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Anne Rice
BIO
Anne Rice is the author of 27 books. She lives in Rancho Mirage, California.
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AUTHOR TALK
 October 30, 2009
Anne Rice's latest release, ANGEL TIME, is the first book in a new series of metaphysical thrillers called Songs for the Seraphim. In this interview, Rice describes her aim for these novels and explains what inspired the concept behind "Angel Time." She also reflects on the appeal of these heavenly beings, discusses some of the fun settings featured in the book, and shares details about the series' next installment, WORLD ENOUGH AND TIME.
Question: You've written about many kinds of immortal or supernatural beings. What inspired you to turn to angels in this new book?
Anne Rice: I have always been fascinated by the idea of angels --- these perfect beings who are God's messengers, sinless, bold, and unfathomable to the human mind. I was deliciously challenged to be biblically correct about them, and theologically correct: to present Malchiah as truly perfect, yet sent to interact with my hero Toby, and commissioned therefore to take a human body and reflect human emotions and respond to Toby's human emotions.
Q: How did imagining a character like Malchiah the angel differ from creating one like the vampire Lestat?
AR: Well, again, Malchiah is perfect and sinless. And to make such a character appealing is a challenge; he has to reflect God's love for human beings, God's compassion. He's not sent to judge Toby; he's sent to guide him to salvation, and to enlist Toby in working for the angels on earth. He must feel things; he must have a personality, but with marvelous theological constraints. Doing Lestat was entirely different: Lestat is sinful and ferociously human, a rebel who wants to be good at being bad; a rebel who is seeking redemption but turning away from it all the time. There is a certain joy in writing about Malchiah because he is sent from God. There was never a perfect joy in writing about Lestat: Lestat suffers too much and does too many bad things with relish.
Q: The hero of ANGEL TIME is Toby O'Dare, a boy who had a tough life growing up in New Orleans and who goes on to become a skilled assassin before meeting Malchiah. How does Toby compare to your past protagonists? What is unique about him?
AR: Well, Toby is deeply flawed, much like the vampires. He's an assassin, and he has done terrible things, and questionable things. But he turns around in the very first book of the series and sets out to do the bidding of the angels in helping others. I think of all those characters I've created, Toby is most like Michael Curry in THE WITCHING HOUR. But Toby has done things Michael would never do. Toby is a deeply flawed human who is offered a chance to be saved; and he takes it. Maybe he's a first among my characters in that he is given an opportunity to redeem himself through the mercy of God, and then to do good to make up for all the evil he had done before. Toby is also a crafty character. He's pragmatic. Having been a clever assassin, he knows how to plot to do good. That was interesting to me, to have him struggling to save people from harm, and having to figure out a somewhat complex way to do it.
Q: People who have read your memoir CALLED OUT OF DARKNESS will recognize some elements of your own life in Toby's story. Did you identify with him as a character?
AR: Yes, I did identify with Toby, though my life has been nothing like his. I know what it is like to struggle with an alcoholic parent; I know what it is like to care for younger siblings in an alcoholic household. But of course Toby suffers a family tragedy that I didn't suffer, and he turns to evil in a defiant way, whereas I only turned to writing about evil.
Q: How did you imagine the concept of ANGEL TIME (as opposed to Normal Time)? And what sources did you reference while reading about angels?
AR: I came up with the concept of Angel Time through meditating on it; really, figuring that from God's standpoint there is no linear time. I felt certain that the angels would be able to move back and forth in our linear time, and to grasp how some one can be lifted from one century and put down in another to work a solution that then becomes part of the very future from which the original person came. I think meditation led to this definition of Angel Time, more than any actual reading. It seemed logical to me that the angels could do this. I did read theology about angels, of course, including St. Thomas Aquinas and books by Catholic writers who have studied angels and all the biblical references to them. It all starts with the Bible, of course and how angels appear in those pages. But the scholars Pascal Parente and Peter Kreeft help me to cover the sources. I stayed away from other writers' more fanciful conjectures about angels. I wanted the biblical facts, and the way that the theologians interpreted them.
Q: People are clearly fascinated with angels. Why do you think even those people who do not consider themselves religious are so drawn to the idea of angels?
AR: People are drawn to angels because there is a deep-seated instinctive belief that they do exist, that creatures from Heaven are here on Earth looking out for us and playing a special role in our care. Of course we read of this in the Bible. And it is a very seductive idea. It's sometimes easier to pray to one's guardian angel than to pray to the saints or even to the Lord. It's easy to imagine that our guardian angel is right here with us. In my novel, Toby really does believe this, though after he suffered tragedy, he blamed the angels in charge for not stopping it. And he lived as a cursed human being for ten years.
Q: ANGEL TIME has very rich and distinct settings (Southern California, New Orleans, New York, 13th-century England). Which was the most fun to write about?
AR: It was fun to write of all the settings in ANGEL TIME, but I have to confess that two stand out: The Mission Inn in California was wonderful fun to describe, and I visited there more than once while I was writing the first part of the book. The second place that was great fun was thirteenth-century England. I just loved taking my readers into thirteenth-century Norwich during a snow storm. As always in my novels, my focus is what we have in common with the people of former ages, not what makes us different.
Q: As you've mentioned, the second half of ANGEL TIME takes place in England during the 13th century and highlights a time that was particularly difficult and dangerous for the Jewish population, and one that many of your readers probably know little about. What made you choose this time period as the setting for Toby's assignment?
AR: What drew me to thirteenth-century England was the story of Little Saint William of Norwich, a little boy supposedly martyred by the Jews in the twelfth century who became a cult figure because of his death. I knew instinctively that the Jews did not murder Little Saint William. I understood how this saint was part of the anti-Semitism of the times. And I wanted to write about the community in which Little Saint William had become part of the folklore. I moved ahead in time and wrote about another supposed martyr, and had Toby sent back by the angels to save the Jews from false accusation and persecution. I loved writing this. I was fascinated by the lives of the Jews of England in this period; they were learned and rich, and good people. And they were mightily exploited and abused. How we as Christians could persecute them is a terrible mystery. I wanted to write about it. I took great pains to make my story as accurate as possible. Of course my main characters are fictional but much that I wrote about the times is factually based. I have a very large library of books on the Jews in history, and I am deeply drawn to this subject. I will be writing more about it in future books. To write books that appeal to both Christian and Jews, and general readers, is my goal.
Q: What else inspired you in writing ANGEL TIME?
AR: In writing ANGEL TIME, in believing in a fiction that could embrace Christian and Jewish characters, in believing in a story that would appeal to both, I was much inspired by the great novel BEN HUR. I wonder how many people seeing the movie or reading the book today realize how unique BEN HUR is in being "a story of Christ" that is also about a great Jewish family and a great Jewish hero. Lew Wallace accomplished a magnificent thing when he wrote BEN HUR. And few have imitated his efforts. Some biblical epics written since have been deeply marred by anti-Semitism. But I felt if Lew Wallace could do this, write a great book for Christian and Jewish readers, then I wanted to do it. I wanted to craft a Christian fiction that unites Jews and Christians. The Songs of the Seraphim series is my effort in this regard.
Q: Your last two works of fiction were part of your Christ the Lord series in which you depict the life of Jesus Christ. Was it enjoyable to return to a subject where you had the freedom to create the entire story from your imagination again?
AR: Writing both novels of Christ the Lord was a joy. But there is no question that writing the life of Christ is very difficult, and it is a very special kind of effort. I am seeking to be utterly faithful to my belief in Christ, as God and Man, and faithful to the biblical stories of His life on earth. ANGEL TIME was wholly different, and yes, it was fun to let my imagination go: to craft a human hero and an imaginative story where I had full control. Yet there are constraints in both of these series. My faith in God, my belief in the possibility of salvation, these are reflected in both series. But again, yes, it was wonderful fun to be romping through "Angel Time" with Toby, and to invent scenes out of whole cloth in which Malchiah, a powerful (and fictional) Seraph comes into the Mission Inn to help save Toby. I had a ball writing ANGEL TIME. But returning to Christ the Lord is one of my most important goals. I hope that the exercise of my imagination in ANGEL TIME will give me added strength when I return to Christ the Lord. I have what anybody would call a wild imagination and I love letting it have free reign.
Q: ANGEL TIME ends on a cliff-hanger. Can you tell us something about the next book in the series, WORLD ENOUGH AND TIME?
AR: In the next book, Toby continues to discover things about his past that have a powerful influence on him. Throughout the series, his life in present time will be very important. But once again, in the second book he is sent back in time to use his crafty skills to save Jews who are facing persecution, and to come up with a solution to their problems that enables them to go on with their lives. Once again, in the second book, I will be visiting with vivid descriptions an earlier time. Much as I love the history of England, I also love Italy and that is where Toby will be going to do the bidding of the angels. Again, this is so much fun!
© Copyright 2009, Knopf, an imprint of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
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AUTHOR TALK
 October 2005
In this interview, Anne Rice --- best known for her hugely successful Vampire Chronicles series --- recalls the events in her life that led to the writing of her latest work, CHRIST THE LORD. She discusses the intensive research and little creative license she utilized in order to keep her novel true to Christian narratives, and reveals her fear and apprehension over taking on such a monumental challenge. Rice also explains how, despite making a name for herself penning dark tales about the supernatural, she does not consider writing about Jesus Christ to be a departure from her previous works.
Question: What led you to the idea of writing this book, and then to the actual writing of it?
Anne Rice: Obsession led me to write this book, and it's been that way with every book I've ever written. I become completely consumed by a theme, by characters, by a desire to meet a challenge, and the book begins to grow. With CHRIST THE LORD, the obsession began in my earliest childhood in pure religious devotion. Though I broke with my religion in college, I was still obsessed with religious questions, the basics --- Why are we here? Why is the world so beautiful? Why is it so important that we lead good lives, even when we don't believe in an afterlife? I never stopped with this obsessive thinking and exploring, and the idea for the book --- Jesus in his own words --- was always there. I went back to the Catholic Church in 1998, completely. In 2002, when I was sitting in church before Mass one Saturday evening, I made the declaration to Christ that I would do this book and nothing else. And the entire purpose, shape, tone --- all of that came together.
Q: Those familiar with your work will immediately recognize this subject matter as a departure for you. Assuming you agree, why head down this particular road?
AR: This subject is in no way a departure from that of my previous works; no one who knows my work could possibly think so. The whole theme of INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE was Louis's quest for meaning in a godless world. He searched to find the oldest existing "immortal" simply to ask "What is the meaning of what we are?" I was always compelled to seek the "big answers."
Q: Jesus Christ narrates this book. Explain your decision to make him the narrator.
AR: Jesus is the first-person narrator of this book because the use of first-person narrators is the way I know how to write a book with the greatest power and chance of artistic success. The intimate voice of the narrator in earlier novels worked powerfully for me. My first novel was written that way. Though I've written many novels in the third person, I've never felt as close to the characters as I felt to Louis, Lestat, Marius, and, finally, to this character, this fictional "creation" of Christ the Lord.
Q: The Author's Note in the book touches on the research that you did. What did that research comprise? What types of texts did you consult?
AR: Research was as total as I could make it. As I explain in the Author's Note, I explored the ancient authors --- Josephus, Philo of Alexandria, the writings of the sages, the rabbis, the Evangelists, the Bible itself relentlessly. But I also studied as much as I could of current archaeology having to do with first-century Palestine. I read as much as I could in New Testament scholarship, reading books by cynical critics of Christ, skeptics who wanted to debunk Him, and also great scholars. I read the great Catholic scholars Meier and Brown, and others. The field is far too vast for me to be comprehensive, and my work is ongoing. I do not read the ancient languages, but I am beginning to study Greek.
Q: How did you sort out issues of artistic license when it came to a story the basics of which are almost universally known (if not universally believed to be true)?
AR: When it comes to this book, artistic license does not really exist. What I did was take the Jesus of the Gospels, the Son of God, the Son of the Virgin Mary, and sought to make Him utterly believable --- a vital breathing character. Of course, I created fictional scene and dialogue, but it is all within an immense and solid frame. This was a huge challenge. I had to move in His world, and know His world, and that took the immense research. But license? I took as little as possible. I worked within the strictures of what we have been taught about Christ the Lord. That's why I used the title.
Q: Would you hope that readers would come away from this book understanding and knowing more about Christianity and the figure of Christ, or did you write it for people to simply enjoy as a novel?
AR: I wrote this book to make Christ real to people who had never thought about Him as real. I wrote this book to make the readers care so much about Him that they see him perhaps as never before. I wrote it for all my readers and for all readers.
Re-telling the Christian story is the essence of my vocation. And we re-tell that story so that it can be heard anew. That has been going on since the Evangelists in one form or another. I am no Evangelist. But I am an artist who wants to make the most significant art I can make. And for this art to have value, it must be utterly true to the spirit of Christ as I have received it from multiple sources: the Gospels, my church, my prayers, my meditation.
Q: For people who are not coming to the book from any particular religious background, what do you hope they'll take away from it? Put another way, do you think an atheist could ever like this book?
AR: I hope readers will come away caring passionately about this character, Jesus Christ, and wanting to know infinitely more about Him. We have become so de-sensitized to language pertaining to Jesus. I've tried to re-invent Jesus for those who don't want to think about Him or know Him. I hope that readers who do not come from a religious background will take away a sense of Jesus, the Jew, and Jesus, the child of miracles. And I hope that the book will give pleasure and satisfaction for those who do know Him and care about Him, and that does seem to be happening. I hope biblical scholars will see something here they can recommend. I hope atheists will feel a part of the world inside the book, and say "I was there!" I hope my oldest readers will embrace this character as they have Marcel, or Tonio, or Lestat or Louis in the past.
Of course I think an atheist could like this book, because it brings to life the period, the milieu, the people who brought about one of the greatest religious revolutions in history.
I tried to do justice to Jesus in every conceivable way I knew in this book. I can't give any more to anything than what I've given to this book.
Q: Were you nervous about writing this story, either from a personal standpoint or because of any concern about how closely or intensely it would be scrutinized?
AR: No, I wasn't nervous. I was scared to death. I was so scared I couldn't do it, yet I felt so compelled to. I went almost out of my mind as I sank into this material and as I prayed and studied and wrote. I was terrified. But I knew I had to do this. I felt strongly that no one had done it in the way that I was doing it. There have been many novels about Jesus Christ, but there has not, to my knowledge, been one like this, one that accommodated entirely all the knowledge we are given about Jesus while maintaining that Jesus is who He said He was: The Son of God.
I was scared to death of being attacked and misunderstood, and pre-judged. Above all, I was and am scared of being dismissed. But it does not matter. I will go on writing the best books I can possibly write about this subject no matter what happens to me.
Q: Will you ever write another Vampire novel?
AR: I can't see myself doing that. My vampires were metaphors for the outsiders, the lost, the wanderers in the darkness who remembered the warmth of God's light but couldn't find it. My wish to explore that is gone now. I want to meet a much bigger challenge.
Q: The book ends when Jesus is still a boy. Is there a sequel on the way?
AR: Yes, there are sequels on the way. I feel that keenly and can't deny it --- I don't want to deny it. But this book must stand on its own. And I did what I set out to do in so far as I talked and walked and saw with my character within the Gospel framework, and in light of the latest research in many fields. I feel a great satisfaction in having done that.
Q: What do you make of the current religious climate in this country?
AR: I wish that we had more visible Christian and Catholic leaders who talked about love. We have many, but we could use more. It is tragic that many in America think of us --- the Christians --- as being people who hate others. We need leaders who open their arms to others. We need leaders like Fulton Sheen and Billy Graham and Rick Warren and N. T. Wright. We need to love one another; we need to acknowledge the goodness and the good intentions of our brothers and sisters; we need to stop fighting Christian against Christian. I have no time now for anything but trying to love other people. That is a full-time job. To fill my writing with that will take everything I have. I want to love all the children of God --- Christian, Jew, Moslem, Hindu, Buddhist --- everyone. I want to love Gay Christians and straight Christians.
But the point is, we need people to make visible the great embracing and compassionate message of Christianity, people to continue the revolution started by Christ Himself, people to bear witness that the story of Jesus Christ is going on and on without end, gaining power with each century, and reaching more and more people. We need saints. We have to become saints. We have to become like Christ. Anything less is simply not enough. The world doesn't need any more mediocrity or hedged bets.
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