Charlaine Harris: 'I'm just a gruesome person'

The author behind infectious TV series True Blood has an unpleasant past, writes Catharine Munro.

Come out of the coffin ... Charlaine Harris introduces taboo topics to the mainstream.

Draining every drop of her deep Southern cordiality, Charlaine Harris holds out on explaining exactly why her latest heroine is involved in an incestuous relationship.

The author behind the popular HBO series True Blood isn't into psychoanalysing her sexy murder mysteries, even though their kinky characters cry out for it.

But otherwise thoughtful and conventional people who have found themselves glued to the television adaptation of Harris's work might need a session or two on the couch to explain why they can't get enough of a story based on sex with vampires. Vampires are, after all, creatures who are dead.

Necrophilia and incest are not themes you would usually associate with a 58-year-old churchgoing mother of three who has lived for 20 years in the Bible-belt state of Arkansas. "I'm just a gruesome person," she says, matter-of-factly.

But there's no avoiding the contradiction between the writer and her subject matter. Speaking from her home in Magnolia, Arkansas, she is unnervingly relaxed.

From Sydney Herald

http://www.smh.com.au/news/entertainment/books/im-just-a-gruesome-person/2010/01/14/1263058321465.html