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- Author interview - |
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| Nobody's Fool: An Interview with Charlaine Harris By Susan McBride  Don't let the smooth drawl fool you.Charlaine Harris may talk with that slow Southern rhythm, but she's a woman on the fast track in the world of whodunits. Not only does she write the well-liked Aurora Teagarden cozies, but she's the mastermind behind the popular darker-edged Shakespeare series featuring the brooding housecleaner Lily Bard. Her latest in that line Shakespeare's Trollop is an August release from St. Martin's. Her last Aurora book A Fool and His Honey is now out in paperback and has generated lots of steam from fans (more on that below).  As if doing double-duty isn't enough, Charlaine has been contracted to write a third series for Ace/Berkley, this one a mystery that involves vampires and humor. The first book called DEAD UNTIL DARK will be published under her real name, not a nom de plume, so fans won't get confused.In her other life as a wife and mother, she contends with orthodontists, soccer games, broken bones, thieving ferrets, and all the rest of the fun that goes with having kids and pets. So, with her unbelievably busy schedule, how does this femme fatale find time to write? Charlaine briefly put aside both real-life and fiction so I could find out her secret. SUSAN McBRIDE - How do you write all these books and take care of your family, too? I'm in awe. What kind of schedule do you set up for yourself and how hard is it to meet deadlines? CHARLAINE HARRIS - The answer is: Don't do anything as well as I would if I didn't have so much to do. I work from about 7:30 in the morning (after I get back from lifting weights) to around 11:30. Sometimes I go back in the afternoon and work for an hour or two. I haven't missed a deadline yet, but I suppose that day will come. Let's talk about the latest book, Shakespeare's Trollop. That's quite an intriguing title. Tell us what it's about and how you came up with that one. All the Lily Bard books have Shakespeare in the title (so far) and the second word of the title indicates the murder victim in the book. Of course, the series exception is SHAKESPEARE'S CHRISTMAS. I picked trollop out of all the words I could have used to describe Deedra Dean because it just had more oomph. The Lily Bard novels are so different from the Aurora Teagarden ones, slightly edgier and more dangerous. Do you feel like a split personality sometimes, working on two disparate series? Actually, it's a relief to go from one to the other, since each series lets me express a different part of my personality. It does become difficult not to infiltrate. A FOOL AND HIS HONEY, the last Aurora book, was absolutely my favorite. Yet, you have fans who felt quite the opposite. What is it about A FOOL that you think has provoked such extreme reactions? Thanks for enjoying it and for telling me so. It's been quite a year, getting approached by people in public and being verbally flayed. A lot of women had bonded with the character who died in the book. They were unhappy with my choice and unhappy that Aurora had to go through so much misery. Most women expressed what I considered a reasonable amount of disappointment, but a couple really went over the edge. Clue is in on your new humorous vampire mystery that was just sold to Ace. What's that about? DEAD UNTIL DARK is indeed a humorous vampire mystery, and it was just so much fun to write. It's about a barmaid in Louisiana named Sookie Stackhouse whose life has been ruined by the fact that she's telepathic. Then she meets the one man whose mind she can't read, and of course, she has to fall for him in a big way. Unfortunately for Sookie, he's a vampire - though (in my universe) there are lots of vampires in big cities. In Bon Temps, Louisiana, there's quite a lot of prejudice against the undead. Then women who have been intimate with vampires start turning up dead. Guess who might be next? With so much going on in your career and life, what do you do to relax? Do you read for pleasure? Any favorite authors? I lift weights. I read. I used to enjoy cooking, but that's ebbed, and I used to enjoy yardwork, but that's not such a favorite any more. Reading has always been my absolute favorite thing to do from the time I could hold a book. My favorite author is Jane Austen, and I think my second favorite would have to be Shirley Jackson. There are so many people I like in the mystery genre, I would be hard-pressed to narrow my list; and I'm always finding new authors to add to it. This past year, for example, I started reading Lauren Henderson and Katy Munger, both very interesting writers. How do you keep yourself enthused about your writing? I remember that I have three kids to send through college. What was it that made you realize you were a writer? Was it something you knew from a young age? What was your first published effort? I knew I wanted to be a writer when I was in the fourth grade. I began writing poems, mostly about ghosts, so I had an early taste for the macabre. I've had remarkable good luck in my career. My first published book was the first book I wrote, a stand-alone mystery called SWEET AND DEADLY. It was published by Houghton-Mifflin about twenty years ago. What goals do you set for yourself? Have you met most of them? My goal is to survive in the complex publishing world of today. I do have financial goals that I haven't met, but I suppose everyone does. And of course, I'd like to win an award: Edgar, Agatha - or any other award. Anything else you'd like readers to know about you? I really enjoy what I do, and I hope other people end up enjoying it, too. How can readers contact you? Via email at: duckpond@arkansas.net |
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