Excerpts from last nights chat with Charlaine Harris on writerspace

Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Charlaine Harris was on the writerspace.com chatroom to discuss her books, Book 9 of her Sookie Stackhouse series, DEAD AND GONE and Book 7 of her Aurora Teagarden Mystery series, LAST SCENE ALIVE.

Other writers who participated in the chatroom included: J.M.C. Blair: THE LANCELOT MURDERS; C. J. Box: BLOOD TRAIL; Toni L. P. Kelner: CURSE OF THE KISSING COUSINS; Joyce and Jim Lavene: A CORPSE FOR YEW; Mary Jane Maffini: DEATH LOVES A MESSY DESK; Stuart Woods: HOT MAHOGANY; Tod Goldberg: BURN NOTICE: THE END GAME; Sally Goldenbaum: PATTERN IN THE SAND; Leann Sweeney: THE CAT, THE QUILT AND THE CORPSE; and Elaine Viets: KILLER CUTS and CLUBBED TO DEATH

Thanks Alainanoel!

EricsLover: Charlaine, have you decided whos gonna end up with Sookie?
Charlaine Harris: Yes, I have.

alainanoel: Charlaine, how do you plan your series…or do you? Do you just plan on writing a certain amount of books or ?
Charlaine Harris: I’m afraid planning is my weak point. Toni and Leann are much more solid than I am in this direction. I just keep writing until I get bored.

natasha: Hi Ms Harris, Just wanted to say that I really love the Sookie Stackhouse series I am totally addicted to it and I wanted to know if you have an idea of how many more books will there be in the series?
Charlaine Harris: Natasha, I’m thinking at least three, after the one I’m writing.

alainanoel: This is for all the authors..who are you favorite characters that you’ve written?
Charlaine Harris: Lily Bard, for me. But she was very hard to write. There are things that interest me about all my characters, though.

badbarb: This is for everyone, when you kill someone off in a book do you find it therapeutic?
Charlaine Harris: Absolutely. It’s a great day, when I kill someone.

alainanoel: I don’t like that Victor Madden Charlaine. I hope he’s on the hit list someday!
Charlaine Harris: Victor is a very twisty character, alaina. I was just writing about him today.

EricsLover: when can we expect the next Sookie book? im sory its just that im hook on it!
Charlaine Harris: Well . . .it came out today, Ericslover. You knew that, right? So the next one will come out a year from now.

mary f: You’ve all not regretted killing a character off then?
Charlaine Harris: I only regret it when readers get all bent out of shape about it. Sorry!

alainanoel: Charlaine..where did you get Sookie’s name from? Is it a made up name or did you know someone with that name before?
Charlaine Harris: Oh, I liked Sookie’s gran. But she had to die. Sookie is an old southern nickname, alaina. My grandmother’s best friend was called Sookie.
ToniLPKelner: I like the way Bill on the show says, “Sookie.”
Charlaine Harris: Truly, I had no idea it was so unusual. Yeah, he does give it that extra something, doesn’t he? I’m afraid I told Stephen Moyer how attractive I found that line.

loleaf: Charlaine I love the book series and am on Chapter 7 of Dead and Gone, Do you have any say about how the hbo series plays out?
Charlaine Harris: No. Alan does the series: I do the books. That’s our arrangement! So far, so good. Actually, we don’t have any idea how long the series will last on HBO.

badbarb: This is for all the authors what do you have coming out next?
Charlaine Harris: I have a short story in Toni and mine’s anthology, a short story in the Mystery Writers of America anthology, and the next Harper Connelly will be out in early November. Oh, and a novella in MUST LOVE HELLHOUNDS.

ToniLPKelner: Charlaine, will A TOUCH OF DEAD include the stories from our anthologies?
Charlaine Harris: Why, yes, Toni, in fact it will include those stories. All the stories about Sookie. I’ve written some that feature a vampire named Dahlia Lynley-Chivers, and those will NOT be in A TOUCH OF DEAD. Which is a pity . . .I really like those.