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Best-selling novelist Anne Rice has not led a normal life. At least not what most would have expected of a former features editor for Richardson High School’s student newspaper, The Talon, circa 1959.
That is reflected in her “supernatural” subject matter –Interview with a Vampire, published in 1973, now Angel Time, Rice’s 29th novel, released this week.
“I don’t really write much about normal people,” the RHS graduate and former Richardson resident said recently. “I never have.”
Still, the non-native, who met her husband, Stan Rice, at RHS but now resides in California, carries some comparatively normal memories of Texas deep in her heart.
“He was the editor and I was the features editor,” Rice said. “I fell in love with him right there. … [And] when you marry into a Texas family, you marry Texas.”
“[Richardson] really does
feel like another home town for me,” said the novelist, who also noted that “I
really loved being in school in Richardson.
It was a good school, a small school, then on Abrams Road.”
However, Angel Time is a little different.
In 2002, Rice made a change in her career and, though she is famous for her vampire tales, she consecrated her writing entirely to Christ.
“But it’s still supernatural,” she said. Angel Time is the first in the Song of Seraphim series. It is about a young assassin, Toby, who sarcastically prays, and to his surprise, his prayers are answered. He changes his life and goes to work for the angels.
Rice said she misses going on tour and reconnecting with people in Dallas and in Richardson. “I used to love the big signings we’d do in Richardson. I’d always stay at the Mansion hotel [in Dallas] and get to stay with my family and get to see lots of readers.”
But she does try to stay connected with people in Texas, and the rest of the country, through e-mails and Facebook.
“I miss Texas. I miss Dallas. It was all wonderful,” she said. “I miss it terribly.”
Anne Rice on classic themes, fresh visions
Even though Angel Time doesn’t involve a young vampire like Lestat, Rice believes overlying themes, such as a moral and spiritual quest as well as the theme of an outcast, continue throughout all of her books.
Rice explains that she learned some of the darker themes through classic literature.
“We read Shakespeare in high school, I think I read Macbeth senior year,” she said. “I remember reading that and the witches were a big feature.”
Current Richardson High School English Department head, Pat Hofeditz, agrees that the classics are important too.
“I think the general themes of the classics, which we relate to today, show young writers the extent of classic writers’ thoughts and ideas—that something written hundreds of years ago still impacts us today, makes us see our world and ourselves in a new—and sometimes disturbing—light,” Hofeditz said.
Rice said staying true to your imagination, voice, story and characters is important when writing.
“The world doesn’t need another imitation, it needs fresh voices and fresh visions,” she said. “And, have respect for the book that can be read by an 8-year-old and an 80-year-old,” she said.
Lisa Zimmermann is the Richardson/Lake Highlands/Far North Dallas neighborsgo editor and can be reached at 469-330-5684 or via e-mail at lzimmermann@neighborsgo.com. Got a story, photo or video you'd like to share? Post them directly on neighborsgo.com. Got a story idea? E-mail it to me directly. For more about how neighborsgo.com works with our neighborsgo print editions, please visit neighborsgo.com/help.
