Charlaine Harris Talks True Blood

Charlaine Harris recently discussed all things True Blood with lehighvalleylive.com. They chatted lot about how the books and characters Charlaine created (the Sookie Stackhouse novels) are translating to the True Blood TV show on HBO. Charlaine stated that the Sookie Stackhouse novels originated from her desire to broaden her base of readers. She thought that writing about a young girl in love with vampires, rather than just writing about vampires, might do the trick - and it certainly did!! Ten novels later (the tenth Sookie Stackhouse novel is slated to hit bookstore shelves in May 2010) and she is still a bestseller. Her fans cannot get enough! The books are immensely entertaining, full of rich characters and plots. And her devoted fans must be thrilled - Charlaine's publisher has signed her on to complete three more Sookie Stackhouse novels! Naturally, Charlaine loves Alan Ball's adaptation of her novels (who doesn't?!?!). She thinks his casting decisions are "genius" (again - who doesn't??) and has enjoyed meeting and working with the actors on the show. In case you missed it, Charlaine had a cameo in the season two finale - she was a customer at Merlotte's. While filming the episode, she said she learned quite a bit about how a TV show was made, and the tremendous effort everyone puts in to make it happen. As far as the show sticking to the storyline of her books, she believes Alan Ball is doing a good job. She made the following observation:

He [Alan Ball] has had to elaborate on the secondary characters in the series because my books are written in first person, all told by Sookie. Alan has stuck to the outline of the books, with the first novel in the series corresponding with the first season of the series, same with the second.

When asked if she had a favorite character on the series, she said she "really enjoyed" Jessica (who does not appear in the novels). She loves the addition, and even added that she wished she'd come up with it herself! Having read the books, I'm not sure how well Jessica would have fit in, but she really is perfect on the show. Never one to play favorites, she skirted the ubiquitous "Bill vs. Eric" question, saying that,

They both came from my brain, so I'm really fond of both of them.

She closed the interview with some thoughts on Anna Paquin's portrayal of Sookie Stackhouse. While it took her a bit to warm up to Anna as Sookie (because, as Charlaine puts it, "her physicality is different") she couldn't imagine anyone else portraying Sookie now. I totally agree with her there - Anna completely inhabits the role of Sookie Stackhouse! Source: lehighvallylive.com Photo Credit: Caroline Grayshock via charlaineharris.com

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