Motherhood took up much of Charlaine’s attention during these early years, and she quit writing for a while to focus on beginning a family. After the birth of her second child, “she ached to get back to writing, she missed it so.” It was at this time that she signed with Joshua Bilmes, who would become her longtime agent and friend. After the five-year hiatus, it was difficult to get back into the publishing world, but, with renewed energy, Charlaine burst back upon the scene with the first of her new mystery series.
THE AURORA TEAGARDEN AND LILY BARD SERIES
Real Murders, the first book in Charlaine’s Aurora Teagarden series, was published in 1990. About a small-town Georgia librarian and amateur sleuth whose life doesn’t turn out the way she expected, the books have been described as “cozies with teeth.” Real Murders garnered Charlaine her first Agatha Award nomination for Best Novel of 1990. Fans who gathered at Malice Domestic to meet their new favorite author had a great time, and Charlaine began establishing the warm relationship with readers that she would continue and cherish over the coming years.
The greatest fan reaction to the series came after the publication of A Fool and His Honey in 1999. Charlaine outraged many readers with the death of the heroine’s husband. This was the first of many indications that Charlaine would write her books according to her vision and her vision alone. The Teagarden series sold steadily over many years, but it was hard to build an audience because of the limited availability of the Worldwide paperback editions. The final book of the series, Poppy Done to Death, was released in 2003.
In 1996, Charlaine began her second series, the Lily Bard “Shakespeare” books, set in the fictional town of Shakespeare, Arkansas. Lily is the survivor of a terrible assault that has left her an emotional cripple, and the first book, Shakespeare’s Landlord, begins her first steps back to a normal life and normal relationships. Drawing on her own experiences, Charlaine has said that writing Lily helped her clean out many of her own dark places. More somber in tone than the Teagarden books, the Lily Bard novels didn’t necessarily appeal to the same fans. The books did receive excellent critical response, however, and picked up a good paperback deal. Despite receiving a lot of good press, the series ended in 2001 with the release of Shakespeare’s Counselor. Lily Bard was a fresh and distinct new character and provided a bridge to the next stage of Charlaine’s career.
THE SOOKIE STACKHOUSE SERIES
Hoping to reach a broader audience with her next series, Charlaine began developing a character that was quite unlike any she had ever written before. She hoped to draw on the same reader base she’d created, and the new series’ success was helped in many ways by the foundation she had created with the Aurora Teagarden and Lily Bard books. Full of a unique blend of dark humor, unforgettable characters, and a well-developed mystery with a twist of romance, Dead Until Dark, the first of the Sookie Stackhouse series, was released in 2001. The book was so different that it had taken her agent nearly two years to find a publisher, but Charlaine had faith in Sookie and her story. Now recognized as the first in a series that helped introduce the new genre called urban fantasy, the Sookie Stackhouse novels have been embraced by an ever-widening audience of fans and have received much critical acclaim. Charlaine established herself as an important and versatile author in this new genre. Dead Until Dark won the Anthony Award for Best Paperback Mystery in 2002. Now published in thirty languages, the series, which spans eleven novels, continues to reach new fans all over the world.
SOOKIE NOVELS AND STORIES IN THE ORDER THEY SHOULD BE READ:
Dead Until Dark
Living Dead in Dallas
Club Dead
Dead to the World
“Fairy Dust”
“Dracula Night”
Dead as a Doornail
“One Word Answer”
Definitely Dead
All Together Dead
“Lucky”
From Dead to Worse
“Gift Wrap”
Dead and Gone
“Two Blondes”
Dead in the Family
“Small-Town Wedding”
Dead Reckoning
“If I Had a Hammer”
TRUE BLOOD
The end of 2006 brought a new dimension to the popularity of Sookie Stackhouse when it was announced that Alan Ball and HBO had contracted to turn the popular books into the television series True Blood. Fans on the website spent the next year closely following the casting and filming information as they eagerly anticipated their first view of the Sookieverse brought to life.
First scheduled to premiere in March 2008, the pilot was delayed by a screenwriters’ strike until September of that year. Almost immediately, the series caught the fancy not only of established book fans but of viewers new to the story of the Louisiana bar waitress and her undead boyfriend. Hits on the Charlaine Harris website exploded within a day of the September 7, 2008, debut, as True Blood viewers flocked there to discuss the characters and the story in such numbers that the site was overwhelmed. New fans sought out the books upon which the series was based, and soon all of the published books in the Sookie Stackhouse series were simultaneously in the top twenty-five paperbacks on the New York Times bestseller lists.
THE HARPER CONNELLY SERIES
With the release of Grave Site in 2005, Charlaine introduced us to a new heroine, Harper Connelly, and her stepbrother, Tolliver Lang. The series was quickly embraced by fans for its quirky characters and darker, noir-like feel. Although the books and characters were popular with readers, Charlaine felt that the story was told, and the series ended with the publication of the fourth book in the series, Grave Secret, in 2009.
CHARLAINE AND HER FANS
Charlaine has commented that she has “the greatest readers in the world.” Her close relationship with fans led her to establish a website in 2001. Increasing fan usage soon made it obvious that a more flexible site would be needed, and in March 2004, charlaineharris.com became the place where fans could meet to discuss her books and characters, read her weekly blog and book review column, learn of her touring schedule, and share everything from recipes to prayer requests. Charlaine’s willingness to visit the website daily and interact with her fans, and her obvious enjoyment of her readers in personal appearances, led to the establishment by fans of her official fan club, Charlaine’s Charlatans, in 2006. The fan club voted that its first goal was to help Charlaine reach the number one spot on the New York Times hardback bestseller list. In May 2009, Dead and Gone, the ninth book in the series, debuted in the number one spot on the New York Times hardcover bestseller list. Charlaine’s fan club was thrilled!
As True Blood enters its fourth hit season and the Sookie Stackhouse series continues, Charlaine’s earlier series are experiencing a rebirth. Fans who have been enchanted with Sookie are now turning to Aurora, Lily, and Harper, and finding that these other stories are just as compelling and the characters as fresh as they were when first introduced. Charlaine continues to develop new characters and offer new pleasures for readers all over the world.
Recollections Around the Duckpond
Fan clubs are very dangerous things. I should know; I started one, and my life will never be the same.
My story began fifty years ago with my best friend Ellen and I playing our favorite game—school. Since Ellen was four years older, she got to be the teacher, and a terror she was! As the hapless student, if I didn’t learn my spelling words, Ellen would energetically apply her ruler to my backside. I was soon a most exemplary student and kept my excellent study habits for the remainder of my life. The greatest tribute to Ellen’s tenacious teaching style was that by the time I was five years old I could read at first-grade level. Doors began opening in my mind, and reading became my greatest pleasure and one I pursued voraciously. Ironically, Ellen now works for the IRS and continues, at least metaphorically, to apply her ruler.