From Dead to Worse to be released in paperback March 31st

Sookie Stackhouse / Southern Vampire Series #8


Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Pub. Date: March 31, 2009
ISBN-13: 9780441017010

*note them have the HBO medallion, CH said they are embedded in the covers not stickers

True Blood fan mail: May I please have your autograph?

You can definitely send fan mail to your favorite True Blood actors and you can even ask for an autograph.

Alexander Skarsgård ( Eric)
Principal Entertainment
1964 Westwood Blvd.
Suite 400
Los Angeles, CA 90025
Alex’s Principal Entertainment webpage :
http://www.principalent.net/actors/alexander_skarsgard.html

Stephen Moyer ( Bill )
Luber Roklin Entertainment
8530 Wilshire Blvd., 5th Floor
Beverly Hills, CA 90211
Phone: 310.855.2214

You can also receive an autographed certificate from Stephen for donating to his hometown theatre more info here: http://www.brentwood-theatre.org/

Anna Paquin ( Sookie )
1503 Ventura Blvd #710
Sherman Oaks, CA 91403
or
William Morris Agency
One William Morris Place
Beverly Hills, California 90212

Kristin Bauer ( Pam)
Paul Kohner, Inc.
9300 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 555
Beverly Hills CA 90212
Kristin’s own official web page : http://www.kristinbauer.com

Alan Ball ( Writer, Producer, Director)
United Talent Agency
9560 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 500
Beverly Hills, Ca 90212-2401
Main Phone: 310.273.6700

Happy V-Day from HBO Store

Hurry !

Great Valentines Day stuff !

Yippee new t-shirts!

For the t -shirts in the graphic use the special newsletter subscriber link

If you don't see the t-shirt you want ...( ie. like no 'I heart Eric ' ) let the store know what you'd like to see.

Contact : HERE

Genres and Subgenres and Memes, Oh My!

Varkat over at her blog does an excellent job of breaking down the different types fiction genres and subgenres

Every convention I've been to in the past year has had at least one panel dedicated to the defining and blending of various genres and subgenres. Where are the lines drawn between urban fantasy and paranormal romance? Is it possible to have urban fantasy in a rural setting? When does suspense become romantic suspense? Can I get fries with that? (The answer is yes, but this is somewhat trickier if you're writing historicals.)

My belief is that all fiction is more or less on a continuum…more than one really. One graph might extend from love stories to novels completely lacking in romance, though it's hard (but not impossible), to find books in any genre completely without romance. When determining what goes on the spine, what matters is the focus of the story. Another continuum might be magic versus non-magic with magical realism falling somewhere in the middle. Or maybe that same continuum extends into the science fiction field so that magic is on one end facing off with technology on the other. In that case urban fantasy might be the median. Anyway, without a bunch of charts and graphs, let me see if I can shed some light on various genres and subgenres and how they're defined.

Read on here http://varkat.livejournal.com/62631.html
(she also includes recommended authors in each area - fascinating and lots of work)

Tasting New Blood with Anna Paquin

Excellent interview from last September with Anna by hMonthly but the photo layout is really spectacular see it here

Anna sits down with us at h and tells us a little about, among other things, her leading role as Sookie Stackhouse.

Anna: Sookie’s your typical perky, happy, young, Southern gal, and also a waitress in a somewhat dingy truck stop-ish bar restaurant. She’s tough and strong; if she sees someone else in trouble, she’ll go and stick herself in harm’s way. She doesn’t fear much of anything, and therefore she ends up being caught in some bad spots occasionally. That being said, she’s only getting roughed up in the course of doing what she thinks is the right thing to do. That, and she’s telepathic (laughs). When the story begins, she meets and falls for the first vampire who walks into her small town. He comes into her bar one night, sits in her section, and orders a bottle of Tru Blood.
She has an affinity for him because, for the first time, she’s not able to read someone’s mind.

h: How did you get involved with the show?
Anna: I was sent a pilot script about two Christmas’ ago, and I was absolutely enthralled with the idea of working with Alan Ball and HBO, and so I went in and auditioned as many times as they would let me until they finally agreed to cast me.

h: You were you a big fan of Six Feet Under I assume?
Anna: Absolutely, my God yes. I’ve been a big fan of Alan since American Beauty, so it was one of those things that when it showed up I thought, ‘There’s gotta be some catch here, right?’ It was too perfect. Obviously the catch in my mind was they’re not gonna cast me, it was calling for blond, tan, Southern, and perky. You know, people are generally hesitant to cast you in a part when they’ve never seen you play a similar role before. I’m pale with dark hair and from New Zealand. So I was so shocked, excited, and thrilled when Alan and HBO took that leap of faith and said, ‘Well, you know, she can act it…let’s do the make over.’ And it worked.

h: How was the makeover?
Anna: Well, for one thing, I spent eight hours in a hair salon with incredibly talented colorists turning my waist length, absolutely untouched, brown hair into blond hair. And then there’s a lot of spray tanning, it’s the easiest thing in the world. Then they add costumes, and it’s done. It’s quite easy as it turns out, minus the hair maintenance. I don’t know why women do that as an option; to keep my hair blond is hard work. It’s a lot of people having to go back and do all my hair as it grows in, it’s very, very high maintenance. I’ve had it for a year and a half and it’s great, I like it. But, I think if I switched hair color between seasons, my hair would fall out. You can’t mess with science that much without suffering major repercussions.

h: What was your first meeting with Alan like? Were you nervous in your audition?
Anna: Yes, but no more so than with anything that you really want. I’d actually met him, sort of, years ago. I was more surprised that he remembered me. That’s always my thing, ‘Really, you remember meeting me?’
But, he’s incredibly lovely and he makes everyone feel really comfortable.
He’s probably the least scary person I’ve ever auditioned for because he makes it feel easy. He’s smart and funny, just sort of charming and normal.
It almost takes the
pressure off, in a way.

h: How is Alan different than other directors you’ve worked with?
Anna: He has this sort of joy about him, and this sort of love about what he’s doing no matter what. Over the course of our entire season, a year of shooting, I never saw him lose that. Most people, there’ll be times when they’re tired or less into it, they’re just worn out. But it’s very important to him to always make sure that everyone is having a good time. I don’t know if I’ve worked with anyone who’s still all about whether or not people are still having fun by episode 11. And that’s an amazing quality.
And because he’s so talented and so good to everyone, everyone wants to work extra hard for him.

h: Did you do any research for your part? Obviously you can’t try out telepathy, but was there anything else?
Anna: I had all these really elaborate plans to (laughs) get a job somewhere waitressing, or to go spend time in Louisiana, but then, honestly, I ran out of time.

h: How did you go about creating your Southern accent?
Anna: We all had a dialect coach, everyone had to do it. But after the first few episodes we really didn’t need it any more. It becomes how that person speaks, and you get used to it, and when everyone around you is doing it, it’s not actually that hard.
I’ve been technically working in accents my entire career. But as for the process, you listen to tapes and do phonetics, listening is a big part of it. I load those things onto my iPod and get into the music of it, and watch films that have accents that are similar. h: How much did you actually shoot in the South?
Anna: We shoot a ton on set, but we’ve gone down to Louisiana four times. We shoot in Shreveport, mostly exteriors, obviously locations that you really just can’t find in Los Angeles like plantation houses and such.

h: What was the most challenging part of the shoot?
Anna: My character is very good at getting herself into scrapes, (laughs) unfortunate type situations, where her life is in danger. There’s a fair amount of prosthetic elements and blood, but I love that stuff, the physical stuff, the prosthetics, the other-worldly elements that we get to incorporate. Honestly the hardest part was waiting to hear if our show was going to be picked up for a whole season after we shot the pilot, it was a couple months before we found out. It was kind of nerve-wracking. In my head, it was kind of all on my back, whether the show was going to get picked up or not, and everybody would get to work for a whole season or not.

h: What did you think when you first saw the pilot?
Anna: (laughs) I didn’t see it until they showed it to the cast after the table read for episode two when we’d already been picked up and were about to start shooting. But I find it very difficult to be objective and detached when I watch myself. I was happy, obviously, but what I cared about most was the fact that we were going for more episodes. I was like, ‘Well, it doesn’t matter that I’m on some weird morose-ish trip about my own performance, because HBO likes it and we get to do more.’

h: Were you a big fan of vampires before True Blood?
Anna: No, not really.
h: Do you like horror movies?
Anna: Mmm, they kinda scare me, I’m a big baby (laughs).

h: What movie has scared you the most?
Anna: Well, it’s not a horror movie, but Silence of the Lambs. For most horror movies, I just can’t watch people being tortured, it’s upsetting, violence for the sake of violence.

h: You seem to have an unusual ability to maintain a normal life, you even went to Columbia College for a bit.
Anna: Yeah, but I didn’t finish though (laughs).

h: Did you get too busy with acting?
Anna: Turns out I liked my job (laughs). I didn’t even get around to picking a major.

h: Would you say that you were still able to get the full college experience?
Anna: Oh my God, I definitely did during my freshman year, my first year out of high school. I lived in the dorms and had an amazing time. I loved it.
Some of my closest friends are the ones I met in college. It was the first time I hadn’t been working non-stop since I was 11, so I had the best time ever. No parents, no work. (laughs) I mean New York, come on.

h: Was it hard for people in college to separate you from your work?
Anna: Well, I’m not incredibly high profile in that sense. I mean, I work, I do my thing, but there were a few other kids who were also actors, so I feel like the freak show factor was spread around. Julia Stiles was in my year, and she’d done a lot of films that were kinda teen-oriented, so she was actually a lot more famous, frankly (laughs). I think she took a lot more of the circus freak, intrigue factor. I snuck in a little more under the radar.

h: How were your grades?
Anna: I’m a good student. (laughs) I didn’t get into Columbia by accident, let me just put it that way.

h: So, it didn’t take long before you decided to go back to work.
Anna: I started reading plays because I hadn’t done any theatre. I ended up reading something that I absolutely fell in love with and Philip Seymour Hoffman was directing it. It was going to go for the run of what would have been my first semester of sophomore year and I auditioned and auditioned and auditioned until he said yes and that led to another play which led to…I was originally just going to take one semester off and then three years later I was at my friends’ graduation.

h: Do you know where your Oscar is right now?
Anna: Honestly, I don’t know where it is, it’s somewhere in my brother’s house. I left it there with a bunch of my stuff when I moved to Los Angeles.
So, I don’t know, it’s probably somewhere out of the way.

h: I’m a big fan of The Squid and the Whale. Was it weird playing Jeff Daniels’ love interest in that movie after having played his daughter in Fly Away Home?
Anna: Probably for him (laughs). I mean for me, it was a different lifetime, you know what I mean? It wasn’t weird for me, but I think a lot weirder for him because I think he has kids close-ish to my age (laughs) and he’s a good, stand up guy. It’s also probably a lot weirder for him because he can probably remember what I looked like as a 12-year-old and I’m not really conscious of that, so it’s kinda funny.

h: What’s the character you’ve most enjoyed playing to date?
Anna: I love my True Blood character, Sookie. I get to do so much stuff that’s so much fun, and it’s so different from anything I’ve ever done, which is not a slight on anything else I’ve already done, it’s just a fun show. It’s intense and it’s funny, it’s dark and it’s twisted, and it’s sexy and violent. Kinda otherworldly too. With episodic television, I’m loving the process of continually figuring out who these people are and working on them with each episode, that’s just so much more to do as an actor and I love that. So, I guess right now, I have my dream job.

h: Was there anything spooky that happened on the set?
Anna: Well, I mean…no. (laughs) I’m not a real big believer in that stuff.

h: Well, it is about vampires.
Anna: (Laughs) The only spooky thing is being asked by people when they hear you are doing a show about vampires, ‘Oh, so is it fiction, or non-fiction?’
Uh, it’s about vampires…what do you think? But, that’s just spooky in an entirely different way. People being stupid I think is incredibly spooky.

True Blood premiers on HBO Romania (also Transylvania !)

You just have to LOVE that True Blood is now playing on HBO in Transylvania ! You can figure out most of the announcement below or HERE is what Google translate did to it.

Serialul "True blood", in premiera la HBO Romania

HBO Romania anunta premiera noului serial original, TRUE BLOOD, vineri, 6 februarie, de la ora 22.00.
Serialul debuteaza cu un sezon de 12 episoade, din distributie facand parte Anna Paquin, castigatoare a premiilor Oscar si Globul de Aur, Stephen Moyer si Alexander Skarsgard.
TRUE BLOOD este creat si produs de Alan Ball (realizatorul serialului HBO "Sub Pamant SRL" castigator al premiului Emmy), care a scris, de asemenea, primele trei episoade si a regizat doua episoade ale serialului, bazat pe romanul "The Sookie Stackhouse novels" scris de Charlaine Harris.

Best New Shows of 2008 -TV World

TV World lists their best new shows ...guess what was # on their list ?

Every year there are loads of new television shows released and, with only so many hours in the day for TV viewing, the competition for viewers is cutthroat. Many shows are canceled if they fail to bring in the predicted ratings. Conversely if a show does well it can end up running, well for what seems like eternity, even if the original concept wasn’t meant to last for several series the networks will pressure them to continue regardless (I’m looking at you Lost).

With so much good television already out there it is tough for a new show to break in and find a regular and loyal audience. So what were the shows released in 2008 that caught your imagination? Here are the ones that made it onto my TV watching schedule.

True Blood
My favourite new show by a distance is True Blood which first aired in September. HBO have a knack for creating brilliant television and this is no exception. It centres on a waitress in the Deep South called Sookie Stackhouse who can read minds, her moronic brother and her lover Bill who just happens to be a vampire. In fact True Blood is set in a kind of alternative world where vampires have been outed and campaigned for civil rights to live along side humans. They can buy blood substitute in bars but the truce is less than comfortable and there are plenty of twists and turns in this exciting tale. It was slow to build an audience but as word of mouth spread it became more and more popular and it will be coming back for a second season.

Read whole list

http://tvworld.us/2009/01/28/best-new-shows-of-2008/

'Dead as a Doornail' is what inspired me to begin the [writing] process

Fascinating how grabbing a Sookie book before a long flight changed Nicole Peeler 's life and how she now has a 3 book deal to write stories about a young woman from Maine dealing with the supernatural; she has also landed a teaching job, in of all places Shreveport , LA.

Little did she know that a visit to her hometown of Aurora following completion of a doctoral program in Scotland would change the focus of her writing.

While visiting a local bookstore in search of something to read on her flight back to Scotland, Peeler turned to her 6-year-old niece for help. Her niece who pointed to New York Times' best-selling author Charlaine Harris' "Dead as a Doornail" in the fantasy section.

"Next thing I know, I'm on my way back to Scotland reading the book about a waitress from Bon Temps, La., who is about to drive into Shreveport to visit the local vampire bar," she said.

Ironically, as part of her visit back to the states, she was to complete the interview process for her current job as assistant professor of English at Louisiana State University in Shreveport.

Whole artcle here

True Blood Music Video of the Day

Skeleton low [Low ] by Mark Lanegan

Arlene (Carrie Preston) will be at the Macon Film Festival

The Macon Film and Video Festival will be Feb 18-22 in Macon, Ga. and one of the special guests will be actress Karen Black who won Golden Globes for her performances in the movies "Five Easy Pieces" and "The Great Gatsby."

Other special guests include actress Carrie Preston, a regular on the HBO comedy "True Blood" and former University of Georgia football coach Vince Dooley.

The festival will be at the Cox Capitol Theatre.

More than 60 hours of original, independent film will be shown.

To find out more go to www.maconfilmfestival.com.

Give HBO Some Credit

From Newsweek September 2008

We know lots about the opening credits, I have even just recently visited many of the places featured in them ..more here

Even as American TV has evolved, one of its most charming aspects—the title sequence—has become scarce. To save precious seconds, many shows have jettisoned opening credits in favor of a brief flash of a logo, à la "Lost." It's a shame. A great title sequence is a gilded invitation to join the show's universe.

The credits for the new HBO series "True Blood" (from Alan Ball of "Six Feet Under" ) are the perfect amuse-bouche. The show is about vampires assimilating into rural Louisiana, and the credits are a flip book of Deep South postcards: images of hungry gators and modest homes, neon crosses and dirt roads. In the final shot, a woman is dunked for a river baptism and appears to emerge in hysterics. Either she's in rapture, or just a hairbreadth from drowning. This is the world of "True Blood," where quaint, romantic notions of the South are recast with dread.

The package was made by Digital Kitchen, the agency behind "Six Feet Under's" Emmy-winning sequence. By hiring it again, Ball proves he understands that the slower the curtain is raised, the more intrigued his audience becomes.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/158744

Do you need a little fix ? Here ya go ...

True Blood" Hunk -- Bite Me, I Ain't Him!

He may be hard to recognize with clothes on -- but we're 110% sure this dude outside Coco de Ville last night is oft-naked "True Blood" hottie Ryan Kwanten, no matter how hard he denied it.

http://www.tmz.com/2009/01/28/true-blood-hunk-dont-blow-my-cover/

True Blood filming in Baton Rouge : HBO and others jump on La. bandwagon

By Joshua Davidson in Tiger Weekly

Fresh off of a record setting year in which Louisiana saw its highest movie payout to date with Brad Pitt’s, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, the state has a promising year ahead in 2009.

Louisiana’s tax incentives are continuing to entice new film ventures to the state with new projects set to film in the coming months around the region including sites around Baton Rouge.

Since the Louisiana Film incentive and Tax Credit Program began in 2002, the state has shown numbers second only to California, thus earning the nickname “Hollywood South.” Currently, the program gives producers a 25 percent tax credit on shooting films in Louisiana as well as an additional 10 percent credit on all payroll used on Louisiana residents in connection with the production.

HBO is currently in the Baton Rouge area working on pre-production efforts for the second season of its hit series, True Blood, starring Anna Paquin. Filming is slated to begin in February. Along with True Blood, HBO is also set to start filming the pilot for a new series, titled Treme, starting March 9, and is still casting roles that call for all ages, ethnicities and types.

The tax incentives have encouraged producers to take a second look at the many historic locations in Louisiana including swamps, plantations and, of course, the famous French Quarter. One producer was especially eager to take advantage of the locations surrounding a Louisiana swamp for the filming of the upcoming bayou thriller, Beard’s Creek.

“The tax incentives in Louisiana are great,” said Beard Creek producer, Ilan Arboleda. “The great locations are an added bonus. It makes choosing Louisiana a no-brainer when it comes to choosing a place to film.”

The movies aren’t the only player finding financial success in Louisiana. The Motion Picture Association of America estimates that major studios bring about $225,000 per day to their shooting locations, which in turn, can become very lucrative to all parties involved in the project both directly and indirectly.

Some notable stars set to make appearances in Louisiana films this year include Val Kilmer, Justin Timberlake, 50 Cent, Sharon Stone, Megan Good and John Cena, among others.

“I’m excited to see so many opportunities in movies here,” says university student Jessica Holman. “I’m trying to get a job on the crew with an upcoming independent movie called, ‘The Chameleon,’ here in Baton Rouge.”

The window for these endeavors could be closing up quick with roughly 40 other states offering similar incentives and subsidies that Louisiana offers according to the Incentives Office, a consulting firm located in California. One state that is gaining ground on Louisiana rather quickly is New Mexico, which has a similar 25 percent tax credit.

Regardless of what happens with the other states vying for Louisiana’s position as one of the premier destinations for filming, this year is sure to be a great success for the state. Much of the films slated for 2009 are still looking for both cast and crew and could make for a great experience for one looking to get into the business, so be sure to keep an eye out for what’s going on in the coming months.

For more information, visit Parental Advisory, Tiger Weekly’s entertainment blog at www.tigerweekly.com/theblogs.

Charlaine Harris interviewed in this month's BUST magazine

Charlaine Harris tells Sookie Stackhouse’s secrets

on newstands now

http://www.bust.com/Magazine/On-Newsstands-Now.html

Baby, you can drive my car (9)

Who drives this car ?

How do they get it ?






Yep, this would have been the Malibu that Tara gave Sookie

From Definitely Dead

I hadn't seen Tara in a while. She'd gone on a vacation to visit an aunt in south Texas, and since she'd returned she'd been working long hours at the store. At least, that's what she'd said when I'd called her to thank her for the car. When my kitchen had burned, my car had burned with it, and Tara had loaned me her old car, a two-year-old Malibu. She'd acquired a brand-new car (never mind how) and hadn't gotten around to selling the Malibu.

To my astonishment, about a month ago, Tara had mailed me the title and the bill of sale, with a letter telling me the car was now mine. I'd called to protest, but she had stonewalled me, and in the end, there didn't seem to be anything to do but accept the gift graciously.
She intended it as payment, since I'd extricated her from a terrible situation. But to help her, I'd had to indebt myself to Eric. I hadn't minded. Tara had been my friend all my life. Now she was safe, if she was smart enough to stay away from the supernatural world.

All Weres are Shifters but not all Shifters are Weres

"Do not call me a werewolf " Sam in True Blood

from Book 6

And to confuse the issue, all those who can change from human form to animal form call themselves shape-shifters, though very few possess Sam's versatility. Shifters who can change to only one animal are were-animals: weretigers (like Quinn), werebears, werewolves. The wolves are the only ones who call themselves simply Weres, and they consider themselves superior in toughness and culture to any of the other shape-shifters.

Weres are also the most numerous subset of shifters, though compared to the total vampire population, there are mighty few of them. There are several reasons for this. The Were birthrate is low, infant mortality is higher than in the general population of humans, and only the first child born of a pure Were couple becomes a full Were.

True Blood Fan Art

Dpauley - thanks