I Smell Sheep: Deadlocked

Showing posts with label Deadlocked. Show all posts

Friday, May 18, 2012

Sheep Review: Deadlocked by Charliane Harris

This post is more of me telling you how much and why I love this series and why you should read it. I also talk about Deadlocked and there are no spoilers

by Sharon Stogner
co-creator & media relations

With Felipe de Castro, the Vampire King of Louisiana (and Arkansas and Nevada), in town, it’s the worst possible time for a body to show up in Eric Northman’s front yard—especially the body of a woman whose blood he just drank.
Now, it’s up to Sookie and Bill, the official Area Five investigator, to solve the murder. Sookie thinks that, at least this time, the dead girl’s fate has nothing to do with her. But she is wrong. She has an enemy, one far more devious than she would ever suspect, who’s out to make Sookie’s world come crashing down.

There are tons of reviews out there on this book already so no need for me to say what has already been said. Instead I will do one of my favorite things...gush and talk about this series and why you should read it. First I will say if I had to judge Deadlocked against the other books in the series it wouldn’t be at the top as far as main storylines go, but I don’t look at the books in this series that way. Instead I see them as a continuation of one fabulous urban fantasy story so I can't tell you what happened in each book. There is only one more book left (excuse me while a take a moment *sob*) and Harris has started to wrap up some secondary storylines, as well as setting up the events for the last book; the secondary characters seem to all be getting their nice and tidy HEAs, which is fine with me. The faerie story line appears to have ended with a surprise I didn’t see coming, which makes me sad 'cause I love those characters.

The big question is Sookie’s love life. Harris said in the talk I went to that this series isn’t one of those HEA romances. In this book Eric’s fate seems to have been decided and Bill has declared his feelings in a very romantic way. Then there is her best friend Sam, and while Deadlocked changes things for him dramatically, where Harris is going with this remains unknown. Has anyone given thought to the idea that Sookie's HEA might not include a man at all...maybe she will be happiest just being self sufficient and all the ones she loves in a good place.

Now, why do I love this series so much? Harris’ writing voice. I LOVE first person POV books and Sookie’s character resonates with me perfectly. I can slip easily into her head because we think so much alike. Maybe because I am a southern girl and her inner dialogue feels natural to me.

"There is something about JB, something warm and simple that's really appealing, especially when added to hid non-threatening good looks. He's like a great loaf of homemade bread."

"He was just being polite because I am Claude's cousin," I said. "Like hell! He was looking at you like you were chocolate-chip-cookie-dough ice cream," she said. "He wanted to eat you up."

I was pretty sure she was right, but maybe not in the sense she meant; not that I could read Bellenos's mind, any more than that of any other supernatural creature...but elves are what you'd call unrestricted in their diet..."

Will you like this series? Don’t judge the books by the TV show, they are hardly the same beast. The books have characters that don’t even show up in the show like Bubba. He is actually Elvis, but his transition into a vampire didn’t go so well and he doesn’t like it when people use his real name. Also, he eats cats.

Grab the first book Dead Until Dark and read a few pages or download a sample and see if you like looking at the world through Sookie’s eyes. Next year will be book #13 and the last. I will be sorry to see this world end, but like Harris said, it is time to move on.

I found this over on parajunkee.com and it definitely applies here

I give Deadlocked 4 Sheep

and the series as a whole 5 Sheep!

All the books in the Sookie Stackhouse series

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Charlaine Harris event recap + swag give away

by Sharon Stogner
co-creator & media relations

I attended a Charlaine Harris event last night at SalemCollage in Winston-Salem, NC. Tickets were $22 to attend, but I opted for the “special” $85 ticket that allowed me to go to a reception with drinks and food beforehand, a copy of Deadlocked, a chance to meet her and get things signed/take pictures, as well as special seating during the program and $35 of my the ticket price went to a charity. Over all it was worth the extra cost. There were around 400 people over at the auditorium and while she promised to stay until everyone who wanted to say hello or get a book signed could, that was a long line and you were only able to get two things signed and you weren’t allowed to step around her table and get a pic right next to her.

I was so glad they had drinks and food at the reception, because that 15 minute drive from my house to the collage was exhausting! I get there and met up with Ana Cade from Hearding Cats & Burning Soup. They handed everyone a gift bag with the book, a bottle of water and some promotional stuff from advertisers. There were about 40 of us there. Here is the menu…

hard to read, you can click on it if you want to know what I ate <G>

I was a little disappointed because I thought we would be able to mingle with Charlaine, but she sat behind a small table and we had to get in line to have things signed and take pics. She was very pleasant and polite, but you could tell she was tired.

yeah, I look a little creepy here <G>

Then everyone headed over to the auditorium where the “conversation” with Charlaine would be. I didn’t realize how things were done. There was a moderator on stage with her who got to ask questions he thought the rest of us would like to know…audience members were told to write questions on cards as we came in. I asked some typical I Smell Sheep questions <G>. Unfortunately, Mr. Moderator got to pick which questions were asked. He only picked 4 and apparently he had no sense of humor because he didn’t pick one of mine <G>. BUT, there was time left so the audience got to ask some questions. Everyone asked the same old same old till it was my turn…I asked “During a zombie apocalypse, which fictional character would you like at your back?” It was pretty funny; I also told her I would pick Optimus Prime. You wanna know her answer?

First she said JackReacher from Lee Child’s novels, then she decided she needed someone good with a gun and picked Steven Hunter’s Sniper.

I will just recap the highlights of what she said; including some info on the new series she will start writing when the Sookie books are done!

She is ending the Sookie series because the creative juices for it aren't there anymore and she wants to create a new world.
She called herself and other authors “little dictators” when it comes to wanting to build worlds. She will miss Sookie and the gang, but doesn’t want to keep writing the series just for a paycheck.
She says the hardest characters to write are those without a sense of humor. She writes a mix of horror and humor because that is what life is like.
The Sookie books are about female empowerment and tolerance of others. She uses Sookie, who is so accepting, to bridge the Supe worlds and help them overcome prejudices. She also said she would never write a story without a gay character in it because she feels that community isn’t represented as much as it should be in the entertainment industry.
She is being very careful writing the last book so backstories are tied up nicely
She talked about True Blood: She watches it, finds it entertaining and loves the hands off relationship she has with the creator. She doesn’t tell him how to write True Blood and he doesn’t tell her how to write the books <G> Bubba isn’t in the show because they felt he would come across as cheesy and they didn’t want to offend anyone.
She has been learning all about writing graphic novels this year. There will be a 3 part graphic novel called Cemetery Girl out next year. This is the first time she has ever collaborated with another author.
The Harper Connelly Series is being made into a TV show by SyFy and will be called GraveSight.
The new series (3 book deal with Penguin) she is working on is called Midnight Pawn…as in a pawn shop! There will be an ensemble cast and characters from her other stories will show up in it like Quinn from the Sookie series and Manfred Bernardo from the Harper Connelly series! Now, there are a lot of people that think Sookie will end up with Quinn…but if he is going to show up in the new series…
She writes every day and last year she took her first vacation in 10 years. She went to Alaska and didn’t write while there.
When asked if Sookie would get a happy ever after she said she writes the series gray, it isn’t a romance and it isn’t a sad story but we can expect the right ending.
It doesn’t bother her to kill off characters. Many times during the talk she said she got bored easily, so she creates new characters. In the Sookie series she had too many characters to keep up with and decided to clean house. She is a big panster writer with no outline or plan and that sometimes gets her in trouble. She apologized for killing Claudine (highlight if you want to know) though. She would do things differently if she could.
She no longer reads amazon reviews because they can be so vindictive and mean. She was paralyzed for a month from writing after reading them once.
She is ready to let Sookie and the gang go and very happy about what is coming up.

After it was over I talked with other book lovers and even met Doll Eowyn from Paperbackdolls.com (Stephanie) who lives in Winston-Salem which means I have someone I can meet with to discuss…books... with an actual person!

GIVE AWAY

I have two signed I Smell Sheep bookmarks signed by Charlaine to give away. Everyone is eligible!
1. Leave contact info
2. And tell me which fictional character YOU want to have your back in a zombie apocalypse.

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