An Interview with Anne Rice about "The Wolf Gift" Pt.II

On February 14th, 2012, "The Wolf Gift", Anne Rice's new novel and her return to the gothic/horror genre that she has almost solely kept alive, is scheduled to be released.

This time around, her millions of rabid fans will be introduced to Reuben Golding, the main character and Anne's "man-wolf" as she has named him.

Just as she did for the vampire, we expect her re-telling of the "were-wolf" story to not only intrigue and fascinate, but illuminate the subject, as well.

Here is the second part of my interview with Mrs. Rice. It is as fascinating as the woman, herself and pay close attention to the last question. I don't know about you, but I think she's trying to tell us something. And now, Anne Rice:

6) You seem to be in the midst of a creative fervor. Is there a reason for this burst of imagination or has your mind always worked on many different ideas at once?

I am in a period of high creativity right now and I am not sure why that is. In the past ten years, I've struggled with health problems and most of these have been, thankfully, resolved. Also grieving for the loss of my husband of 41 years drained a great deal of my energy and optimism. Whatever the case, I do feel reborn of late, and on fire with any number of ideas for novels. I think I was also grieving for a marvelous and rich lifestyle I enjoyed in New Orleans for 18 years. I had to let go of that, and move on.

7) Do you believe your own struggles with faith and final decision to leave the church has influenced your new work in any way?

Yes, my struggle with Christianity and my breaking away from all organized religion have freed me from much tension and much depression. For 12 years after returning to faith in God, I sought to "believe," pray, write, and live as an orthodox Christian. But ultimately I found I could not accept even the basic premises of the entire belief system. It was a draining struggle actually that went on year after year as I came to see that Christianity was not something I could defend, or confess. Breaking away was traumatic. I disappointed a lot of people. But I had to do it. I had to speak up, as a believer in God, to renounce organized religion. I am certain that the burst of creative fire I am enjoying now is directly related to this. I really tried to accept and live the Christian belief system. I couldn't. It was an agonizing struggle for a long time.

8) Why do you believe your fans are so devoted to your old characters and do believe you can recapture that kind of interest and devotion with your new work?

I really just write what I want to write. That's all I can do. I know from vast experience that every book I write is embraced by some and condemned by others. There is simply no consensus amongst my readers on what is my best book or my worst. It's always been that way. I constantly experiment, constantly try new things. When I wrote the Tales of the Mayfair Witches, some readers simply didn't like my leaving the vampires. When I continued with both series, some people didn't like this or that sequel. There is always an outcry. Why are they devoted to my old characters? Apparently my characters become very real for my readers. The characters live and breathe for them. They have been telling me this for thirty years. 'You made me care about a vampire, of all things!' they say, or 'I am in love with Lestat.' One reader recently wrote to me about the Wolf Gift, 'I want to marry Reuben.' I'm grateful that this is the response I get from my readers, very grateful. Character in my work is everything. The world comes alive in my novels through the eyes and voice of characters. That's the only way I know how to do it. Will the readers respond to the Wolf Gift? I don't know. I do know that I have responded, I am in love with Reuben, I am obsessed with him, I had fun writing him, and he's alive for me. So.....I hope some will share all this with me. There's no way to predict ever how a book will do. You just write the book of your dreams and hold back nothing and then put it out there.

9) Have you accomplished everything you had set out to in the context of your writing career?

I have so much more to write, so much more. A final Toby O'Dare novel in which Toby has to wrestle with his earthly past (as government assassin) and in which he demands answers from his angels that they don't want to give; an Atlantis novel that embraces the entire myth of Atlantis and brings it into the modern era; ghost novels that explore more fully: 'what is a ghost? Why do they endure? What can a ghost hope for?' ------ No, I would say I have not accomplished everything that I hope to accomplish, but I never had a plan. I go from obsession to obsession, and in each novel I tell all I know at the time, and of course what I know of this world is always changing. Of course, I am thinking of sequel to The Wolf Gift. Not only are Reuben and the other characters alive for me, so is Nideck Point, the beautiful old house in which they live. I have to get back to all that.

10) What next from the great Anne Rice?

I'm deep into a new horror novel but don't want to say yet who is in it. I need to be farther along before I am confident. Sometimes plans just don't work. I had to stop work on my Atlantis novel for a while because the science side of it defeated me. Of this new novel, all I can say is it feels like a great step forward for me. But who knows?

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See what I mean about that last question. I don't know about you guys, but can someone say possibly vampires? Who Knows?

I hope you enjoyed the interview as much as I, always, enjoy the wonderful Anne Rice. If you have, please hit the subscribe button above to automatically receive all my new work as soon as it's published.

Coming up, an interview with Suzanne Corso, about her book "Brooklyn Story", a review of "Raylan" by the great Elmore Leonard and my review of "The Face Thief" by Eli Gottlieb.

To read some of my other work, please visit me at the "Tampa Bay Books Examiner" and "Tampa City Buzz Examiner" pages.

See ya next time!