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Mrs. Rice expresses her deepest gratitude to these readers, who have so kindly agreed to have their personal words shared with others.
You can e-mail Anne at anneobrienrice@gmail.com
Posted 4/23/09
Dearest Anne,
I have been a fan of your work for many years. Your novels chronicle a coming-of-age and spirituality for me that I will always hold close to my heart.
After reading the two books in your stunning "Christ The Lord" series, I felt compelled to revisit your earlier works from a new perspective. I feel almost a spiritual "need" if you will, to look at these earlier works through a completely different set of eyes. I have just finished re-reading "Blood Canticle" and there are some aspects of this book that I cannot ignore- things that never occurred to me the first time I read it when it was originally published.
I never fully realized how much Lestat draws closer to God in this
book; I think even more so than in "Memnoch the Devil." His ambitions of becoming a saint, even though this comes directly from Lestat's own vanity, and his imagined encounter with Pope John Paul II all reflect how much his (and your) spirit has grown as a result of writing these novels. Lestat was never more vibrant and wonderful than in this book. For the first time, he comes across shamelessly selfless, even in spite of his ego. Love, as he says, is his song. Beautiful.
As you have commented on, there was so much negative press for both of these books ("Canticle" and "Memnoch") and even back when I first read them, I could never really understand why. As you have said several times, the characters in your earlier works are all searching for light and beauty in spite of the darkness that surrounds them. This parallels life in so many respects. "Christ The Lord" is such anatural apotheosis of all the previous books; a culmination of the spiritual struggle of every character you have ever written. I truly believe that God has called you to your vocation and your talent, through the darkness into the light, in writing for Christ- as surely as he calls nuns and priests to their holy vocations. You are a gift to the world, Anne. Please feel free to publish this letter on your site as you see fit. It would be an honor.
Yours with the utmost respect,
Michael Hargreaves
Salt Lake City, Utah
Posted 5/20/08
I just started reading Violin and I must say that when it starts out about Triana wanting to be dead and how she felt about her deceased mother and father it was as though you had read my thoughts. I would also like to tell you that in Memnoch that the discription that you wrote about Heaven, God, Hell and the Devil was the best that I have ever read. It was so much easier to understand than reading the bible. I mean the concept of it. Thank so much for all your books. The next one I'm going to read is your book titled Christ.
Vanessa
Posted 5/5/08
Dear Ms. Rice,
I've never written a fan letter before and I find it kinda strange. However since my teens, (1996) I have been a fan of your work. I'll confess I'm a Vampire fan and you have ruined vampires for me, because in my opinion, no vampire created by any other author can compare to your own. I'm aware you are no longer writing theses novels and I understand that as writer you have grown and moved on to further your skills. However I just want to let you know that your characters weren't so dark as you may feel. I found them as sparks of hope in an insane world. Vampires have always interested man for many reasons. For their beauty, their lust, their sexuality, but most importantly their immortality. To live before the Great Pyramids of Giza, to see the might Roman Empire and the French revolution. It was a journey through history coming from the eyes of the characters. To learn their view on how the world changed and their embrace on sociality. I just want to thank you, for writing them and having them published. I'm sorry the Queen of the Damned movie was done so poorly and that the beauty of the chronicles are really limited to their books now. But no matter how you feel about the novels of your past, today, I will say no better stories could their be out their for teenage youth who wishes to find an embrace for both passion and history. You opened doors for me! History use to be for millions of American youth, boring High School classes that dull everything down and disgrace our ancestors. They make the past nothing but painful facts, to memorize for a test. Not the amazing puzzle of life it really is. However you changed that for me. For better or for worse I'll always be an Anne Rice Vampire Junkie! They are delight to read and to learn.
I thank you! Best wishes and full hearted thanks.
Sincerely
Bonnie
Posted 4/2/08
your new work is a departure from my normal subject, but it took me years to read violin as the subject matter didnt interest me. i loved violin when i did read it, so i will see how the new books go. i am really emailing again because i want to take the chance to say the following-- there are many authors and books in the world, but your work has the ability to positively effect peoples lives. i live in scotland as a happily married family man, but like everyone else,sometimes things go wrong, mood drops etc. It is your novels that always return life to normal. that is a true gift, and i am blessed that i discovered your work. i wish you happiness for the future. i cannot thank you enough. it has been and will be a pleasure to have anne rice and her body of work in my life. i thank you for this chance to personally thank you, it has made my year. best wishes
----callum maclean
Posted 8/20/07
Dear Mrs. Anne Rice,
What a pleasure it is to be writing you. Your books have been a huge escape for me. I am 20 years old now and didn't discover how great of a writer you are until the past two years ago. I had always knew you were around but never got a chance to explore your world of the living dead. Two years ago my aunt begged me to watch Neil Jordan's film "Interview with the Vampire." After that thrilling 2 hours and 20 minutes I was moved to tears by Louis chilling 200 year story. Brad Pitt's startling performance of Louis was enchanting, the beauty of his face and gentleness made me think "Is this really happening?" "Is Louis still roaming Market and Divisadero Street?" At the end of the film as Daniel Malloy rides across the Golden Gate Bridge in sheer terror and unbelief Lestat pops down on the top of the red convertable and says "Louis, still wineing...I had to listen to that for centurys!" I burst out laughing and then "Sympathy for the Devil" starts in and I jumped up and said "INCREDIBLE! This woman's imagination is divine, I have to read this book!"
The next day I set out into my Wal-Mart store into the book section and bought my paperback copy of Interview with the Vampire and was launched into a story that I never wanted to end. I have to say that Gone with the Wind and Interview are the best novels I have ever read. Anyways, the book was so much better and you painted a picture with your words so vividly that I swear I was in that "avant gardt" pianting.
Well, I was 18 at the time and I set out for San Francisco and college! I told myself that I would go to the Building used on Market Street in the making of the film and make my way to the actual house on Divisadero Street that inspired you to write your novel.
I read your biography Prisim of the Night by Katerine Ramsland and was touched by your story. Your mother letting you try everything you wanted too and how her death really greived you. Then when you were my age you left your religion and put a flower in your hair as you and Stan made it to San Francisco! Your story motivated me!
Well, my roomates surprised me with a trip to San Francisco after I got off work from a major computer company. We went to Alamo Square-The Painted Ladies where the credits for Full House were filmed. I did frolic through the park I might add! They took me to the Mrs. Doubtfire house on Steiner Street and I actually met the owner, and as the sun was fadeing....I told my roomates "We are going to Divisadero Street to the house where Louis told his story!!!" They looked at me really weird and I said "You will enjoy it, I have wanted to do this and it will be a dream come true!" Well, we went Mrs. Rice! We walked to the house and dusk was soon to approach us. Then I saw the window where in the opening lines of the book Louis says "I see..." and the whole novel came alive, I was so excited! I got out my video camera and other camera and went camera happy. I even knocked on the door and said "Louis! You've got company!!' I was laughing and having a ball! We then ate supper in a little hole in the wall resturant and it was now completly dark. We went outside and then I saw the dim traffic lights that you described of Divisadero Street and looked back up into that window. I had a tear come down my face because I really felt as if I were in your story. I will never forget that. Thanks for letting me share this with you. Its amazing how somthing so ordinary can inspire somthing great!
My Uncle lives in New Orleans and I have been there twice. I have walked on Magazine and Espalande Avenue. I had no idea that you lived there at the time I was there. I also walked through Lafyette Cemetary and St Louis Cathedral/Cemetary while I was there completly unaware that the Liturary Diva of Darkness wasn't that far away. Well, I bought The Witching Hour and I saw the entire city again, it felt wonderful to have been where the Mayfairs walked. And well, I was enthralled by the tale! I even finished it on Christmas Eve at The Witching Hour!Hahahaha, I had chills comedown my spine when the haunting demon Lasher was conjured up and the entire story then came togather! I will never forget that feeling! It was so cool because the whole story finally blows you away on Christmas Eve at midnight-the witching hour!
I want to say that I have read Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt and loved it as well. Im so happy that you have come back to the Lord. I have prayed that you would get more out of your Bible and still give us more of your wonderful stories. Your personal testimony in the paperback edition of Out of Eqypt touched my heart. You said you had so much guilt in you and just wanted to come back home. You said that you wanted to be with God again and you found yourself! Your story in amazing . I am a Baptist and go to a Christian College. Im so glad you have given the world and people like myself, who often fell like utter outcasts books to where they can do anything and go to places far from where they are in reality. Thank you for being an insperation and my favorite author.
I would like to send you my copy of The Witching Hour and Interview with the Vampire so you could sign it for me. Is there anyway that could happen? I would like that very much. Thank you again Mrs. Anne Rice.
With love,
Kevin
Posted 3/27/07
Dear Mrs. Rice,
I have been a great fan of your writing for many years. "Cry to Heaven" and "Feast of All Saints" are two of my all-time favorite books. I have read most of your vampire-themed writing and am reading "Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt". I love your literary style and your subject matter is always meticulously researched and presented in beautifully crafted prose.
As I read the vampire stories I always believed that despite the bizarre nature of their content, you were always struggling with the traditional concepts of good and evil. I found this most vividly emerging in "The Tale of the Body Thief" as I perceived you dealing with the question of whether evil could ever be redeemed.
Your account of your return to faith and the Catholic Church was moving and convincing. Starting with my reading of Leslie Weatherhead's "The Christian Agnostic" in the early 1960s when I was in my mid-twenties, I began a spiritual journey that questioned my beliefs rooted in the heavily evangelical Methodism in which I was reared. It has been a long journey, one that had led me far from the religious teachings of my childhood but always deeper into a strong personal faith that paradoxically seems to have little relationship to my rational belief system. During all those years I have never strayed far from affiliation with a Christian community -- for the earlier years, Methodism, and from 1975 on, in the Episcopal Church where I spent the last 20 years of my career as a lay employee.
Nineteen years ago I lost my youngest son in a tragic auto crash. He was 18 years old at the time. At that time I was immersed in what was probably the most intense part of my spiritual journey, being enrolled in a lay theological education program. During those dark days I was surprised by a feeling of calm and assurance that welled up within me and articulated itself in the closing words of Psalm 100: "For the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting, and his faithfulness endures from age to age". Although my reasoning mind often tries to convince me otherwise, especially as I view the major tragedies of our contemporary world, my heart always responds with the assurance of God's everlasting goodness and that compels me to go on.
I've always found all your writing spiritually nourishing, whether it was just an amusing way to pass some leisure time, or if the subject matter made me confront my own dark side and internalized demons, or if it echoed my heart's deepest affirmation of the goodness of the Divine. I thank God for your talent and how it has certainly blessed the lives of so many. May you be richly blessed in return.
Sincerely,
Kyle Wiseley
Portland, Oregon
Posted 3/9/07
Some years back when I was deployed, I had a lot of time on my hands with nothing much to do. I went to the Base Exchange and randomly purchased some of the books they had there. I ended up buying "The Art of Happiness" as well as your book, "The Vampire Armand". Understand I had no real reason to buy either; they were both entirely bought by chance. When I initially started reading your book, I didn't really care for it. The vampires seemed to be just a little bit too gay. I spoke to one of my friends about it who was an art student, and she made the comment that it did seem like it was actually the ambiguously gay vampire chronicles. We laughed about it, but I figured since I paid for the book I might as well finish it. Somewhere along the line though I began to understand it was more about appreciating beauty than anything else, and somewhere along the line I really started to enjoy it. Since then I have read all the novels I can find, though only in hardcover. I consider paperbacks to be a waste, and that anything worth being read should be made so that it lasts. Every month or so I go to the thrift stores and old book stores to locate copies of your older books, though I am especially happy when I find first editions. Since I move around a bit I am sure I have more than a few duplicates of your books, though I don't mind in the least. I guess what I am trying to show is how much your books turned my initial impression on its head. It surprises many people when they look at my bookshelf and see your books next to W.E.B. Griffin, and other military themed books. I thought you might be amused to find you have a varied audience. Anyhow, thank you for your books, I enjoy them very much.
Brian O'Neil
Posted 2/6/07
"I finished reading Blackwood Farm last night after almost 4 years of not reading Anne Rice novels. Not intentionally, but because, as you might know, life steals aways pieces of us moment by moment. Especially when we do not live in the moment as we were ordained to, a little trick we humans forget about or simply do not fully understand. Anyway, having come back into the fold, with Blood Canticle on the desk for the the next read, I felt compelled to pray for you last night. To send you love and healing and joy. Partly because you have given me so much inspiration over the years through your marvelous stories of vampires and witches and your uncanny ability to truly describe the "dark night of the soul" as I and others refer to it, those moments of utter faithlessness, despair and beneath all of it the need to be healed. And partly because I thought, "Anne Rice needs to be released from suffering". Oh, we all do, I know - as a student of Buddhism, a Religion and Philosophy Major and as a present day Shaman/Intuitive teaching energy work and trying to write a book about healing- I know we all need the release. Suffering is the inevitable journey we take only to seek to overcome it, releasing ourselves from false beliefs about our painful earthly limitations. But something about the book just made me feel you had your share of dark nights. And it was time for you to bask in the sun, away from vampires and ghosts, from hauntings and cemeteries near the swamp. So to you, I sent Joy and Love and Light.I was also compelled to see if you were on the web and of course you are, easily found. I came into your lovely website today with the intention of catching up. Low and behold I catch you following a new writing path and wholly transforming. HowĘextraordinary. I am absolutely desperate to read the new work. And I see by the reviews appropriate controversy is brewing. How exciting for you and all of us to be taken into a new world, a very familiar world for many of us. With you as the tour guide, it will be an unusual and profound journey into a year in the life of J and the history of C.But what I want to thank you for most, of all the books you have written which I have read and loved so deeply, the one I want to thank you for writing is Memnoch the Devil. On some level it underscored for me the most relevant call and answer improvisation on the subject of good and evil that I have experienced. As a staunch jazz fanatic I feel there are some moments in a perfect jazz composition when a John Coltrane or Pat Metheny is so authentically involved in creating music, that the other musicians must respond from the deepest levels of their own talent and spirit, and answer the call. They create sounds togehter that become a musical spell for the listener. And under that spell, one is transformed, hurled towards new elevations of hearing where all of that sound becomes translated into powerful emotion, and often a spiritual experience. Like perfect jazz, the written words in Memnoch exposed such grit about the spiritual journey all of us take here on the earth and ultimately described the struggle we must face in our lives as we choose between creating good or evil. It was positvely brilliant. And your writing is like a strand of the finest pearls, each pearl a book, captivating on its own, exquistely spellbinding from end to end, beginning to end, then placed side by side forming a perfect circle of beauty when the necklace is latched into place. I hope I can write my own book. I hope I can gather up my courage every day and figure out how to survive and write and find the exact words to talk about healing, surrendering to the Divine, choosing love and faith over fear. In any case, Thank you. For your words, the timing of your works and their messages, and for secretly showing us a glimpse of your own journey of healing.
--Barb
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