True Blood. . . and that wish to see your characters on the screen

Okay, I admit it: I'm a HUGE fan of Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse books. which is curious, because I've not always been a fan of vampire romances. I read one or two, early on, that were so graphic and savage and off-putting. . . I wouldn't even try another one for a long time. Then came Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and I got hooked on the idea of real characters, big ideas, and the intrinsic conflicts of humans battling something higher than us on the food chain. With humor. And pathos. And the ring of truth.

If I could find books like that, I'd read 'em in a heartbeat.

Lo, and behold. . . there ARE books like that. I stumbled across Charlaine Harris's unique "Sookie Books" about four years ago and liked them immediately. What intrigued me most was the idea of playing with the vampire mythology-- which I had assumed (wrongly) was sacrosanct and not to be messed with in the eyes of readers. I was delighted to find a number of other writers taking liberties with the legends and traditions and creating vibrant and fascinating worlds to explore.

Now HBO and director Alan Ball have turned Charlaine's books into a zinger of a TV series that has me glued to my couch and remote every Sunday evening at 9(8 central). So far, the material transferred to the screen has produced a totally different experience than reading the books. And--surprise, surprise-- I like it just as well.

The characters aren't quite the way I pictured them. No shock there. They can't exactly vacuum the images out of my head. Everyone who reads a book develops a different mental image of what characters and locations look like. That's the participatory part of reading. But the True Blood characters as still quite acceptable to me. I think a big part of that is because the books are 1st person and a TV program or movie is by necessity third person. And because they did some really good casting. Meet the Stackhouse family:



Another change is the way they fleshed out parts of the story that were limited in the books by the 1st person POV. For instance, Sookie's brother Jason is labeled a horn-dog in Sookie's thoughts, but we don't really see him BEING a womanizing jerk. On HBO, we see his mindless bed-hopping in living color and begin to understand who he really is. And those of us who have read the books know what's in store for him and wag our heads.

So the characters look different, the storyline is more detailed, and the violence and blood-thirstiness of some of the vamps is a lot more real and graphic when portrayed on the screen. I think in reading the books, I kind of downplayed the violence and gore in my own mind. And Merlotte's where Sookie works is more like a supper club than the roadhouse I imagined.

I am a little surprised at how they managed to keep some of the things I loved about the early books-- the fact that Sookie is "a good girl" and a loving granddaughter, and the fact that her grandmother talks to her about God and moral issues, and the fact that Sookie stands up to bigots and jerks and puts her butt on the line for people who need help. That is some cool stuff. And makes up for the heaping doses of gratuitous sex Jason brings to the show each week.

Occasionally I've been asked by readers if I'd like to see my books made into mini-series's or movies. I've generally said no. (Not that there has ever been much of danger of it happening! lol!) Because what makes a romance so powerful --the melding that allows the reader to experience the action and emotions along with the character-- is just not possible on the medium of a screen. My take is that too much of a romance is internal to translate well to celluloid. And, to be honest, there are few people in Hollywood who have the touch for that kind of emotional ride.

But now, watching what Alan Ball has done with Charlaine's books, I have to think there's hope that more romances, more big-ideas from the great writers in our genre will find their way to the big screen. Or the HBO screen.

And okaaaay, I confess-- there are a couple of my precious brain-children that I'd love to see on a TV or movie screen. Strangely enough both are novellas. . . one a Christmas Story that really yanked my heartstrings and the other was a wacky Halloween witch story that is probably one of the funniest things I've ever written. Anybody have an "in" in Hollywood?

So what about you? Is there a book or a series of books you'd love to see on the big screen? Do you have a favorite actor and actress in mind to play the leading roles?

And my fellow writers: Do you have a favorite book among your own books that you think was just made for the big screen? Who would you want to star in it?

(pictures courtesy of HBO!)