Life and career

Harris was born in Tunica, Mississippi. After publishing two stand-alone mysteries, Harris began the lighthearted Aurora Teagarden books with Real Murders, a Best Novel 1990 nomination for the Agatha Awards. Harris wrote several books in the series before the mid-1990s when she began branching out into other works. She did not resume the series until 1999, with the exception of one short story in a Murder, She Wrote anthology titled "Murder, They Wrote".

In 1996, she released the first in the Shakespeare series featuring cleaning lady detective Lily Bard, set in rural Arkansas. Harris "lives in small-town Arkansas", according to a New York Times interview. The fifth book in the series, Shakespeare's Counselor, was printed in fall 2001, followed by the short story "Dead Giveaway" published in the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine in December of the same year. Harris has stated on her website that she has finished with the series.

After Shakespeare, Harris created The Southern Vampire Mysteries series about a telepathic waitress named Sookie Stackhouse who works in a northern Louisiana bar. The first book in the series, Dead Until Dark, won the Anthony Award for Best Paperback Mystery in 2001. Each book follows Sookie as she tries to solve mysteries involving vampires, werewolves, and other supernatural creatures. The series has been released in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Spain, Greece, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy, Argentina, Poland, Serbia, Brazil, Great Britain, Ireland, Mexico, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Lithuania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Portugal, Iceland, Czech Republic, Romania, Estonia and Israel. Harris wrote thirteen novels in the series. The thirteenth and final novel in the series, Dead Ever After, was published in May 2013, with a supplemental book, After Dead, released in October 2013.

Sookie Stackhouse had proven to be so popular that Alan Ball, creator of the HBO television series Six Feet Under, undertook the production of a series based upon The Southern Vampire Mysteries. He wrote and directed the pilot episode for the series, True Blood, which premiered on September 7, 2008 on HBO. The television show was a critical and financial success for HBO running 7 seasons through the 2014 year.

October 2005 marked the debut of Harris's new series entitled The Harper Connelly Mysteries, with the release of Grave Sight. The series is told by a young woman named Harper Connelly, who after being struck by lightning, is able to locate dead bodies and to see their last moments through the eyes of the deceased. In October 2010, it was announced Harper Connelly's series had been optioned for a television series named Grave Sight.

2014 marked the debut of the Cemetery Girl series, a graphic novel series co-written with Christopher Golden and illustrated by Don Kramer.

Professionally, Harris is a member of the Mystery Writers of America and the American Crime Writers League. She is a member of the board of Sisters in Crime, and alternates with Joan Hess as president of the Arkansas Mystery Writers Alliance.

In her personal life, Harris has been married for many years. She has three children and two grandchildren. She is a former weightlifter and karate student, she is also an avid reader and cinemaphile. Harris resides in Magnolia, Arkansas, where she is the senior warden of St. James Episcopal Church.

Bibliography

Aurora Teagarden Series (series ended in 2003)

1. Real Murders (1990)
2. A Bone to Pick (1992)
3. Three Bedrooms, One Corpse (1994)
4. The Julius House (1995)
5. Dead Over Heels (1996)
   • "Deeply Dead" in Murder, They Wrote (1997)
6. A Fool And His Honey (1999)
7. Last Scene Alive (2002)
8. Poppy Done to Death (2003)

Lily Bard (Shakespeare) Series (series ended in 2001)

1. Shakespeare's Landlord (1996)
2. Shakespeare's Champion (1997)
3. Shakespeare's Christmas (1998)
4. Shakespeare's Trollop (2000)
5. Shakespeare's Counselor (2001)
   • "Dead Giveaway" published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine (December 2001)

Sookie Stackhouse (Southern Vampire) Series (series ended in 2013)

Main article: The Southern Vampire Mysteries

1. Dead Until Dark (May 2001)
2. Living Dead in Dallas (March 2002)
3. Club Dead (May 2003)
4. Dead to the World (May 2004)
   • "Fairy Dust" in Powers of Detection (October 2004)and in "A Touch of Dead" (October 2009)
   • "Dracula Night" in Many Bloody Returns (September 2007) and in "A Touch of Dead" (October 2009)
   • "Dancers in the Dark" a novella in Night's Edge (October 2004);
5. Dead as a Doornail (May 2005)
   • "One Word Answer" in Bite (December 2005) and in "A Touch of Dead" (October 2009)
6. Definitely Dead (May 2006)
   • "Tacky" in My Big, Fat Supernatural Wedding (October 2006)—a Dahlia short story
7. All Together Dead (May 2007)
   • "Lucky" in Unusual Suspects (December 2008) and in "A Touch of Dead" (October 2009)
8. From Dead to Worse (May 2008)
   • "Gift Wrap" in Wolfsbane and Mistletoe (October 2008) and in "A Touch of Dead" (October 2009)
   • "Bacon" in Strange Brew (July 2009)—also makes an offhand reference to Jim Butcher's wizard, Harry Dresden; a Dahlia short story
9. Dead and Gone (May 2009)
   • "The Britlingens Go to Hell" in Must Love Hellhounds (September 2009)
   • "Dahlia Underground" in Crimes by Moonlight (April 2010)—takes place during All Together Dead; a Dahlia short story
10. Dead in the Family (May 2010)
    • "Two Blondes" in Death's Excellent Vacation (August 2010)
    • "Small-Town Wedding" a novella in The Sookie Stackhouse Companion (August 2011)—an anthology with interviews, FAQ, recipes, and more
    • "A Very Vampire Christmas" in Glamour Magazine (December 2010)—a Dahlia short story
    • "Dying for Daylight" (February 2011)—The first all new video game written by Charlaine Harris, released by iPlay Games; starring Dahlia
11. Dead Reckoning (May 2011)
    • "Death by Dahlia" in Down These Strange Streets (October/November 2011)—a Dahlia short story
12. Deadlocked (May 2012)
    • "If I Had a Hammer" in Home Improvement: Undead Edition (August 2011)
    • "Playing Possum" in An Apple for the Creature (September 2012)
13. Dead Ever After (May 2013)
    • The final Sookie Stackhouse novel
14. After Dead: What Came Next in the World of Sookie Stackhouse (October 29, 2013)
15. Dead But Not Forgotten: Stories from the World of Sookie Stackhouse (November 25, 2014)

Harper Connelly Series (series ended in 2009)

1. Grave Sight (2005)
2. Grave Surprise (2006)
3. An Ice Cold Grave (2007)
4. Grave Secret (2009)

Cemetery Girl Series (with Christopher Golden)

1. Book One: The Pretenders (2014)

Midnight Texas Trilogy

1. Midnight Crossroad (May 2014)
2. Day Shift (May 2015)
3. Night Shift (May 2016)

Other/non-series

• Sweet and Deadly (1981) republished in UK as Dead Dog
• A Secret Rage (1984)
• "An Evening with Al Gore" in Blood Lite (October 2008)
• Blood Lite (2008)
• Delta Blues (2010)

As editor

• Many Bloody Returns (September 2007) (co-editor with Toni LP Kelner)
• Wolfsbane and Mistletoe (October 2008) (co-editor with Toni LP Kelner)
• Crimes by Moonlight (April 2010)
• Death's Excellent Vacation (August 2010) (co-editor with Toni LP Kelner)
• Home Improvement: Undead Edition (August 2011) (co-editor with Toni LP Kelner)
• An Apple for the Creature (September 2012) (co-editor with Toni LP Kelner)

[ Source: Wikipedia ]