Anne Rice has been very open about consecrating her writing to God — the Interview with the Vampire author very famously re-joined the Catholic church in 1998 and then just-as-famously renounced her dedication to organized religion this year. But if Rice had to do it over, she might have kept a bit more quiet about it all.
“I think it can be very off-putting to readers to read that you consecrated your writing to God. It can give them the wrong idea.” Rice says, “I’m absolutely committed to writing what reflects my own beliefs and my own worldview. But I’m not sure I would tell anybody if I had to do it over because I think it stood between me and my readers.”
Rice’s new book, Love and Evil, out now in the U.S., is the second novel in Rice’s Songs of the Seraphim series which follows an ex-assassin named Toby on his quest for salvation. And although Love and Evil is written in Rice’s typical engrossing style — and comes complete with a nail-biter of an ending — she might leave her leagues of dedicated fans waiting a bit to learn more about Toby’s fate.
“I can see the third book pretty clearly, but I’m not going to write it right now. I need a little time to think about Toby’s options and how he’s going to respond to that cliffhanger,” she demurs.
In the meantime, the queen of modern vampire fiction says she’s working on a book about the ancient city of Atlantis.
“It’s a book about immortals that have been on this planet since ancient Atlantis. It’s really thrilling to be writing about immortals who are not vampires. You don’t have to kill anybody, you don’t have to drink any blood, but they’re immortal. I get to have all the fun of describing how they see us and how they see our culture and see our Christian faith and all of those things from their perspective.“
