The Southern Roots of 'True Blood'

TUNICA, Miss. - The HBO hit "True Blood" has its roots set firmly in the Mid-South. The vampire soap is based on a series of books by Tunica native, Charlaine Harris.

FOX13's Valerie Calhoun sat down with Harris at her family's Tunica home and for perhaps the first time, Harris opened up about what happened to her in Memphis that changed her life and the way she creates her female characters.

The dark world of 'supes,' as in supernatural creatures, is alive and well on the HBO series, True Blood. The fang-tastically outrageous show is based on Charlaine Harris' "Dead" series.

It is a world inhabited by vampires and werewolves, worlds away from Tunica, Mississippi where we caught up with Charlaine in her mother's home. It's a town where cotton was king and poverty was his queen until the casino industry took root.

"This region has long reputation for tolerating eccentrics," observed Charlaine.

Charlaine grew up in the cotton fields, where her father farmed the rich Delta soil while her mother nourished young minds as a librarian.

"I had a very solitary childhood, in some respects, which was greatly to my benefit because I read a lot."

The past smiles back as we talk about her youth, and the fact that some-50 years later, this best-selling novelist is living her dream.

When asked when she started writing, Charlaine replied "When I could hold a pencil, I always wanted to write - thought it the most wonderful thing to be."

Then Charlaine moved to Memphis to attend what is now Rhodes College. It was there that professors encouraged her to express her creativity.

"It's a wonderful place to go if at all creative," Charlaine said. "[It] gives you freedom to be creative in as many ways as you can think of."

After graduation, a job as a typesetter at FedEx kept Charlaine in Memphis, but what happened next changed her life.

"I'm a rape survivor so I do tap into that real strongly when I'm writing," revealed Charlaine. "A guy broke into my apartment. I didn't know him... they caught him eventually."

The emotional and physical fallout from that attack is echoed in her "Lily Bard" series of books, set in fictional Shakespeare, Arkansas. And, to a lesser degree, in every female protagonist Charlaine has penned from Harper Connelly in the "Grave" series.

Like Charlaine, her female leads are strong women with a traumatic past, a past that haunts and molds the present and future.

"I'm always wishing I were stronger," Charlaine shared. "My mother brought me up to be a strong woman and always said a woman can do whatever they have to do."

Like the soil of her birthplace, Charlaine's mind is fertile ground for creating strange new worlds and compelling characters. But, her feet seem to be firmly planted on the ground.

When asked if she believed in the supernatural, Charlaine replied "I don't disbelieve. I'd like to think my mind is open."

But, the chapters on the books that prompted True Blood are about to close.

"It's harder to pull ideas together for something fresh and different with Sookie. So, it could be 13 will be the end."

That's two more books, two more chances for Sookie to find what she's looking for. But never fear, Charlaine promises there's more where that came from.

"I will think of something new and different to write. I hope it's more fun even than those books."

She's already written more than 30 novels, plus short stories and anthologies, including one coming out next month titled "Death's Excellent Vacation" featuring Sookie cavorting in the Tunica casinos.

And that is bringing it home.