Author Charlaine Harris makes a killing with Sookie Stackhouse, vampires, shape-shifters

May 28, 2:19 AMNew Orleans Literature ExaminerNordette Adams

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If you saw Charlaine Harris in the local supermarket, she might not strike you as rich, as a woman who writes hot sex scenes between vampires and mortals and spins yarns about witches and shape-shifters. Harris looks and talks like the friendly mother you meet at the local PTA meeting.

Or even more likely, she's the woman you meet in Wal-Mart. She told New York Times writer Motoko Rich that "Every trip to Wal-Mart is an inspiration." Harris is the perfect example for the lesson your librarian tried to teach you, "Don't judge a book by its cover."

If you read speculative fiction, specifically novels about the paranormal, then you've probably come across her Sookie Stackouse vampire novels. The writer has "hit the jackpot" with the series, says the New York Times, having received a seven-figure advance on a three-book contract. Ace publishing released the second book in the contract, Dead and Gone, in hardcover this month. It's the ninth book in the series.

While Sookie Stackhouse is a spunky, telepathic waitress who loves both vampires and shape-shifters and is a resident of the fictitious town of Bon Temps, La., her creator is a married mother who lives in the quiet town of Magnolia, Ark. Her town is nearly seven hours away from the glamor and treachery of New Orleans, but only 90 minutes from Shreveport, La., the real town in northern Louisiana that's home to the novels' Fangtasia vampire bar. Bon Temps residents travel dark back roads to savor its temptations.

Sookie's been to Fangtasia before as not only Harris's readers know but also viewers of the HBO series True Blood, which is based on Harris's series. Between listening to the mean thoughts of her fellow humans in Bon Temps and getting too close for comfort with Fangtasia vampires, Sookie knows treachery as well as any Anne Rice creation.

In True Blood, actress Anna Paquin plays the role of Sookie Stackhouse, and actor Stephen Moyer plays her vampire lover, Bill Compton. Sam Trammell plays shape-shifter and alternate romantic interest for Sookie Sam Merlotte, who owns Bon Temps's popular bar and grill, Merlotte's. The second season of the TV series premiers June 14.

Making Money

Harris, 57, doesn't claim to know firsthand of treachery, but like her character Sookie, the novelist knows struggle. She is not the mythic overnight sensation. She's been publishing novels for 30 years and sold her first Stackhouse book for a mere $5,000.

In the 2008 video below, Harris speaks to members of the Science Fiction Society of Northern New Jersey, and the author tells her audience about film options and how she decided to sell the rights to Sookie's story to Alan Ball, the man behind True Blood.

"Most writers will get at least one option on their work," she says. "Hollywood is always looking for new stories and to them option money is chicken feed whereas, you know me, it got me a new van."

She says she has had options on other books, such as her Aurora Teagarden series in which actress Bette Midler once showed interest. For the Stackhouse series she had three offers, she says, and her agent encouraged her to listen to all three. While she took her agent's advice, she says she'd already decided she wanted to accept Ball's offer, "which was not the most lucrative, but was the best artistically."

She tells the audience that all her options suitors were persuasive, but Ball convinced her he would do right by the books and that he understood what she was doing with the series. Furthermore, she jokes, he sweetened the pot by sending her "a huge, huge array of pink roses."

She also says that when Ball sent her a note telling her how he'd discovered her books while going through the bookstore that it startled her because she didn't think famous people went to bookstores. She'd supposed someone delivered potential options to their desks. She also says that Ball sends her pictures from his cell phone and that "he's a great guy."

Lagniappe:

• Charlaine Harris's official website
• New York Times article, "Vampire-Loving Barmaid Hits Jackpot for Charlaine Harris"
• HBO's True Bood