'True Blood' Mourning: Author Charlaine Harris Publishing Final Sookie Stackhouse Novel Next Year

It looks as though "True Blood" might be getting a glimpse of its own True Death.

For the past four seasons (and soon to be five), "True Blood" has based its action on the Southern Vampire Mysteries series of novels by author Charlaine Harris. The series, also known as The Sookie Stackhouse Novels, began in 2001, and Harris has provided a new novel every year since, creating the characters and storylines that we enjoy on HBO's adaptation.

But yesterday, on her Facebook page, Harris made an announcement: "Save the date... the final Sookie Stackhouse book, DEAD EVER AFTER, will be on sale May 2, 2013!" That's as clear as it gets: the 13th book in the series will be the last one.

The good news for "True Blood" fans, though, is that each season of the show has been more or less based on a single novel thus far: the most recent fourth season was based on the fourth novel, Dead to the World. That would imply that "True Blood" could go as long as 13 season based on the existing source material.

However, the bad news is that the upcoming fifth season of "True Blood" is said to be incorporating much more material from later books in addition to storylines from the fifth novel. That means that "True Blood"s' run could be shortened.

But it is also important to note that the show has deviated pretty far from the novels over the past four seasons on occasion, and could continue to do so. Even if "True Blood" runs out of source material, there's still a good chance that the show will continue with new, original stories, as long as the ratings hold up.

So while fans of The Sookie Stackhouse Novels may be shedding a tear in 2013, it looks like "True Blood" will remain alive (or undead, at least) for a while yet.