Hamilton has seen Joss Whedons beloved vampire hunter series come and go (and perhaps return?
Though they were strong characters, the female detectives in their series very rarely cussed.
It was such a stark contrast.
Credit: Ma Petite Enterprises
I thought,this is unfair.
I decided I would give a shot to even things up.
I may have overcompensated just a little.
(laughs) I thought I would get bored if it was just straight mystery.
I hoped the series would have legs, and so I wanted to give myself enough toys.
Did you ever imagine youd still be writing her adventures 25 years later?No.
The first book didnt sell that great and my editor rejected the second book.
And now here we are at number 26.
You never know whats going to happen.
The arts are wonderful to work in but theyre not guaranteed jobs.
She has gone from thinking the world was very black and white to realizing the worlds kinda grey.
They want to be the white knight.
You want to come home alive to the people you love.
Anitas followed that process.
So that is one of the ways that she changed profoundly.
Anita, at the beginning of the books, was waiting for her white dress.
She was trying to have a white picket fence life.
Gradually she realized that wasnt going to happen for her either.
Now shes not trying for the white picket fence, shes trying for something that makes her happy.
When I first started, I would not contribute to what I saw as a problem romantic vampires.
Vampires are not romantic.
I believed what Anita believed at the beginning theyre monsters.
No matter how pretty they are, theyre monsters …
When I didnt do it, he took over my series and took it in a different direction.
It wasnt part of my plan at all.
I am a character driven writer.
Since you started the series, the popularity of vampires in fiction has waxed and waned.
It took years to sell because nobody was doing this.
They really didnt think there was a market for it.
When you get there first, youre not going to be the one thats paying attention to other people.
As a writer, I recommend you do not chase trends.
Most people take the ordinary and make it extraordinary.
I take the extraordinary and make it ordinary.
Theyre great and theyre lovely and wonderful, but theyre so much pressure.
Especially if you get into your mid-30s and youre not married yet.
I like taking Anita and using her as a lens on something that is problematic to me.
You also, of course, have supernatural elements here.
We havent done Greek or Romans ever in this series.
[I went back] and re-read them.
Theres some really terrible things done to people in these.
Theres a lot of that going on in Greek and Roman myths.
I thoughtWhat if that could really happen to you and what if you moved that to modern day?
A leopard or a tiger?Its become romanticized.
Ive done it too.
Its like having that surprise snake trapped on the end of your arm.
I thoughtif it bothers me enough, Ill use it.
Youre famous for the extensive research you do for each book.
That was too fun.
But the other thing I was lost in was the [setting of the] Florida Keys.
They were so beautiful.
Part of me felt guilty putting bodies and having people killed there.
It will make it more realistic.
I began to realize that I just wanted to stay for a while just to vacation.
Ive never had a location make me think that.
Is that something youve been thinking about and want Anita to grapple with directly?Yes and no.
It is a civil rights nightmare.
We even say that in some of the books.
But its so polarizing.
One of the things in researching police work is how fast decisions have to be made.
So I honor their profession.
In real life, theres no second chances.
The more training I have the more I see how difficult it is.
My heart goes out to everybody on both sides.
To me thats a very specific way of looking at it.
If it bothers me, then it usually comes out.
Sometimes I dont even mean for it to, but the back of my mind is chewing on it.
I dont shy away from the hard questions on paper.
I dont think of myself that way, but maybe I am.
Your books have evolved to have a stronger romantic and erotic heft.
Violence didnt bother me, but the sex did.
Once I crossed the barrier, then the 1950s pan to the sky is always gone for me.
Polyamory is about being absolutely honest.
Everybody knows about everybody.
If youre cheating, youre not polyamorous.
If youre doing regular relationships, so many people are afraid to rock the boat.
But if you dont talk about the hard issues, the hard issues build and build and build.
The only way to do multiple people is you have to talk almost endlessly.
I thought it was important to show that onstage, and that happily-ever-after takes work.
I dont know, when Im 80 will I still want to be doing this?
I dont know; Ive never been 80.
Maybe Ill just be the feistiest grandma around.
