Q&A: Charlaine Harris on Sookie books and 'True Blood.'

From Orange County Register --

Q&A: Charlaine Harris on Sookie books and 'True Blood.' --

By DIANA McCABE --
Thursday, August 6, 2009 --


Charlaine Harris is pretty much everywhere these days. The author of the Sookie Stackhouse series, which HBO is basing its "True Blood" shows on, is working on her 10th Sookie book (due May 2010) and keeping an eye on the TV show.


I asked her a few things about the latest book out, "Dead and Gone," and a little bit about the show.

Q . Do you think Eric (the powerful vampire and love interest in the book) has grown because of his relationship with Sookie, who is human?

A. I think parts of Eric have surfaced that he thought were buried for good.

Q. What will it take for Sookie to understand the blood bond? It seems as if she is losing her ability to distinguish between her own feelings, Eric's feelings and those generated by the blood bond.

A. This is an issue in the next book.

Q. How would you compare the strengths between the bonds of vampire and sire, a vampire and his/her king or queen, and a vampire and his/her sheriff?

A. The vampire/sire relationship is the strongest.

Q . In one podcast interview, you said you didn't see Sookie turning into a vampire or even winding up with one – in the sense that she would lead a normal life and be with a human. Do you still think she will be able to do that – settle with one person? Not a vampire?

A. I said that Sookie will never become a vampire. And a vampire can't give her what she's always thought she wanted; a regular marriage with children. But that doesn't mean Sookie will end up with exactly what she wants. I see no reason why she couldn't settle with one person.

Q. What did you want readers to take away from "Dead and Gone"?

A. I don't know that I had a specific goal; I had several themes, though. The ruthlessness and inhumanity of the fae, the outrages we commit in the name of love, and the loneliness of those who simply can't fit in and are doomed by their own nature . . . those were all elements of the book.

Q. Do you have a good idea of how the series will eventually end? If so -- have you ever changed your mind about the ending?

A. I do know how the series will end. And I have never changed my mind.

Q. Tell us a little bit about your cameo at the end of season 2.

A. I'm sitting in Merlotte's at the bar talking to Sam. I'm wearing a striped shirt. I have a line. I almost hope they cut it. I'm not an actor.

Q. Alan Ball has certainly developed the HBO show differently from the books. Does his vision of the show make you think about how you're writing your current book? Have you ever gotten an idea from the show to build on in the book series?

A. I keep them separate in my mind. The book characters have been living with me for a long, long time.

Q. Do you and HBO's Alan Ball talk before, during, after the season?

A. We e-mail back and forth from time to time, more frequently before each season. We are both very busy people. If I'm in Los Angeles, we usually have lunch together or something. And we have some good conversations when we're doing publicity for the show.

Q. What's been the most interesting/surprising or creative storyline(s) that HBO has developed in the series?

A. Jessica, without a doubt.

Q. Which parts of the TV series most visually match what you envisioned when you wrote your book series?

A. Sookie's house is perfect, though it doesn't have the same layout. But the rooms are just right. In Sam's office, the desk is turned in a different direction, but other than that it's wonderful.

Q. Do you know ahead of time what is on each episode? Do you watch each Sunday?

A. I do know ahead of time. And I do watch each Sunday.

Q. OK— gotta ask because fans of your books and "True Blood," and fans of the Twilight series and movie are fighting about this all over the Internet. Your vampire Bill Compton vs. Twilight's vampire Edward Cullen?

A. There is no contest.

Torn between two vampires: a book review of 'Dead and Gone' by Charlaine Harris

From Kansas City Literature Examiner --

Torn between two vampires: a book review of 'Dead and Gone' by Charlaine Harris --

June 2, 2009 --

By Lisa Westerfield --

‘Dead and Gone’ is the 9th book in the Charlaine Harris series known as the ‘Sookie Stackhouse Novels.’ Most people know Sookie and her vampires from the HBO show, ‘True Blood’ which is a brand name of the synthetic blood that has allowed the vampires to, as Harris describes, “come out of the coffin.” Of course all of it is an allegory about the acceptance of all people despite their differences…even those that need to suck blood (I don’t recall if Harris has ever referred to her vamps as hemoglobin challenged).
Harris has lucked upon a winning combination with Sookie and all of her supernatural suitors which not only include two hunky vampires but in the past a werewolf, a werepanther, a weretiger, and a shape shifter who also doubles as her boss. Sookie herself can read the minds of others and until the vampires revealed themselves as real, she always thought of her telepathic ability as an affliction – one until the last book, ‘From Dead to Worse,’ she didn’t realize she had inherited from her grandfather who was half fairy. If you aren’t familiar with the book or television series all of the above sounds like gibberish but Harris has been able to weave all of it into a very likeable tale which since ‘True Blood’ debuted has shot her into the ranks of Anne Rice, J. K. Rowling and Stephen King and into direct comparison/competition with Stephenie Meyer and her ‘Twilight’ series. In fact it is rather difficult to judge ‘Dead and Gone’ on its own accord without taking into consideration that it is really just a chapter in a larger tale along with which Harris has shown sparks of inspiration as well as inconsistency with the span of certain characters and at some points sloppy writing.

Although the Sookie series was probably fairly well known within vampire fandom it has really exploded in the sense of recent pop culture. In early autumn of 2008 when ‘True Blood’ premiered on HBO the ratings steadily climbed and it became the most successful HBO series since ‘Sex and the City’ and ‘The Sopranos’ which apparently was not anticipated by the book publishers who were pushing other Harris mysteries and were appeared to be blindsided by the sudden demand of the Stackhouse books. Of course now they have rectified the situation and one can spot paperback versions of the Stackhouse novels at any store that sells books, along with a big display featuring the hardcover version of ‘Dead and Gone.’

As far as ‘Dead and Gone’ goes, I don’t know if I would recommend the book if a reader hasn’t read previous books in the sequence, I would however recommend the series. Despite the before mentioned flaws, the books have made for lively reading and Stackhouse, her family, and friends have provided diverting plots. I think Harris has done a fine job in building Sookie’s world with each new book and ‘Dead and Gone’ is a better effort than some of the other books when it comes to staying true to elements presented in earlier stories. With the popularity of the books and television series, this endeavor of Harris’s seemed to have a direction as if Harris knows eventually in what course she wants to take the series whereas in previous books I thought she might be writing down the first thing that popped into her mind. I wonder if I was the only fan annoyed by the ‘Word of the Day’ calendar references?

Overall, I had fun reading ‘Dead and Gone’ and would highly recommend the series for anyone who likes the fantasy romance genre. Oh, and no, if you are already a fan, I’m not even going to hint if Sookie chooses Eric over Bill…over that sparkly vampire that Robert Pattinson played in that movie, you know which one I mean so don’t pretend you don’t.

Author hits jackpot with vampire series (Charlaine Harris)

From The Providence Journal --

Author hits jackpot with vampire series --

May 26, 2009 --

By MOTOKO RICH --

MAGNOLIA, Ark. Charlaine Harris was sitting in the small dining nook of her suburban cedar-and-stone home one recent afternoon when she took the call from her editor in New York. After she hung up, she yanked both fists down and let out a triumphant, “Yes!”

Harris, the author of the Sookie Stackhouse vampire mystery romance novels, had just heard that the latest book in the series, Dead and Gone, would make its debut on the New York Times hardcover fiction best-seller list in the No. 1 spot. It was a first for Harris, who has published 26 novels in nearly three decades and sold the original book in the Sookie series, Dead Until Dark, for just $5,000 nine years ago.

When her husband, Harold Schulz, arrived home from work later, he stepped into Harris’ office in a converted mother-in-law apartment next to the house. “No. 1, huh?” he calmly noted with a smile.

But with their daughter Julia’s high school graduation looming, he wanted to know whether all six acres of the lawn on their property had been mowed, and when certain family members would be arriving.

It was the kind of juggle that might be familiar to Sookie, the telepathic human barmaid who narrates the novels and lives in the fictional small town of Bon Temps, La., amid an ever-expanding cast of vampires, shape-shifters, fairies and witches.

The formula of small-town life regularly disrupted by the supernatural world — and some mind-blowing sex with vampires — has propelled Harris through nine Sookie novels. For her latest three-book contract, of which Dead and Gone is the second, Harris was paid a seven-figure advance.

The books have also spawned True Blood, the HBO adaptation created by Alan Ball, the maestro of Six Feet Under. The first season of the series, which roughly followed Dead Until Dark, concluded last fall as the cable network’s most popular show since The Sopranos and Sex and the City. The new season, based on the second novel in the series, Living Dead in Dallas, begins on June 14.

This heady brew of success has allowed Harris, 57, some luxuries: earlier this year she hired her longtime best friend as her personal assistant. She bought a diamond ring. And this year, because of Julia’s graduation, she could afford the ultimate indulgence: She refused to go on a book tour.

“It was just a huge relief that I finally hit on the right character and the right publisher,” said Harris, who had previously written two mystery series that never quite took off. Or, as she put it more succinctly, with a cackle that evoked a paranormal creature: “I had this real neener-neener-neener moment.”

Born and raised in Tunica, Miss., the daughter of a schoolteacher and a homemaker turned librarian, Harris, an avid reader of mysteries, always wanted to be an author. She published two stand-alone mysteries in the early 1980s, and a few years later began the Aurora Teagarden mysteries, featuring a Southern librarian turned amateur sleuth. Despite promising reviews, sales were modest.

In the mid-1990s she plunged into a more violent and sexually explicit story line about Lily Bard, a cleaning woman who investigates murders. Harris believed she had hit her stride, but sales did not meet her expectations.

So she decided to try something new. She had always wanted to write about vampires. From the outset, she wanted to set the story in the prosaic trailer-park and strip-mall landscape of northern Louisiana, to distinguish it from the gothic opulence of Anne Rice’s New Orleans.

Nominally a murder mystery, Dead Until Dark was filled with inventive details, like the synthetic blood that allows vampires to live openly among humans, and a vampire bar called Fangtasia, where humans who like to have sex with the undead hang out.

Despite her track record, it took two years to find a home for Sookie. Although writers like Laurell K. Hamilton had staked a niche in the paranormal genre, it was not the booming category that Stephenie Meyer has made it today.

Finally, Ace Books, a science fiction and fantasy imprint of Penguin Group USA, bought the manuscript in 2000. “The voice is terrific,” said Ginjer Buchanan, editor in chief of Ace. “And I liked the setting. I think it’s an interesting and different milieu, and she portrays it in a way that’s fresh and understandable, but not stereotypical.”

Driving last week along a tree-lined country road dotted by an occasional horse farm or a row of abandoned chicken coops, Harris said it was how she imagined the road to Sookie’s house. Ideas for characters come from all over the place.

“Every trip to Wal-Mart is an inspiration,” she said. But don’t try to find a model for Merlotte’s, the bar and restaurant where Sookie works. Magnolia, in southern Arkansas near the Louisiana border, is the seat of a dry county.

Harris gave Sookie the power to read the most unpleasant thoughts of others as a way of reflecting on the veneer of courtesy that permeates small-town Southern living.

“I think that must be the worst thing, not to have that buffer zone between how people really think and feel and how they present themselves to you,” Harris said. “That’s one of the reasons I love living here, because people are so polite.” For Sookie, consorting with vampires comes as a relief because she cannot actually read their thoughts.

Harris works most mornings in her office, a cozy room with a lumpy purple loveseat and a shelf of knickknacks sent by fans. Like many a commercial writer, Harris wishes the literary establishment would pay more attention. “I think there is a place for what I do,” she said. “And I think it’s honorable.”

Sookie Stackhouse proves she's not Dead and Gone (Charlaine Harris)

From The Houston Chronicle --

Sookie Stackhouse proves she's not Dead and Gone --

By TARA DOOLEY --

May 15, 2009 --

For Sookie Stackhouse fans, it’s been a long year. Sure, September brought our Southern-fried heroine to the small screen in HBO’s True Blood. But even with the unexpected twists of the show, that plot was a little 2001 for anybody who’s been devouring Charlaine Harris’ book series since its inception.

A year after the last installment of the Southern Vampire Series, book number nine, Dead and Gone, hit bookstores this month. June 14, HBO turns on season two of True Blood with a set of characters that may turn out to be even more of a departure from Harris’s creation.

Luckily, Dead and Gone deposits book readers in familiar territory.

The plot takes up where we left our telepathic barmaid: In a world of supernatural creatures that mingle among the regular Wal-Mart shoppers of Bon Temps, the north Louisiana town where Sookie lives.

The witches are still camped out in Sookie’s house, the fairies remain mysterious, and the hunky vampires can’t seem to keep their fangs off her.

As Dead and Gone opens, werewolves have decided to follow the vampires’ lead and announce their presence to the human world. Alternative lifestyles, it seems, cannot bear to stay underground when there are supernatural reality TV shows to develop.

“Coming out” creates some trouble in Bon Temps, and the regular world seems interested in Sookie’s special talents. All this free-to-be-you-and-me attitude leaves only the fairies to wreak havoc under the radar.

Sookie must uncover the threats, beat back the danger and find love, perhaps in all the wrong places.

Of course, that is why we come back to the series year after year: To root for Sookie. She’s the oddball who lurks in us all.

To the regular world she is chubby, weird and underemployed. In Harris’ fantasy world, Sookie is an irresistible princess. And as Sookie and every modern princess with a head on her shoulders knows, only she can get the job done right, friends and family disappoint as often as they deliver, and sometimes the prince turns out to be a frog.

Or a vampire.

Not 'DEAD' YET (Charlaine Harris)

From Tulsa World --

Not 'DEAD' YET --

May 10, 2009 --

By GINNIE GRAHAM World Staff Writer --

Harris continues to find new fictional life in her paranormal series.

Within the first 60 pages of the latest Sookie Stackhouse release, shape-shifters make their existence known, a person is shot, another crucified, federal investigators show up and the resident telepath/barmaid finds she may have unwittingly married a vampire.

And that's just a warm-up in this ninth addition to the series by Arkansas-based writer Charlaine Harris.

"Dead and Gone" takes a delightful step up from the last installment, with the main character maturing and finding peace and possibly love in her sometimes violent and unfair world.

The author gets back to basics by keeping the story in sleepy Bon Temps, La., and focusing mostly on characters introduced in earlier novels.

As with Harris' previous books, Sookie reads the thoughts of others as she gets wrapped up in solving a mystery while trying to unwrap her tangled life, which has included vampires and were-animals among her suitors.

The series is the basis for HBO's "True Blood," which has taken some liberties in the portrayal of characters and story lines. Harris writes her books to be read in sequence. She does a fine job of including enough background to jog the memory of the Sookie Stackhouse faithful, but to truly understand and appreciate the developments, a reader needs to dive into the past titles.

Harris is a master at taking several paranormal worlds and plunging them into our reality with humor. Sookie hasn't lost her wit, as when she ponders whether fairy parents told their fairy children human stories at bedtime.

The dialogue is sharp and realistic, and action is swift, especially considering most of "Dead and Gone" takes place in one day.

The outing of the shape-shifters adds a fun dimension full of possibilities. As with "The Great Revelation" of vampires years earlier, Harris uses this as a mechanism for examining prejudices and the limits of societal acceptance.

Harris gives more insight into the character of vampire sheriff Eric and addresses Sookie's questionable family lineage and details of her parents' deaths.

Sookie says goodbye to some she has grown to love and care about, closing a chapter on what could have become an outlandish plot line. The sadness and even trauma she experiences is somewhat offset by the calm she finds within herself and the loyalty of a sweetly rekindled old flame and longtime friends.

Telepathic waitress Sookie Stackhouse is Back in 'Dead and Gone' (Charlaine Harris)

From The Canadian Press --

Telepathic waitress Sookie Stackhouse is Back in 'Dead and Gone' --

Sookie Stackhouse has returned for another bloody adventure. "Dead and Gone" is the ninth novel about the telepathic waitress from fictional Bon Temps, La., and her dealings with the supernatural world of vampires, wereanimals (they're not just wolves), shape shifters, witches, demons and fairies.

In the latest tale, wereanimals and shape shifters, known as the "two-natured," have joined vampires in "coming out" to the human race. It starts with a woman turning into werewolf on the evening news.

The subsequent backlash could have made a good story line but author Charlaine Harris doesn't go there. The only consequence is told in a third-person account by Sookie's boss, Sam Merlotte, whose mother, also a shape shifter, is shot by her husband. Lesson learned: If you're planning to tell your spouse that you're a little different, hide the weapons first.

Instead, Harris focuses on the fairy world and the struggles of Sookie's great-grandfather, Niall Brigant, within his fairy kingdom. He's a powerful prince who shows up occasionally and mostly puts Sookie at risk. A war is brewing between Niall and his nephew, and Sookie becomes a target. But Harris hides this mysterious world from the reader, which makes for an even more convoluted narrative.

Some colourful characters from previous Harris vampire books get scant mention in "Dead and Gone," leaving you to wonder, "Where did they go?" An unexpected visit from Sookie's former weretiger lover amounts to only a few words. Another former lover happens along and a fight ensues. Then, both men "up and went." What was the point?

The constant theme in these Southern vampire novels is Sookie's aptitude for self-preservation. Armed with water pistols filled with lemon juice, and a gardening tool, she manages to battle her more powerful fairy enemies. But she does not escape unharmed. After drinking vampire blood, which is highly restorative, she recovers to fight another day.

For those who haven't read the previous Sookie Stackhouse novels, "Dead and Gone" is not the place to start. Your best bet would be to pick up, "Dead Until Dark," the first novel in the series and the basis of HBO's surprise hit series, "True Blood," produced by "Six Feet Under," creator Alan Ball.

While Ball dedicates more time to the development of secondary characters, Harris keeps her books focused on Sookie's perspective. The problem, though, is that you don't get to know the other characters well enough to care about them.