The Sookie Stackhouse Companion

that she could see our support in the dim light of the banquet hall. Charlaine later told us how much it meant to have us in attendance.
    Few members expected the events of September 2008. Familiar with what transpired on Jim Butcher’s board when the Dresden Files television show premiered, I had spoken online with our webmistress about what might happen on Charlaine’s board after the premiere of True Blood . None of us, Charlaine included, were prepared, however, for the explosion that actually took place. Within a day of the September 7, 2008, debut, the board was overwhelmed. True Blood fans flocked to the board to discuss the characters and the story, and many came to join the fan club. New readers sought out the books on which the series was based, and soon all eight of the published books in the Sookie Stackhouse series were simultaneously in the top twenty-five paperbacks on the New York Times bestseller list.
    This tremendous influx of new fans soon made it evident that the fan club could not continue in its original form. By the end of 2008, Charlaine’s Charlatans became a completely online club and ceased to operate as a conventional fan club. Our support for Charlaine continued, though, and the Charlatans were thrilled in May 2009 when the ninth book in the Sookie series, Dead and Gone , premiered at number one on the New York Times hardcover bestseller list. Charlaine’s Charlatans initial stated goal had been achieved.
    Several of us met again at the 2009 Dragon Con in Atlanta, Georgia. Charlaine was appearing, and we planned a gathering in which many new fans would be in attendance. The night before the event, a group of old friends were sitting around a table on the sidewalk outside a busy restaurant long after dinner was eaten, sharing memories and laughing. We were compiling a trivia contest for the meeting the next day and having a few beers and a lot of fun. It was warm and comfortable and absolutely right . Soon I would leave to return to Florida; another member would return to Texas; two each to Maryland, Pennsylvania, and California; and one would remain in Georgia—so many friends brought together by admiration of one special person. Charlaine Harris is the catalyst that brought us together and the inspiration that forged us into a formidable unit. As the Charlatans move forward into the future, we will continue to support Charlaine and enjoy the opportunities that arise to strengthen the bonds of friendship that have come to mean so much to us all.

Charlaine Harris Answers Questions from Her Fans
    T hanks to all of you for your enthusiastic response to the opportunity to ask me questions. If I didn’t get to answer your specific question, I apologize in advance for your disappointment. Here’s the selection process we followed: BFF Paula, my invaluable best friend and assistant, sorted the questions into categories. She discarded some of the duplicates, since obviously there was no point in my reading the same thing over and over. I read all her choices, and I narrowed the field down to about fifty questions. Then I eliminated a few more after a second winnowing. This wasn’t an easy process, so let me explain why I chose to answer some and not others.
    First, if I thought the answer was already in the books, I felt it would be a waste of my time to reply to the question. Second, if I knew the answer would be included in future books . . . I put those aside, too, for the most part. Third, if the question was based on the television show mythology rather than the book mythology, of course I wasn’t going to venture my opinion.
    Some questions I bypassed simply because I didn’t know the answer, or because I hadn’t made up my mind yet. In some cases, the development of the books’ mythology hadn’t led me to a conclusion on the correct response, and in other cases, I simply don’t know yet if (for example) Eric’s other child will be a factor in Sookie’s story.
    I’ve corrected some of the spelling and a bit of the punctuation in some of these questions. I’m compelled to do that.
    So, here goes.
     
     
     
    Since the True Blood TV series began, do you picture your characters as the actors? I mean, when you’re writing about Sookie, do you picture Anna Paquin? Or in your head do they just look the way you’ve always thought of them?
    —KIM HAMBLETON
     
    They look the way I’ve always thought of them. I’ve been writing the books much longer than the show has been