Monday, October 27, 2008

True Blood - Omnivoracious: Charlaine Harris Interview

At Omnivoracious (an Amazon.com blog):

(Please follow the link for the complete interview.)



True Blood: An Interview with Charlaine Harris

by Jeff VanderMeer on October 27, 2008

Since the first appearance of Sookie Stackhouse in Charlaine Harris's Dead Until Dark, readers have been addicted to this exciting and charming series set in the South. But that addiction has reached fever pitch with the debut of the new HBO series by Alan Ball, True Blood, based on Harris's "Southern Vampire Mysteries" series. Earlier this year I was lucky enough to meet Harris briefly at a convention in New York, and found her to be down-to-earth, approachable, and generous to her fans.

I recently interviewed Harris about both her books and the TV series via email. She answered my questions "sitting in my office, which is across the carport from the main house. It was intended as a mother-in-law apartment. It's one large room with a bathroom and a big closet that used to be the tool shed; I had the outside door blocked and an inside door cut. It was an inadequate tool shed, anyway. My office is "decorated" with photos of New Orleans tomb art, the usual awards and stuff, and some incredible mementos. Plus, a picture of our three children, all beautiful and talented. Of course."

A brief excerpt:

Amazon.com: I'm assuming you've seen the HBO series. How, in your opinion, does it differ from the books?
Charlaine Harris: There are lots of differences. The books are all told in the first person. The series can't be shot that way, for obvious reasons. So we're seeing the activities of some of the other characters that were never shown in the books. Sometimes, what they were off doing (while Sookie was front and center in my world) has really surprised me. And of course some characters have been changed to suit the needs of the show. I'm never bored when I'm watching "True Blood," because I really don't know what's going to happen.

No comments: