Vampirism, male homosexual canoodling, costuming ranging from Victorian lace to 80’s latex couture, and a fair amount of spanking; Anne Rice gave us so much and more! The great writer died this past weekend (December 11th, to be exact) at age 80.
Born, raised and last living in New Orleans, although she made her home in California for many years, Anne Rice is the author of over 30 novels. Her first, 1976’s Interview with the Vampire, earned the lady her reputation, deservedly so, bringing horror fiction into the modern age (arguably there would never have been a “Twilight” or “True Blood” without Anne Rice). She continued her saga of the luscious “Vampire Lestat” in a series known as The Vampire Chronicles, which gained the lady even more acclaim, reader worship, and her stories mainstream popularity turned into films and TV.
Beyond her vampire, mummy, witch, and werewolf tales, Rice wrote books on Jesus Christ, pre-Civil War historical fiction, castrati, and various books and series of a more erotic bent. In this field, she was known for books like Exit To Eden and Belinda, plus her sly BDSM take on the Sleeping Beauty myth, her “Beauty series.”
It was because of that Beauty series that Dawnamatrix heard from the lady.
When the last Beauty book, Beauty’s Kingdom, was published in 2015, we wrote this blog celebrating the book, the first Beauty book to be published in years, and the last one Rice ever wrote from that series. After the publication of that blog Anne Rice reached out on Facebook to let us know she had read our short celebration of the new book, thanked us, and forwarded our blog to her followers (see below)
How cool is that?!
Rice was known for her matter-of-fact connecting with her readers and fans. Still, her reaching out to us was quite humbling.
So, from this slight personal connection with Anne Rice, to how many people she touched with her words and a whole culture of horror (and erotica) fans who grew up with her books, we say thank you and God’s speed. Anne Rice will surely be missed.
