Charlaine Harris, the writer who penned the Sookie Stackhouse series that inspired True Blood, has released the second novel in her southern gothic trilogy set in Midnight, Texas – Day Shift.

Charlaine Harris On ‘Day Shift’

“The world is the same, but a step away. Midnight is a remote town. There’s only one vampire there,” Harris told uInterview, explaining how her new series departs from the Sookie Stackhouse series. “He’s been there for really almost forever. There’s no involvement in the politics of the various paranormal communities. It’s really more of a return to a conventional mystery but with a few paranormal elements.” One of the ways in which Harris has incorporated elements from the Sookie series into the Midnight series is with crossover characters. Fans of Harris will no doubt be happy to see one particular popular character, as well as others from previous books that the writer has put out. “There is a reappearance [in Day Shift] of a character that was pretty popular in the Sookie series. There are people living in Midnight who have populated all my other series,” Harris revealed. “It’s like a roundup book where I get to see a lot of people years down the line from where I last saw them, which has been a lot of fun.” It was also fun for Harris to see some of her characters come to life on the small screen in HBO’s True Blood, though Harris admits it was a slightly jarring experience. “I had never imagined my characters as flesh and blood people except in my head. [The actors] were just as close as [screenwriter Alan Ball] could come,” Harris explained. “Of course they were all fabulous and I love the show, but it was sure a shocking experience for me to see people watching my stories being re-interrupted. It was an astonishing experience.” For Harris, someone who makes a living writing about the supernatural, her characters a blend of of vampires, werewolves and other mythical creatures, her biggest fears are somewhat surprisingly grounded in reality. Her sleepless nights have nothing to do with fatal bites, but with something happening to her loved ones. “I think the thing that scares me most is the possibility of something harming my children or my grandchildren. I’m very realistic like that,” Harris told uInterview. “I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about things that could happen. But that’s an idea that really scares the hell out of me.”

Day Shift is currently available in bookstores and in e-book form. You can buy it here: