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Matthew Peterson: You’re listening to the Author Hour, which can be found at www.TheAuthorHour.com. I’m your host, Matthew Peterson, author of Paraworld Zero. My next guest is Charlaine Harris, international best-selling author of the Sookie Stackhouse series, which won the Anthony Award for Best Paperback Mystery and has been adapted as a TV series on HBO called True Blood. Charlaine has also written the Aurora Teagarden series, Lily Bard series, and the Harper Connelly series. Two of her books have been a nominee for the Agatha Award for Best Novel. Charlaine has also been a board member of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime, a member of the American Crime Writers League, and past president of the Arkansas Mystery Writers Alliance. Thanks for being on the show today, Charlaine.
Charlaine Harris: Thank you! I love that introduction, I love being called an international bestseller. [laughs] It’s great!
Matthew Peterson: [laughs] Yeah, yeah. Well, that’s got to be an exciting feeling to know that a lot of people throughout the world are reading your books.
Charlaine Harris: It’s very exciting, especially since I’ve spent so many years with people not really reading my books.
Matthew Peterson: Well, you have quite a big following and of course, Sookie Stackhouse novels, those are the big ones right now that you’re writing. And you have another series as well, but let’s start out with the Sookie Stackhouse novels.
Charlaine Harris: Okay.
Matthew Peterson: For those listeners who haven’t read them yet, can you tell us just a little bit about these Southern vampire mysteries.
Charlaine Harris: Well, they’re books about a young woman in Northern Louisiana who is dating a vampire. She’s a telepathic barmaid.
Matthew Peterson: And these vampires, they’re not like in the closet. I mean, people know them. They’re just out and about in this world, aren’t they?
Charlaine Harris: Yes, they’re citizens of the United States, in a way, though they’re second class citizens. They don’t have all the rights and privileges of human citizens, which is a big point of the book. But they have announced the fact that they are actually real because the Japanese have developed a synthetic blood that they can use for nutrition, instead of human blood.
Matthew Peterson: Yeah, which is always nicer. [laughs] And these are mysteries, though. Of course, there’s a lot of supernatural in there, but these are mysteries. Sookie, she has a special power, like you mentioned. She’s telepathic.
Charlaine Harris: Yes. She’s telepathic. Really the worst thing I could think of to do to anybody is to make them telepathic. But there is usually a central mystery at the core of most of the Sookie books, yes.
Matthew Peterson: I’m interested in that. Why would you say that would be one of the worst things: to give someone telepathic powers?
Charlaine Harris: Oh my gosh! People sensor themselves all the time about what they say and I think it would just be absolutely horrible to know what people really thought about you.
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It’s good to hear from Charlaine Harris and her new projects. That was an interesting interview. What do you think?
