Laurell Kaye Hamilton (born February 19, 1963) is an American fantasy and romance writer. She is the author of two series of stories. Hamilton is known for her New York Times-bestselling Anita Blake series, featuring a professional zombie raiser/supernatural consultant for the police as the protagonist in a world where vampires and werecreatures not only exist, but are citizens with recently protected, if nervously granted, civil rights in the US. The series has 22 novels, several short story collections, and other medias tie-ins such as comic books. 6 million copies of Anita Blake novels are printed.[1] Also notable is her Merry Gentry series, an urban fantasy in which the world of fairy interacts with the "real world".