Is Sookie based on someone you know/is there a real Sookie in your life?

Charlaine Harris: Sookie isn't based on any one person I know, though I think she has become very much like my daughter.

Or maybe my daughter's grown up to be like Sookie: brave and loyal, smart and kind.

Why did you choose small town Louisiana for the setting of the series?

CH: I took northern Louisiana because Anne Rice had staked out (haha) southern Louisiana. I wanted to take something distinctly unpicturesque and make it my own. And I love small towns.

How did you come up with the notion of a synthetic blood substance?

CH: I had to imagine circumstances under which vampires would announce their reality. They would have to appear unthreatening to humans, and for that to obtain, they would have to have an alternative food source.

What?s next for Sookie and the series?

CH: I have no idea.

Any thoughts of doing a spinoff series about one of the smaller characters in Sookie?s world?

CH: A lot of people have asked me that, but I haven't planned anything yet. Maybe someday I'll have an idea stemming from the Sookie books.