• About WordPress
    • WordPress.org
    • Documentation
    • Support
    • Feedback
  • Log In
  • Read
    • Books
  • Travel
    • Tours
    • Hotels
    • Videos
  • Connect
    • About
    • Submissions
    • Contact

    Sign in


    • Read
      • Books
    • Travel
      • Tours
      • Hotels
      • Videos
    • Connect
      • About
      • Submissions
      • Contact
    Sign in

    Tag: Southern Vampire Mysteries

    The Southern Vampire Mysteries: How to Survive the Fall without True Blood

    You are unauthorized to view this page. Username Password Remember Me     Forgot Password

    Amanda August 29, 2012
    0 Comments

    Featured Posts

    • 1
      Bright Blossom of the Pacific
      • January 28, 2023
    • Photo by Kari Shea on Unsplash 2
      Literary Traveler’s 2022 Holiday Gift Guide
      • November 28, 2022
    • Mt. Katahdin, Maine’s tallest peak, under overcast skies. Photo by: Heidi Lachapelle, circa August 23, 2021 3
      Katahdin: “The Great Mountain” and Six Witty Wanderers
      • November 14, 2022
    • 4
      Chasing the Northern Lights: Driving Iceland’s Ring Road (with Gísli the Outlaw)
      • October 25, 2022
    • 5
      I have seen Sakhalin
      • October 19, 2022

    Categories

    • Articles (473)
    • Author (10)
    • Books (125)
    • Cruises (4)
    • Gear (29)
    • Hotels (30)
    • Interviews (5)
    • Movies (14)
    • My Personal Legend (4)
    • Newsletter (1)
    • Recent Articles (6)
    • Reviews (7)
    • Theater (4)
    • Tours (54)
    • Travel (82)
    • TV (3)
    • Uncategorized (54)

    Author

    Francis

    Newsletter Signup

    Sign up to receive emails about upcoming events, site updates, and other news!

    Select list(s) to subscribe to


    By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: Literary Traveler, PO Box 1254, West Concord, MA, 01742-2968, http://www.literarytraveler.com. You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by using the SafeUnsubscribe® link, found at the bottom of every email. Emails are serviced by Constant Contact

    Our Story….

    At Literary Traveler we help readers explore their literary imagination. Since 1998, Literary Traveler has provided informative and inspiring travel writing featuring writers and the places that they have traveled. We also have featured a wide variety of literary tours, and literary events to help readers find exciting and interesting places to visit. We have offered unique tours with organizations like Classical Pursuits the National Trust for Historic Preservation. In the past we have promoted and participated in literary tours and cruises on The Delta Queen and The Queen Mary 2. Please check out our travel videos and travel blogs. 

    If you are interesting in writing for Literary Traveler please see our travel writing guidelines. If you are interested in advertising or listing your tours, please contact us at 1-855-LIT-TRVL, 1-855-548- 8785 or use our contact form to request our updated Media Kit. We also consult with various destination marketing organizations, tour companies and hotels and resorts.

    We use and recommend Boston Corporate Photographer Brian Smith for our still photos and video needs. We also highly recommend Travel Writer Steve Jermanock's Active Travels as a top Boston Travel Agency for planning your next adventures.

    © 2023 - Literary Traveler

    Forum Description

    by Amanda Festa   For the past five years, summer has brought many much-anticipated guilty pleasures.  Beach days, BBQs, Sam Adams' Summer Ale, sun bathing.  And, of course, a new season of True Blood, where the characters don’t do much of the latter.  For half a decade I have looked forward to June and the return of HBO’s blood-drenched drama as a kid looks forward to summer camp.  Vampires, Shifters and Fairies, oh my!  Hearing the first notes of Jace Everett’s “Bad Things” has come to remind me as much of summer nights as fireflies and the hum of the air conditioner. The end of summer has become synonymous with the season finale of the show, and with September comes a long string of cold, True Blood-less months. But I am here to tell you, it doesn’t have to be that way.  There is a surefire way to cure your fangover. (For those readers who already know what I am talking about, the Hair of the Dog is not just a bar in Shreveport.) While the television show has gained immense popularity, real ‘Truebies’ know that it is actually an adaptation of The Southern Vampire Mysteries  series written by Charlaine Harris.  Like the show, the books follows the adventures of waitress and telepath, Sookie Stackhouse, as she navigates the fictional Louisiana town of Bon Temps, finding herself entangled in the lives of many a supernatural creature. In 2001, Dead until Dark,  the first of The Southern Vampire Mysteries, or Sookie Stackhouse Novels  as they are also called, won The Anthony Award for best paperback mystery. I recommend these books to all my nearest and dearest True Blood fanatic friends, and as they diligently start chipping away at the series, which now boasts a dozen books in print, they love to point out the redundancies between the show and the series in the first couple books.  But wait, I tell them, there is quite the fork in the road by the fourth book, Dead to the World, so stick around.  I first discovered the books between seasons two and three of the show and whipped through them so quickly I was initially disarmed when the HBO series resumed and I momentarily confused what was happening in which fictional universe.  They become very different and yet are both equally entertaining and satisfying.  A choose your own adventure that allows you to play out the various scenarios you may be hoping for, and some you probably would have never even fathomed. The books are a genre melting pot, part southern gothic, part fantasy, part mystery, with just a sprinkling of romance.  And with the pun always intended, it becomes clear once more that the vampire in literature just won’t die.  I will give the disclaimer that the books are not for everyone.  They are by no means high brow literary pursuits, but they are amicably written and suspenseful, erotic and hilarious at turns.  They are about vampires, yes, but they are not written for the young adult demographic, and they are definitely not Twilight.  Instead, they are a perfect guilty pleasure for the avid reader.  Be warned though, although close to 300 pages each, you will tear through them like they will turn to ash at sunrise.  When I first discovered the series eight books were already released and I read them en masse, one after the next to the point where they became one long glorious entity.  I was in for a rude awakening when I finished, and had a whole year to wait for the next book. One of my favorite aspects of both the books is the locale.  Harris was born in Mississippi and lives in Arkansas, making her knowledge of Southern settings especially vivid.  I have never been to Louisiana, yet it has been on the top of my travel to-do list since I first read Anne Rice as a teenager.  The descriptions of the sites and smells and warm languid nights always stuck with me, and The Southern Vampire Mysteries give me that same sensation, a feeling of nostalgia for a place I have never been. While Bon Temps, the town at the center of the franchise, is fictional, Shreveport, Louisiana plays a large role in the action.  Yet, don’t expect to see too many of the famous façades upon visiting the city.  Shreveport’s Fangtasia is actually filmed at a bar in Long Beach, CA, while the exterior of the Bon Temps bar, Merlotte’s, can be viewed on a Warner Brothers Studio tour in Burbank. As for the books, each May a new volume is released and I have looked forward to this date as I look forward to my birthday, which as it happens, is often the same week.  I don’t know Ms. Harris, but I like to think of it as a birthday present of sorts. The thirteenth and final book of the series is set to be released next May.  Tentatively scheduled for the same week that I turn 30, it is in more ways than one, the end of an era for me. So, as summer draws to a close and another season of True Blood is in the coffin, pick up a Southern Vampire Mystery or two (or twelve).  See you next year, my undead friends.

    Report

    There was a problem reporting this post.

    Harassment or bullying behavior
    Contains mature or sensitive content
    Contains misleading or false information
    Contains abusive or derogatory content
    Contains spam, fake content or potential malware

    Block Member?

    Please confirm you want to block this member.

    You will no longer be able to:

    • See blocked member's posts
    • Mention this member in posts
    • Invite this member to groups
    • Message this member
    • Add this member as a connection

    Please note: This action will also remove this member from your connections and send a report to the site admin. Please allow a few minutes for this process to complete.

    Report

    You have already reported this .