If you're reading the Sookie Stackhouse books, you may also have had the pleasure of watching True Blood on HBO. If you haven't seen True Blood yet, you may be in for a surprise. The show isn't a carbon copy of the books, at least if you expect True Blood to follow the plot line as I've revealed it, page by page.

In my opinion, this is a great plus. Between producer/writer Alan Ball and me, people get two good experiences?at least, that's what we're aiming for. The books are adventures, full of action and horror, romance and humor; and so is the television show. I knew that would be the case after I'd talked to Alan about the way he saw the characters I'd written. That's why I trusted him to bring them to the screen.

I knew, also, that True Blood couldn't be filmed, plot point for plot point, to match Dead Until Dark or Living Dead in Dallas. Though I hope the way I write has made for entertaining books, it wouldn't make entertaining television.

The books are all told from Sookie's point of view. That won't work for television. Anna Paquin (who is a great Sookie Stackhouse) would be exhausted if everything on the screen happened the way it does in the books. And Alan's imagination has supplied lots of different, visual ways to cue viewers to the revelations of the book.

So read the books, watch the show, and enjoy both experiences for the entertainment they provide in very different ways. That's what I'm doing.

Charlaine Harris

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Q&A

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.