Stephen Moyer visits New Orleans (or shall I say Bill Compton) True Blood

'True Blood' season 2 film crew takes over Clinton, La., then heads for New Orleans

HBO'True Blood' stars Stephen Moyer and Anna Paquin took a break from season 2 location shooting in Clinton, La., to visit New Orleans.
Clinton, La. --

Standing in for fictional downtown Bon Temps, La., the blocks surrounding the East Feliciana Parish Courthouse looked like they'd been hit by a lusty tornado over the weekend.
The steamy HBO drama "True Blood" came to Clinton for several days of location shooting, and the town's streets (and trees) were strategically strewn with trash but mostly clothing, for a saucy storyline to play out in a few weeks on the show's 10th episode of the current season.
Saturday, shooting started at about noon and concluded after 2 a.m. Sunday. Wilting heat and humidity prevailed, broken occasionally by light rain.

Series leads Stephen Moyer (who portrays vampire/heartthrob/173-year-old Confederate Army veteran Bill Compton), Academy Award winner Anna Paquin (who plays Sookie Stackhouse and is Moyer's love interest on and off screen) and Ryan Kwanten (Sookie's brother Jason) were on hand for scenes as several dozen curious locals watched on from an out-of-frame.

The Louisiana-set drama, based on a series of popular vampire novels by Charlaine Harris, is mostly shot on back lots and soundstages in the Los Angeles area. Some location work for its first season was done around the Shreveport area. Scenes for three upcoming season-two episodes were shot over the weekend.

And -- incredibly, amazingly, appropriately - an ailing Clinton bat owes its life to "True Blood's" visit.
The tiny animal fell from a tree near the courthouse as the production was preparing to shoot a scene.

Crew medic Holly O'Quin, whose day job is nurse at Ochsner Health Center, leapt into action.
O'Quin called her brother, Jeff Galpin, a New Orleans stunt coordinator and animal wrangler for film-and-TV productions, who recommended that the baby bat be nursed back to health by feeding it regular doses of evaporated milk and egg whites, which O'Quin administered by needle-less syringe. Paquin, among many others on set, took great interest in the bat's recovery. (O'Quin reported Monday that the bat had recovered enough to fly away at the end of the production day.)

Dave Walker/The Times-Picayune'True Blood' crew medic Holly O'Quin tends to an ailing bat on-set in Clinton.

Sunday, on a day off from shooting, Moyer, Paquin and several production officials made a tourist trip to New Orleans. The visit culminated with a large dinner party at Galatoire's. (Deborah Ann Woll, who plays vampire conscript Jessica Hamby on the show, joined the group there.)

A couple of days earlier, Moyer made the drive into the city from the production's Baton Rouge base to wander the streets of the French Quarter - by himself - shooting pictures.
Yes, Bill Compton walked among us, only occasionally recognized.

"I saw a coffeehouse in a courtyard, and I wandered in there," said Moyer, a native of England, about his first-ever trip to New Orleans. "The coffee looked great. And sitting at the table were two New Orleans mimes, dressed in silver, having a coffee break.

"They were talking (but) went into mime (poses) as I walked past."
Moyer got his coffee and came back to the table and offered a gratuity in exchange for photographing the scene.

"This is the only thing she said," said Moyer of one of the mimes, approximating her thick "True Blood"-homage accent. " 'Anything for you, Bill Compton.'"


Article by: Dave Walker - The Times Picayune

Don't you just love it!! I sure wish I was at that coffee house.....Darn!

Dawn Chartier
www.dawnchartier.com

Karen Marie Moning "Fever Series Fans" Lunch in New Orleans with Jericho's z-lo (not with Karen)

(sorry for posting this again, had a error on last one)

A friend of mine has set up a World Tour Z-Lo lunch for fans of the "Fever series".

Why you ask? Well she has in her hands the Z-Lo. This is Jericho Barron's version of the MacHalo. We don't know why Jericho has this Z-lo? I'm guessing the answer will be in Karen's Dreamfever book coming out on August 18th.

So if anyone wants to join us:
Place: Port-Of-Call
Date: July 11th
Time: 11:30am
Address: 838 Esplanade Avenue,
New Orleans, LA 70116

(I tried posting a link to a map, but it didn't work. Go to google maps and search the address listed above, sorry.)

Debbie D and I would love to meet other Moning fans, we will take pics with the z-lo before we send to the next lucky person.....

"Stay to the lights!"
Dawn Chartier

Sola Writers Meeting - July 18th - Self Editing Help!

For our July's writers meeting we are having author/free-lance editor, Marie Goodwin present "Beyond the Commas: The Pleasures and Perils of Self-Editing."

Marie Goodwin, a 28 year Sola-RWA member and former Program Chair, has recently launched her editing website at madaboutbooksmarie.com. Marie holds a MFA in Creative Writing from LSU. She has written the Sola Grammar Queen column for the past five years. Drawing on her expertise in writing and editing, Marie will share tips on how to write for the market in this July Sola presentation.

Hope to see you there.

Dawn