Speaking to the AnnArbor.com to promote a local book signing this Monday, the author of the Sookie Stackhouse novels (which True Blood is based on) speaks about creating a strong female character, adding humor to her series, and more.
In this segment Harris discusses her inspiration for writing a strong female lead:
Q: You once said about creating Sookie’s character, “I guess I’m interested in flawed but strong women.” Yet flaws and all, she still seems to keep it together better than the men. Is that conscious?
A: I do like strong women. My mother was a fantastically strong woman — she always said, “Women can do what ever they want to do; it just takes men a little more.” She was trying to tell me in a polite way that women have to buckle under and do what they have to do; they can’t sit around and lament that life is hard. That’s generation she was from, the Depression generation. But I guess I’ve taken that to heart, maybe more than I usually admit.
She also talks about adding humor to the series after her first couple books didn’t have any:
Q: I did read that you hadn’t used much humor before this series. What prompted the change?
A: I’d kind of suppressed my sense of humor in my writing. But people kept telling me I was funny, so I thought, “Well, maybe I should just let it rip.” I was at in an experimental stage in in my career, by which I mean not making much money, and I thought I’d just let everything go and write what I wanted. And it worked out.
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