I want to announce publicly that I am not obsessed with True Blood. Okay, maybe I’ve been marking the days off on my calendar until the September 7 premier, but that’s totally reasonable because show is based on the book Dead Until Dark by my pal Charlaine Harris. Yeah, some dude named Alan Ball is involved and some other Oscar winner is starring in it, but the important part to me is…

based on Dead Until Dark by my pal Charlaine Harris!

So of course I’m pretty excited. After all, I’ve been a huge fan of Sookie Stackhouse since the beginning. In fact, I’ve been a fan since before the beginning. I read Dead Until Dark in manuscript. (Yes, that is me mentioned in the dedication to the book.) I loved it immediately–the voice, the characters, the setting, the action, the world, the sex, the mystery–it has everything. Charlaine being one of my favorite people on earth doesn’t hurt, either.

But that doesn’t mean I’m obsessed. Okay, sure after over twenty years without cable in my home, I had it installed primarily so we can watch True Blood. We have been watching other stuff, I swear. The Discovery Channel and BBC America and of course, the HBO specials heralding the making of True Blood. That’s not being obsessive.

Admittedly, I did annoy my daughter Valerie. Yesterday, I said, “Hey, you know what next Sunday is, right?”

“I sure do!” Valerie said. “I can’t wait!”

“Me, either. That’s when True Blood starts!”

“Anything else?” she replied frostily.

“Well, it’s a month before Wolfsbane and Mistletoe hits the shelves. That’s the anthology I co-edited with Charlaine Harris. But True Blood starts this week!”

“Anything else?”

“Um….”

“It’s my BIRTHDAY!!!!”

“I knew that. How about a vampire birthday party this year?”

“Dad!!!!”

I tried to explain that she has had nine other birthdays, whereas this is the first episode of True Blood, but she didn’t buy it. You know, maybe I am obsessed…