Charlaine Harris Schulz: Crossover Mysteries 2/10/05

Mary Rosenblum

Hello, all.

Welcome to our live chat Professional Connection interview.

Tonight we have the privelege of chatting with Charlaine Harris Schulz,

one of those rare writers who has actually made the NY Times Bestseller list. I am quite envious.

A native of the south, Charlaine Harris has been a published writer for over two decades. Her current series include the crossover mystery/horror/fantasy books featuring Sookie Stackhouse, a telepathic waitress. The Harper Connelly series, about a lightning-struck woman who has developed a strange gift will debut in 2005.

In her writing career, Harris has produced the Aurora Teagarden books (cozies with teeth, about a Georgia librarian), and the Lily Bard books (her walk on the noir side) about a weightlifter with a terrible past.

Harris, who is married and has three children, spends her "leisure" time reading, going to the movies, and wishing someone would weed her flowerbeds. In addition to her human family, she has an animal family consisting of three dogs and a duck.

Charlaine, welcome! I'm so pleased you could be our guest tonight.

Charlaine Harris Schulz

Thanks, Mary. Be warned that I am techno-dumb, but I'll try.

Mary Rosenblum

Oh, my dear, you have been so EASY to train! Me, I want to know if the duck is housebroken.

Charlaine Harris Schulz

The duck stays outside. He's seven now. I don't know how long they live.

Any duck who's dodged dogs and foxes for seven years is a smart duck.

Mary Rosenblum

I had a muscovy duck who lived to be about 11... I think he believed he was a goat, actually.

Why don't you start off by telling us a bit about what you write, and how you got started?

Charlaine Harris Schulz

Sure,

I have written since I was very young, probably like lots of you all.

When I got married the second time

My husband asked if I wanted to stay home and write a book..

So, after a lot of anxious shilly-shallying, I did."

I sold that first book, which is just amazing.

I didn't have an agent, and was totally ignorant. This was very long ago, of course!

Mary Rosenblum

I am amazed at your husband, actually! What a gem! So how many have you published in total?

Charlaine Harris Schulz

Um. I think twenty?

Mary Rosenblum

Wow. That's quite a total. Did you begin with regular mystery?

Charlaine Harris Schulz

Yes, I did. My first book, over twenty years ago, was a regular mystery called "Sweet and Deadly."

Then I did another stand-alone called "A Secret Rage," which has achieved a kind of .

cult status as a mystery about a rape survivor.

After a long hiatus, during which I had two children,

I began writing again.

By that time, series were beginning to dominate the mystery publishing scene . . .

So I started a series about a librarian (my mom is a librarian, and my now deceased sister in law)

so that seemed natural. Finally, a publisher took it. Janet Hutchings was at Walker then .

She’s since become editor at Ellery Queen-- and I was back in the business.

Mary Rosenblum

If Secret Rage's still in print after nearly twenty years, it has indeed achieved status! How cool that you worked with Janet. I sell my short mysteries to her and I like her a lot as an editor.

Charlaine Harris Schulz

She's a great woman and I'm proud to be her friend. She moved on from Walker, then

and I didn't like her replacement. I wrote one other Aurora Teagarden for Walker, then

the series moved to Scriber.

Mary Rosenblum

Do you find that you enjoy the series or writing stand-alones better?

Charlaine Harris Schulz

I love writing series. I love to use the same cast of characters, sometimes adding .

And, of course, subtracting! Someone always gets killed. And I like to show the development  

of my main characters. I like to show conflict changing people.

Mary Rosenblum

That's what makes a book work for me...that character change.

tory

Charlaine, do you plot your mysteries from the end and work backward or just start and see where you end up?

Charlaine Harris Schulz

I start with a key scene. It may be from any part of the book

but it's what strikes my imagination first. Sometimes it's the denouement

Sometimes it's the climax. Sometimes it's just an image. Then I build the book around that, either

forwords or backwards. For example, in "Dead to the World"

I thought of seeing someone running down a cold road

in the middle of the night, when a woman was alone in her car. The book began with that.

Mary Rosenblum

How, cool.

Have you begun in the middle and had to work backward and forward?

Charlaine Harris Schulz

Oh, yes. . . .

But I confess, middles are the hardest for me. .

The key scenes for me somehow seem to fall close to the beginning or the end

like in "Dead Over Heels", one of the Aurora book. The image of the man falling from the airplane

was one I actually got from a newspaper clipping about a similar incident in France.. . .

I waited for years, trying to figure out how to use it.

Mary Rosenblum

How many books did you write for the Lily Bard series?

Charlaine Harris Schulz

Okay, I think six. My website has my bibliography, so if I'm wrong, check there.

Mary Rosenblum

I was just wondering why you ended the series...or IS it finished?

Charlaine Harris Schulz

Okay. Well, I got dropped by Dell, who was doing the paperbacks

and if you can't do the hardback and the paperback, it's just not economically feasible. Usually

if a publisher has done several of the paperbacks for a series, no one else will want to pick them up once the series

has been dropped. I hope that's clear? I was lucky with the Aurora books

in that respect.

Mary Rosenblum

To me, alas, that's how I lost my Rachel O'Conner series, but perhaps you'd better explain to

people about hardcover and paperback and how that works.

Charlaine Harris Schulz

Okay, to the best of my ability. I am not the world's most businesslike person.

Basically, when a publisher buys your work to come out in hardback, they either arrange

to do the paperback edition also, or they market the book to some other paperback publisher. That's called

going hard/soft. If you've had one publisher for your hardbacks, say you're maybe three books into the series

and then your paperback publisher decides you're not profitable and drops the option to publish more

it becomes very difficult to find a paperback publisher to pick up that option.

The Aurora books had several hardback publishers, but only one paperback publisher, Worldwide.

sweet_muse

Do all books that come out in hardcover come out in paperback version later?

Charlaine Harris Schulz

I think it is rare to find a hardback that doesn't eventually come out in paperback. The sales

would really have to be poor for that situation to occur.

Mary Rosenblum

Tor Books has brought out a few in SF...and yes, the sales were abysmal.

mmolly

Ouch! What happens to the faithful readers when the series is dropped? I think that would upset folks.

Charlaine Harris Schulz

Oh, yes, it does. And believe me, it upsets the author, too.

Mary Rosenblum

Yes, let me ditto that!

bingocliff

What part has 'education' played in your writing career?

Charlaine Harris Schulz

Hmmm. That's an interesting question. Okay, I graduated from high school, and then I went to college --

actually, a very good college, Rhodes, in Memphis. But I don't think it was the education I got

though I've used what I learned. I think it was the exposure to ideas, and the reading requirements for an English

Major, that were the valuable parts of the education that I took away with me. Of course, I was utterly unfit

to make a living after I graduated and I learned a lot about hard knocks as a result.

Mary Rosenblum

Which probably helped as much as the English degree.

Charlaine Harris Schulz

Oh, no doubt.

sweet_muse

Could you somehow self-publish to continue the series or would that violate the contract you had with the house that dropped you?

Charlaine Harris Schulz

I'm not sure about the legality of that. It's usually in your contract that the publisher of your work

has the right to see the next book you write. That's called First Refusal. But I would think after a time

that would become ridiculous. I mean, I haven't written a Lily Bard in four years, now. The fact is that I

just don't have the time with my present commitments. I have to write two books a year for the next

two years, and I've written a novella and three short stories, too, so my time is simply nonexistent.

Mary Rosenblum

I would say so. :-)

I do know a bit about this

and while legally you can continue the series with a small press publisher after it is dropped

few authors have the time to do so for the small financial return.

sweet_muse

What is a denouement?

Charlaine Harris Schulz

A denouement (a French word, of course) is the moment in the book when all is explained --

the identity of the murderer, his motive, and the relevance of all the clues.

C

Or, as I call it, the AH-HA moment.

sweet_muse

Thanks for clearing that up. I had my own Ah-ha moment. (smiles)

jac

When a series is dropped by the paperback publisher, will the hardback publisher continue to publish the series?

Charlaine Harris Schulz

It's a possibility, but a dim one. Publishers exist to make money, and if you're not making money with the paperback,

your hardback sales are usually not stellar.

But publishers don't take into account that some series are slow builders.

Mary Rosenblum

Well, I was going to save this question for later, but I think it's apt to our current discussion:

wardg

Are big-name publishers the only way to make a living from your books?

Charlaine Harris Schulz

I would have to say, at this point in time, yes .

Small publishers are great, and they serve an essential role in publishing today. But if you want big bucks

or even just-liveable bucks, I think a big publisher is the only place you're going to get them.

I hope I'm wrong. I hope there's a way.

wardg

Do good writers for small publishers ever get snapped up by big publishers?

Charlaine Harris Schulz

Yes. In fact, I know of several that have been taken by big publishers after they had published with smaller presses. And

it may not be the sales that make the difference. It's the fact that the writers improved their craft by simply writing more

books, and that made them more seasoned. And also, if you can hand an agent a book you've published --

not vanity published, but published with a small press, that agent will take a second look at you.

tory

Is the better money because big publishers pay better or just have more distribution, therefore you earn more money?

Charlaine Harris Schulz

Big publishers both pay better and have better distribution. Also, the production values are likely to be higher, though this is not

a given. For example, bigger publisher often have better covers, better proofreading. And they have a sales force that can back

a writer powerfully. This is a great thing to have on your side, if you can swing it.

mmolly

Do you need to publish a book before a well known publisher will snatch you up...or can they see your ability in short stories?

Charlaine Harris Schulz

It's certainly possible to attract a lot of attention with your short stories. If you've published short stories --

if you've published ANYTHING . . . a publisher will be more interested in you. But they'll want to make sure that you

can do a full-length novel before they sign with you, I'm pretty sure.

Mary Rosenblum

And publishers and agents DO look seriously at first novels.

Many blockbusters were first novels.

Charlaine Harris Schulz

Oh, absolutely.

info

What is the difference between a vanity press and a small press?

Charlaine Harris Schulz

The most basic difference is this: the writer pays a vanity press. A small press pays the writer.

senicynt

Is it advisable to go paperback first or hardback, or is that the publisher's decision?

Charlaine Harris Schulz

It's the publisher's decision, and however you go is good. I've done both.

The advantage to going hard/soft, of course

is that you get to sell the same thing twice, which is a neat way of making money for nothing.

However, with the Sookie books, the publisher (Ace) wanted to go paperback, which was fine with me,

because I'd begun to think that book would never see the light of day. Then, after the third book

Ace went hardback with the series. So I was VERY happy with that.

Mary Rosenblum

And you do get better reviewer attention with hardcover...lots of large circulation papers don't review paperback.

Charlaine Harris Schulz

Very true. But a lot of people now

are scared to buy an author first in hardcover, because the price is so high. They'd like

to sample the writer first in soft cover, then hardback. At least, that's what some readers have told me.

Mary Rosenblum

Oh, that's very true. Personally, I have seen first time writers succeed better with paperback contracts rather than hard... as a general rule.

joker

Does the pressure of knowing you have to produce 2 books per year motivate you or hurt you?

Charlaine Harris Schulz

Hah! I'll tell you what motivates me; having three kids to put through college. Somehow, that makes

writing two books a year a lot easier.

Mary Rosenblum

I'm laughing. Been paying that mortgage with the keyboard for quite a while...NO kidding!

frazz

Hi, Charlaine! Glad you could be here tonight. When you write a series like the ones you have with so many books, do you have them all planned out at the start or do you plan out two or three and go from there?

Charlaine Harris Schulz

I wish I had anything planned. I know of other writers who say they've got the next three books all mapped out

in their series, and I can only shake my head in amazement. I am not much of a planner, which is putting it kindly. . . .

I don't even plan one book at a time. I just sit down and let it flow. Or not.

deb1234

What is the first novel in your mystery series so that I may start reading that series. I've already read all of your Vampire series. I hope Sookie and Bill get back together.

Charlaine Harris Schulz

You and a lot of other folks. The first novel in my FIRST mystery series was "Real Murders." That was the Aurora Teagarden

series. My second mystery series, a more hard-boiled one, was about Lily Bard, a housecleaner

with a terrible past. The first book in that series was "Shakespeare's Landlord." Now, I'm starting another series, as

Mary said in her opener, a somewhat noir series about a woman named Harper Connelly, who's been struck by

lightning, with unusual results. Of course, I'll keep writing Sookie.

mmolly

So there’s hope for me? Every story I have ever written goes in almost the exact opposite direction I thought it would.

Charlaine Harris Schulz

Sure there's hope for you. I get surprised every day.

deb1234

What prompted you to write the Southern Vampire Novels?

Charlaine Harris Schulz

I was at a hiatus in my career . . .

The Lily Bard series had been axed by Dell, and Aurora, though fun, wasn't making much money .

So I started to believe that NOW was the time to turn things around. I wondered what I could write that would

be completely different, and it seemed to me that if I could write books that appealed to several different genres, I

would be onto a good thing. Plus, I had a yearning to write something supernatural. I've always been intensely interested.

And I'd been reading Tanya Huff and Laurell K. Hamilton, and Anne Rice in the past, so vampires seemed the way to go.

But I also felt like letting my sense of humor out. My agent, I must say, was underwhelmed by my manuscript, but

I argued and argued, and since he's my excellent agent, he worked hard at selling DEAD UNTIL DARK. It took TWO YEARS.

And now it's in its thirteenth printing.

Mary Rosenblum

Wow! That IS impressive.

So remember, all you aspiring writers out there...when an editor or agent says 'oh, this probably won't do well'...they can be quite wrong.

deb1234

I have half of my family reading that line now. Do you intend to branch off this line into another as well?

Charlaine Harris Schulz

Thanks for spreading the word. Yes, the Harper Connelly books will be very different. They're

more of a conventional mystery, but with dark elements as well. No vampires, but a few souls,

I do mean literally, souls, are in the books. And Harper herself is a somewhat damaged person.

Mary Rosenblum

How are they marketed, Charlaine? As Romance, or Fantasy or Horror?

Charlaine Harris Schulz

They'll be coming out from Penguin Putnam's mystery line, Berkley, rather than from Ace, also owned by Penguin Putnam.

Ace does the Sookie books.

Mary Rosenblum

That's interesting! When I was with Berkley, they were adamant about NO supernatural. Times do change... :-)

Charlaine Harris Schulz

Thank goodness, right?

Mary Rosenblum

For sure!

For those of you who do not know the publishers, that means her books are being marketed as mysteries.

Charlaine Harris Schulz

No one knows WHERE to put the Sookie books.

That was the initial objection of several publishers.

Mary Rosenblum

Mystery seems to be much more comfortable with crossover books like this than they used to be. This is a recent trend, isn't it? That 'where do we put the books' used to make crossover a big 'no no'.

Charlaine Harris Schulz

You are so right. If it didn't fit in a niche, toss it aside, was the attitude. But now, with the success

of various crossover writers, some coming from the romance field . . .

and some, like me, from the mystery field, and a few stalwarts from the science fiction field

books are cropping up everywhere that are very hard to classify. It does make it hard on the book stores. Sometimes

I find Sookie in Horror, sometimes in Mystery, and sometimes in Science Fiction. Most of all, I like to find

Sookie on a big cardboard display (called a "dump") in the middle of the store!

Mary Rosenblum

That's always the best place to find a book! LOL

wardg

Is cross-genre hard to sell? Are there some publishers that are more open to it?

Charlaine Harris Schulz

I have to say that it isn't as hard to sell as it used to be. Look at the sales in the field! Laurell makes millions

and lots of other writers, though making no where near that, are not doing shabbily. Ace is open to cross-genre, and some

of the romance houses are thriving on it. Look at Katie MacAllister, for example; try reading her. And there'

are Kelley Armstrong, Kim Harrison, and quite a few others."

Mary Rosenblum

The Har-Sil 'Luna' line is very non-formulaic fantasy/romance. And doing very well, I hear.

wyrde

Writers already have to do a lot of adjusting for publishers. It's ok if they adjust a bit for us and the readers, isn't it?

Charlaine Harris Schulz

Yes, I think Luna is booming.

That is a knotty question .

Why do you think writers have to do a lot of adjusting? I mean, a writer might tailor elements of her book to suit a particular market

but she's still writing what she wants to write. Are you saying that readers should have direct input, and the

writer should alter her concept of the way the book should go to suit the reader? I am very interested in what

readers think, but the minute I start changing my books to suit what someone else sees as the correct course

they should follow, is the minute I stop being a true writer.

wyrde

No, it is just that I hear a lot of authors with books that publishers "don't know what to do with"... as you pointed out earlier, it's hard to say what will do well, what the readers will actually buy.

Charlaine Harris Schulz

Oh, sure. I'm glad I'm not a publisher . . . it's an absolute crapshoot. . . .

The important thing is that a publisher has to commit to the writer, with more than the advance.

The cover has to be appealing, the sales force has to understand the book and know

what market it might hit, and the author has to know how to promote the book, too.

Mary Rosenblum

I think this will forever be a problem. If you are the 'cutting edge', your book is new, a risk. And publishers ARE conservative...they have to make a profit. If your book is good, believe in it. Some best sellers took years to sell.

bingocliff

Charlaine, has your agent or publisher(s) requested changes in your manuscripts? And have you obliged or refused?

Charlaine Harris Schulz

Oh, sure. My agent SUGGESTS changes, and so does my publisher. Often, these suggestions are excellent, because after all

they're professionals, too. And I'm glad to incorporate those changes, which are generally minor. A couple of times, I've refused

because it made a difference in the book that just lessened the impact of the book.

After all, what we want is a strong book.

wardg

It sounds like a balancing act between what readers will buy and publishers will sell and what you want to write; it's very dynamic.

Charlaine Harris Schulz

Dynamic is one word for it!

senicynt

Are books ever published without giving the author an advance?

Charlaine Harris Schulz

I have heard of some very small presses that give no advance.

Mary Rosenblum

It's actually rare to get an advance from a small press house, but they pay larger royalties.

Charlaine Harris Schulz

And you get more personal interaction with your editor, some small press writers tell me.

geezer

Are Thomas Nelson and Tyndale House considered large publishers?

Charlaine Harris Schulz

I don't think either of those are considered

large publishers.

Mary Rosenblum

I'm not familiar with them as such.

You are also a parent, Charlaine. How do you children fit into your writing life?

Charlaine Harris Schulz

Of course, when they were younger, it was very hard .

I had no sooner begun writing again, after my long hiatus, than I found out that I

was pregnant again. Now I have a 20, a 17, and a 14. They're proud of me. But they don't read me, and

I don't any of them are thinking of becoming writers . . . though they can have a talent for making up stories!!!

They are absolutely the most important thing in my life.

Mary Rosenblum

How did you balance the realities of deadlines with your family?

Charlaine Harris Schulz

That's always very tricky. I try very hard not to get behind in my pacing

so I don't have too many last-minute crises. If I have to stay in my office all day and into the evening

not only do I get grumpy, but our home eco-system starts to fall apart.

Real life always intrudes on my writing life. Sigh.

Mary Rosenblum

Oh, does it NOT! I'm laughing.

deb1234

How did you get started writing?

Charlaine Harris Schulz

That was all I ever wanted to do. So I'm very lucky that I turned out to have a knack for it, huh?

I began writing when I was in elementary school, and I just kept on. I knew in my heart that I could be a novelist, and it

seemed amazing to me that other people wanted to be other more mundane things. I knew I WAS a writer, whether

or not anyone else knew it. I just had to validate that conviction by actually writing a book!

newstart

Have you ever thought about writing e-books?

Charlaine Harris Schulz

No, never. I don't know much about that. If I hit a wall with my established writing career, I am sure

I would investigate it.

deb1234

What are the tools you use to to be such a prolific writer?

Charlaine Harris Schulz

Hmmm. Tools. You're being literal, or do you mean emotional tools? Mental tools?

Mary Rosenblum

I suspect she means both, Charlaine.

Charlaine Harris Schulz

Okay. Well, I write on a computer, though I do know writers who still use the longhand-and-legal pad method.

I use Microsoft Word. I work about three hours a day. I love what I do, which is the most

powerful tool there is, I think. And I'm not afraid to jettison passages that don't work out. You can't cling .

If something's not working, it's not working. Don't hold onto it. Dump it. You can always use it some

other time, if you think your prose is deathless. And I have a large group of writer friends, that help

me out on days when I feel what I do for a living is a ridiculous pastime for a grown woman.]

Mary Rosenblum

And we ALL have those days!

Charlaine Harris Schulz

Sometimes I wonder what I'm going to do when I grow up. But I suspect I never will.

wyrde

I notice that whenever you are asked a question, you do not assume an obvious direction for it, but explore the different ways the question could be applied... do you consider this a primary skill in your writing?

Charlaine Harris Schulz

I never thought about it before. I do like to take an ordinary thing, and give it an extraordinary

spin. I love the weird, the unusual, the unexpected that can be found in the everyday.

deb1234

But how do you keep track of your plot from book to book, chapter to chapter, character's nuances, etc.?

Charlaine Harris Schulz

That's a big problem, Deb. I have a 'bible'; that is, a compilation of all the characters that have been

in all the books, for each series. But even that can fail me

because I can't remember everything. I just don't have room to hold it all

in my head at the same time. I need a new memory chip. I've already made a couple of mistakes

in continuity because neither I nor my editor caught lapses between what I said in one book

and what I said in another.

Mary Rosenblum

Editors are very valuable that way.

wardg

Do you spend a lot of time creating the backstory and world?

Charlaine Harris Schulz

I come to the book knowing a lot about the characters, but not everything. In fact, sometimes I think of

pieces of backstory that fit the way they are. I didn't know it before I started the book, but when I see the

character on the page, I sometimes think of what must have happened to them to make them the way

they are.  As for the world, yes, I start out with the general rules established. But half the fun

is thinking of something that never crossed your mind before you started the book. Like the vampire airline,

Anubis. That just came to me when Bill had to catch

a flight to Dallas. I began wondering, How WOULD a vampire get from place to place in an airline

oriented world? That's what makes this job the most fun.

sweet_muse

So sometimes you don't know how you make it work, but obviously from your success you have found a way!

Charlaine Harris Schulz

That's me. My motto is, I make Ignorance work.

Mary Rosenblum

I love that motto.

mmolly

What do you think makes a successful writer? Is it a natural talent? Learning the skills? Or just the fact that they are determined to get it right by continuing to write, write and write?

Charlaine Harris Schulz

Elements of all three of those, Mmolly. You have to have the talent. You can't make it on determination alone. The skills can be learned

but only if you have the talent to apply them. Even people whose first couple of books were bestsellers get caught

if they don't have the goods on the shelves. Determination and a gimmick can get the first book or two sold, but

the proof of true talent is in the sustaining of that momentum.

senicynt

Do you have a group of loyal fans that help you proofread for plot consistency? I know that when I write, I see what I want to be there. I don't always see what is really there. :-)

Mary Rosenblum

Do you have readers, Charlaine?

Charlaine Harris Schulz

I have a horror of letting people read the manuscript before it's ready for publication. On the other hand

I get really upset when loyal readers point out consistency errors. So I can see . . .

I'm going to have to do something about it. I know my editor can't catch everything. For one thing,

some of my readers have read my Sookie books literally seven or eight times, and they're

tuned into every nuance. My editor just doesn't have the time or inclination to do that.

writeaway

Charlaine, you said you wrote a novella, is there much of a market for novellas?

Charlaine Harris Schulz

In the romance field, there is, and this novella was for Harlequin. I felt a very stupid sort of

embarrassment at writing for a romance house, and once I overcame my snobbery, I really enjoyed the

experience. The editing was excellent, the cover good, and the pay was very nice indeed. There

were a couple of requirements that I hadn't encountered before, but they were reasonable, and I had no problem

rewriting to meet them.

mmolly

How many books are in your Southern Vampire series?

Charlaine Harris Schulz

I'm at work on Sookie Number Six right now, and I have a contract for another one after this. I'm

confident that Ace will want some more.

azurec3

Did you feel a need to use a pseudonym for the Harlequin novella?

frazz

What's the name of the novella?

Mary Rosenblum

Is it still in print, Charlaine?

Charlaine Harris Schulz

The anthology it's in is called "Night's Edge," and name of my novella is "Dancers in the Dark." It's still in print.

deb1234

When will the new series be released?

Charlaine Harris Schulz

October. I'm very excited, and anxious about seeing the cover. The Sookie covers are so distinctive

that they'll be hard to top, but I hope it's possible. I have high hopes, maybe unrealistically, about the success

of the series, because I've invested a lot in it.

Mary Rosenblum

Oh, that's great! Maybe I can talk you into coming back and visiting with us again after the new series is out. We could keep asking you questions all night, but I'll let you rest your weary fingers.

You have been a great guest, very informative, and I am so glad you joined us!

Charlaine Harris Schulz

This time has flown by. I've really enjoyed being here with you all. Thanks very much.

Mary Rosenblum

I will definitely ask you to come back when your new series is on the shelves if you're willing.

You had a crowded auditorium out there.

Charlaine Harris Schulz

I'd love to. Thanks for a batch of intelligent questions.

Mary Rosenblum

Thanks so much for coming, Charlaine and good luck with your new series! I'll watch for it.

frazz

Thanks for talking with us and good luck on your new series!

Mary Rosenblum

Good night, Charlaine!

Thank you all for coming, and good night!