Podcast: Book 6 review Definitely Dead

Bill drops an emotional atomic bomb courtesy of Eric, Amelia becomes a crazy cat lady, and “its off with your head” at the vamp ball. Just a normal week in the life of Sookie Stackhouse!

>>Download Now

Book 10: Dead in the Family synopsis

Sookie Stackhouse has finally settled into a relationship with the Viking vampire Eric, and her errant brother Jason seems to have his life in order, too. But all the other people in Sookie’s life – Eric himself, her former lover Bill, her friend and boss Sam – are having family problems. Eric’s maker shows up with Eric’s ‘brother’ in tow, the ailing Bill can only be healed by a blood sibling, and Sam’s brother’s marriage is about to take place …or will it? The furor raised by the coming out of the two-natured has yet to settle; some people are just not ready to sit down to dinner with a man who turns into a dog. And Sookie herself is still recovering from her last ordeal. She’s definitely improving, physically and mentally, but she’s always going to have some dark moments now. The werewolves tell her that there have been strange and ominous passers-by in the Stackhouse woods; now Sookie is about to come face-to-face with one of her more distant relatives …

Dead in the Family (Book 10) cover and Chapter 1 peek!

Read Chapter One of DEAD IN THE FAMILY, from Charlaine Harris' website!

Charlaine Harris Grave Secret released today

Grave Secret (Harper Connelly Mysteries, Book 4)

Lightning-struck sleuth Harper Connelly and her stepbrother Tolliver take a break from looking for the dead to visit the two little girls they both think of as sisters. But, as always happens when they travel to Texas, memories of their horrible childhood resurface.

To make matters worse, Tolliver learns from his older brother that their father is out of jail and trying to reestablish contact with other family members. Tolliver wants no part of the man- but he may not have a choice in the matter.

Soon, family secrets ensnare them both, as Harper finally discovers what happened to her missing sister, Cameron, so many years before.

And what she finds out will change her world forever.

Charlaine Harris shares her editing process

Charlaine Harris wrote on her blog this week of her writing process and the group of readers who provide her the necessary feedback to give her books the continuity and accuracies one needs in a series. Here's a bit of that post:

"As I was slogging through my first readers’ suggested changes for DEAD IN THE FAMILY, I reflected on how lucky I am to have trusted people to do this thankless job for me. For most of my writing history, only I and my editor (and a copy editor) read my books before they were published. But that’s changed in the past couple of years, and I think my books are the better for it."

"For those of you who aren’t deeply into the writing world, a first reader is someone who plunges into your book before anyone else. What is the purpose of a first reader? To tell you what you’ve done wrong and what you can do to make it better. So a first reader is someone you trust to tell you the truth, not someone you know will tell you comforting lies. An ideal first reader is intelligent, consistent, conversant with your other books and with the laws of the language, and diligent. When I say “diligent,” I mean someone who’ll drop everything to plow through your book if you say, “This was supposed to be on my editor’s desk three days ago.”

"Fortunately for me, I have two great first readers, my friends Dana Cameron and Toni L.P. Kelner, who may gently tell me that fifty pages do not belong in the middle of the book (Dana) and that I’ve totally forgotten to bring an important plot point back into the book after I raise it (Toni). Thanks, ladies. I also have continuity readers who know the material in the past books as well as they know their kids, and these two wonderful people are always ready to tell me that I’ve gotten a character’s name wrong yet again, or that a street had a different name in the previous book."

"Now, by the time my overworked editor sees the book, I think it’s in much better shape. This saves time and worry – at least for me! And I think the reader comes out ahead, too."

"Of course, I still take the blame for errors and continuity glitches in my work. Though I can’t carry the whole series in my head and refer to it all the time, I ought to be able to, I tell myself; and it’s very upsetting for me when I make a mistake. It’s not from lack of caring; it’s from lack of brain room. My memory is so full after my long career (at least that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it) that I don’t have room for more facts, especially now that I’m sure other people are going to help me do it. My two continuity experts, who shall remain nameless, have helped me iron out quite a few little issues in past books, so the reprints are much more error-free."

Read more over on CharlaineHarris.com

Pre-order Touch of Dead | Sookie book collection of shorts

The newest Sookie-related book will be released October 6, 2009. It's a collection of Sookie short stories that have appeared in many compilation novels with other authors. This book contains the story from "Bite" which explains cousin Hadley's death a little better and Sookie's first encounter with the Queen of Louisiana!

Sookie book fans: Charlaine Harris finished book 10

From Charlaine Harris' blog on charlaineharris.com

"I finished DEAD IN THE FAMILY Sunday, the last possible day I could finish it. My friend Toni is reading it now, and then I’ll send it to my editor, Ginjer. The concept of DITF was originally quite different from the book I ended up writing, but that often happens and doesn’t quite scare me like it used to. At first I thought DITF would be very episodic; it turned out to have a unifying theme and to have a crazy night of resolution. Of course, this may change once my editor has a read!

By the time I send a book in to New York, I hate it. Maybe I hate DITF a little less than others. I don’t know if that’s good or bad."

I'm looking forward to reading Dead in the Family! May can't get here quick enough!

Harris New Release: Must Love Hellhounds

Must Love Hellhounds - September 1, 2009

A compilation of short stories by various authors, Must Love Hellhounds has a short story by Charlaine Harris about the Britlingens. Britlingens were introduced in All Together Dead of the Sookie Stackhouse series.