Author Spotlight: Charlaine Harris

Charlaine Harris has been a published novelist for over twenty-five years. A native of the Mississippi Delta, she grew up in the middle of a cotton field. Now she lives in southern Arkansas with her husband, her three children, three dogs, and a duck.

After publishing two stand-alone mysteries, Harris decided to establish a series. She began the lighthearted Aurora Teagarden books with Real Murders, which garnered an Agatha Best Novel nomination in 1990.

Soon Charlaine was looking for another challenge, and the result was the much darker Lily Bard series. The books, set in Shakespeare, Arkansas, feature a heroine who has survived a terrible attack and is learning to live with its consequences.

After Shakespeare, Harris created an entirely new series for release in 2001. The Southern Vampire Mysteries is about a telepathic barmaid in northern Louisianna named Sookie Stuckhouse. The first book in the series, Dead Until Dark, won the Anthony Award for Best Paperback Mystery in 2001. Each book follows Sookie as she tries to solve mysteries involving vampires, werewolves, and other creatures of the night. The series has gathered a strong following with its unique blend of mystery, humor, romance, and the supernatural.the eightenth, From Dead To Worse was released in May 2008.

Sookie Stackhouse has proven to be so popular that Alan Ball, creator of the acclaimed HBO television series Six Feet Ynder, announced he would undertake the production of a new HBO series based upon the Southern Vampire Mysteries. He also wrote and directed the pilot episode for the series, "True Blood", which premiered on HBO.

October 2005 marked the debut of Harris's new series about a young woman named Harper Connelly, with the release of Grave Sight. Harper's been struck by Lightning and the experience has left her with a strange ability: she can find corpses and see how they died. Afterward, Harper and her step-brother, Tolliver Lang, make their living from finding the dead. Like her past novels, the Harper Connelly books are mysteries set in the sleepy south.

Professionally, Harris is a member of the Mystery writers of America and the American Crime Writers League. She is a member of the board of Sisters in crime. A former weightlifter and Karate student, she is an avid reader and cinemaphile. She is also a member of the vestry of St. James Episcopal Church.