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Charlaine Harris

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Charlaine Harris
BornCharlaine Harris
(1951-11-25) November 25, 1951 (age 72)
Tunica, Mississippi, U.S.
OccupationNovelist
Alma materRhodes College
GenreMystery fiction / Southern Gothic
Notable worksThe Southern Vampire Mysteries / True Blood
Notable awardsLord Ruthven Award (2003 and 2018)
Inkpot Award (2010)[1]
Spouse
Hal Schulz
​
(m. 1978)​
[2]
Children3[2]
Website
www.charlaineharris.com

Charlaine Harris Schulz (born November 25, 1951) is an American author who specializes in mysteries.[3] She is best known for her book series The Southern Vampire Mysteries, which was adapted as the TV series True Blood. The television show was a critical and financial success for HBO, running seven seasons, from 2008 through 2014.[4]

Harris was born and raised in a small town in the Mississippi River Delta area of the United States. She lives in Texas with her husband; they have three children.[3] She began writing from an early age, and changed from playwriting in college to writing and publishing mysteries, including several long series featuring recurring characters.

Life and career

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Harris was born and grew up in Tunica, Mississippi, in the Mississippi Delta. In her early work she wrote poems about ghosts and teenage angst. She began writing plays while attending Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. Her most recent mysteries have been in the urban fantasy genre.

After publishing two stand-alone mysteries, Harris began the lighthearted Aurora Teagarden books with Real Murders, nominated as a Best Novel 1990 for the Agatha Awards. Harris wrote several books in the series before the mid-1990s, when she began branching out into other works.[4] She did not resume the series until 1999, with the exception of one short story in a Murder, She Wrote anthology titled "Murder, They Wrote".

In 1996, Harris published the first in the Shakespeare series, featuring cleaning lady detective Lily Bard, set in rural Arkansas. At the time, a New York Times interview with Harris noted that she "live[d] in small-town Arkansas".[4] The fifth book in the series, Shakespeare's Counselor, was published in fall 2001, followed by the short story "Dead Giveaway", published in the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine in December 2001. Harris has said she is finished with that series.

Next Harris created The Southern Vampire Mysteries series, about a telepathic waitress named Sookie Stackhouse who works in a Northern Louisiana bar.[4] The first book, 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 supernatural creatures.[4] The series has been published in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Spain, Greece, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy, Argentina, Poland, Serbia, Brazil, Great Britain, Ireland, Mexico, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Lithuania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Portugal, Iceland, Czech Republic, Romania, Estonia, and Israel. Harris wrote thirteen novels in the series; the last, Dead Ever After, was published in May 2013.[5] A supplemental book, After Dead, was published in October 2013.[6] The second novel, Living Dead in Dallas, won the 2003 Lord Ruthven Award for Fiction,[7] and the anthology The Complete Sookie Stackhouse Stories won the 2018 Ruthven Award for Fiction.[8]

October 2005 marked the debut of Harris's new series, entitled Harper Connelly Mysteries, with the release of Grave Sight. The series is told by a young woman named Harper Connelly, who after being struck by lightning, is able to locate dead bodies and to see their last moments through the eyes of the deceased.[9] In October 2010, it was announced Harper Connelly's series had been optioned for a television series named Grave Sight.

The year 2014 marked the debut of the Cemetery Girl series, a graphic novel series co-written with Christopher Golden and illustrated by Don Kramer.[10]

Harris is a member of the Mystery Writers of America and the American Crime Writers League,[11] as well as a member of the board of Sisters in Crime, and alternated with Joan Hess as president of the Arkansas Mystery Writers Alliance until Hess' death in 2017.

Personal life

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Harris has long been married. She and her husband have three grown children and two grandchildren.[4] She is a former weightlifter and karate student,[12] she is also an avid reader and cinemaphile. Harris formerly resided in Magnolia, Arkansas, where she was the senior warden of St. James Episcopal Church,[4][13] and as of 2017 lives in Texas.[14]

Bibliography

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Aurora Teagarden series (1990–present)

[edit]
  1. Real Murders (1990) ISBN 0-8027-5769-3
  2. A Bone to Pick (1992) ISBN 0-8027-1245-2
  3. Three Bedrooms, One Corpse (1994) ISBN 0-684-19643-3
  4. The Julius House (1995) ISBN 0-684-19640-9
  5. Dead Over Heels (1996) ISBN 0-684-80429-8
  6. "Deeply Dead" in Murder, They Wrote
  7. A Fool and His Honey (1999) ISBN 0-312-20306-3
  8. Last Scene Alive (2002) ISBN 0-312-26246-9
  9. Poppy Done to Death (2003) ISBN 0-312-27764-4
  10. All the Little Liars (2016) ISBN 1250090032
  11. Sleep Like a Baby (2017) ISBN 978-1-250-09006-5

Lily Bard (Shakespeare) series (1996–2001)

[edit]
  1. Shakespeare's Landlord (1996) ISBN 0-312-14415-6
  2. Shakespeare's Champion (1997) ISBN 0-312-17005-X
  3. Shakespeare's Christmas (1998) ISBN 0-312-19330-0
  4. Shakespeare's Trollop (2000) ISBN 0-312-26228-0
  5. Shakespeare's Counselor (2001) 0-312-27762-8
5.1. "Dead Giveaway" published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine (December 2001)

Sookie Stackhouse series (2001–2014)

[edit]

For more detailed information see The Southern Vampire Mysteries/True Blood.

# Title Also In Publication Date ISBN Comments
1 Dead Until Dark Sookie Stackhouse 8 Copy Boxed Set May 2001 ISBN 0-441-00853-4
2 Living Dead in Dallas Sookie Stackhouse 8 Copy Boxed Set Mar 2002 ISBN 0-441-00923-9
3 Club Dead Sookie Stackhouse 8 Copy Boxed Set May 2003 ISBN 0-441-00923-9
4 Dead to the World Sookie Stackhouse 8 Copy Boxed Set Mar 2004 ISBN 0-441-01167-5
4.1 Fairy Dust Powers of Detection

A Touch of Dead

The Complete Sookie Stackhouse Stories

4.2 Dracula Night Many Bloody Returns

A Touch of Dead

The Complete Sookie Stackhouse Stories

4.3 Dancers in the Dark Night's Edge novella
5 Dead as a Doornail Sookie Stackhouse 8 Copy Boxed Set May 2005 ISBN 0-441-01279-5
5.1 One Word Answer Bite

A Touch of Dead

The Complete Sookie Stackhouse Stories

6 Definitely Dead Sookie Stackhouse 8 Copy Boxed Set May 2006 ISBN 0-441-01400-3
6.1 Tacky My Big, Fat Supernatural Wedding Dahlia short story[15]
7 All Together Dead Sookie Stackhouse 8 Copy Boxed Set May 2007 ISBN 0-441-01494-1
7.1 Lucky Unusual Suspects

Between the Dark and Daylight

A Touch of Dead

The Complete Sookie Stackhouse Stories

8 From Dead to Worse Sookie Stackhouse 8 Copy Boxed Set May 2008 ISBN 0-441-01589-1
8.1 Gift Wrap Wolfsbane and Mistletoe

A Touch of Dead

The Complete Sookie Stackhouse Stories

8.2 Bacon Strange Brew makes an offhand reference to Jim Butcher's wizard, Harry Dresden;

a Dahlia short story[15]

9 Dead and Gone May 2009 ISBN 0-441-01715-0
9.1 The Britlingens Go to Hell Must Love Hellhounds[15]
9.2 Dahlia Underground Crimes by Moonlight takes place during All Together Dead;

a Dahlia short story[15]

10 Dead in the Family May 2010
10.1 Two Blondes Death's Excellent Vacation

The Complete Sookie Stackhouse Stories

10.2 Small-Town Wedding The Sookie Stackhouse Companion'[16]'

The Complete Sookie Stackhouse Stories

novella
10.3 A Very Vampire Christmas Glamour Magazine Dec 2010 a Dahlia short story[15][17]
11 Dead Reckoning May 2011
11.1 Death by Dahlia Down These Strange Streets a Dahlia short story[15][18]
12 Deadlocked May 2012
12.1 If I Had a Hammer Home Improvement: Undead Edition

The Complete Sookie Stackhouse Stories

12.2 Playing Possum An Apple for the Creature

The Complete Sookie Stackhouse Stories

13 Dead Ever After May 2013 The final Sookie Stackhouse novel[5]
13.1 The Blue Hereafter Games Creatures Play

The Complete Sookie Stackhouse Stories

14 After Dead: What Came Next The World of Sookie Stackhouse October 29, 2013[6]
15 Dead But Not Forgotten: Stories from the World of Sookie Stackhouse November 25, 2014

Harper Connelly series (2005–2009)

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  1. Grave Sight (2005) ISBN 0-425-20568-1
  2. Grave Surprise (2006) ISBN 0-425-21203-3
  3. An Ice Cold Grave (2007) ISBN 0-425-21729-9
  4. Grave Secret (2009) ISBN 0-441-01830-0; ISBN 978-0-441-01830-7

Graphic novels

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  1. Grave Sight Part 1 (June 2011) ISBN 1-60690-229-6, 978-1-60690-229-5
  2. Grave Sight Part 2 (November 2011) ISBN 1606902393, 978-1606902394
  3. Grave Sight Part 3 (March 2012) ISBN 1606902695, 978-1606902691

Cemetery Girl series (with Christopher Golden)

[edit]
  1. Book One: The Pretenders (2014) ISBN 978-0-857-38908-4.[19]
  2. Book Two: Inheritance (2015) ISBN 978-0425256671
  3. Book Three: Haunted (2018)

Midnight, Texas Trilogy (2014–2016)

[edit]
  1. Midnight Crossroad (May 2014)
  2. Day Shift (May 2015)
  3. Night Shift (May 2016)

Gunnie Rose series

[edit]
  1. An Easy Death (2018)
  2. A Longer Fall (2020)
  3. The Russian Cage (2021)
  4. The Serpent in Heaven (2022)
  5. All the Dead Shall Weep (2023)

Stand-alones

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  • Sweet and Deadly (1981) ISBN 0-395-30532-2. Republished in the UK as Dead Dog
  • A Secret Rage (1984) ISBN 0-395-35323-8
  • Layla Steps Up (2010)
  • A Taste of True Blood (2010)
  • Indigo (2017)

Anthologies and collections

[edit]
Anthology or Collection Contents Publication Date ISBN Comments
Murder, They Wrote "Deeply Dead" 1997 ISBN 1-57297-194-0
Powers of Detection "Fairy Dust" Oct 2004
Night's Edge "Dancers in the Dark" Oct 2004 ISBN 0-373-77010-3
Bite "One Word Answer" Sep 2005
My Big, Fat Supernatural Wedding Tacky Oct 2006 ISBN 0-312-34360-4
Many Bloody Returns "Dracula Night" Sep 2007
Blood Lite "An Evening with Al Gore" Oct 2008 ISBN 1-4165-6783-6
Wolfsbane and Mistletoe "Gift Wrap" Oct 2008
Unusual Suspects "Lucky" Dec 2008 ISBN 0-441-01637-5
Strange Brew "Bacon" Jul 2009
Must Love Hellhounds "The Britlingens Go to Hell" Sep 2009
Sookie Stackhouse 8 Copy Boxed Set Dead Until Dark

Living Dead in Dallas

Club Dead

Dead to the World

Dead as a Doornail

Definitely Dead

All Together Dead

From Dead to Worse

Sep 2009
Between the Dark and Daylight "Lucky" Sep 2009 ISBN 9781606480595
A Touch of Dead "Fairy Dust"

"Dracula Night"

"One Word Answer"

"Lucky"

"Gift Wrap"

Oct 2009 ISBN 0-441-01197-7
Crimes by Moonlight "Dahlia Underground" Apr 2010 ISBN 9780425235638
Death's Excellent Vacation "Two Blondes" Aug 2010
Delta Blues "Crossroads Bargain" 2010 ISBN 1935562061
Home Improvement: Undead Edition "If I Had a Hammer" Aug 2011
The Sookie Stackhouse Companion "Small-Town Wedding" Aug 2011
An Apple for the Creature "Playing Possum" Sep 2012
Down These Strange Streets "Death by Dahlia" Oct/Nov 2011
The World of Sookie Stackhouse "After Dead: What Came Next" Oct 2013 An anthology with interviews, FAQ, recipes, and more
Games Creatures Play "The Blue Hereafter" Apr 2014
Inherit the Dead "Five" 2014 ISBN 9781451684759
Urban Allies "Blood for Blood" 2016
Matchup "Dig Here" 2017 ISBN 9781501141591
The Complete Sookie Stackhouse Stories "Fairy Dust" (2004)

"Dracula Night" (2007)

"One Word Answer" (2005)

"Lucky" (2008)

"Gift Wrap" (2008)

"Two Blondes" (2010)

"Small-Town Wedding" (2011)

"If I Had a Hammer" (2011)

"Playing Possum" (2012)

"In the Blue Hereafter" (2014)

Nov 2017 ISBN 9780399587597 (hardcover), ISBN 9780399587603 (ebook)
Heroic Hearts "The Return of the Mage" 2022

As editor

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  • Many Bloody Returns (September 2007; co-editor with Toni LP Kelner)
  • Wolfsbane and Mistletoe (October 2008; co-editor with Toni LP Kelner)
  • Crimes by Moonlight (April 2010)
  • Death's Excellent Vacation[20] (August 2010; co-editor with Toni LP Kelner)
  • Home Improvement: Undead Edition (August 2011; co-editor with Toni LP Kelner)
  • An Apple for the Creature (September 2012; co-editor with Toni LP Kelner)

Adaptations

[edit]

Television

[edit]
The True Blood logo

Her series of novels The Southern Vampire Mysteries was adapted into the show True Blood. The series lasted seven seasons and totaled 80 episodes. It was nominated for dozens of awards. True Blood aired on HBO. The show was also the most viewed show on HBO since The Sopranos.[citation needed]

In 2014, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries began adapting Harris' Aurora Teagarden novels into a series of television films, starring Candace Cameron Bure.[21]

Harris's series Midnight, Texas was developed as a TV series by NBC and began airing on their network in 2017.[22]

Video games

[edit]
  • Dying for Daylight (February 2011)
    • The first all new video game written by Charlaine Harris, released by iPlay Games; starring Dahlia[15][23]
    • Based on Book 10: Dead in the Family
  • Shakespeare's Landlord - an interactive game (January 2018)
    • Video game adapted from Charlaine Harris' novel of the same name, developed by One More Story Games[24]
    • Based on Book 1: Shakespeare's Landlord

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Inkpot Award
  2. ^ a b Wright, Thea. "Biography of Charlaine Harris". Archived from the original on 15 September 2012. Retrieved 7 October 2012.
  3. ^ a b Harris, Charlaine. "Charlaine Harris: oBiography". Archived from the original on 19 October 2012. Retrieved 7 October 2012.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Deborah Solomon, "Questions for Charlene Harris: Once Bitten: The writer talks about her 10th vampire novel and the hit TV series it inspired," New York Times Magazine, May 2, 2010, p. 18.
  5. ^ a b "Charlaine Harris – the Official Site of the #1 New York Times Best-Selling Author". Archived from the original on 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2014-03-28.
  6. ^ a b "After Dead: What Came Next in the World of Sookie Stackhouse – Charlaine Harris".
  7. ^ "sfadb: Lord Ruthven Awards 2003". www.sfadb.com. Retrieved 13 March 2023.
  8. ^ "sfadb: Lord Ruthven Awards 2018". www.sfadb.com. Retrieved 13 March 2023.
  9. ^ "Charlaine Harris, author of Sookie Stackhouse books, is born – Nov 25, 1951 – HISTORY.com". HISTORY.com. Retrieved 2017-07-24.
  10. ^ "Cemetery Girl: Book One - Books by Charlaine Harris - Penguin Group (USA)". Archived from the original on 2014-03-01. Retrieved 2014-01-09.
  11. ^ American Crime Writers League Archived September 28, 2016, at the Wayback Machine.
  12. ^ "Charlaine Harris: Putting the Bite on Cozy Mysteries" Archived March 5, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, retrieved on 2009-10-27.
  13. ^ Shepard, Martha Hunter (Fall 2007). "Charlaine Harris: Dead-On Author". Rhodes Magazine. Rhodes College. Archived from the original on 2008-12-02. Retrieved 2008-11-29.
  14. ^ "Charlaine Harris (1951–)". Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Retrieved 2017-01-19.
  15. ^ a b c d e f g A Southern Vampire story without the character of Sookie Stackhouse.
  16. ^ "September 11, 2010 Wall Post". Facebook.com. Retrieved 2012-01-27.
  17. ^ "August 15, 2010, August 21, 2010, and November 16, 2010 Wall Posts". Facebook.com. Retrieved 2012-01-27.
  18. ^ "Bibliography – Sookie Stackhouse". Charlaine Harris. Archived from the original on 2012-01-30. Retrieved 2012-01-27.
  19. ^ "Story Behind Cemetery Girl by Charlaine Harris". Upcoming4.me. 2014-01-02. Archived from the original on 2014-01-03. Retrieved 2014-01-02.
  20. ^ "February 6, 2009". Charlaineharris.com. 2009-02-06. Archived from the original on February 10, 2012. Retrieved 2012-01-27.
  21. ^ "'True Blood' Author's 'Aurora Teagarden' Franchise Coming to Hallmark (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. 8 July 2014.
  22. ^ Andreeva, Nellie (October 29, 2015). "'Midnight, Texas' Drama Based On 'True Blood' Author Books Set At NBC". Deadline.
  23. ^ "Dying for Daylight". Dying for Daylight. 2010-12-22. Archived from the original on 2011-01-28. Retrieved 2012-01-27.
  24. ^ "OMSG announces deal with Charlaine Harris, #1 NYT bestselling author". Archived from the original on 2017-08-26. Retrieved 2017-08-25.
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