Laurell K. Hamilton

Bedtime stories are the entrance many children have into the world of literature, so perhaps it isn't surprising to have an author credit a grandmother's tales as her inspiration for writing.

Of course, if that author is Laurell K. Hamilton and the genre is horror and suspense, one quickly realizes those bedtimes stories weren't of princesses and kissed frogs. Rather, Hamilton's grandmother told her spooky stories carved from legends out of their native Arkansas as the two of them were living in Sims, Indiana.

Hamilton's grandmother raised her after the death of her mother in 1969. Hamilton herself was born in 1963.

Hamilton has written two popular series-one on a vampire hunter, the other on a fairy princess who decides to become a private detective. Her books have grown popular despite (or perhaps because of) the objection many have to the explicit sex and violence found within her pages. For Hamilton, they're all part of the story that is being told.

Given that her books rocket to spots on every major bestseller list, it seems that her fans agree.

Bibliography

--B. Redman