In the surprising fifth part of our eight-part exclusive interview with novelist Charlaine Harris, ScriptSuperhero.com learns that the writer experienced unusual success in selling her ideas to publishers. We discuss her first two series characters, Georgia librarian Aurora Teagarden and Arkansas cleaning service woman Lily Bard.
Shakespeare's Trollop, cover to one of Harris' darker series characters, Lily Bard.
Charlaine Harris: I’m not so clear on this question. I didn’t have a lot of extra books hanging around – none, in fact. So it was REAL MURDERS or nothing. My writing time was not exactly abundant. I thought RM had a clever premise, and I hope that Aurora was sort of endearing.
SS: Aurora Teagarden and Lily Bard were your first two series characters once you relaunched your writing career. Describe the appeal of both these characters to you, from a writing perspective.
CH: Aurora was facing a new South. These books are pretty old, remember. She was torn between what she wanted to be and what tradition demanded she be, and her life was a constant surprise to her. She never could seem to walk the correct path to take her to the pot of gold. Her reaction to her life and the expectations she and her mother had, that was interesting. Lily was much darker, and gave me a chance to clean out some emotional caves. I really enjoyed writing someone so active, mentally and physically.
SS: You have said elsewhere that you have not ruled out returning to Aurora Teagarden someday. With eight novels under your belt focusing on her, what do you think keeps Roe fascinating enough that there could still be more story there to tell with her?
CH: I don’t know if she is. I wouldn’t mind finding out, though.
SS: Now, as for Lily Bard, you have said elsewhere that Lily is not a character you can foresee ever returning to, even though you wrote only five novels focused on her world. What made her a less enduring character, from a story standpoint?
CH: I don’t want to ruin her. I’d said everything about her I had to say. I could have written more books about her, and in fact I’d developed a different story line for her, but it would have diluted her, and that would have been a pity.
SS: You had experienced a fair amount of success with Roe and Lily when you changed track and decided to create the Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire series. How much of a risk was it to introduce a new series when you already had fans devoted to your existing characters? What made it worth the risk?
CH: Both those series, while satisfying to write, never had stellar sales. I felt I’d reached a crossroads in my career, and it was time to make a great leap. I just didn’t worry about it working or not working.
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