If you've been thirsting for a little Sookie Stackhouse, you're about to get your fix.

First there was the May 3 release of “Dead Reckoning” (Ace), the latest book in Charlaine Harris' southern vampire series starring the telepathic barmaid. This time, she helps her vampire boyfriend Eric with a murderous plot, reunites with a mortal enemy, learns a little about the fairy side of her family tree and still has time to throw a baby shower.

Now, at 7:30 p.m. on May 16, Harris herself wraps up her publicity tour with a stop at the Michigan Theater to sign books and chat with her fans. Nicola's Books sponsors the appearance.

And just barely a month after that, Sookie's screen counterpart returns when season four of HBO's “True Blood” begins on June 26 at 9 p.m.

Harris, who seems to be at least as excited as any of us about all this, took a moment to chat with AnnArbor.com about it by phone (in the warmest, butteriest tinge of a drawl you have ever had the pleasure of hearing) from her southern Arkansas home before departing for the tour.

You seem to have so much fun writing about the paranormal world. What do you like about going there?

Of course it's fun. It's fun anytime you can escape reality, and write about something completely different, and still indulge yourself in your own sense of humor.

I did read that you hadn't used much humor before this series. What prompted the change?

I'd kind of suppressed my sense of humor in my writing. But people kept telling me I was funny, so I thought, "Well, maybe I should just let it rip." I was at in an experimental stage in in my career, by which I mean not making much money, and I thought I'd just let everything go and write what I wanted. And it worked out.

Do you think there's a bigger lesson in that? Or did it just happen to work out this time?

I really couldn't judge that. I'd written several books before then, but this seemed to be the one that I had to get out, that paved the way for everything after it.

I like how you've said that to you, the “True Blood” series is a separate entity — it's its own work, and you enjoy it that way without worrying too much about comparisons. That strikes me as so gracious and magnanimous. I wondered if you always and immediately felt that way, or if there was a process you had to go through in order to see a story you created as someone else's work.

First of all, I would be incredibly foolish to be unhappy with the show, because it has been such a financial boon to me. That would be ungracious. Plus I truly think (producer) Alan (Ball) is a genius, and I have so enjoyed working with him and the cast. All in all, I think I'm just sitting back to enjoy the ride. Alan's going to take us where he's going to take us, and if I want to go somewhere else, that's all right too. People get two forms of entertainment for the price of one.

You once said about creating Sookie's character, “I guess I'm interested in flawed but strong women.” Yet flaws and all, she still seems to keep it together better than the men. Is that conscious?

I do like strong women. My mother was a fantastically strong woman — she always said, "Women can do what ever they want to do; it just takes men a little more." She was trying to tell me in a polite way that women have to buckle under and do what they have to do; they can't sit around and lament that life is hard. That's generation she was from, the Depression generation. But I guess I've taken that to heart, maybe more than I usually admit.

You write many of your books in series. Are there particular strengths or costs to that?

You don't have to reinvent the wheel every time. You have your cast of characters and your setting, and it's just what you want to do with them in this particular book. You don't have to think, "Where's the convenience store?" and "How far is it from her apartment?" because you know all that already. And that can be a tremendous relief, not to have to work everything out every time.

On the other hand, you eventually have a cast of thousands — OK, maybe not thousands, but hundreds — that you have to remember. And that can be almost impossible, to remember what color her car was and the height of a minor character in the last book. It's almost overwhelming. So there are strengths and weaknesses.

Do you have any tricks for getting that done? Flow charts, white boards, diagrams?

My trick is this wonderful woman named Victoria. (Laughs.) She is my continuity editor now. I hired her myself — at first she was just keeping track of all this out of love, but it is just a such a time eater keeping track of this whole world that I said, "You are really helping me and we've got to make this a job."

I've never heard of a continuity editor.

I kinda made it up. That's exactly what she does: She checks to see if I'm consistent. In movies, they have a continuity person to make sure the guy who was wearing a white jacket in this scene still has a white jacket in that scene. And that's what she does, so I called it my continuity editor.

Is there anything else you'd like us to know?

The books are available in so many formats, there's really no excuse for not reading them. Recorded Books does a wonderful, wonderful recording of the Sookie Stackhouse novels, and people tell me they like to listen to them and get a completely different skew on them. You really do get a different impression of the book. They're also available on ebooks, and please buy them from an authorized dealer — there's piracy everywhere in this world; it's just crazy.

So there are lots of formats to get them in, and that is all to the benefit of the reader.

Charlaine Harris visits the Michigan Theater with "Dead Reckoning" at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, May 16, sponsored by Nicola's Books. Tickets are available in four price tiers: premium access to the front of the book-signing line, special reserved seating and an autographed copy of the latest novel for $38.50; special reserved seating and a copy of the latest novel for $28.50; special reserved seating only for $15; and general seating for $12. Available from ticketweb.com or by phone at 866-468-3401.

Leah DuMouchel covers books for AnnArbor.com.