.jpg)
Posts
Yes, Charlaine Harris is a New York Times best-selling author. Yes, she is quickly becoming a household name in conversations from quilting circles to high school hallways both through her writing and the advent of HBO’s “True Blood” based on her Sookie Stackhouse novels. Yes, it “only” took her a quarter century to attain this level of popularity. And, yes, she is talented — very, very talented.
But did you know, besides her husband, children, dogs and one duck, the Mississippi Delta native now living in Arkansas is passionate about improving the lives of people at home and around the world?
Harris is an advocate for Doctors Without Borders, Habitat for Humanity, the ASPCA and the Crime Lab Project. The Crime Lab Project promotes bringing crime labs into the modern age. "CSI" is TV, folks — fiction.
Q. “Dead Until Dark,” the first in the Sookie Stackhouse series, broke traditional genre boundaries and started an avalanche of new authors for enthralled readers. But all writers share a love of reading. What books or stories first captured your interest and inspired you to write?
A. “Dead Reckoning” will be on the shelves in May, but “The Sookie Stackhouse Companion” won’t be available until Aug. 30. It wasn’t shaping up as quickly as we wanted, and I had some family things to deal with, so it got moved back. “Home Improvement: Undead Edition,” the latest anthology edited by Toni L.P. Kelner and myself, will be out Aug. 2. I’ll have a story in “Down These Strange Streets” (edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois) in October. That’s my publishing year.
I loved Poe when I was very young, and I read broadly, anything I could get my hands on. I loved “Jane Eyre,” still do. I’m a great Jane Austen fan. But I also read lots of mysteries and lots of science fiction, particularly Ray Bradbury and H.P. Lovecraft. I was born wanting to write, I think.
Friday, March 4, 2011
The Readers' Writers: Interview with best-selling author Charlaine Harris
'True Blood' poster for PaleyFest: Pretty bloody cool.
Admittedly, this poster would be way cooler with a naked vampire on it, but I understand the concept of decency standards. So keeping those old things in mind, this poster promoting the True Blood‘s panel at PaleyFest is pretty awesome. Truth be told, it took me several glances to notice the vampire profile in the blood. Then, suddenly, it blew my mind and made me wonder if that’s supposed to be Eric or Bill. (See a larger version here.)
read on
Thursday, March 3, 2011
True Blood: Season Three Pre- Order
Update: HBO has finally announced that True Blood: Season Three will make its Blu-ray Disc and DVD debut on May 31, a couple weeks ahead of when season four is expected to premiere on-air. I also have the True Blood: Season Three Blu-ray cover art below to check out which boasts an enhanced (re: picture-in-picture) viewing mode for each of the 12 episodes that span 5 discs.
read on
The Cast of 'True Blood' at PaleyFest 2011
So you're a fan of True Blood, the HBO drama about vampires, werewolves and other supernatural oddities, but can't want until June for juicy tidbits on the new season. Lucky for you the Paley Center for the Media will host the entire cast, as well as show creator Alan Ball, as part of PaleyFest 2011. Each season the show seems to one-up itself with its interesting additions of less than humanly characters. Last year there were werewolves and this year fans can expect witches to play a major role. Who knows, now that Charlie Sheen's out of work, maybe we can expect to see him in season five. All he'd have to do is play himself.
Just The Facts
What: Cast of True Blood, and show creator Alan Ball
Where: Saban Theatre; 8440 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, CA 90211
When: Saturday, March 5th at 7pm
Contact: For more information visit www.paleycenter.org/paleyfest2011-trueblood, or call 323-655-0111
HBO Inside True Blood :The Concept Meeting
I just don't get this blog... I sure hope it gets better
by Gianna Sobol
THE MEETING: The Concept Meeting
WHERE IT TAKES PLACE: True Blood conference room
WHO ATTENDS: Alan Ball, Gregg Fienberg, the writer and director of each episode, and all department heads (costume designer, stunt coordinator, extras casting, etc)
WHAT IT’S ABOUT (according to 1st Assistant Director Sunday Stevens): "The concept meeting, led by the 1st Assistant Director, is the first meeting that brings all the department heads together. We go through the script to discuss the different elements in each scene that have to be addressed. For example, if we have an action scene with a panther, we have to discuss stunts, animal wrangling, make-up effects and visual effects to figure out how to make the sequence work on the day we shoot it. This is a chance for each department head to figure out who should be doing what and how they can go about doing that. It is essentially the beginning of prep for the department heads."
http://www.inside-true-blood-blog.com/
Lauren Bowles Interview-Hall Pass and True Blood
Lauren Bowles reunites with the filmmaking Farrelly Brothers for the R-rated comedy Hall Pass, and at the movie's world premiere Bowles talked about the brothers and about another project she's working on: the fourth season of True Blood.
While Bowles couldn't reveal anything about what's going on the set, she did talk about her True Blood co-stars. "My answer is always when I'm asked about that, it's those pat answers that when I see other people give I'm like, 'Oh shut up! They're not all nice.' But they really are. It's like I can't tell you what a dream job it is. It's the cast, the crew, it all starts with Alan of course, but it really is just a dream job. In fact, my first day in the make-up...you get all the good scuttlebutt from like makeup and hair, so I'm like, 'Okay, how is everyone really?' And they're like, 'Really, there's not a bad apple.' She goes, 'Trust me, if they are - if someone's a pain in the ass - they don't last long.'"
True Blood Season 4 : more spoilers via Kristin
@emilyanne18 (via Twitter): Do you know any new spoilers related to season four of True Blood?
We talked to Sam Trammell this weekend at an event for the True Blood: All Right Now graphic novel, and he told us about Sam’s future, “What’s great about this year is that we explore the shape-shifter community a little bit more, so there’s going to be a lot of cool mythological stuff that we talk about, shape-shifter rules and what shape-shifters can do and who they are. Sam’s [also] got a new love interest that’s going to happen this year for him. I don’t have really good luck with the ladies, they usually die—so hopefully she’ll survive.” Everybody wish Sam’s new girlfriend luck on that whole “surviving Bon Temps” thing!
@nathalia004 (via Twitter): Do you have any True Blood scoop?
True Blood star Rutina Wesley shares, “You’re going to find out where Tara goes, and there’s going to be some happiness for her. It won’t last for long, this is True Blood. It’s a new Tara, and I think the fans are going to like it. She’s not duct-taped, she’s not tied up, she’s got this personal strength and I think it’s really awesome to see her. Sookie (Anna Paquin) and I will have some stuff this season—she’s my best friend, so we’re always going to have little moments. And we’re going to get back to how I felt about Sam Merlotte, finding out that he was a shape shifter, so we are going to have a little moment about that. And I think Lafayette’s (Nelsan Ellis) the only one that knows where I am, and he gives me some great advice.” Hmm…
@JulischkaHH (via Twitter): True Blood!
How about some Jessica-Hoyt scoop? We chatted with Deborah Ann Woll this weekend, and she told us, “[Jessica and Hoyt] ended in a very positive place but obviously that won’t last for long. We definitely pick up with a bit more trouble happening. Bon Temps is a scary place! The first two episodes are very interesting—Jim [Parrack] and I had some really fun stuff to play with like right off the bat. But maybe the first episode is my favorite as of now, just because it is the most varied.” Deborah also told us that Jessica and Bill (Stephen Moyer) grow closer this season, saying, “I think we’re definitely also in a healing stage where he’s finally accepting that he has a progeny, that he has a daughter vampire, and he needs to give me tools to actually survive. So he’s definitely more cooperative and participatory in my growing up.”
http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/watch_with_kristin/index.html
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
HBO Go expands TV and movie programming
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Cable TV network HBO is making nearly all its titles available for its HBO Go service, in a sign that parent Time Warner Inc is escalating the fight against movie renter Netflix.
HBO said on Wednesday it is putting more than 1,400 its shows, including every episode of "The Sopranos" and "True Blood," on the service that lets subscribers to the premium pay channel instantly watch programs through devices with broadband connections. Previously, HBO GO offered about 600 titles.
HBO Go is a version of Time Warner's TV anywhere concept, which lets cable, satellite and telephone subscribers access programing through computers, smartphones and tablet devices once they are authenticated as paying customers. The service is available for no extra cost to Comcast Xfinity TV, Verizon Fios, Cox Advanced TV and AT&T U-Verse customers.
read on
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Rutina Wesley and Deborah Ann Woll Exclusive Interview TRUE BLOOD: ALL TOGETHER NOW Vol. 1; Plus an Update on Season 4
To celebrate the huge success of the first True Blood comic series, All Together Now, cast members Sam Trammell, Rutina Wesley and Deborah Ann Woll signed copies and greeted their adoring and devoted fans at the Barnes & Noble at The Grove in Los Angeles.
The New York Times best seller is a compilation of all six issues from the first series of comics, and it features the same romance, wry humor, intriguing mystery and suspense the show has become known for. Developed with show creator Alan Ball, along with series writers Elisabeth Finch and Kate Barnow, and co-written by David Tischman and Mariah Huehner, the story gives readers new insights into their favorite characters and helps fill the gap for fans, as they wait for Season 4 to premiere in June on HBO.
In this exclusive interview with Collider, co-stars Rutina Wesley and Deborah Ann Woll talked about why True Blood is the type of show that works in other mediums and what it was like to see themselves in comic book form. They also talked about how Season 4 is coming (they’re just finishing up shooting Episode 4) and gave a few hints about how things will be different for their characters. Check out what they had to say after the jump:
read on
More Spoilers for True Blood Season 4
@nathalia004 (via Twitter): Do you have any True Blood scoop?True Blood star Rutina Wesley shares, "You're going to find out where Tara goes, and there's going to be some happiness for her. It won't last for long, this is True Blood. It's a new Tara, and I think the fans are going to like it. She's not duct-taped, she's not tied up, she's got this personal strength and I think it's really awesome to see her. Sookie (Anna Paquin) and I will have some stuff this season—she's my best friend, so we're always going to have little moments. And we're going to get back to how I felt about Sam Merlotte, finding out that he was a shape shifter, so we are going to have a little moment about that. And I think Lafayette's (Nelsan Ellis) the only one that knows where I am, and he gives me some great advice." Hmm…
@JulischkaHH (via Twitter): True Blood!How about some Jessica-Hoyt scoop? We chatted with Deborah Ann Woll this weekend, and she told us, "[Jessica and Hoyt] ended in a very positive place but obviously that won't last for long. We definitely pick up with a bit more trouble happening. Bon Temps is a scary place! The first two episodes are very interesting—Jim [Parrack] and I had some really fun stuff to play with like right off the bat. But maybe the first episode is my favorite as of now, just because it is the most varied." Deborah also told us that Jessica and Bill (Stephen Moyer) grow closer this season, saying, "I think we're definitely also in a healing stage where he's finally accepting that he has a progeny, that he has a daughter vampire, and he needs to give me tools to actually survive. So he's definitely more cooperative and participatory in my growing up."
True Blood: 'Where Is Sookie?' And Tease Season 4
Out of all the "True Blood" cast members MTV News runs into at various events, premieres, etc.—wherein we do our best to charm them into revealing juicy details about upcoming seasons/episodes—the two most tight-lipped, hard to crack Truebies are definitely stars (and real-life married couple) Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer.
read on
Sookie short story book "A Touch of Dead" by Charlaine Harris, narrated by Johanna Parker nominated for 2011 Audie Awards
The Audio Publishers Association has announced the nominees for their 16th annual Audies awards, "devoted entirely to honoring spoken word entertainment." The winners will be announced 24 May 2010 at the Audies Gala at the TimesCenter in New York City.
The nominees, in all 28 categories, are available in this 9-page pdf.
Short Stories/Collections:
A Matter of Matter by L. Ron Hubbard, narrated by Corey Burton, R.F. Daley, Jim Meskimen, Tait Ruppert, and Josh Thompson (Galaxy Press)
A Touch of Dead by Charlaine Harris, narrated by Johanna Parker (Recorded Books)
And Thereby Hangs a Tale by Jeffrey Archer, narrated by Gerard Doyle (Macmillan Audio)
Ford County: Stories by John Grisham, narrated by John Grisham (Random House Audio)
How Did You Get This Number by Sloane Crosley, narrated by Sloane Crosley (Penguin)
Long After Midnight by Ray Bradbury, narrated by Michael Prichard (Tantor Audio)
Stories by Neil Gaiman, narrated by Anne Bobby, Jonathan Davis, Peter Francis James, Katherine Kellgren, and Euan Morton (HarperCollins Publishers)
http://sfscope.com/2011/02/2011-audie-awards-nominees.html
Saturday, February 26, 2011
True Blood / Sookie author, Charlaine Harris new publicity photos and updated biography !
Wow - you go Charlaine ! check it all out here http://www.charlaineharris.com/
Charlaine Harris a New York Times bestselling author who has been writing for thirty years. She was born and raised in the Mississippi River Delta area. Though her early works consisted largely of poems about ghosts and teenage angst, she began writing plays when she attended Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. She switched to novels a few years later, and achieved publication in 1981 with Sweet and Deadly.
After publishing two stand-alone mysteries, Harris launched the lighthearted Aurora Teagarden books with Real Murders, a Best Novel 1990 nomination for the Agatha Awards. Harris wrote eight books in her series about a Georgia librarian. In 1996, she released the first in the much darker Shakespeare mysteries, featuring the amateur sleuth Lily Bard, a karate student who makes her living cleaning houses. Shakespeare's Counselor, the fifth—and last-- was printed in fall 2001.
After Shakespeare, Harris created The Sookie Stackhouse urban fantasy series about a telepathic waitress named Sookie Stackhouse who works in a bar in the fictional Northern Louisiana town of Bon Temps. The first book in the series, Dead Until Dark, won the Anthony Award for Best Paperback Mystery in 2001. Each book follows Sookie through her adventures involving vampires, werewolves, and other supernatural creatures. The series, which now numbers eleven titles, has been released worldwide.
Sookie Stackhouse has proven to be so popular that Alan Ball, creator of the HBO television series Six Feet Under, announced he would undertake the production of a new HBO series based upon the books He wrote and directed the pilot episode for that series, True Blood, which premiered in September of 2008 . It was an instant success and is now filming its fourth season.
In October 2005, the first of Harris’s new mystery series about a young woman named Harper Connelly debuted with the release of Grave Sight. Harper has the ability to determine the cause of death of any body. After four novels, this series is on hiatus.
Harris has also co-edited four very popular anthologies with her friend Toni L.P. Kelner. The anthologies feature stories with an element of the supernatural, and the submissions come from a rare mixture of mystery and urban fantasy writers.
Professionally, Harris is a member of the Mystery Writers of America, the American Crime Writers League, Sisters in Crime, and the International Crime Writers Association. She is a past member of the boards of Sisters in Crime and MWA. She is also a member of Science Fiction Writers of America, Horror Writers Association, and Romance Writers of America, just to make sure she’s covered.
Personally, Harris is married and the mother of three. She lives in a small town in Southern Arkansas and when she is not writing her own books, she reads omnivorously. Her house is full of rescue dogs.
'True Blood' author rewrites the script on video games
Produced for iPlay, the fruit of her labor, downloadable PC puzzler "Dying for Daylight," features an original tale starring Dahlia, a wisecracking, fashion-forward vampire hunting for a potion that lets vampires survive in sunlight. A hidden-object game designed for casual play by both women and men, it aims to bridge the gap between paperback readers and gaming fans, lev
read on
** Also enter the game giveaway!!
Skarsgard savors Swede success
Actor Stellan Skarsgard has been on Hollywood’s radar for a bit, most recently playing Halle Berry’s therapist in “Frankie and Alice.”
That’s his eldest son Alexander as Eric Northman on “True Blood,” and son Gustaf was in the recent film “The Way Back.”
read on
.jpg)
