Interview with Charlaine Harris

Despite her peaceful country lifestyle in rural Arkansas and her genteel Southern manners, Charlaine Harris has a knack for danger. Trouble follows the telepathic heroine of her rabidly popular Sookie Stackhouse series. The plucky barmaid gets caught in a love triangle between two vampires, works for a shape-shifter, flirts with a werewolf, and lives with a witch. Harris's series has even been adapted into a hit HBO show, True Blood. In her newest adventure, Dead in the Family, an unknown threat lurks in the woods surrounding Sookie's house. Harris discusses what's next for her brave telepath and reveals what kind of "supe" she would be.

Goodreads: Your new book, Dead in the Family, has an overarching theme of family, which fits right in with the Southern values that permeate your writing. However, characters from broken homes and estranged families are often featured in the Sookie Stackhouse saga as well as your Harper Connelly and Lily Bard series. Why is this a common thread in your books?

Charlaine Harris: Hard for me to figure out, too, since I came from a stable and loving home myself. I think broken and dysfunctional families lend themselves to more drama, and that's the name of the game in my world. Also, my protagonists are usually facing the world by themselves, and that's something I admire.

GR: Sookie's adventures have always included an element of danger, so much so that her New Year's resolution was not to get beat up. However, in your last book, Dead and Gone, Sookie comes closer to death than ever before. How will this near brush with death affect her psychological health, and will she be less inclined to stay involved with the supernatural community?

CH: Of course this will affect her inner life profoundly. Sookie has to admit that if she's pinned between survival and her Christian beliefs, survival will win. By now Sookie knows that she's inextricably linked to the supernaturals.

GR: Telepathy alienates Sookie from other humans. Why did you choose this special power for her when creating her character?

CH: I considered lots of other disabilities. But telepathy allowed her to remain physically and mentally fit, even mentally tough, though it prevented her from dating. I wanted her to experience love for the first time at a later age than most women come to it.

GR: Your books often show that supernatural ability can be more of a curse than a blessing, but supernatural powers are still undeniably irresistible. If you had to become a supe, what would you choose? A telepath, a vampire, a fairy, some kind of shape-shifter or were, a witch, or something else?

CH: I wouldn't choose to be any kind of supe. If I had to pick, I guess I'd be a witch; at least then I'd remain in my human form.

GR: How do you balance conventional wisdom for the "rules" that govern fantasy creatures (e.g. vampires must avoid the sun or werewolves must turn at the full moon) with your own imagination and ideas for the characters?

CH: The freedom of picking and choosing the rules is that you can use the ones that make your world work. However, you have to think long and hard about your world construction; sometimes, I think, writers make choices simply because they don't seem to want to work around an inconvenience.

GR: With a series of now ten books spanning thousands of pages, it must be challenging to map everything out in advance. Are there any plot points from earlier books that are now causing trouble with your current story goals? (Spoiler Alert! Don't read her answer if you haven't read book 9.)

CH: It would be hard to map out everything in advance, if I ever did so. I just charge ahead. Yes, there are plot decisions I made that I deeply regret. The blood bond! Oh, gosh, I wish I'd never done that. And I turned out to be sorry I'd killed Claudine, though I had several reasons to knock her off, which you'll see in Dead in the Family.

GR: Your home in southern Arkansas is notably conservative. Since the premiere of HBO's True Blood, how have your friends and neighbors reacted to the often titillating and graphic adaptation of your books? What about the TV show has surprised you the most?

CH: They're so great about it. I was really worried after I saw the screener of the first episode! They're just happy I've come so far in my career. If they hate it, they're saying it behind my back so I won't get upset, which is the Southern way. What's surprised me the most? The visual richness of the show. The details of Sookie's house, Merlotte's, Lafayette's house...just wonderful!

GR: Goodreads member Kristin asks, "Where in the world did you get the name Sookie?"

CH: It's an old Southern nickname. My grandmother's best friend was called Sookie.

GR: Cleverly named Goodreads member "new_user" asks, "What's it like writing in the genre now versus when you first started?"

CH: Well, it's much more crowded, for one thing. I'm not a pioneer anymore, just one of a thundering herd. But it's nice to have so many options about reading material!

GR: Goodreads member Angie asks, "I've always wondered if [Charlaine] knows the way the Sookie Stackhouse series will end or if she doesn't have things planned that far out. When a series runs as long as hers has, [does] she keep all her options open or work toward a set conclusion?"

CH: I do know the end. It's one thing I've known for a long, long time.

GR: What authors, books, or ideas have influenced you?

CH: So many it's hard to name them all. Just to touch on a few: Shirley Jackson, Anne Rice, Underworld, Jane Austen, Blade, Dracula, Laurell K. Hamilton, Barbara Hambly, Barbara Paul...it goes on and on.

GR: Describe a typical day spent writing and any unusual writing habits.

CH: I don't have a typical day anymore. It used to go like this: work from 8 to 11:30, lunch break, house and kids in the afternoon. Then it went to: work from 8 to 11:30, lunch break, back to work in the afternoon. Now it's: interviews, queries, and small tasks first thing in the morning, try to work an hour or two, break for lunch, back to taking care of office business in the afternoon, try to cram in some more work.

GR: What are you reading now? Do you have any favorite books or authors?

CH: Right now I'm reading Wedlock by Wendy Moore, a nonfiction book about the terrible marriage of Mary Eleanor Bowes, Countess of Strathmore. I have many favorite books and authors. I love Jane Austen, and I read Lee Child, Barry Eisler, Charlie Huston, Dana Stabenow [Goodreads Author], Kim Harrison, Kelley Armstrong [Goodreads Author], and Jim Butcher.

GR: What are you working on now, and what will come after the Sookie series reaches its conclusion?

CH: I'm working on Sookie 11 now. I don't know what I'll work on when the series reaches its conclusion. But it'll be fun.