People often ask Jane Maas, pioneering '60s and '70s "ad girl" and author of "Mad Men" myth-busting book Mad Women: The Other Side of Life on Madison Avenue in the Sixties and Beyond, three questions whenever they meet her.

"Were women really treated like second-class citizens back in the '60s like they are on Mad Men?"

"Yes," answers Maas.

"Did you guys really have three-martini lunches like they do on Mad Men?

"Yes," she says again.

"Was there really all that sex in the office like there is on Mad Men?"

To which Maas answers, "Unequivocally, yes."

The last question seems to be the most popular, and certainly wasn't an embarrassing topic for society members present at the American Advertising Federation awards banquet, held this week at the Junior League of Houston, who giggled as the 80-year-old spitfire indulged in a saucy reverie about her life in the '60s-era, male-dominated advertising world.

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What a prick.

There are a lot of people to hate in the cast of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. The bratty kids, the arrogant and maniacal Wonka, the ineffectual parents, maybe even the whiny and frail Charlie Bucket, who wastes his time trying to win a ticket to a chocolate factory while his family starves.

The 1971 musical comedy, based on Roald Dahl's 1964 children's novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, remains a must-see for kids of all ages. The older you get the more twisted it becomes, though.

But Grandpa Joe? Portrayed by the late Jack Albertson? The "man" from Chico and the Man? What did he do to anyone, besides get out of bed, instill hope in his grandson and bark at Wonka when he did his grandson dirty?

According to this Facebook page, "The I Hate Grandpa Joe From Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory Page," there is plenty to hate him for.

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J. R. Helton appears at Brazos Bookstore on Friday to discuss and sign his latest novel, Drugs. When it comes to making art about drugs, there is one crucial factor that divides the truly great works from the rest, and that is honesty. Over-sensationalize, and you risk the unintentional hilarity of Reefer Madness or worse, glorifying the lifestyle. Understate the situation, and you wander into Stupor-land. Simple, stark, sincerity elevated William S. Burroughs's Junkie to a classic, and Helton hopes the same will do the trick with Drugs. Sometimes it's funny, sometimes it's tragic, but Helton's wry, homegrown prose never fails to resonate.

J.R. Helton discusses and signs Drugs at 7 p.m. at Brazos Bookstore, 2421 Bissonnet. For information, visit the store's Web site or call 713-523-0701.

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Novelist Charlaine Harris is surprisingly unemotional when she discusses the upcoming end of her Sookie Stackhouse series of books. There are only two more titles planned in the Southern Gothic series, which is based on the adventures of a telepathic waitress who lives among vampires, werewolves, fairies and other supernatural creatures in a small town in Louisiana. The characters inspired the HBO television series True Blood and garnered Harris thousands of new fans, but even that new success hasn't been enough to persuade her to continue.

"I don't have anything left to tell. After the last book, I'll have said everything I have to say about Sookie," she tells Art Attack. "Really, I think it would be doing readers a disservice to continue writing a character when my heart wasn't in it. I've loved writing Sookie, but if you see the end of the road, you see the end of the road."

Harris admits she is a little worried about doing the end of Sookie's story justice. "I'm generally pretty excited about trying to tie up all the threads and trying to leave the readers with something that they can say, 'Okay, now I know.' But at the same time, I don't know if I can get everything wound up. It just feels like a very big challenge."

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Charlaine Harris

Novelist Charlaine Harris is about to pull the plug on Sookie Stackhouse and her friends in Bon Temps, Louisiana. Ater the just-released Deadlocked, there's only one more title in the series of books that spawned the popular HBO television series True Blood.

Harris is in town on Friday to discuss and sign Deadlocked at Murder by the Book, one of her top two favorite bookstores in the country (more on that below).

In Deadlocked, Sookie faces two new devious opponents, a rogue werewolf and a vampire queen who wants to take Sookie's boyfriend Eric as her consort. (Eric is a big, beautiful Viking, so we understand the attraction.) The queen's plan doesn't sit well with Sookie, who thinks Eric should just refuse the request. But if the queen or other vampire officials decide to take revenge on Eric for his perceived insult and disobedience, that would put him in real danger. Yes, he's already dead, but even vampires can get deader.

Eric, on the other hand, thinks his curvy mind-reading girlfriend Sookie should just throw a little fairy magic on the situation and save him. But Sookie can use the fairy magic only once, and when one of her friends is hurt and about to die, she has to decide whether to save her lover or her friend. (If you know Sookie, it's no real surprise which one she chooses.)

Back to the role Murder by the Book, and especially former staffer Dean James, played in launching the Sookie Stackhouse books. Harris was already a published author when she hit upon the idea of a supernatural series built around a telepathic waitress living in a small town in northern Louisiana. (Anne Rice had already taken New Orleans, so Harris took the northern part of the state, she says. It's not as physically beautiful or culturally varied, but it made the perfect home for Sookie.) It was a change for Harris; apparently it was too big a change for her agent, who was reluctant to shop the title around.

Harris was certain she was onto something special with Sookie, and she decided to get another opinion. She sent the manuscript to her friend and fellow author Dean James. "No one knows more about mysteries than Dean, and I really valued his opinion," says Harris. "When he told me he fell off the bed laughing reading the manuscript, I knew I was right about Sookie." Harris's agent reconsidered and the series went on to be a huge success.

Catch up with Sookie and Charlaine Harris at 6:30 p.m. on Friday at Murder by the Book, 2342 Bissonnet. For information, visit the store's Web site or call 713-524-8597.

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The Oyster Princess

On Friday, catch the latest screening and performance in the Houston Public Media Silent Film Concerts. A comedy in four acts, The Oyster Princess is a 1919 film by German director Ernst Lubitsch. It chronicles the story of a spoiled rich girl whose marriage isn't everything she thought it would be.

The Bee vs. Moth group, which will be providing live accompaniment to the film, describes itself as "bravely [exploring] the little-traveled and oft-neglected territory between Ornett Coleman's doom metal band and Mr. Rogers's dude ranch."

See The Oyster Princess and Bee vs. Moth at 8:30 p.m. Friday at Discovery Green, 1500 McKinney. For information, visit the Discovery Green Web site or call 713-440-7336.

Faraways

Saturday's East End Street Fest is a celebration of Cinco de Mayo and the new METRO light rail, a music festival and taco contest, all wrapped up into one fun, family-friendly mega-party. Taco trucks will battle it out for the title of Houston's Best Taco. There will be live music throughout the afternoon, ranging from the feisty Los Pistoleros de Tejas, the hip Rebel Crew and Latin music mainstay Norma Zenteno. Folkloric dancing, games, artwork and more family fun are also on the schedule.

Join the fun on Saturday from noon to 8 p.m at 4800 Harrisburg (near Lockwood). For information, call 713-928-9916.

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It's weird. Despite being one of the most influential writers of all time, and arguably the most important penman of weird tales ever, H. P. Lovecraft remains somewhat of an underground thing. Sure, you'll see Cthulhu bumper stickers, tabletop games, T-shirts and the like, but there's never been a big-screen adaptation of one of his stories. Even Guillermo del Toro can't get At the Mountains of Madness made, and if he can't get Hollywood to shell out the big bucks, then it's likely that no one can.

So, when Dan Lockwood's Lovecraft Anthology Volume I showed up on my doorstep I asked myself, "Does the world really need another Lovecraft comic book?" After all, the Mythos is already being represented in several current ongoing series, homages to it show up in Witch Doctor and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and there's just really not anything new to tackle.

No, the world doesn't need it, but that's not to say that it isn't worth picking up. In fact, I'd go so far as to call the anthology the best Lovecraft primer I've ever read.

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Stopped on Track

On Friday, there are two free and very different film screenings to choose from. Over at Rice University, there's Andreas Dresen: Cloud 9 and Stopped on Track. The films were award-winners at Cannes. Cloud 9 is about a woman who has an affair after 30 years of married life, while Stopped on Track is about a man diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor. Stopped on Track, making its U.S. premiere here, was voted the best film of 2011 by German film critics.

One of Germany's most important contemporary filmmakers, Dresen will be on hand to introduce both his films, with Q&A sessions to follow the screenings. Christian Emden, associate professor of German Studies at Rice University, considers it a coup that the school was able to snag the director for a two-day stint.

Cloud 9 screens at 7 p.m. on Friday, Stopped on Track at 7 p.m. on Saturday. Both films are in German with English subtitles. Screenings are at Rice University, 6100 Main. For information, visit www.german.rice.edu.

At the other end of the spectrum, Cinema Bomar is screening The Third Reich and Other Fairy Tales. The program includes Invasion of Poland (1939, newsreel footage), Marijuana (with Sonny Bono), Goldilocks and the Three Bears (with real bears) and burlesque footage. These clips and films are the usual fare for Cinema Bomar, which screens 16mm industrial and education films, a sort of monthly Found Footage Film Festival. Taken out of context and decades after they were originally screened, the films take on an absurdist and often laughable tone (although we don't think there'll be much giggling during the Polish invasion).

Cinema Bomar begins at 8:30 p.m. Friday at Domy Books, 1709 Westheimer. For information, visit www.domybooks.com or call 713-523-3669.

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I had a sliiiiiight overreaction to the last vampire novel I was sent to review because I honestly didn't know it was supposed to be funny, and also because it was really bad. I was frankly in no mood to read anything more about bloodsuckers, but Bruce McCandless III set Sour Lake in the Big Thicket of Texas and hinted at some tantalizing looks at obscure folk legends, so I sighed and got reading...

And boy was I glad that I did, because if anybody is likely to equal Joe Hill as the master of modern horror, then McCandless is that man. Sour Lake pulled me in so deep and fast I'm not entirely sure I remember anything about the day I sat reading his incredible book other than the sound of rapidly turned pages.

Set in 1911 Texas, the story follows a set of grisly and bizarre murders in the Big Thicket section of Southeast Texas. Victims are torn limb from limb, with organs and blood removed. Initially packs of wild dogs are blamed, but a local sheriff and a doctor with a dark past slowly come to the conclusion that what is haunting the woods is not a normal animal.

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As we recently pointed out when we tackled movie novelizations that were actually worth the read, turning books into movies is big business. The entertainment industry likes its projects pre-vetted, and Hollywood in particular loves to add "Inspired by the novel many of you bought" or "From the mind of, you know, that guy whose book never leaves your bathroom" to anything it can.

And yet, not every book can be turned into a movie. There are various reasons why that might be. Sometimes a work is just too long and complicated to boil down to a reasonable-length film, or perhaps there just isn't enough of an audience no matter how much critical acclaim a novel might have. See Watchmen or Atlas Shrugged for good examples of literary works of genius that should've stayed on the printed page.

At first look, this list reads like one of the most awesome movies that should be made, but hold on because maybe you haven't really though it through.

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