What's a nice gal from the Mississippi Delta doing with a passel of vampires, werewolves and assorted other supernatural critters? Just writing about life ---- with the unique Southern vampire spin of her No. 1 New York Times best-selling Sookie Stackhouse series.
Charlaine Harris had written mysteries for 20 years before delving into Sookie's world ---- two stand-alones and the Aurora Teahouse, Lily Bard and Harper Connelly series.
"My career really wasn't going where I wanted it to go," Harris said in a recent telephone interview from Arkansas, which she now calls home. "I wanted to do something different ---- I just wanted to branch out. I wanted to include a little sexuality, my sense of humor. I want to include a little blood. But I wanted it to be anchored in day-to-day reality."
Harris' take on reality has spawned international acclaim for the backwoods exploits of her irritable-but-sexy protagonist, Sookie Stackhouse, and the cast of supernatural characters who alternately charm and bedevil her. The saga began in 2001 with "Dead Until Dark" and has continued through book 10, "Dead in the Family," which was released last month by Ace Hardcover. (Harris will be signing "Dead in the Family" on Saturday at Mysterious Galaxy Books in Clairemont Mesa). The series is the literary basis of HBO's hit show "True Blood," approaching its third season, with Sookie played by Academy Award winner Anna Paquin.
Orphaned at seven and raised by her grandmother, Sookie is a young barmaid in fictional Bon Temps, La. She is blessed with a nice head of blond hair, a large bosom, rural street smarts and telepathy. Yes, she can read minds, although she avoids it like the stinging mud daubers lurking under the eaves of her tool shed.
Sookie also has a little something extra (revealed in "Definitely Dead") that makes her particularly appealing to vampires. In Harris' mythology, vampires have "come out of the coffin" to live ---- so to speak ---- among the living, thanks to the launch of a synthetic blood product, True Blood, that meets their daily nutritional requirements. Really.
What True Blood does not supply the vampires is the libidinous satisfaction they had previously enjoyed when feeding on humans was coupled with, ahem, coupling. This leads to Harris' effective depiction of the sexual entanglements in which Sookie inevitably finds herself, despite her best intentions to be a good Christian. Harris' vampires are preternaturally great lovers and Sookie's "happy" scenes are steamy enough to make even a mother blush.
"Oh, my mother pretty much knows people have sex," Harris chuckled. "I didn't write an explicit [sex scene] until I wrote 'Dead Until Dark.' It was kind of exciting to try something new. People's idea of what's sexy and what isn't is varied. ... Sex is really ludicrous when you think about it."
She's right about that, and Harris' inclination to call a spade a spade often lends social commentary to her writing. The great-uncle who molested Sookie as a child meets a very satisfying end, thanks to Sookie's first vampire lover ---- sweet, vicarious vengeance for anyone who is, or knows, a victim. And Harris slings some hilarious arrows at the Bible-thumping, malevolent Fellowship of the Sun, which deems vampires an abomination in God's eyes. The Fellowship is one of many forays into social satire that ring as true as they are humorous.
"Absolutely, there were some things I wanted to say," Harris explained. "I was intending to write about gay rights ---- or it can be interpreted to be any other minority ---- it was just something I was seeing right in front of me. .... And I intentionally write to be funny. I thought that would keep me entertained while I write."
While Harris soundly aims her barbs, the ambiguity of her monsters is ever-present in the series. In Sookie's world, humans often behave as poorly ---- or worse ---- than the otherworldly creatures she comes to learn go bump in the dark and the light.
Despite the magic, the dynamics of Harris' antagonists are readily believable: "I'm always thinking of what I'm writing and what it's saying about the human condition. People really do like to point fingers and call other people monsters, but I think the monster is within all of us."
Harris addresses this theme with typical humor, forthrightness and egalitarianism. Even Sookie struggles with her dual nature as she attempts to honor her faith while lusting after fine-figured "supes" and battling the bad guys.
"I'm doing my best to make sure Sookie grows," Harris said. "She's growing and changing and admitting to herself that she's having a hard time living up to the things her grandmother wanted her to do."
What is to come of the tough and tender heroine Sookie Stackhouse and Harris' remarkably popular series?
"I've contracted through book 13. If I haven't finished the series by then, I don't think it will be that many more. [Then] I hope I'm still writing. I hope I'm writing exactly what I want to write."
However the series ends, readers can expect fun, down-home writing, served up with biting wit (apologies!), pointed social commentary and sex scenes that are probably just this side of legal in Shreveport, La. With balmy weather approaching, consider taking "Dead in the Family" to the garden and settling in for an entertaining, adventurous read. Just be sure to bring along a glass of iced Southern sweet tea to cool you down during the "happy" scenes. And then keep your eyes open for whatever Harris comes up with next.
Charlaine Harris
What: Signing "Dead in the Family"
When: 2 p.m. Saturday
Where: Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore, 7051 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., Suite 302, San Diego
Info: 858-268-4747 or mystgalaxy.com
