Joely Sue Burkhart

I must admit to holding Laurell K. Hamilton as a sort of role model for a long time.  Even after Narcissus in Chains (a major turning point in the Anita Blake series; fans know exactly what I’m talking about), I was still a big fan.  Still am, truth be told, despite all the problems with her stories.  She creates such fantastic characters!  I adore Nathaniel, and Damien, and the Darkness, and Rhys…  I can’t leave them, even though I’m sick of Anita Blake.  The last Merry Gentry book was one of the best in latter years, too.  I just “steamboat” a lot over words or situations that don’t add to the story.

One of the things I’ve long admired about LKH is her ability to write two fantastic, popular series at the same time.  When she finishes up an Anita book, she always starts the next book in the series before getting too deep into Merry’s next book, and vice versa.  Since I just finished up Beautiful Death again…

I didn’t exactly start the next book, but I did start a list of all the story threads I deliberately didn’t resolve yet.  What is Hera going to do?  Who’s going to rule Macedon?  How soon can Hades take over?  What battles will he have?  What about… You get the idea, without me giving away too many spoilers, hopefully.  I also made a lot of mythology and “explanation” type notes to the editor in the pre-pass I made a few weeks ago, all good information that might make sense to include on the website, so I started a very rough page that will likely change a lot over the next few days or weeks. 

I know that Charon is the protagonist of the next book, and the first thing I need to research (before I can write him effectively) is post traumatic stress.  He suffered a great deal of torture in Beautiful Death, and his sanity wasn’t the best beforehand.  He’s going to be one tough hero to redeem, let me tell you.  He’s Molly’s favorite character in the series (which she swears has nothing to do with the fact that I imagine him played by Vin Diesel *snort*) and I’m afraid I won’t live up to her expectations…

Oh, dear, now Gregar is stomping about muttering that he thought HE was her favorite character and that I should be afraid of HIM.  Well, I am, my Shadowed Blood, but I have to get these notes finished before I can keep writing YOUR story…

Excuse me, I’m being dragged off to write more on The Road to Shanhasson now. 

(Please don’t mention to him that I also have RHP and NSR and Letters to work on this year.)