'True Blood': Alan Ball looks to Season 5 -- which he will definitely be part of

As we approach the halfway point in "True Blood's" current season, fans are already waiting on a green light for the next batch.

And while HBO is still holding out before officially ordering Season 5, creator Alan Ball assured the crowd at the Television Critics Association summer press tour that it will happen.

The dialogue kicked off when a reporter asked the showrunner if there's any merit to the rumors that he's leaving the series. "No," says Ball. "I closed a deal to do another season... I don't have any desire to leave, because I'm having more fun than I've ever had in my life."

Fans of the book series from Charlaine Harris need only look to Book 5, "Dead as a Doornail," to see what next season might bring, though Ball did say specifically that they will explore how the vampires were made. [Editor's note: More Godric please!]

"I am working from source material," says Ball, turning the adaptation conversation to the onscreen breakup of fellow panelists Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer. "That plus the fact characters being happy is really not that interesting... I never said I'm going to split Bill and Sookie. I knew they did in the books."

Something not in the books, which also got some love during the Q&A, is the demonic baby currently stressing out Arlene (Carrie Preston) and Terry (Todd Lowe).

"Once we made the decision in the writers room to jump ahead in time, we knew the baby would be here," says Ball, who confesses the creepy doll seen in Jessica's home at the end of Season 3 led the writers down this path. "There should be something weird... that doll has found its way to the creepy baby. They've teamed up now."

Ball says there's definitely more to the duo, so maybe there's hope for little Mikey after all.