How much is Charlaine Harris worth?
| Net Worth: | $12 Million |
|---|---|
| Profession: | Professional Author |
| Date of Birth: | November 25, 1951 |
| Country: | United States of America |
| Height: | Unknown |
About Charlaine Harris
Charlaine Harris Schulz was born on November 25, 1951 and is an American author with an estimated net worth of $12 million. Charlaine Harris was born in Tunica, Mississippi, part of the Mississippi River Delta, on November 25, 1951. She graduated from Rhodes College with a degree in English and communication arts in 1973. While in college, she wrote plays, but she switched to writing novels a few years after graduation.
Harris lives in Magnolia, Arkansas. She has been married twice, and is still married to her second husband, with whom she has three grown children. When her children were at home, she was an active softball mom and served as president of the Softball Boosters Club. She has also been senior warden at St. James Episcopal Church several times and was on the Magnolia Arts Council. She has a house on several acres and takes care of several rescue dogs.
Books
Harris published her first novel, Sweet and Deadly, in 1981. After publishing one other stand alone novel, she switched to serials. Her first series was the Aurora Teagarden books, which began with Real Murders. Aurora Teagarden is a librarian who belongs to the Real Murders Club, which studies unsolved crimes. There were eight books in this series, which Harris wrote from 1990 to 2003.
The Shakespeare series is Harris’ second series. The first book in this series is Shakespeare’s Landlord, published in 1996. These books star Lily Bard, a karate student who cleans houses to make money. They are set in rural Arkansas. There are five books in this series, the last of which was published in 2001.
In 2001, Harris published Dead Until Dark, the first book in the Southern Vampire series starring telepathic waitress Sookie Stackhouse. There are 13 books in this series, the last of which was published in May 2013. This is the series that took Harris to a new level of fame, not only because the books were so popular, but also because they were turned into a hit HBO TV show, True Blood.
In 2005, Harris published Grave Sight, the first of four books in the Harper Connelly mystery series. After getting struck by lightning, Harper gained the ability to see the last minutes of a dead person’s life through his or her point of view.
Harris has also edited and contributed to several anthologies.
Dead Reckoning
Charlaine Harris’ Dead Reckoning is the 11th in the popular urban fantasy series chronicling the unusual life of Sookie Stackhouse. In this latest installment, faery relatives Claude and Dermot are living with Sookie, Merlotte’s Bar is bombed, and tension runs high with the intrusion of Victor, recently appointed regent of Louisiana, into the personal lives and economic livelihoods of Eric, Sam, and Sookie. There are, of course, other developments – romantic, political – that Stackhouse fans will be interested in, maybe.
I became a Sookie Stackhouse fan last summer when I devoured the first 10 novels (plus a collection of short stories) in 6 weeks, so I’m sad to say that Dead Reckoning is very disappointing. The writing is imprecise and confusing at times and both the dialogue and exposition jump topics without warning. Even Sookie Stackhouse herself is a bit out of character, being more crass and in general less likable than she is in the previous books. There isn’t the usual chemistry between the characters and I found myself bored with the plot, made worse by what seemed to be unusually long chapters for the series.
Despite my disappointment, I know Stackhouse fans will want to read Dead Reckoning to catch up on the latest in the characters’ lives. After all, the Sookie Stackhouse series, on which the popular HBO series TrueBlood is based, tells an engrossing and exciting story that has, until now, been a page-turner. Harris has slowly pulled back the veil of reality and revealed new characters and issues each book, but unfortunately, she’s hit a wall with her latest effort. For those of you who are interested in starting the Stackhouse series, don’t let this deter you; begin at the beginning. For those of us who have already read the series, there’s always hope for the next book!
TV Shows
The Southern Vampire Series, starring Sookie Stackhouse, was turned into a popular HBO TV series, True Blood, by Alan Ball. The sixth season of True Blood will start in June 2013.
Grave Sight was also optioned for a TV show, first by CBS, then in August 2012 by Syfy. So far there is no word on whether Syfy will actually produce a show based on these books.
The Cemetery Girl series came out in 2014, a graphic novel series co-written with Christopher Golden and illustrated by Don Kramer. As of 2023, Charlaine Harris’ net worth is estimated to be $12 million.
