Laurell K. Hamilton

There’s one name that comes almost immediately to mind when the phrase “paranormal romance” is mentioned: Laurell K. Hamilton. Her two series of novels, based on the characters of Merry Gentry and Anita Blake, have brought a decidedly darker take to the serial romance field, and did much to rekindle the sex appeal of the various creatures of the night between Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire novels in the mid 1990’s and the recent, and decidedly more youth-oriented, Twilight series. Adding to her geek cred is an upcoming collaboration with Jennie Breeden (of The Devil’s Panties) on the next Anita Blake novel, Flirt.

We’re used to various supernatural characters we encounter having powers beyond what most mortals are typically capable of. Fortunately, Laurell possesses a few of her own – not the least of which is a wickedly fast pair of hands at the keyboard.  Don’t believe us? Check out the daily page counts on her Twitter feed.

We had a chance to catch up with Laurell to see how her workout regimen fits in with her life and writing, how  pumping iron helps her pump out words, and whether Anita, Merry, or any of the other characters who go bump in the night are liable to be gym rats.

January 1st is, traditionally, a day that many people use as the motivation to make positive changes in their lives. From getting in shape to going to church more often and everything in between there are countless ways in which many people are vowing to improve themselves, starting today. If you’ve made a resolution to improve yourself but you’re not quite sure how to go about doing so, you may find value in taking on some kind of challenge to help you reach your goals. We’ve collected a list of 10 of our favorite ones for you to check out below the cut.

Image courtesy of Vonslatt on Flickr

Those of us who enjoy SF/F fiction aren’t the only folks on the road to better health. Many of the folks who create the fictional worlds, characters, and events we enjoy also get up from their desks and get moving. We were fortunate enough to catch up with Sci-Fi & Fantasy writers Jay Lake and Elizabeth Bear, both of whom, in addition to putting a lot of mileage on their respective keyboards, put a fair bit of effort towards getting up and away from them, too.

Jay has been churning out a prodigious number of sci-fi and fantasy short stories and novels since the turn of the century, frequently visiting territory in the realm of “new weird” and various flavors of N-punk (steampunk, clockpunk, and the like). Whether or he’s flying solo or collaborating with a handful of co-conspirators, it’s a safe bet that, no matter where you start out from, you won’t be in Kansas anymore by the time he’s done. He enjoys inventing funky worlds and making any excuse for a zeppelin cameo.

Elizabeth takes pretty much every SF/F trope and turns it on its ear in the name of challenging assumptions about the genre, the characters, and the expectations of both. Whether it’s flipping the animal-sidekick motif upside-down, poking around the underside of myths, or delving into the psyches of an ensemble cast, her writing will expose and explore the unexpected.

Both Jay and Elizabeth have been nominated for (and won) numerous awards for their fiction, including the Hugo, Campbell, Phillip K. Dick, and James Tiptree, Jr awards, among others. In short, they both write some very, very good and interesting stuff, in addition to being well worth sitting down with for a pot of tea.

So, without further ado, let’s give them a workout. They shared their thoughts on making time to get healthy, how it affects their work, and a singularly pernicious corn chip.