For those who have been enjoying the audiobooks for the series True Blood, Johanna Parker is the voice of Sookie Stackhouse. Parker gives voice to the plucky waitress in the best-selling Southern Vampire Series, who has been the narrator for all of the books in the series. The latest audiobook Deadlocked continues the tradition.

The actual recording of Deadlocked was a lengthy process, involving a week of studio time. With the completion of the twenty hours of recording, the book will be edited down to approximately ten hours of final material for release on May 1^st.

The book was recorded in San Francisco at the famed Live Oak Studios. Actress Johanna Parker was behind the decision to move the recording to this location after directing Alice Walker there for the recording of the audiobook for The Color Purple. The staff expertise and most of all the sound quality were the driving factors to move the recording of the True Blood books to the location.

Parker began recording the adventures of Sookie with the fifth book, Dead as a Doornail in 2005. The television show True Blood brought new popularity to both the books and the audiobooks, creating a need for continuity in the audiobooks. At that point, Parker went back and recorded all the earlier titles as well.

She has since become the voice of Sookie for a legion of new fans brought in by the television show. In fact, her voice is so connected to the character and the series that she will often tour with author Charlaine Harris, adding her own narration of excerpts from the books to Harris’s talks about the process of writing.

Parker has told interviewers that she has been overwhelmed by the popularity of the series, even receiving fan mail for her work on the audiobooks. The character is one that connects deeply with many readers and listeners, and Parker’s voice with her wide use of inflection and tone seems just the right touch for many fans.