Charlaine Harris: Deadlocked

Deadlocked: A Sookie Stackhouse Novel

Sookie Stackhouse [12]

Charlaine Harris

Ace Books (2012)

Rating:

***

It’s vampire politics as usual around the town of Bon Temps, but never before have they hit so close to Sookie’s heart…

Growing up with telepathic abilities, Sookie Stackhouse realized early on there were things she’d rather not know. And now that she’s an adult,she also realizes that some things she knows about, she’d rather not see—like Eric Northman feeding off another woman. A younger one.

There’s a thing or two she’d like to say about that, but she has to keep quiet—Felipe de Castro, the Vampire King of Louisiana (and Arkansasand Nevada), is in town. It’s the worst possible time for a human body to show up in Eric’s front yard—especially the body of the woman whoseblood he just drank.

Now, it’s up to Sookie and Bill, the official Area Five investigator, to solve the murder. Sookie thinks that, at least this time, the dead girl’s fatehas nothing to do with her. But she is wrong. She has an enemy, one far more devious than she would ever suspect, who’s set out to makeSookie’s world come crashing down.

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A conversation with Charlaine Harris, best-selling author of Deadlocked, and Laurell K. Hamilton, best-selling author of Kiss the Dead

Question: Did you ever imagine that your series would run as long as it has?

Charlaine Harris:I was just glad to sell the first book. It took two years of my agent sending it out to get a bite. I never even dreamed that Sookiewould be so popular, that I would find so much to say about her and her world.

Laurell K. Hamilton:No. I had over two hundred rejections for the first Anita Blake novel. They were the nicest rejections, with editorssuggesting other publishing houses to send it to, but they, themselves, couldn't figure out how to market it. When I got that first three bookcontract, I remember thinking, "Well, at least I'll get to write three of them." I actually did think I had at least ten books in Anita and her world, but Idon't think anyone can plan to write twenty-one novels in a series and still be excited about starting the twenty-second.

Did you ever dream paranormal would be this hot?

LKH:I remember being told that mixed genre didn't sell, before the term paranormal became a genre. I was also told that no one wanted toread about vampires. More than one editor told me that particular monster was dead and gone. I thought there was life left in the old legends,but I never saw this level of popularity coming.

CH:Yes, even my agent didn't expect Dead Until Dark would be an easy sel , maybe especial y since my books contained a lot of humor.

Vampires were passé, and books that crossed genres (Except for yours: I think you had three or four books out when I wrote the first Sookie, and I was so glad to discover them!) were cal ed "unshelvable.’ I could never have anticipated shelves and shelves of cross-genre books.

Does fan response play a part in your planning process?

CH:Not in the sense of changing plot direction in my novels. This is my story to tell, and I have to write it the way I see it. But every now andthen when reader response to a character is unexpectedly enthusiastic--or the opposite--I'll take a second look at that character to see whyhe/she is coming across in a way I didn't expect or anticipate.

LKH:I don't change plot direction for fan reaction either. My story, my world, my books, my stuff, my way. The only people who can change thedirection of my novels are my characters. It's their life, after all, so if they're really insistent on a different plot, then they win. I agree that readerresponse to a character can make me puzzle over them more, but it doesn't usually change how often the character is on stage, or how big theirrole is, because weirdly if the fans are interested, then I'm already intrigued. Best example is Edward who started out as this cold bloodedassassin, almost a bad guy, and now he's one of Anita's best friends, and he's a U. S. Marshal. So, not what I had planned for him.

Have you ever had a character totally surprise you with their choices?

LKH:A lot of my characters have minds of their own. Edward went away on his own and got himself engaged to a woman with two children fromher first marriage. Edward-- assassin, ex-military, current police officer, taking a six-year-old to ballet lessons with all the other moms bothamuses and hurts my head. Anita's love life went into a completely different direction than I'd ever anticipated. I so didn't see Anita dating thismany men, or being in love with more than one man, and having everyone she loved okay with that.

CH:I've discovered some surprising things about my characters as I wrote them. I know that their minds are really my mind, but sometimes itdoesn't feel that way. It's like knowing a character has a secret (I'm thinking of Bill), and then suddenly realizing what that secret is. I wasgenuinely aghast. Sometimes my creative brain thinks a lot faster than my conscious brain. And it's certainly a lot more devious.

How do you keep a world with paranormal elements credible?

CH:I anchored my skewed world with real-life elements. Sookie has to pay her bills, she has to do her laundry, and she has family obligations.

My vampires buy their clothes at the mall. My werewolf runs a surveying business. One of my fairies works in customer service at a departmentstore. Readers seem to enjoy the fact that no matter what creature you may be, there's a process of surviving that has to be gone through; butthere's all these other elements that make that process so different.

LKH:I make sure any real life facts are as real and well-researched as possible. Because I'm asking people to believe in vampires,wereanimals, and zombies, I need to make sure the guns, cars, and real crime are as realistic as possible. Once a reader catches me wrong inan area where they are expert they won't believe my monsters are real. But I have found if I'm right on the hard facts even experts will let mefudge, or take that next fantastic leap, because I've proven myself by laying the foundation of reality to make my leap into the unknown.

Do people ever expect you to be your characters?

LKH:If I had known people would get confused between fiction and fact I'd have made Anita look less like me, but it just never occurred to methat there would be a problem. I've had fans want to know what weapons I'm carrying. They assume all the men are based on real people, andthey aren't. I don't actually base characters on real people. Since I can't lighten Anita's hair, I've lightened my own and I get less fan confusion.

I've had fans ask for the phone numbers of the men and get angry when I tried to explain I couldn't give them the contact info for a fictionalcharacter.