I recently had the privilege of talking with author Anne Rice for an OSV In Focus section on the current vampire craze. Rice's penchant for all things undead has given way to a very different focus: Christ, redemption, salvation. Check out my interview with Rice in the current issue of OSV, now online. Here's a taste:
OSV: You have said that you cannot write any more vampire books but that you could never renounce your earlier works because they were so much a part of you. Can you talk about that?
Rice: I really don't have any more stories to tell from the point of view of the vampires, because faith did come back to me and I felt that I found what those characters were always searching for. When faith came back, I wanted to write a new kind of fiction, a different kind of fiction, a fiction that I could dedicate directly to God. I would not go back to writing from the point of view of the vampires because the metaphors don't work for me anymore. I feel I live now in a universe in which salvation is a possibility for everyone. The promise is there for everyone. So the dark fictional world of the vampire doesn't have any validity for me now. But I certainly don't want to renounce my earlier work, because I think it's a perfect reflection of the struggle I was engaged in. I was searching for God and not willing to make the leap. To turn on those books, to decide they weren't important now, would be completely dishonest because I think those books do mirror the search for God. I have no more stories to tell about Lestat. I love him. He is still part of me. He was my hero throughout the writing of the "Chronicles." I still think of him all the time and picture him all the time, but I have no more stories to tell. I'd like to think wherever he is, he's finding what I found.
Click HERE to read the full interview. And, if you're interested in the pop culture fascination with vampires, from Dracula to Edward Cullen, click HERE to read what the experts have to say in "Drawn to the Undead."
