Dhfan4life asked Laurell K. Hamilton:

Hi Laurell, First off have to say your Anita Blake series was one of the very first series I read that transitioned me from YA fantasy to Adult Urban Fantasy. And I haven't looked back ever sense! My question is: Did you ever foresee how far you would be able to take the character Anita Blake? Meaning being such an successful female alpha in a genre that sometimes caters to the alpha male trope so often.

Laurell K. Hamilton No, I had no idea that Anita would be this popular. I don't think any writer sits down to create a serious and is sure that it will be a #1 New York Times Bestseller, or hit #1 on any list. But I created Anita Blake to even the playing field in the mystery hardboiled detective field which at the time was mostly men writing male main characters. I wanted fantasy where the woman wasn't the damsel in distress waiting to be rescued, but the rescuer. Horror was still full of more female victims than anything else, and it was a clear morality play. If the woman stayed virginal and pure she could live, but sex meant she died. I wanted to write a character that changed all that, and happily for me and Anita, there were a lot of people who wanted to read exactly that kind of change.

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