Author Anne Rice is 70 years old today. She’s the one who gave us the vampire Lestat, introduced in her 1976 novel Interview with a Vampire. If you don’t know that book, uh… it’s like Twilight for grown-ups. Grown-ups who like to read pages and pages of flowery prose.
Interview with a Vampire is a good book. Don’t judge it by that movie with little baby Kirsten Dunst and that fop Tom Cruise (1994, also starring Brad Pitt). Anne Rice was the writer of sexy vampire stories in those days. And besides that Lestat franchise, she’s had success with erotic novels and various other blends of romance, fantasy and horror. Oh, and Christian stuff, too. Rice has sold enough books so that about one in three Americans could own one.
Instead, her 20,000 fans each own 5,000 copies.
Just kidding. Anne Rice is very successful. So is her son, Christopher, who’s only 30 years old and has already published four novels.
And Anne Rice is also very busy. She’s working on a new novel about werewolves (imagine that!), and she’s in the middle of adapting her novel Christ the Lord: Road to Cana into a graphic novel.
You can catch up on all her business by following her on Facebook. Go wish her a happy birthday.
You can read a recent interview with her son, author Christopher Rice, here (Part I) and here (Part II).
(Photo credit: Mr. Blue/WENN)