be in never ending supply. Eventually, you count the day a win if you come home alive to the people you love.

I had Anita reflect what I learned from real police officers. She’s technically only been in catching rogue vampires and wereanimals for about six years, but she’s got that ten year cynicism, maybe because I’ve been writing the series for over ten years. She and I have grown cynical and jaded together. I have not researched enough real crime that the things real people do to other real human beings astounds, horrifies, and just makes it so I can never again look at my fellow man, or woman, and not understand what they are capable of. Serial killer research will put a callous on your soul faster than anything else I know. I have no idea how the real men and women of law enforcement manage to work this kind of crime. The pictures and words about it are bad enough. I can’t imagine standing in the real room with the real crime scene all around me. You are better men and women than I, Gunga Din.

I’ve talked to enough soldiers to know that two flavors haunt you the most. What you did and how horrible it was, or what you did and the fact that you weren’t bothered by it. In essence, you torment yourself because you aren’t tormented about that horrible thing you did. If it’s horrible shouldn’t you feel bad about it? Maybe, or maybe not. Let yourself feel what you feel, don’t judge it, just experience it and let it go. But I have Anita bothered by the fact that she’s not bothered by some of what she does. I wouldn’t have known that was such a common problem for soldiers if the men hadn’t been so generous with their stories. I owe a constant thank you to all the people that have talked to me over the years and helped make Anita more real.

Readers tell me that Anita, Jean-Claude, Micah, Richard, Nathaniel, Jason, and all the rest have become their friends. That have helped them learn more about who they are, and who they want to be, and that as long as they don’t harm any one, it’s okay to be themselves. And that being themselves can come in a wider favorite of flavors and styles than they realized before they stepped into my books.