Out for True Blood?

We didn't write this post it was written by JD and UKN at Libranigans. What we are guilty of is also being very disappointed at many of the questions ( make that the sometimes self serving complaints or comments ) that took up so much of Charlaine's precious time ...

If you think they shouldn't have this opinion or express it you can let them know here :http://libranigans.livejournal.com/ ( I stand by reposting it)

Also watch the video of the event and KNOW that was all the time she had for questions and you judge for yourself ... Thank you Libranigans for in a very funny way expressing our disappointment too.. Video of these questions being asked is HERE- you don't have to have been there to judge -see for yourself, then think what questions you would have liked to hear Charlaine asked....just sayin'

~~~~
JD, myself, and several other coworkers attended a book signing and talk event earlier this month given by Charlaine Harris. I was extremely impressed with her polite and witty smackdowns of douchebag questions. Some examples:

Douchebag 1: I'm from Port Neches. In your book you mention Beaumont. How did you know about Beaumont?

Ms. Harris: I own an atlas.

Douchebag 2: I have a doctoral degree in Greek mythology. Why did you select Maenads over Bacchae? What was your specific reason for that choice?

Ms. Harris: Oh, well have you read _____? (Douchette 2 blinks quietly) Ms. Harris then goes into the various aspects of the Maenads presented in said book as to why she chose them for her book. Douche remained silent.

Virtualdouchebag: Hi! I'm Kat from the boards! (Kat proceeds to launch into a totally irrelevant and obscure topic that silences the entire room)

Ms. Harris: Ah, so YOU'RE Kat. (a strong undertone of Kat is a virtual stalker pest who keeps bothering her)

La Douchette de Triste: In book X, she was a were-lynx. In the very next book, she was a were-fox. How do explain the difference--was it a mistake, or bad editing? Or did YOU make a mistake?

Ms. Harris: Well, yeah...you caught me. It was a complete error on my part. You're the first person to ever notice...aside from the previous 3,000 people who mentioned it.


In addition to the hilarity of lovely retorts, we had front row seats to this view for about 20 minutes:



JD pointed out the scenery, and I had to hold my nose to try and keep all the laughing inside. A snort did escape, and I tried to play it off as a sniffle.

• http://libranigans.livejournal.com/42645.html

Vampire Rights Amendment

Two more Sookie books from France

You know you've watched too much True Blood when...

You Google obsessively to try to find recipes for tipsy cake and hoe-cakes (but NOT for tuna cheese casserole) I have all those recipes here

You see someone with a long chain around their neck and you think "vampire drainer."

You read all seven Southern Vampire Mystery books in one weekend,

You start using words and phrases like "untoward" and "lick your mind" in everyday speech.

You stay up till 5 in the morning rewatching the whole season, just cause it seemed right.

Paging Dr. Ludwig : Season 2- Episode 3 "Scratch my Back"

So it looks like we have the Maenad attack in Episode 3 of Season 2 of True Blood


Eric rushes Siookie to Fangtasi and the healing in the book , takes place on the new red couch in Eric's office where Sookie'e life is saved by Dr Ludwig and the 4 vamps ( Eric, Bill, Pam and Chow) The vamps each drain Sookie of her tainted, poisoned blood from the Maenad attack. She is healed by the draining in combination with Dr Ludwig's special healing licking and she is given a fresh transfusion of human blood...

Sookie really barely survives this attack ...

The scene in the book:

Pam came in then, with the doctor. If I had hoped Eric meant a regular doctor, like a stethoscope and tongue depressor kind of person, I was once again doomed to disappointment.
This doctor was a dwarf, who hardly had to bend over to look me in the eyes. Bill hovered, vibrating with tension, while the small woman examined my wounds. She was wearing a pair of white pants and a tunic, just like doctors at the hospital; well, just like doctors used to, before they started wearing that green color, or blue, or whatever crazy print came their way. Her face was full of her nose, and her skin was olive. Her hair was golden brown and coarse, incredibly thick and wavy. She wore it clipped fairly short. She put me in mind of a hobbit. Maybe she was a hobbit. My understanding of reality had taken several raps to the head in the past few months.
"What kind of doctor are you?" I asked, though it took some time for me to collect myself enough.
"The healing kind," she said in a surprisingly deep voice. "You have been poisoned."
"So that's why I keeping thinking I'm gonna die," I muttered.
"You will, quite soon," she said......

"She is the healer," Eric said, in a rebuking kind of way. "You must accept her treatment."
"Oh, all right," I said, not even caring how sullen I sounded. "By the way, I haven't heard an 'I'm sorry' from you yet." My sense of grievance had overwhelmed my sense of self-preservation.
"I am sorry that the maenad picked on you."....

"It's on the way," she said. "This is bad."
"Start," Bill said urgently. "She's changing color."
The dwarf leaped from the couch and bent to examine my eyes.
She shook her head. "Yes, if there's to be any hope," she said, but she sounded very far away to me. She had a syringe

Later in the scene and the best line of the scene

"What happened?"
Pam relaced her fingers around her knee. "We did as Dr. Ludwig said. Bill, Eric, Chow, and I all took a turn, and when you were almost dry we began the transfusion."
..Also, I had no shirt on. Or anything else. Above the waist. Below, my jeans were still intact, though remarkably nasty.
"Your shirt was so ragged we had to tear it off," Pam said, smiling openly.
"We took turns holding you on our laps. You were much admired. Bill was furious."

This Blood’s For You!

A very cool TB related post by admin over at Charming Cocktails

This Blood’s For You!
True Blood’s marketing campaign spotlighted a fictional drink in a bottle called TruBlood. Available in four blood types and followed by several taglines; A Synthetic Blood Nourishment Beverage, This Blood’s For You, What’s Your Type?, and All Flavor No Bite.

Some beverage vending machines across the US were also fitted with cards indication that they were “sold out” of TruBlood. Their website sells mugs, pints, and more.

Vampire fascination has surfaced up and down through time. Today we have the TV show True Blood and the recent film, Twilight. I searched around for some vampire cocktails and found lots of creative ones with garlic infused gin, kisses on the glass, and even a set of vampire teeth as a garnish. If you’d like to learn how to make a pitcher of Bloody Mary mix from scratch then you should check out Jeffrey Morgenthaler’s recipe here.

You will need these ingredients
1 46-oz can tomato juice
1 garlic clove, minced
½ small avocado
¼ cup Worcestershire sauce
1½ oz lemon juice
1½ tbsp steak sauce
2 tsp cracked pepper
1½ tsp celery salt
1½ tsp hot sauce
1 tsp horseradish

Read it all at http://blog.misscharming.com/?p=136

You don't need to buy the Sookie books or the anthologies -just get them from your library

I was glad Amy brought up ILL in her review of Dead until Dark.

Did you not know what that was ? ILL = Inter Library Loan.

You can ask your library to get you most anything held at any other library in the United States - No, I am not kidding. There is a cooperative agreement between most lending libraries public and private in this country to share materials.

Now you probably won't need to utilize ILL to get a copy of one of the Sookie books but you might need to use it to get one of the more obscure anthologies to read one of the short stories.

You do not need to buy the books your public library has probably bought extra Charlaine Harris book copies and you can probably put the book on reserve ( maybe even on online) and you will be notified when its ready for you to pick it up and when you pick it up you can put the next book(s) on request.

Do you not know where you closest library is? you can find it here by your zip code

http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/libraries/librarysearch/

You can find out where books are located in what libraries through out your state or even the whole world by using WoldCat

This link allows you to search the catalog of 10,000 libraries all over the workd

http://www.worldcat.org/

There also may be other great things happening at you library ; they might be doing a display on vampires or vampire literature, they might have a book group that you can join and request that they read a Sookie mystery or maybe the have a Bulletin Board where you could post a note asking if anyone else would be interested in starting a Sookie book club ...

Either way ..dust off you library card and go check out your local library branch today-you will be pleasantly suprised.

Review of : Dead Until Dark

Posted by Amy at Outside A Dog

I felt like some sort of bandwagon-jumper or groupie or something when I requested it from the library, but Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris was pretty good. I figured it would be, though, after my boss told me he polished off the first six books over a three-day weekend. So after waiting at least a couple of months for a copy to make its way to me via interlibrary loan, I did the same thing as my boss: I polished it off.

The main character, Sookie Stackhouse, works as a waitress in a bar in northern Louisiana. Her life gets upended when she meets and falls for Bill, who happens to be a vampire. See, in Sookie's Louisiana, vampires have attained legal citizen status - they claim to be the victims of a virus that makes them pale and allergic to silver, garlic, and sunlight. The thing is, though, that young women have been getting killed and Bill and a couple of other vampires, along with Sookie's brother, Jason, are considered suspects.

So Sookie does her best to try and clear both her brother and Bill of suspicion, using - wait for it - her telepathic abilities. Everything is very nicely done, though, and you don't need to suspend much more belief than you normally would while reading any other vampire-type story.
As I mentioned, I really enjoyed this book - Charlaine Harris has found just the right balance of humor, romance and mystery, all with that paranormal-type twist. It's not as heavy and dark as Anne Rice can be, and it's certainly not as fluffy as Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series. Parts of Sookie and Bill's courtship are a little adult, but there's nothing explicit. Also? I love that Sookie is such a strong female character. I can't say too much without giving away a couple of the plot twists, but let's just say she kicks ass. I'm hoping the second book in this Southern Vampire series continues in the same vein, because I've requested that one via ILL, too.

(It should be noted that I've never seen True Blood, the cable television show based on this series, so I can't comment on any similarities or
differences.)

So while I'm waiting for Living Dead in Dallas to show up at my library, I think I'll go back to Mrs. Dalloway, Les Liasons Dangereuses, and Don Quixote. provided I don't get distracted by something else in the meantime.

read more http://www.outsideadog.com/

True Blood - Episode 2.03 - Scratch My Back - Casting Call

Here is a new casting call we've just recieved.

[DR. LUDWIG]
A female LITTLE PERSON, she is a no-nonsense, take-charge medical healer who tends to a severely wounded Sookie (Anna Paquin). Clearly disdainful of Eric (Alexander Skarsgard), Dr. Ludwig is "no fan of the fang," but tolerates vampires as their blood is of great value to her profession.sptv050769..4 speeches & 9 lines, 3 scenes (8)

Source: SpoilerTV

50,000th visitor to Loving True Blood in Dallas Blog

This morning we experienced a little momentous moment , we logged our 50,000th hit ( or visit ) to the blog and I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who comes to it , comments, compliments , contacts and yes, even those that correct for helping me make this a place where 50,000 want to visit.

Thanks, "Dallas"


BlogCounter.com statistics:
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http://lovingtruebloodindallas.blogspot.com/
Number of hits : 50000
** note we only put the blog counter on in later November so this is just in the last two months.

The gift that keeps on giving ..? ( 3)

Who gave this gift to whom and when ?

Actor Ryan Kwanten Stars In HBO's 'True Blood'

Nice interview with video from last fall....

Model turned actor Ryan Kwanten plays Jason Stackhouse in HBO's new series True Blood, which airs Sundays at 9pm.

Jason is a construction worker during the day, but at night he's a notorious ladies man. Of the show, HBO states: "Thanks to a Japanese scientist's invention of synthetic blood, vampires have progressed from legendary monsters to fellow citizens overnight. And while humans have been safely removed from the menu, many remain apprehensive about these creatures "coming out of the coffin." Religious leaders and government officials around the world have chosen their sides, but in the small Louisiana town of Bon Temps, the jury is still out."

An Australian-born actor, Kwanten's other acting credits include his role as Jay Robertson in TV's Summerland and ESPN's The Junction Boys. You can catch him in the upcoming film Don't Fade Away, where he stars alongside Mischa Barton (The O.C.), Beau Bridges (My Name Is Earl) and rapper Ja Rule.

True Blood Music Video of the Day

Step by Step by Eddie Rabbitt

True Blood Goes to the Movies : Alex in Zoolander

Alex Skarsgard stars in this film ...

Zoolander is a 2001 comedy film directed by Ben Stiller. The film is based on a pair of short films directed by Russell Bates and written by Drake Sather and Stiller for the VH1 Fashion Awards television specials in 1996 and 1997. The short films and the movie feature Derek Zoolander, a dimwitted male model. The title role is played by Ben Stiller, and in the feature film (which Stiller directed), Zoolander's agent, Maury Ballstein, is played by Stiller's father Jerry Stiller.

Alex as Meekus

Searching for the Perfect Vampire Anthem

I was also at this Charlaine Harris event and I'm sorry I didn't get to meet "Jeff with one fin" but i did enjoy his post

Recently, my wife and I made our way down to the Houston Public Library to hear a talk with Charlaine Harris, author of the Sookie Stackhouse novels. Now, I am admittedly a bad Goth in that I am as sick of modern vampire fiction as I am of modern vampires. I prefer my nosferatu as blood-bloated corpses mouth-hugging and dry-humping virgins, not as angsty Tolkien elves trying to make friends by looking sad in the corner.

Still, I thoroughly enjoyed Harris' Dead Until Dark and True Blood, the HBO series loosely based upon her books and starring the occasionally naked Anna Paquin. (The amazing music selection by creator Alan Ball is another plus, to be discussed at another time.) The show lacks one aspect of the books, thus far, that I had to ask Harris about: Where, oh where, is her cat-eating vampified version of the King of Rock and Roll, referred to in the novel only as Bubba?

With Elvis Aron Presley turning 72 this month, wherever he really is, I just felt that his noble, if somewhat brain-damaged, fictional counterpart deserved a little advocacy. Well, said Harris point blank, "I can't comment on Bubba showing up on the show," which tells my spider-sense that an appearance may be in the works. Even better, when I followed up the question by asking who she would choose to play Elvis, she answered, without hesitation, "Bruce Campbell, of course."

All I can say is if I can see Bruce Campbell play Vampire Elvis - Bubba Ho-Tep, holla! - I will blow my cable box. Which transitions, however awkwardly, into the subject of vampire music and what is the best vampire anthem?

Skipping the painfully obvious choices, like Concrete Blonde's "Bloodletting" and Bauhaus's "Bela Lugosi's Dead," we consider Sting's ode to Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles, "Moon Over Bourbon Street." Or how about a great vampire movie theme song like "Cry Little Sister" from The Lost Boys, or perhaps Rasputina's "Transylvanian Concubine" from the second season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer?

Read on

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/rocks/2009/01/gothtopia_searching_for_the_pe.php

Things I've learned while watching True Blood (2)

That Hoyt doesn't mind going to baby showers and playing pass the orange

That Lafayette looks much better with his funky scarves on his head.

That Big Pattie's Pie house is down 549 a ways south of Bunkie ...

Taking 'V is better than LSD.

Getting over the horrible murder of your Grandmother only takes one day, and sex with a Vampire really helps too.

Being attacked in a bar is no reason to call the police.

Walking all over a murder scene is A-OK.

All kinds of dead

Sonya at The Work(s) in Progress writes

Like any red-blooded girl, I like me some vampires, so of course I had to check out the Southern Vampire mystery series by Charlaine Harris.

The Southern Vampire novels are now an HBO show called True Blood, starring Anna Paquin (Rogue!) as leading lady Sookie Stackhouse. HBO being out of reach of my budget, I opted to try out the books instead. The series begins with Dead Until Dark, and so far I’ve also read Living Dead in Dallas, Club Dead, and Dead to the World. Sookie is a waitress in a small town Louisiana bar, and she can read minds, which isn’t as much fun as it might seem. She’s either bombarded with random stray thoughts from everyone around her, or exhausting herself to shield her mind from the onslaught. When a handsome newcomer to Bon Temps fills her head with blessed silence instead of chatter, it’s no wonder she’s attracted to him. Why, you ask, can she not read Bill Compton’s mind? Because Bill’s a vampire, of course. And in the world Harris has created, vampires are out of the coffin (there’s a lot of funny to be found here and that line is one of my favorites.)

Charlaine Harris’s vampires are not like your standard vampires: no endless brooding, no Hot Topic wardrobe, no epic backgrounds and exotic names. Bill lived in Bon Temps when he was human, in the Civil War era, and wanted to come home and live a normal life, fix up the old house some long gone relative built. Pam is a fan of the twin-set look, and Eric…okay, Eric’s pretty hawt. The Central Casting agent in my head had him looking like Brad Pitt. There are laws governing vampire and human interaction. For instance, vampires and humans can’t intermarry, which I thought was a clever way to make a point without using a ball bat. There’s also a secret vampire underworld, with regions of the United States divided into kingdoms. And there are other supernatural creatures as well, like werewolves and other shapeshifters. Sookie’s initial relationship with Bill brings her into contact with this strange world and her paranormal ability makes her useful to Eric, who is both a businessman (he owns a bar called Fangtasia in Shreveport) and a High Sheriff in the vampire hierarchy.

Harris has done a great job creating a supernatural world that is entertaining and funny, while still maintaining a deep vein of otherness. What I found even more remarkable, though, is her depiction of small town Southern life. She nails it, spot on. Time after time I found myself shaking my head, thinking I know someone just like that, I know a place like that, I know people that talk like that. Even today the rural South has more than its share of little communities like Hotshot. And Sookie’s grandmother inviting Bill to speak at a meeting of the Descendents of the Glorious Dead, a Civil War-centric genealogy group…that was just priceless. You might have to be Southern to truly appreciate that one, but if you are, trust me, you’ll love it.

Harris fills her rural canvas with so many rich little details, I wish the books were longer. The several that I’ve read are all about the same length so I’m guessing her contract requires a certain word count – they need to let her up her word count and stretch that canvas a little, see what she can do. There were several times when I felt that a scene worth lingering over a little was a bit rushed. That’s really my only complaint, that and Bill could be a real jerk at times. In the first couple of books, Sookie kept getting the hell beat out of her, and that did make me uncomfortable. She may be able to read minds but she does not have super-strength. Sookie herself decided her New Year’s resolution would be to not get beat up again, and in the one’s I’ve read so far she’s able to keep that resolution. I’m all for tough female characters but who wants to read about a character who doesn’t have the sense to know when enough is enough? Sookie does have good sense, and she’s likeable, too.

Read on http://sonyaclark.blogspot.com/2009/01/all-kinds-of-dead.html