Fans were plenty upset when novelist Charlaine Harris called it quits on her Southern Vampire Mystery series featuring telepath Sookie Stackhouse and her various vampire, fairy, demon and shape-shifter friends with the 2013 release of Dead Ever After. Sookie, Harris promised, was finished. So readers were delighted when the anthology Dead But Not Forgotten: Stories from the World of Sookie Stackhouse was announced. Harris, along with co-editor Toni L.P. Kelner, selected authors to contribute fantasy/mystery stories set in Sookie’s world. The writers could pick any character to write about — as long as it wasn’t Sookie — and tell any story they wanted. The result was the highly anticipated Not Forgotten. John Kwiatkowski, publicity manager for Murder By The Book, which is hosting a group signing of Not Forgotten with Harris and contributors Nicole Peeler and Rachel Caine, says he understands Harris’s decision to continue the stories without Sookie. “I think the motivation behind this new collection was to let other authors play in the world of Sookie Stackhouse and let the fans have another glimpse without really changing what Charlaine did with the last book. I think Charlaine said all she wanted to with Sookie but left such a big world with so many characters that it lends itself well to this kind of collection.”

Former Murder By The Book staffer Dean James, a staunch and early Harris supporter and himself a bestselling author, contributes “Another Dead Fairy Story” under his pseudonym Miranda James.

Harris, Peeler and Caine discuss and sign Dead But Not Forgotten at 6:30 p.m. 2342 Bissonnet. For information, call 713-524-8597 or visit murderbooks.com. Free.
Wed., Dec. 3, 6:30 p.m., 2014