Road Trip to Midnight Crossroad
"True Blood" author Charlaine Harris's new book introduces readers to the spooky town of Midnight, Texas.
8 Unique Halloween Events
From storytelling to underwater pumpkin carving, a haunted zipline and scary pop-up dinner, these events provide plenty of ways to celebrate Halloween through October 31.
Literary Friday, Edition 66
A "Sassy Belles" giveaway, guys who look like Hemingway, 5 books to watch for in August and a little free library on Kickstarter in Literary News. Pics from Zelda Fitzgerald's birthday party and the Decatur Book Festival in Literary Events, plus a poem about the Louisiana heat in Southern Voice. Happy Literary Friday!
Notes From the Louisiana Book Festival
Held October 27 on the grounds of and inside the Louisiana State Capitol in Baton Rouge, the Louisiana Book Festival was a wonderful way to spend a sunny, chilly day.
Guide to the Louisiana Book Festival
This Saturday, October 27, Louisiana's State Library in Baton Rouge and the Louisiana Center for the Book host the Louisiana Book Festival - a free literary celebration with 148 authors and more than 100 programs.
Literary Friday
Announcing the Helen Keller in Love winner. Summer reading & a BIG giveaway. Upcoming Twitter chats. Inside the App: James Lee Burke. Dish on the True Blood Cookbook. Southern lit in the news, literary events & new fiction by never-before-published Tom Honea. It's time for Literary Friday!
Bloody Good Meal
News of a “True Blood” cookbook had Trubies salivating when it was announced in March. San Francisco’s Chronicle Books has teamed up with HBO for the project, set to release August 29, but details are as slim as one of Bon Temps' blood-craving vampires.
Costumes From Down South
Halloween is coming soon. What are you going to be? Sweet Potato Queen - Her highness Jill Conner Browne's SPQ store on the Sweet Potato Queens website sells her signature red wig, queenly shades, rhinestone-encrusted baseball cap or crown, a variety of t-shirts and even a bling mug, all guaranteed to make your butt look smaller and instantly transform you into a queen. (For the guy lucky enough to get a date with a queen for the evening, there's the "Gen-u-wine Spud Stud" t-shirt.) True Blood Character - HBO's hit vampire series "True Blood," set in Bon Temps, Louisiana, has its own apparel, so you can get Vampire Bill's trademark thermal henley, the Merlotte's waitress tee and apron, Jason's varsity jacket or a complete Sookie outfit. Add in a bottle of "Tru-Blood" and a few bite marks, and you're ready to go. Scarlett O'Hara - Unless you're prepared to spend a pretty penny on this costume, you may want to take a nod from Scarlett herself and rip down some curtains, but we did find a costume shop in New Hampshire that will ship out several different gowns for rental. They've got a couple versions of the green curtain dress, plus Scarlett's
True Blood's Lure
by Erin Z. Bass With the finale of Season 3 of "True Blood" airing on HBO tomorrow night, I thought I'd do a short post about why the show has become such a hit with Southerners and viewers around the country. I watched my first episode in October of last year after downloading it from iTunes to find out what all the fuss was about. At first, I was horrified by the backwoods characters and accents, and the fictional name of the Louisiana town Bon Temps didn't help much either, but by the end of the episode, I was hooked. It was the music, good looks of vampire Bill and something about the character of Sookie that did it. Plus, the show was just fun to watch once you got past the accents and geographical inaccuracies (Shreveport and Monroe are not close to New Orleans or Jackson, Mississippi). Since then, I still think the theme song "Bad Things" by Texas-raised Jace Everett is one of the best ever, as is the show's Emmy-nominated intro depicting race riots, roadkill and baptism in the bayou. I also especially enjoyed the episode featuring Lafayette, Louisiana's own CC Adcock playing at Arlene and Rene's engagement party outside