Agent Joshua Bilmes of the JABberwocky Literary Agency has a bunch of “Sookie Stackhouse” or “Southern Vampire” news, as well as news of True Blood, and of their creator, author Charlaine Harris.
Season 3 of True Blood, based on the “Sookie Stackhouse” novels, will debut on HBO on Sunday 13 June, following a premiere gala to be held at at Hollywood’s Cinerama Dome on 8 June.
New Sookie Stackhouse novel Dead in the Family was #1 on the New York Times list—and every other major bestseller list—with first week sales twice that of last year’s Dead and Gone. Publisher Ace had run five printings, totaling 880,000 copies, by 15 May.
Recent foreign sales for the “Sookie Stackhouse” books include:
* Dead in the Family to AST in Russsia, and Cappelen Damm, DTV in Germany
* Books #8-10 to Fantasy Foundation in Taiwan
* Books #5 and 6 to Czech publishers Baronet
* Books #1 and 2 to Ikar in Slovakia
* Books #4-6 to Finnish publishers Gummerus
* Sookie collection A Touch of Dead to Kantera in Indonesia
* A Touch of Dead and Dead in the Family to Leda in Romania
* Books #6 and 7 to Saida de Emergencia in Portugal
* Books #7-10 to Softbank in Japan
* Books #3-5 to Hungarian publishers Ulpius
* Living Dead in Dallas to Zvaigzne ABC in Latvia, and to Kidmat Eden in Israel
* The Sookie Stackhouse Companion to Gollancz in the UK
In addition to the Sookie Stackhouse books, there has been some activity in Harris’s other work:
* Indonesian publisher Kantera bought rights to Shakespeare’s Landlord
* The Science Fiction Book Club (and several of its sister clubs) bought rights to the anthology Death’s Excellent Vacation (edited by Harris and Toni L.P. Kelner) via the Penguin/Ace subsidiary rights department
* Severn House will publish new hardcover editions of the stand-alone mystery novels Sweet and Deadly and A Secret Rage
* Brilliance Audio will produce audio editions of Death’s Excellent Vacation and the earlier Harris/Kelner anthologies Many Bloody Returns and Wolfsbane and Mistletoe
The Sookie Stackhouse novels are:
Dead in the Family (book 10), first published in May 2010
Dead and Gone (book 9), first published in May 2009
From Dead to Worse (book 8), first published in 2008
All Together Dead (book 7) first published in 2007
Definitely Dead (book 6), first published in 2006
Dead as a Doornail (book 5), first published in 2005
Dead to the World (book 4), first published in 2004
Club Dead (book 3), first published in 2003
Living Dead in Dallas (book 2), first published in 2002
Dead Until Dark (book 1), first published in 2001