More About Jesus & Vampires

Several weeks ago I wrote about Anne Rice and the change of direction in her fiction.  I didn’t have any first-hand knowledge of her faith but quoted a Newsweek article related to the release of her novel, Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt. I hoped the change was real but was waiting for some more information. I’ve learned through the publishing world if you look for something persistently, you can often find the information.

You’ve probably heard of the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon Game which some college students invented.   I’ve read some great articles such as the cover story of Pages magazine about Anne Rice from the editor John Hogan. But it wasn’t the validation for her faith that I was looking for.  Then I found it.  Since the beginning in September 2001, I’ve been a panelist on a moderated forum called The Writer’s View for Christian professional writers. One of my fellow panelists is the Features Editor at World Magazine, Lynn Vincent. I met Lynn several years ago when I was in San Diego, California for the Billy Graham Mission.  Then Lynn and I were on the faculty this spring for the San Diego Christian Writer’s Guild Fall Conference. A respected journalist, Lynn wrote about her interview with Anne Rice. She wrote, “Last week I was privileged to interview novelist Anne Rice for a WORLD  Magazine profile. Rice, 64, recently returned to her faith in God  after rejecting Catholicism when she was 18. For those of you unfamiliar with  her work, Rice for 30 years wrote stories about vampires, witches, and other  denizens of the spiritual underworld. Her books, though darkly  graphic, were also often “serious novels” rather than “airport  page-turners,” and explored themes of philosophy and morality, with undeniably  evil (but sometimes strangely principled) characters narrowly missing  redemption. Rice recently declared that she would now “write only for the Lord,”  and is now writing a series about the life of Christ, written in the  first-person voice of Jesus.”

Lynn continued, “I had never read a Rice novel. So, in order to compare her current work  (Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt) with her past work, I began reading  Interview with the Vampire. I have to say, the quality of her writing  in that book is heartstopping. Original. Soaring. Vivid. Disciplined. A clinic.  There are graphic, horrible scenes that I don’t enjoy reading. (I don’t enjoy  watching the news either.) The writing though...incredible! And such a  blessing that God now has pressed a writer of Rice’s caliber into His service  :-).”

Later this week, Lynn’s full profile of her time with Anne Rice will be available online at World. I’m eager to read it.