Thursday, April 16, 2009

Charlaine Harris talks second season of True Blood

Meet: Charlaine Harris
April 13, 2009 1:35 PM
Zoie Clift
travelarkansas@gmail.com

There are so many talented artists here in the state I wanted to try to showcase a few via this blog. I’ll try to highlight at least two a month so we’ll see how it goes. Keep me posted if you have any suggestions of artists you’d like to see interviewed. Our first visit takes us to Magnolia, home to New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris. Harris created The Southern Vampire Mysteries series, which revolves around Sookie Stackhouse, a barmaid living in Louisiana who can read people's minds. The series is set in a world where vampires can live out in the open, thanks to the development of synthetic blood. Alan Ball, of Six Feet Under fame, created an HBO series based on the novels called True Blood starring Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer. The second season premiers this summer. Along with the vampire series, Harris is the author of the Aurora Teagarden series, the Lily Bard Shakespeare series (set in rural Arkansas), and the Harper Connelly series. Here are a few quick questions with the Arkansas writer.

How would you describe Magnolia to someone who has never been there before?

CH: Magnolia is a very friendly town with a good four-year college and a new hospital. The people are extremely polite and helpful. It’s a great place to raise children.

W hat are some of your favorite spots to visit in Arkansas?

CH: I like Little Rock because it has shopping plus a pleasant, rolling terrain. Hot Springs looks different from the rest of the state, and has a colorful history. I grew up in the Delta, over on the Mississippi side, and I have a deep attachment to perfectly flat and fertile!

How would you describe your writing style? In your opinion, what do you think is one of the biggest misconceptions about writers?

CH: My writing style. Do I have one? I guess I do. Hmmm. I write very southern, very colloquially, and lately I’ve been writing humorously. The biggest misconceptions about writers? I’ve been one for so long that I can’t remember how it felt when I was on the outside. I think when I was a teenager I believed that all writers drank a lot and were extremely rude. Thankfully, I know now that that’s not true at all.

You broke genre boundaries with your current Sookie Stackhouse series. W hat initiated the idea to write about the realm of Southern vampires?

CH: I was looking for a way to shake up my career. I was stuck in the midlist, writing conventional mysteries. I love my mystery roots, but I felt like having a little fun.

Read on

http://www.arkansas.com/blog/entry/138.aspx

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