Charlaine Harris: Deadlocked

CH:Ha! Well, I'm much older and rounder than Sookie, so I'm definitely no stand-in for Sookie. In fact, readers who have never met me beforeare usually astonished when they meet me; so were the actors on True Blood . Some of my readers who came to me after watching True Blood get the characters in the books sort of conflated with the actors who play them on television. In their minds, Alexander Skarsgard IS Eric, Stephen Moyer IS Bil . It can lead to some confusing questions when I'm at signings.

What scenes in your novels are the most fun for you to write? Action? Sex? Relationship drama?

CH:All of those are fun, depending on the outcome! But I have to say, I love to write a good fight scene. I find the "relationship" scenes achallenge. When people talk about their relationships, it's a messy conversation. People aren't too articulate about their innermost feelings.

And such conversations don't proceed in a linear way, but jag back and forth as each speaker voices the issues that are most important to thatperson. So it's hard to make sound realistic, coherent, and yet condense such a conversation enough to make it tolerable.

LKH:It depends on my mood. Sometimes a good fight scene can be very therapeutic, and give a productive outlet for negative emotions. Themore people involved in the action the more complex the fight choreography can become, and that can be a challenge, and slow down theemotional content for me. I enjoy doing sex scenes, but they are a different kind of challenge. On a day when I can get in the mood for thescene, they’re great, but on a day when real life interferes, it’s a bit like real sex. It’s hard to concentrate on it when you have too manyinterruptions from the non-sexy side of your life. I guess that’s true of all writing, though, too many interruptions disrupt the process in general.

The biggest challenge for the sex scenes is that sex is a very personal and individual activity, so I have the same girl involved, but differentmen and I want each man’s style to be unique. Relationship drama? Yuck, can I just say, yuck again? This kind of drama isn’t fun in real life andthe only thing that makes fictional relationship drama tolerable is that it’s fictional, and I’m not having to endure it in my real life, but other thanthat it sucks just as much. It also tends to complicate my life as a writer, because almost nothing screws up a story arc like relationship choices,though I have had action scenes go so differently from what I’d planned that an entire third of a book had to be thrown out. It was a better book forit, but still, near deadline that was hard.

What’s the hardest thing about writing such a long running series?

LKH:The beginning of the book is easy, because you always want that to be interesting and lure in both old and new readers. It’s the middle ofthe book that becomes more complicated. As a writer you always have to think that you may have brand new readers picking up your book, soyou have to explain the characters, the world, everything, but you don’t want to over explain to the long time readers. The other problem with aseries is that each book needs to stand alone as much as possible, but you also want character growth and world development from novel tonovel, so again, it’s a balancing act. I make sure that each opening is different enough that you won’t be left wondering, did I read that already.

It’s an issue I’ve had with other series that I read. It gets very challenging when you get in double digits to make everything fresh, but familiar. I’mlucky that I’m still discovering new things about Anita, Jean-Claude, Edward, Nathaniel, everyone, and the world continues to grow and surpriseme. My fictional world is like the real one, I never know quite what’s coming next.

CH:The hardest thing is keeping track of previous developments and details. My memory just wasn't up to it, and I had to hire someone (thefabulous Victoria Koski). When you create a world, there are a thousand small things that make it credible, and it's easier than you'd think toforget whether someone is a werefox or a werelynx, or whether it's still daytime during the narrative or if you've passed into darkness. I think it'simportant to catch as many little errors as you can, so readers don't get yanked out of the world. I'm not the kind of reader who notices, but thereare many readers who do.

Photo Laurell K. Hamilton © Stefan Hester

Photo Charlaine Harris © Sigrid Estrada

Review

“Harris is a master at taking several paranormal worlds and plunging them into our reality with humor.” *Tulsa World

“The Sookie Stackhouse series seamlessly mixes sensuality, violence and humor as readers experience the people of small-town Louisianathrough Sookie’s eyes.” Boulder Weekly*

DEADLOCKED

Ace Books by Charlaine Harris

The Sookie Stackhouse Novels

DE A D UNT IL DA RK

LIV ING DE A D IN DA LLA S

CLUB DE A D

DE A D T O T HE W ORLD

DE A D A S A DOORNA IL

DE FINIT E LY DE A D

A LL T OGE T HE R DE A D

FROM DE A D T O W ORS E

DE A D A ND GONE

DE A D IN T HE FA MILY

DE A D RE CK ONING

DE A DLOCK E D

A T OUCH OF DE A D: S OOK IE S T A CK HOUS E ,

T HE COMP LE T E S T ORIE S

Ace Books Edited by Charlaine Harris

T HE S OOK IE S T A CK HOUS E COMP A NION

Ace Anthologies Edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L. P. Kelner

MA NY B LOODY RE T URNS

W OLFS B A NE A ND MIS T LE T OE

DE A T H’ S E X CE LLE NT V A CA T ION

HOME IMP ROV E ME NT : UNDE A D E DIT ION

Berkley Prime Crime Books by Charlaine Harris

S W E E T A ND DE A DLY

A S E CRE T RA GE

The Harper Connelly Mysteries

GRA V E S IGHT

GRA V E S URP RIS E

A N ICE COLD GRA V E

GRA V E S E CRE T

The Lily Bard Mysteries

S HA K E S P E A RE ’ S LA NDLORD

S HA K E S P E A RE ’ S CHA MP ION

S HA K E S P E A RE ’ S CHRIS T MA S

S HA K E S P E A RE ’ S T ROLLOP

S HA K E S P E A RE ’ S COUNS E LOR

The Aurora Teagarden Mysteries

RE A L MURDE RS

A B ONE T O P ICK

T HRE E B E DROOMS , ONE CORP S E

T HE J ULIUS HOUS E

DE A D OV E R HE E LS

A FOOL A ND HIS HONE Y

LA S T S CE NE A LIV E

P OP P Y DONE T O DE A T H

Berkley Prime Crime Anthologies Edited by Charlaine Harris

CRIME S B Y MOONLIGHT

DEADLOCKED

Charlaine Harris

THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP

Published by the Penguin Group

Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA

Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) • Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England • Penguin Group Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.) • Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.) • Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi—