Gifts for True Blood Fans

Airing exclusively on HBO, True Blood is a drama series created by Alan ball and loosely based on The Southern Vampire Mysteries novels. The series has run for two seasons, with a third set to air in 2010.

The plot follows a telepathic barmaid, Sookie Stackhouse, her family, friends, and relatives who live and work in a small rural Louisiana town. In this world, vampires have announced their existence and the world is coming to grips that "monsters" truly do exist. Other supernatural creatures are featured or mentioned in the show: shapeshifters, werewolves, witches, and maenads.

The plots have loosely followed the events of Dead After Dark and Living Dead In Dallas, the first two novels. The third season is said to be loosely based on events of the third novel, Club Dead. The beauty of True Blood is the writers enhancing original characters as well as expanding on minor characters from the novel series.

The show has proved to be a hit with television viewers, as well as those originally familiar with the The Southern Vampire Mysteries novels. Nominated for several awards, True Blood has received an Emmy for "Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series" (2009).

The cast includes Anna Paquin as Sookie Stackhouse, Stephen Moyer as Bill Compton, Sam Trammell as Sam Merlotte, Rutina Wesley as Tara Thornton, Ryan Kwanten as Jason Stackhouse, and Alexander Skarsgård as Eric Northman.

Season one introduced us to the residents of Bon Temps, a small (fictional) town in Louisiana. We meet Sookie Stackhouse, a barmaid at Merlotte's. Sookie was born with a "gift": she is a telepath. Able to read people's thoughts, Sookie has always been regarded as "different" and sometimes even "crazy". She lives with her grandmother, Adele "Gran" Stackhouse, and has a brother named Jason who is quite the ladies' man.

We are also introduced to Bill Compton, the first vampire resident of Bon Temps. Since vampires announced their existence to the world, on the heels of the creation of the synthetic bottled blood called "Tru Blood", vampires are attempting to co-exist with their human counterparts. Sookie ends up saving Bill from a couple who deal illegally in vampire blood, or "V" as it is called.

The plot also introduces us to the colorful residents of Bon Temps: Sam Merlotte, owner of Merlotte's Bar and Grill (who just happens to be a shape shifter); Tara Thorton, Sookie's best friend who has problems of her own; Lafayette, the cook at Merlotte's who is also a drug dealer on the side; Arlene, another waitress at Merlotte's; and several others who round out the cast of characters.

After Bill moves to Bon Temps, things start to go awry. Jason Stackhouse is under suspicion when two women end up dead. Sookie deals with scrutiny from friends and neighbors over dating a vampire. Tara deals with the problems caused by her alcoholic mother. All this and more create a dramatic season that ends with the discovery of just who is killing women in Bon Temps as well as a whole new set of murders to be solved.

Season two picks up where season one ended: with a dead body in the back of Detective Andy Bellefleur's car. Bill is dealing with the awkward position of teaching his progeny, Jessica. During a fight with Bill, Sookie is attacked and poisoned. With the help of Eric, Sookie is saved but Eric cuts a deal to free Lafayette if Sookie will help Eric find Godric, a 2,000 year old vampire who's gone missing.

While Sookie and Bill travel to Dallas, Tara is left to deal with her personal problems. In Bon Temps, the town is taken over and falls under the spell of Maryann Forrester, a maenad posing a social worker who insinuates herself into Tara's life. Tara has also developed a relationship with "Eggs" Benedict Talley. Maryann eventually takes over Sookie's house and performs bizarre rituals while trying to capture Sam Merlotte to sacrifice him to Dionysus.

Jason Stackhouse has fallen in with the Fellowship of the Sun, a Dallas-based church run by Reverend Steve and Sarah Newlin. Training as an "Army of Light" to fight against vampires, Jason is forced to make hard choices about his alliances when Sookie turns up in the basement of the church.

With the residents of Bon Temps taken over by Maryann, Bill and Eric turn to the Queen of Louisiana, Sophie-Anne, for help.

The soundtrack to True Blood features dozens of artists, including local Louisiana musicians. The score to episodes is composed by Nathan Barr and features cello, guitar, prepared piano and glass harmonica, all performed by Barr himself.

The theme song for True Blood is "Bad Things" by country artist Jace Everett. The song was originally released on his 2005 self-titled album.

Episodes have featured songs by Lucinda Williams, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Lee Dorsey, Allen Toussaint, The Watson Twins, Th' Legendary Shack*Shakers, Little Big Town, Eagles of Death Metal, Ryan Adams, Cobra Verde, Slim Harpo, and CC Adcock & The Lafayette Marquis among others. Both the soundtrack and the original score are available for purchase.

The local watering hole of Bon Temps, LA, the bar is owned by Sam Merlotte. Much of the action takes place at Merlotte's, as several main characters work there. Sookie works as a barmaid, along side Arlene Fowler, Daphne Landry, and several others. Being a barmaid at Merlotte's seems to have consequences at first, as several women who work there are killed in the first season.

Tara Thorton, Sookie's best friend, takes a job as a bartender at Merlotte's in the first season. Her cousin, Lafayette Reynolds, works in the kitchen alongside Terry Bellefleur. Many of the locals patronize the bar, including Sheriff Dearborne and Detective Andy Bellefleur, Hoyt Fortenberry, Rene Lenier and Jason Stackhouse.

It is later revealed that Sam stole $100,000 in cash from Maryann Forrester and eventually used it to start Merlotte's.

Owned and operated by Eric Northman, with his progeny Pam assisting, Fangtasia is the "vampire bar" in Shreveport, LA. Likened to a tourist trap, the bar features vampires sitting around for people to gawk at. Vampire groupies, called "fang bangers", hang around the bar and proposition vampires to be bitten.

As Eric's base of operations, he conducts much of his business in the club. As sheriff of Area 5, he takes his job seriously. At one point he requests Bill bring Sookie to the club to "sniff out" who is embezzling from the club.

Cashing in on the vampire phenomenon, Fangtasia has its own t-shirt line as well as other memorabilia.

American Vampire League
The American Vampire League is an organization that serves to protect vampires from hate crimes as well as build relationships with humans. More often than not, the AVL is usually represented in the series on television by Nan Flanagan.

Fellowship of the SUN
On the other side you have the Fellowship of the Sun, a church run and pastored by Rev. Steve Newlin and his wife Sarah Newlin. Believing vampires are inherently evil and must be erradicated, the couple have taken to recruiting followers with similar feelings and forming an "army" (Soldiers of the Sun) to wage war against the vampires. A popular slogan among those against vampires is "God Hates Fangs".

In 2001, author Charlaine Harris released her first book in the Southern Vampire Mysteries series: Dead Until Dark. The series imagined a world where vampires had come "out of the coffin" and revealed their existence to the world, now that they could survive on the Japanese invention known as "Tru-Blood", a synthetic blood substitute.

The series follows the life of Sookie Stackhouse, a telepathic barmaid who lives in the fictional small town of Bon Temps, LA. When Sookie becomes involved with the town's first vampire, Bill Compton, people start to think Sookie is even crazier than before. Throw in a serial killer targeting women who are involved with vampires and add Sookie's brother Jason to the list of suspects, and you have a can't-put-it-down whodunit!

The series has grown to include 9 published novels with the 10th due in May 2010. Harris has signed a contract to write a total of 13 novels in the Southern Vampire Mysteries series. In 2009, a companion book, A Touch of Dead, was released. The book includes all the short stories set in the Southern Vampire Mysteries world that were previously included in fiction anthologies.

In addition to the Southern Vampire Mysteries series, Harris also writes several other mystery series, including the Aurora Teagarden Series, the Harper Connelly Series and the Lily Bard/Shakespeare Series. She currently lives in Arkansas with her husband and three children.