Robert E. Howard helped inspire Laurell K. Hamilton

I like reading Laurell K. Hamilton's novels. I met Anita Blake of the Guilty Pleasures series 11 years ago in a bookstore in London. I've read several since, not all of Blake's novels, but quite a few. They're what I refer to as "fun reads," quick action and interesting characters and sexy. The ratio of pleasure you get out of it vs. the thought you have to put into reading her books is high. Turns out Blake is an interesting character herself. From The Associated Press:

When she was 5, she begged to be able to watch Boris Karloff in "Frankenstein." Later, she would read authors Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft, and was particularly taken with "Pigeons from Hell," a short story collection by Robert E. Howard. She started to write herself, but noted she wasn't a teenager clad in black, composing death poetry. "The inside of my head is so dark," she said, "I didn't need the outside trappings."

Blake's official web site is here. She also blogs (I need to add the links to the sidebar) here.