Author Profile: Charlaine Harris

To all the potential readers out there: I haven't been as consistent as I've wanted to be concerning my blog. I haven't read anything too recently that I really love so that's part of the reason for such a huge gap between posts. But I had an idea that might bridge that gap. I'm going to start adding something called author profiles. The title explains itself but I thought it might be helpful to put some information about some of the authors I've come across, my opinions about them and why I love/hate them. So here's goes nothing.

 Bio
Born and raised in the Mississippi Delta, she began writing plays while attending Rhodes College in Memphis. Most known for her Sookie Stackhouse series, Charlaine Harris first started out as a mystery writer with her standalone novel called Sweet and Deadly.  It was published in 1981.

Her first series featured a heroine named Aurora Teagarden which was a light-hearted mystery series featuring a shy Georgia librarian.

In 1996, she released another mystery series featuring Lily Bard. An amateur sleuth who cleans houses for a living. This particular series was a lot darker in nature but still one of my favorites.

Next is her most popular series, the Sookie Stackhouse novels. Sookie is a telepathic waitress that lives in Northern Louisiana in a town named Bon Temps. This series is the origination of the HBO television show, True Blood.

Finally in 2005, Harris wrote another series featuring a character known as Harper Connelly. Harper was struck by lightning as a teenager. The main side effect from this incident is that she has the ability to see the last moments as someone died.

Charlaine Harris is currently married with 3 children and living in Arkansas with her house full of rescue dogs.  Her site also includes a book and blog section where she writes about her various experiences as a writer as well as suggested great books that she's read and has enjoyed.

Commentary
So anybody that really knows me knows that Charlaine Harris is by far my most favorite author. I actually started with her first book in the Sookie series and just fell in love with her writing and her novels after that. I'm going to go hipster on everyone and say that I did read the series BEFORE True Blood came out and became so popular. If you read her earlier works, you can see how her writing progresses as she gets older. Nonetheless she's a wonderful, funny and prolific writer. I feel like her writing isn't targeted as much to men as it is women but I would say that guys would probably enjoy her Aurora Teagarden or Lily Bard series (if you're into mysteries). Most of her more recent works have a paranormal and fantastic type quality to it. So if you don't enjoy that type of genre then I would say this isn't the author for you. Again as most of you know, this is totally my type of genre that I always read so to me she hits the nail on the head pretty much every time. I love her, she's my writing hero and I only wish I would be able to write like her one day.

As I mentioned above, Charlaine has a book and blog section on her website. She updates it several times a month so it's always good to check it out pretty frequently. She mentions on her website that she is an avid reader and she's a lot more open to expanding into new genres unlike me. So when you look in this section, you might find something in a totally different area that she enjoyed and recommended. But she also recommends novels in the paranormal or mystery section as well. It's kind of up to you to do your research on whether you'd actually like what she puts up there or not. So if you haven't checked it out, do so. I think all published authors, no matter how famous can always and will accept more fans.

Current Works-Novels Only Minus Anthologies
Non-Series
A Secret Rage
Sweet and Deadly
Aurora Teagarden (in chronological order)
Real Murders
A Bone to Pick
Three Bedrooms, One Corpse
The Julius House
Dead Over Heels
A Fool and His Honey
Last Scene Alive
Lily Bard "Shakespeare" Series (in chronological order)
Shakespeare's Landlord
Shakespeare's Champion
Shakespeare's Christmas
Shakespeare's Trollop
Shakespeare's Counselor
Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire Series (in chronological order) 
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
Dead and Gone
Dead in the Family
Dead Reckoning
Dead Locked
Dead Ever After (to be released on May 7, 2013)
Harper Connelly (in chronological order) 
Grave Sight
Grave Surprise
An Ice Cold Grave
Grave Secret

Author Website
http://www.charlaineharris.com/index.html