Dear Vampire Diary

Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris (Sookie Stackhouse Series)

With Deadlocked, Charlaine Harris gives us the twelfth and penultimate book in the Sookie Stackhouse book series. It’s all going wrong for Eric when Sookie first sees him feeding from another (younger) woman. It gets worse when the woman’s body turns up on Eric’s front yard. That’s not all! Felipe, the King of Lousiana (and Arkansas and Nevada) is visiting when the body’s discovered, and Eric and Sookie are the number one suspects. Sookie’s convinced that Eric is hiding something, and is puzzled that the woman’s death is linked to the Fae. Sookie has to join forces with Bill, the official Area 5 investigator, to try and get to the bottom of the mystery, and in the meantime, try and keep her relationship with Eric intact. There’s only one more Sookie Stackhouse book to go after this before Harris brings the series to a close, so you’ll see her wrapping up lots of loose ends in this book, in preparation for the big denouement.

Anne Rice (From AnneRice.com)

The legendary Anne Rice is indubitably the Queen of vampire books, having kick-started the vampire book genre with her Interview with the Vampire which came out more than 30 years ago, in the mid-1970s. Indeed, Interview with the Vampire is quite possibly only second to Bram Stoker’s Dracula as one of the seminal books in the field.

I was surprised then to hear that Rice confessed in a recent interview that she had not, in fact, read Dracula before she started writing Interview with the Vampire. Rice laughingly revealed that when she was twelve, she had borrowed the book from the library, but was too scared to continue after reading a few pages, and returned it unfinished. Instead, her own Vampire Chronicles series was influenced by old black and white vampire movies, and in particular, one called Dracula’s Daughter. It featured a beautiful Countess who was a gifted artist and painter, but was tragically cursed with vampirism. Rice then expanded on the idea of beautiful and tragic creatures with great sensitivity to build up her vampire books form there. Rice confessed it was only years later – after her own vampire books were published – that she managed to finish Dracula. And yes, she still found the book terrifying.

When asked what inspired her to write about vampires, Rice said that it was a personal obsession and interest, and that she had no particular aim of creating a paranormal phenomenon or best-seller. All she did in preparation was to go to the library to check similar books had not been written, before diving into her project. There had not been much vampire literature at the time, and when she tried to get her book published, she swiftly realized why as editors didn’t really take vampire books seriously, and just didn’t know what to make of her books. Fortunately, a publisher picked it up and the rest is history.

Rice thinks back on the 1970s and says that writers of vampire books “were ridiculed, we were disdained”. Who would have thought that 30 years later, Rice would be completely vindicated? Rice admits that “we’re now in a Golden age of supernatural romance, spec fiction, costume drama. It’s a great time for writers who want to do anything in the supernatural, speculative or sci-fi field.” She’s right – paranormals are hot – and are here to stay… and much of the credit must be given to Rice for her bold foray into vampire books.

Title: Once Burned (Night Prince Book 1)
Author: Jeaniene Frost
Pages: 384
Genre: Vampire Romance

Fans of Jeaniene Frost are eagerly awaiting the author’s latest book. The best-selling author of the popular Night Huntress books has come up with the new Night Prince series which is also set in the Night Huntress world. The first book in the series, entitled Once Burned, features vampire Vlad as the hero and mortal Leila as his love interest. After a tragic accident, Leila finds that she’s suddenly telepathic. She’s privy to others’ secrets once she touches them, and she finds that she can channel electricity. To manage her new powers, Leila cloisters herself and resigns herself to a solitary existence. But when there’s a kidnap attempt on her, Leila instinctively sends out a powerful telepathic distress call to Vlad. For those of us familiar with the vampire legend, Vlad is infamous. He was the inspiration for Dracula – something which irks him no end. Vlad has the ability to control fire, and he’s one of the most powerful vampires – until his enemies realize that Leila is his weakness. It will take the combined powers of Vlad and Leila to stop an enemy that’s ready to bring them both down. Once Burned is now available for pre-order, and will be released on June 26.

It looks like there’ll be new blood for True Blood stars Anna Paquin and her husband, Stephen Moyer. The true life couple recently announced that they are expecting their first baby together. The baby is due in the Fall.

Paquin has achieved a great deal for her relatively young age. The 29-year-old actress was only 11 when she won the Oscar for her performance in Jane Campion’s The Piano, and more recently received a Golden Globe for her work in True Blood. She is however a newcomer to having babies – this is her first pregnancy. In contrast, the 42-year-old Moyer is an old hand. He has two children, 12-year-old Billy and 10-year-old Lilac, from previous relationships.

Reel Life to Real Life

Moyer and Paquin started dating in 2007, not long after the filming of the True Blood pilot was complete. It seems very much a case of reel life to real life, as Paquin plays Sookie Stackhouse in the hit HBO series, while Moyer is Bill Compton, Sookie’s on-again off-again vampire boyfriend who’s trying to “mainstream” in human society. Moyer proposed to Paquin in 2009, and the happy couple got married in August 2010 in an intimate ceremony in Malibu.

Real Life to Reel Life?

The cast and crew are still in the middle of filming Season 5 of True Blood, so there’s no telling if we’ll have the chance to catch a glimpse of Paquin’s baby bump in the show. Filming began as far back as November 2011, so it’s likely that many of the earlier episodes are now complete. If at all, we might catch a slightly more rounded Paquin in the later seasons, but I’m sure the producers will do their best to hide her pregnancy – Sookie Stackhouse has not, in any of Charlaine Harris’ books, had a baby, and the translation from real life to reel life would certainly not be true to the spirit of her books.

True Blood Season 5 returns to HBO on June 10.

Title: Wanted: Undead or Alive (Love at Stake)
Author: Kerrelyn Sparks
Pages:384
Genre: Vampire Romance

Kerrelyn Sparks’ returns with Wanted: Undead or Alive, the latest addition to her immensely successful Love at Stake series. This time, it’s Phineas McKinney’s turn to find love. This isn’t the first time that Phin has appeared in the Love at Stake books, but whereas he was in the past a peripheral character, we now get to learn much more about him. Phin is a recently-turned vampire who has devoted his life to stopping the Malcontents – meaning of course, he’s a good guy. When he finds out that the enemy may be in Wyoming, the true blue city boy is all ready to go haring off into the wilderness… except he doesn’t know the first thing about roughing it. Fortunately for him, he has werewolf Brynley Jones with him to show him the way… Or it would be fortunate, if Brynley didn’t hate vampries with a passion. Bryn’s wary of vampires – their charm is what makes them dangerious, and there’s none more charming to her than Phin. But as Phin and Bryn work together to try and take down the Malcontents, the vampire and werewolf can’t help but to start to fall in love.

Christopher Meloni’s one of the most-talked-about new additions to the True Blood Season 5 cast, but everyone’s been extremely tight lipped about his role on the show. All we know is that he’ll be playing an extremely old and powerful vampire (possibly someone in the Authority).

The hunky actor finally broke his silence when he attended the Kids Choice Awards with his daughter this past Sunday, revealing to MTV that he’s “bringing a lot of fangs and a lot of staking” to the show. He added that he’ll be trying to unite all the vampires adding sardonically that “they’ve got to stop going around killing humans willy-nilly.” Meloni added that his character had to “persuade” others to fall in line by killing off a few people to prove his point. Oooooh, shudder!

And in response to questions about whether he’ll be keeping his clothes on in True Blood, Meloni says with a little laugh, “Yeah, unfortunately.” Is it me, or does he sound disappointed? Meloni is no stranger to stripping down, having done so frequently for his highly-acclaimed turn in prison drama Oz.

It’s a shame we won’t be seeing Meloni without his shirt though, especially given Alexander Skarsgard’s comment earlier this year about Meloni: “He’s really, really good… and a great guy… He’s so hot!” (all said with a mock swoon). Meloni of course returned the compliment saying that it’s Skarsgard who’s “so hot”, and adding that he’s doing his best to “rival their hotness factor, maybe a tad.” You won’t have to try too hard, Mr Meloni, you’re already smokin’!

Check out the interview here on MTV.com!

Are you a big fan of True Blood? Have you been looking forward to Season 5, and pining for a return to Bon Temps? There’s still no news on when the new season will premiere, but luckily for us, the good people at HBO have just released three brand new teaser trailers.

The trailers bring us on a little tour of Fangtasia (Eric’s bar in Shreveport), as well as a visit to Sookie’s house, and Bill’s home, in Bon Temps. You won’t get to see any of your favorite characters, but you will get to hear some of the more seminal lines of dialogue spoken at each of the locations from all the past seasons.

Check out the trailers and see if you can’t identify who said what, when!

Sookie’s House

Bill’s House

Fangtasia

Title: Lover Reborn (Black Dagger Brotherhood)
Author: J.R. Ward
Pages: 592
Genre: Vampire Romance

I won’t lie – I’m a huge fan of J.R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood (BDB) books, and I’ve been looking forward to Lover Reborn since forever. The book came out yesterday, Mar 27, and I’ve just spent the last day or so speeding through the book. What can I say? I. Loved. It!

Lover Reborn is Tohr’s book. I’ve been half in love with the brother since he took in John Matthew when he was a pre-trans, and I cried along with many other readers when his pregnant mate Wellsie was killed, and again when he was brought back to the Brotherhood by the angel Lassiter. Tohr’s physically back with the brothers, but he’s still half the man he used to be, refusing to feed, and living only to kill slayers as a means to avenge his mate. His only consolation has been that Wellsie and his unborn son have passed into the Fade (the vampire equivalent of Heaven), and are at peace. Tohr is therefore stunned when Lassiter tells him that Wellsie’s trapped In Between, and that time is running out for her. Unless Tohr can let go soon and learn to love another, Wellsie will be doomed to forever roam in a grey purgatory. Tohr can’t imagine loving another, but slowly, a mysterious female whose path crossed Tohr’s centuries ago starts to get through to him, and Tohr gets a second chance at saving Wellsie, and a new chance for love.

Although Lover Reborn has been labelled Tohr’s story, there’s actually a lot going on in the book – of course there is; it’s just under 600 pages after all. Ward does a great job of giving fans an update on what’s going on in the lives of the Brothers. We get to see John Matthew and Xhex encounter some serious teething issues as they settle into their brand new Mating. Qhuinn and Blay (and Saxton) get a number of good scenes, while all the brothers make an appearance with their shellans. All this is set against the backdrop of the BDB’s war against the Lessers, and a fierce bid by a rival group of vampires who’ve come to Caldwell from Europe to try and wrest the Kingship from Wrath. It’s this rival group of vampires who fascinated me – in particular, Xcor, the leader of the imaginatively-named “Band of Bastards” (BoB for short), and his second-in-command, Throe. I can’t wait to learn more about Xcor and Throe in future books.

Ward definitely did justice to Tohr, showing the tragedy of his loss, and the depth of his grief. Ward has a great talent for writing emotional scenes, and pulling the reader in, and I’m not ashamed to say I cried during many scenes, especially during his interactions with John Matthew and the Brothers. (I can’t say I was too taken with Tohr’s new mate though – but I shan’t say more for fear of spoiling your fun.) Ward was also able to keep my interest by keeping things moving with Xcor’s bid for power, a new vampire drug dealer trying to horn in on Rehvenge’s old territory, and developments in the personal lives of the cast of characters. The BDB universe gets ever more complicated and fascinating, and I’m already counting down to the next book! Lover Reborn is a tale of redemption, balance, and coming full circle. It’s another winner from Ward, and is highly recommended!

Title: The Vampire King (The Kings)
Author: Heather Killough-Walden
Genre: Vampire Romance

Heather Killough-Walden kicks off  a new series with The Vampire King. It’s the story of vampire romance author Evelynne Farrow who meets Roman, an honest-to-God real vampire. (Oh the irony!) Evie’s a hard-working young woman who’s always believed in vampires, and makes a living writing about the women who meet and fall in love with them. She doesn’t have much a of a life outside of work and caring for her parents, but when she meets the tall dark and handsome Roman, it’s as if someone’s come straight out of one of her own novels. And it’s not far off track. Roman D’Angelo’s a vampire – and not just any vampire, but the Vampire King. He’s more than 3000 years old and extremely powerful. He’s never met anyone like Evie, and is new to having relationships with someone who’s mortal (but not quite human). As more malicious supernatural creatures take an interest in Evie, Roman has to fight off all challengers so that he can win her over.

True Blood fans will have something else (apart from Season 5) to look forward to, come Fall. Series creator Alan Ball has announced that a True Blood Cookbook will be out on the market very soon.

If you’ve ever wanted to try Lafayette’s cooking, salivated at the thought of Gran’s pecan pie, or wanted to try the biscuits that Summer used to entice Hoyt (and Jason), then this book’s for you. To be penned by Ball, together with Karen Sommer Shallett and Marcelle Bienvenu, the cookbook will feature authentic recipes that will have you itching to try them out in your kitchen. The book will be published by Chronicle Books, but unlike the Sopranos cookbook, won’t be endorsed by HBO.

But the True Blood Cookbook is also a lot more than just a collection of instructions on how to make the delicious southern dishes that the denizens of Bon Temps enjoy. It will also feature photographs from all seasons of the show and exclusive sidebars and stories. Ball says, “This book will be substantial, with recipes that capture the unique ambiance, dark humor, and complexity of characters that make up the magical and offbeat world of True Blood. In other words, it will be a worthy of ‘Trubies’ everywhere.”

This is delicious news, but it does raise the question as to our appetite for all things vampires. Who would have thought that a series which features vampires with a very limited diet (True Blood, human blood or for a real treat, fairy blood) could spawn a cookbook. Tell us, would you buy the True Blood Cookbook when it’s out?