Anne Rice And Jesus Save Lestat: But Can Vampires (And Their Fans) Accept Christ Into Their Undead Lives?

Vampire Chronicles author Anne Rice is relenting on her vow to abandon her blood sucking characters, and is considering writing one more novel in the series which features the enigmatic Brat Prince of Vampires, Lestat.

The first novel in the Vampire Chronicles series, Interview with the Vampire, was completed the year after the death of Rice's six year old daughter, who succumbed to leukemia in 1972. The novel sold over 8 million copies and spawned a film, which featured Tom Cruise (as the forever restless Lestat), Brad Pitt (as Louis, a conquest of Lestat's who invited him into his life after he lost his brother and his will to live) and Kirsten Dunst (who played Claudia, an eternally 5-year old child vampire).

After the death of her poet husband in 2002, Rice published her final novel concerning the black arts, Blood Canticle. In 2003, Rice, who along with her husband had been a self-described atheist, returned to the Catholic faith in which she'd been raised, and set a new course in her writing with a fictionalized Christ taking over from Lestat as the central character in her subsequent novels (Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt and Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana).

"I never stopped grieving," said Rice on the loss of her faith and her first child during a 2006 Kindling Muse interview. Rice also spoke about how the melancholy plight of the vampires in her chronicles paralleled the loss of light she felt in her own life. But now, after finding spiritual redemption herself, Rice hopes to find the same in her writing for Lestat. "I have one more book that I would really like to write," said Rice in a Time.com interview published this past Sunday. "It will be a story that I need to tell."

After being inundated with emails, Rice wrote an open letter to her fans, excerpts from which are printed below (the full text can be found on her website):

"Yes, I am contemplating one last novel involving the Vampire Lestat, and the Talamasca, the fictional organization I created years ago in the Vampire novels. The novel, if ever written, would be entirely Christian in framework and would involve Redemption. It would affirm my dedication to Christ and my belief in Him and my commitment to write only for Him."


"Such a novel would probably not appeal to the old Goth readers who want to see the vampires continue in their old ways. But it might very much appeal to readers of the old books who saw them as spiritual works about the search for salvation. They might welcome it as a Christian conclusion to the saga I abandoned in 2002."


"But let me assure you -- all of you out there, Christian or non-Christian -- that my consecration to Christ as a writer remains the same. The Lord has given me the strength to maintain that commitment, and I find writing for Him and about Him to be the most challenging and wondrous part of my entire life."


"There is no possibility for me to return to writing about the vampires as heroes of a dark realm in which they are the only authority on their actions. There will be no more rip roaring adventures for the godless Lestat. That is dead and gone. I found the light in Christ for which my old characters were always searching. The question is: can I bring my Christian faith back to one of those old characters in a meaningful and deeply religious way."


"It's worth noting that the original idea for this book was actually developed in 1998, with the tentative title of Angel Time. It never got written, and I think I know why. I wasn't ready to write it. I wasn't ready to bring Lestat into an embracing Christian faith. But now perhaps I am ready and able to do this, and the novel might reach a great many readers of the earlier books who have been reluctant to accept books about Jesus Christ."


"Let me add one more important observation. Americans think about money a lot. They think about what people will do for money or will not do for money. They are accustomed to discussing authors in terms of money quite casually and sometimes without much factual information to back up their cynical observations."


"I'm in the fortunate position to assure my readers that my new books dedicated to Christ have done surprisingly well. I see no financial advantage to returning to Lestat in any form, including that of a Christian novel. If I do write this book, it will be because I feel that I ought to write it, that it is in me waiting to be written and demanding to be written. I'm blessed in that financial considerations simply are not involved."


"And once again, let me say, my consecration to Christ remains as strong as ever, thanks to His mercy and His grace."


Anne Rice, February 25th, 2008