I haven’t seen the new (well, not so new anymore) vampire series on HBO, True Blood (I don’t have the Home Box, as my friend Brad would say), but at some point I came across a name in the credits that I recognized: Executive Story Editor: Chris Offutt. Was this the same Chris Offutt who made quite a good name for himself with books like The Same River Twice, Kentucky Straight, and The Good Brother? I had only read The Same River Twice, and that some time ago, but I remember liking it a lot.
I hadn’t heard of anything from him recently, so I thought: Is this what he’s up to now? Is this what Iowa workshoppers/Granta Best Young Novelists do now, in the post-Wire era: go write teleplays for HBO? It made me feel a little behind the times, like the smart and savvy writers had moved from books into the 21st century version of the novel, the high-end cable TV series. Well, at some point I tried Googling for the story, and the explanation I found was far from complete, but still interesting. One of the bloggers at Slushpile had noticed the same name and posted about it (also without knowing for sure if it was the same Chris Offutt). Here’s the first comment he got:
The story goes on from there in the comments section, with not a great deal of further explanation of the Hollywood detour and a fair amount of semi-cryptic reminiscences from old friends and acquaintances (not to mention two other people named “Chris Offutt”!), but nevertheless a story. Most of the exchange took place last fall, but it’s news to me and might also be to fans of either Offutt or True Blood, so I’m passing it on. –Tom
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