Author Charlaine Harris to have cameo on True Blood

June 16, 12:02 AMNew Orleans Literature ExaminerNordette Adams

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Straight from the author's mouth in the video below, Charlaine Harris, creator of the Sookie Stackhouse book series, says she may have a cameo on HBO's True Blood sometime in the next two weeks. The television show is based on her books. 

Speaking at last weekend's Author! Author! Shreveport-Bossier Book Festival in Louisiana, Harris talks about her long but only recently lucrative career as a writer, the selling of the first Sookie Stackhouse book, and whether she'll get a Twitter account. Her appearance at the festival makes sense since her vampire novels include the infamous but fictitious vampire bar Fangtasia located in the very real Shreveport, La. 

Harris, whose publisher recently released the ninth book in the series, Dead and Gone, says she wrote the first Stackhouse book on spec. Her agent, who she still retains, didn't think much of the novel.

"It got turned down more than any other book I've ever written, and it took my agent two years to sell it," said Harris. 

"Don't ask me what about them has fascinated people so much because if I knew, I would have done it twenty years ago," she said.

It apears the novelist will not join the throng and open a Twitter account, but she does havea  Facebook page that she says she's "bad about visiting." She answers fan questions on her personal website regularly, she told the audience, but she can't afford to give more time than that to the Internet's constant contact because she needs more time to write.

Telling how Sookie Stackhouse was born, Harris said around the time she was about to turn 50, she became discontented with her writing career and decided to write the Sookie books to broaden her base beyond mystery novel fans

"And I confess, I had wanted to write a sex scene before I got too old to think about it. So, I thought well, if I'm going to throw in some sex and some mystery, I might as well throw in a vampire or two," she said, adding that the supernatural has always interested her. However, she opted to write the books from the human point of view because she thought "that would keep the series anchored."

She didn't have a particular actress in mind for Sookie when she wrote the book, but said she envisioned New Orleans-born actress Reese Witherspoon in the role.  Anna Paquin, however, really wanted the role, which was unusual for an Oscar winner or actress of Paquin's stature, believes Harris.

"I think she's doing a fantastic job," Harris said of Paquin.

Part 2 and additional segments are posted at YouTube. Loving True Blood in Dallas posted the first video today on its site and is responsible for the video at YouTube.

Earlier post on Harris, "Charlaine Harris makes a killing."