Charlaine Harris was born in Tunica, Mississippi, and raised in the Mississippi River Delta area in the middle of a cotton field. Though her early works consisted largely of poems about ghosts and, later, teenage angst, she wrote plays when she attended Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee and started writing novels a few years later.

After publishing two stand-alone mysteries, Harris launched a light-hearted mystery series 'starring' Georgia librarian Aurora Teagarden. The first of the eight books, Real Murders, was shortlisted for Best Novel in the 1990 Agatha Awards. In 1996, she released the first of the much darker Shakespeare mysteries, featuring the amateur sleuth Lily Bard, a karate student who makes her living cleaning houses.

Charlaine Harris then wrote the first of her Southern vampire mysteries starring Sookie Stackhouse, the quirky, telepathic waitress who works in a bar in the fictional Northern Louisiana town of Bon Temps. Dead Until Dark won the Anthony Award for Best Paperback Mystery. It also won Harris a whole new fan club of devoted readers and pushed her into the bestseller lists. The Sookie Stackhouse series, in which Sookie has to deal with vampires, werecreatures and other supernatural folk - not to mention her own complicated love life - was also instrumental in creating the urban fantasy genre.

Sookie Stackhouse also enchanted Alan Ball, creator of the smash TV show Six Feet Under, who took an option and wrote and directed the pilot episode for True Blood himself. It was an instant hit when it premiered in the US, and that success was repeated when it was first aired in Britain last year. The second season of TRUE BLOOD will start this spring.

Harris's newest series features Harper Connelly, a young woman who, after being struck by lightning, finds herself able to locate the bodies of the dead and to determine the cause of their death. There are four Harper titles (Grave Sight, Grave Surprise, An Ice Cold Grave and Grave Secret).

Charlaine 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. She is married, the mother of three, and lives in a small town in Southern Arkansas. When she is not writing her own books, she reads omnivorously!

Here are the Sookie Stackhouse True Blood novels in series order:

Dead Until Dark: Sookie Stackhouse 1

Living Dead In Dallas: Sookie Stackhouse 2

Club Dead: Sookie Stackhouse 3

Dead To The World: Sookie Stackhouse 4

Dead As A Doornail: Sookie Stackhouse 5

Definitely Dead: Sookie Stackhouse 6

All Together Dead: Sookie Stackhouse 7

From Dead To Worse: Sookie Stackhouse 8

Dead And Gone: Sookie Stackhouse 9

Dead In The Family: Sookie Stackhouse 10

A Touch Of Dead (a Sookie Stackhouse short story collection_

Here are the Harper Connelly novels in series order:

Grave Sight: Harper Connelly 1

Grave Surprise: Harper Connelly 2

An Ice Cold Grave: Harper Connelly 3

Grave Secret: Harper Connelly 4

Rachel Caine is the NYT, USA Today, and #1 WSJ bestselling author of more than 50 books in several categories and genres, including adult thriller and adult urban fantasy/SF as well as books for young adults ages twelve to eighteen.

Rachel Caine lost her fight with a rare and aggressive cancer, soft tissue sarcoma, in November of 2020. With over 56 books in print and millions of copies sold, she was a frequent guest at conventions in the United States and around the world. Her popular book series include the young adult Morganville Vampires novels, the Great Library series, and the #1 bestselling Stillhouse Lake novels in adult thrillers.

WWW.RACHELCAINE.COM

Over twenty years ago, Agatha award winner Toni L.P. Kelner moved up north, and after years of being told to write-what-you-know, discovered that what she knew about was the South and murder. Well, the murder part is mostly research, but she's a born-and-bred Southerner. Soon after her move she started writing the Laura Fleming mysteries about a North Carolinian transplanted to Massachusetts. (Wonder where she got that idea....)

After eight books and a number of short in that series, she tackled writing with a northern accent to produce the three books of the Where are they now? series about Tilda Harper, a Boston-based freelance entertainment reporter.

In the midst of that, she teamed up with NY bestseller Charlaine Harris--another Southerner--to co-edit urban fantasy anthologies. They've published five and GAMES CREATURES PLAY, their sixth, is due out in April 2014.

Kelner is also a prolific short story writer, and has published over two dozen for various anthologies and magazines. They're all mysteries, but feature vampires, witches, pirates, PIs, zombies, and demonic phone calls. Her stories have been nominated multiple times for the Agatha, the Anthony, the Macavity, and the Derringer, and she won the Agatha for "Sleeping With the Plush."

After two series under her own name, Kelner added the pen name Leigh Perry, and started publishing the Family Skeleton Mysteries. A SKELETON IN THE FAMILY, the first, was released in Sept. 2013, with THE SKELETON TAKES A BOW due out in Sept. 2014.

Kelner lives north of Boston with author/husband Stephen P. Kelner, two daughters, and two guinea pigs.

Hi-- I am the author of the Anna Strong Vampire Chronicles. Good news! The Becoming and Blood Drive are now available in ebook in all platforms! Thanks so much for being patient!!

I have joined the ranks of so many authors who are putting stories up on Amazon. My latest is Anna and the Vampire Prince, a continuation of the Anna Strong Chronicles. You can find it here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B019Y5LY0G/?tag=publishmarket-20 I hope you'll give it a read and please, let me know what you think of it and leave a review!

My collaboration with San Diego author Samantha Sommersby is proceeding, too. We now have four stories in the Fallen Siren series released under the pseudonym S. J. Harper. We are currently working on the next novel in the series. Check out our website here: http://fallensiren.com/ for more information and our events page.

The only thing I like more than corresponding with readers, is meeting you in person. If you're planning to be at RT in Las Vegas, or Dragon Con in Atlanta, look me up!!

Thanks again for being a reader.