I do plot murders over breakfast, and while I’m in the car, and while I’m on planes. I have ideas all the time—when I’m showering, when I’m doing the dishes, when I’m having phone conversations . . . and I apologize to the person on the other end of the conversation, here and now. I don’t miss a lot of sleep, but sometimes I think over what I’ve written during the day as I’m drifting off to sleep or just waking up, and I’ve gotten some resolutions to problems at those times. The trick is remembering them long enough to get them into the book.

I’ve just finished reading Dead in the Family, and I was somewhat confused that Sookie can feel Eric, Alexei, and Appius Livius Ocella in the bond—but not Pam. If they are all from the same blood, surely Pam should be present in the bond between Eric and Sookie.

—PATRICIA DE VRIES

The bond works “up.” Sookie can feel the one she’s bonded with (Eric) and his maker, and therefore the maker’s other child (Alexei) . . . but she can’t feel “down,” which would be Eric’s children or Alexei’s child, if he’d ever sired one.

In Sookie’s world, can vampires be brought back to human life once they are made vampire?

—SALLY JOHNS

No. They’ve already died, so life is not an option for them.

If a vampire has been publicly found guilty of killing a human, will he or she be tried in human court?

—BRIAN COTTRELL

Yes, unless the vampires catch him or her first. They don’t want bad publicity, and such a trial would definitely be detrimental to the image they’re trying to project—if the guilty vampire simply killed from overfeeding or for the pleasure of it. However, if the vampire was being attacked by a group of Drainers, the vampire hierarchy would be glad to see the trial, since it would send a message to those who were thinking of doing the same thing.

It is well-known that when vamps cry, it is blood. So my question is, Do vamps go to the bathroom? We also know that vamps are very sexually active, so if they cry blood, what is in place of their “other” bodily fluids? Is this why Sookie couldn’t get pregnant?

—JENNIFER VAN HORN

I got lots of questions about vampire bodily fluids, so I guess I have to respond. Vampires do cry blood. Their sexual emissions are tinged with blood, too. Males and females are sterile because birth (and engendering birth) are processes of living, as is using the bathroom. Vampires only ingest blood (though they may occasionally sip a nonblood drink), and they use every bit of the blood as fuel.