Friday Five: New Things We Learned About Charlaine Harris

Last night I attended Charlaine Harris‘s book signing in Downers Grove, IL, hosted by Anderson’s Book Shop. Charlaine was her usual cute, hilarious self. She charmed us all with her witty answers to some very good questions from the audience. She opened only by thanking Anderson’s and the Tivoli for hosting the event, then went right into the audience Q & A. After that, Kathleen from the book shop, explained how the book signing was going to organize in a wonderful, very funny way of her own. While people waited to line up, they ran episodes 3, 4 and 5 from season 1 of True Blood on the big screen. What a treat!

Today we bring to you five things we learned at last night’s Q & A:

1. Charlaine was asked if her contract with HBO meant that True Blood would run through all 13 Sookie Stackhouse books. Her reply was that her contract with HBO was for, she thinks, 7 seasons, but she wasn’t sure of that number. She said that the contract was not ‘light reading’ and she hadn’t read through it in a long time, so her memory on that might be a bit fuzzy.(Note: We are not saying that True Blood is guaranteed to be on for 7 seasons. We hope like you do, but we are not privy to the dealings between HBO and Alan Ball.)
2. A fan asked Charlaine how the idea of using the word ‘dead’ in all the book titles came about. She said it wasn’t her idea, it was what the publishers wanted. She didn’t care much for the idea and tired of it pretty quickly, but eleven books into the series, you can’t change anything at this point. She said she won’t let that happen again. Next time, she’ll have her own book titles.
3. Someone asked which book was Charlaine’s favorite, pointing out that we all had our particular faves and were curious as to her thoughts. She said that while she didn’t have one favorite book, she did have favorite scenes that were written in each book. She added that “All Together Dead” was the most fun to write, especially when Sookie was at the hotel where the convention was held, when Sookie goes to work for Queen Sophie-Anne.
4. I asked Charlaine if we were going to meet any more new supernatural characters in the next two books. She said at this point, she’s winding things down, so no, there won’t be any new supes.
5. One fan asked how the Sookie books have changed Charlaine’s life. Her immediate reply was, “I have more money!” We all laughed, but she went on to add that her kids and their friends think she’s cool now, and that they love going to all the premieres with her.

It was fun, as always, and I came away with an autographed copy of Dead Reckoning which we will give away soon, so be watching for that! I have to add that this was the most organized and smoothly run book signing I’ve ever been to. Kudos to Anderson’s Book Shop for making things not only run smoothly, but very quickly as well. Brava, Kathleen!

Don’t forget, you can download the Sookie Stackhouse, Southern Vampire Mysteries at Audible.com.