Library Assistant Hannah is passionate about books and reading. In the latest blog in the series, Hannah chats to writer Charlaine Harris. This year marks Charlaine Harris’ forty second year as a published writer. She’s a regular on the New York Times bestseller list and her books have sold over 39 million copies worldwide.
Harris is a horror and mystery writer whose novels have a distinctive Southern setting and are often full of dark humour. Her series include the Sookie Stackhouse urban fantasies which were the inspiration for the HBO drama True Blood. The fifth instalment of her Gunnie Rose series, set in an alternative wild west, was released this year.
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Hannah: I love the way you write, I can easily read your books in a day, I just have to know what will happen next! Is this something you’ve learned along the way, or something you’re naturally gifted at?
Charlaine: Something of both, I think. The first thing a writer has to do is read and read and read, before you even begin putting your own plots on the screen. You learn as you read.
Sookie Stackhouse is one of your most iconic characters; how did it feel ending the series?
It was sad and happy at the same time. I loved writing about her life and adventures, but I came to feel I’d told her story and it was time to wrap it up and move on.
I really enjoyed watching True Blood. Did you have much input into the series, which was quite different from the books, or did you let the showrunners do their own thing?
There was no “let” about it. The writing team for the show was quite talented, and they had their own directions they wanted to take with the characters and the plot. My input was in creating the world and many of the characters. After that, the show was their baby.
Your Harper Connelly series about a woman who develops powers after she’s struck by lightning is also very hard to put down; how did the idea come to you? Was there a lot of research involved in the effects of lightning strikes?
I became interesting in lightning first, and then the character came after. I did a lot of research. I was on a Listserv for people who had been lightning-struck and that was a real eye-opener. They had such a grab-bag of symptoms afterward, and had such a hard time getting doctors to take them seriously.
Are you working on anything at the moment?
I’m always working, though slower than I used to. I wrote a short story for “Heroic Hearts” and for the StoryknifeWriters Retreat, and now I’m working on the next Gunnie Rose. I don’t have a title yet, and it’s making me crazy.
Do you prefer to write series to standalone novels? If so, why do you think that is?
There are rewards in both. I like to reuse characters, because I get to develop them as I move through a series. I don’t have to reinvent the wheel. On the other hand, a standalone can be like a shopping spree – if you like it, you throw it in the basket.
You have also edited some anthologies as well; what’s the process for that?
When I edit, it’s almost always in tandem with my friend Toni Kelner (Leigh Perry). We got into a wonderful rhythm with the anthologies we worked on together. Toni has great judgment and caught things I didn’t, and I picked up on things she didn’t, so between us I think we provided a good edit. We loved making our dream list of contributors, too. It was like Christmas all the time.
Do you plan your books carefully, or just see where the story and the characters take you?
I don’t plan diddly-squat, though I may know how the book will end, or I may know a good bit in the middle or the beginning. That’s my strength and my weakness.
Which writers inspire you?
There are so many. I have to say my earliest influences were Shirley Jackson, Jane Austen, Agatha Christie, Ed McBain, Adam Hall, Mary Renault, and CS Forrester... a very diverse bunch of writers.
What are your favourite books?
Too many to mention, but I’ll try to name a few: Daniel O’Malley’s The Rook, Anne Bishop’s Written in Red, Jodi Taylor’s One Damned Thinf After Another, Johnny Shaw’s Dove Season, anything by Robert Crais, anything by Patricia Briggs. Ask me tomorrow, and I can give you a completely different list and mean it just as much.
Are you a library member?
I was until I started making real money, and the treat I gave myself then was that I could buy any book I wanted. That was (and still is) my big indulgence. For all my previous years I had been to the library every week. My mom was a librarian. I take a lot of my books to the local library if I think I won’t read them again.
Did you always know you wanted to be a writer?
Yes, I did. I was such a reader as a child (my whole family enjoyed reading, which was a great example for me), and it seemed to me it would be the most glorious thing in the world to be able to point to a book and say, “I wrote that.”
Do you have any tips for aspiring writers?
I do, but it sounds pretty boring. You have to sit in the chair and write and FINISH it. No bobbing from idea to idea. Until you finish your work, you will never be a writer.
