Laurell K. Hamilton was born in Heber Springs, Arkansas but grew up in Sims, Indiana, a hamlet with a population of about one hundred souls.

In 1994, Laurell published her first Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter book, GUILTY PLEASURES, and she hasn't stopped writing since. She has written twelve additional Anita Blake books, with the newest being INCUBUS DREAMS. In October 2000, she began the New York Times bestselling Meredith Gentry series for Ballantine Books. She says she writes because to not write -- even for her own enjoyment -- would be like not breathing. It is just something she has to do. She now resides in St. Louis, Missouri with her husband, her young daughter, three pug dogs, and an ever-fluctuating assortment of fish.