New Zealand Ghost Town

Charlaine Harris: Energised by the supernatural

For a series rooted in the small Louisiana town of Bon Temps, it's ironic that True Blood 's core cast hails from New Zealand, Australia and England. But no one is more impressed with the accents of Wellingtonian Anna Paquin, Ryan Kwanten from Sydney, and Essex-raised Stephen Moyer, who play Sookie Stackhouse, her brother Jason and vampire lover Bill Compton, than Charlaine Harris, the American author of the novels on which the popular series is based.

"I was born and bred in the south, so it took me a while to acclimatise myself but they've all done a trememendous job," laughs Harris, who lives in Arkansas. "I just can't imagine that part of acting. I couldn't do it myself. It's crazy, isn't it? But I get to see them from time to time and they're all such fun to hang around with."

A seasoned mystery writer, the 59-year-old had already penned several novels before Dead Until Dark , the first instalment in the Sookie Stackhouse series, appeared in 2001. "I've been a published writer for about 30 years now," recalls Harris. "My books had sold respectably but I was kind of at a crossroads.

I wanted to write something different that would be exciting for me and hopefully re-energise my reading public, what there was of it. I thought it would be fun to pull the supernatural into the mix, write less of a conventional mystery and see what happens. I worked on the character of Sookie until I came up with a young woman I thought I could live with for a few books."

Harris drew on her childhood love of ghost stories and other folklore, introducing vampires like the moralistic Bill Compton and his ruthless rival Eric Northman, along with werewolves like the maverick Alcide Herveaux and shapechangers such as enigmatic bar owner Sam Merlotte. "I've always been interested in the part of the world where we can't see," she says. "Mystery writers are generally required to stick pretty closely to reality so it's been a big pleasure for me to shuck off those bonds and do something completely new. To take these universally accepted supernatural figures and place them in the south to see how they interact with a different of environment."

With all 11 of the Stackhouse novels to date having featured in the New York Times best-seller list, Harris already boasted a sizeable readership long before Six Feet Under creator Alan Ball turned them into a Golden Globe-winning TV series. But since then an even larger audience has been exposed to her work, leading to some confusion over the significant differences between the two versions.

Ghost town in the heart of Wellington | Stuff.co.nz

A $3 million upgrade of the Tonks heritage area in central Wellington has turned it into a wasteland for boozers, drug addicts and prostitutes.

The family whose name is synonymous with the precinct - one of the capital's earliest European settlements - said plans to return there had been ditched because of the unruly element that had taken over.

The Tonkses have shelved plans to buy one of the old houses and are worried that another could be lost at the hands of arsonists.

Tonks Grove was created when government road builder Transit New Zealand saved 19 historic buildings as part of Wellington's inner-city bypass project.

But the buildings, including five in Tonks Grove, have sat vacant for up to two years.

About $3 million of the total $40 million project cost had been spent relocating and restoring the buildings, which are also clustered nearby in Willis and Kensington streets.

Though the exteriors have been restored, the interiors remain bare. Utilities, such as power and water, are not connected.

Kylie Williams, who lives in one of just three inhabited houses, said the unoccupied buildings had turned the area into a ghost town - "just like a vacant theme park". It had attracted the homeless, streetkids, and older teenage louts.

Another resident, Catherine Preitner, said there had been a succession of unwelcome visitors drunk or on drugs.

"A week ago a couple were fornicating on the gravel alongside the house."

She said the area was also being used as a cruising ground by prostitutes.

"They used to take clients around to the car park [behind Toi Poneke Wellington Arts Centre in Abel Smith St], but exterior lights have been put up there, so now they come around here."

Local people say that a burnt-out house in nearby Footscray Ave, where Upper Hutt GP Marko Kljakovic suffered terrible burns in an accident last year, provides a meeting place for undesirables.

A spokesman for Wellington City Council said the derelict home was a listed heritage building that required resource consent to be demolished. It was likely that a consent would be issued in the next few weeks.

Detective Senior Sergeant Paul Borrell, of Wellington CIB, said burglaries at high-rise buildings had increased in the past two weeks, which could be linked to people gathering in the Tonks Grove area.

Transit's project spokeswoman, Jonnette Adams, said the agency had security monitoring in the area and the buildings were alarmed, but it would revise its security measures as a result of complaints.

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