Once again, Anne Rice has created a masterpiece that both invites and provokes the reader. Angel Time introduces a new cast of heroic beings and takes the reader on a voyage of mystical, magical and redeeming proportions. In the pages of an Anne Rice novel, anything can happen and any dream can find its way into reality.
The author and poet Anatole France once said, “To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.” Rice has used the stroke of her pen to master the worlds of Vampires, Christ and redemption. She has allowed her readers to escape into each of these worlds with a guiding hand as they find belief in her power to weave an exemplary story.
Rice’s written words ebb and flow, like a cello being plucked; pulsing emotion toward the reader with the rise and fall of each tome as it pulls you in deeper and deeper. “Style in my novel is tremendously important. Words have a beauty, and if I can’t find the rhythm in the story then I can’t get lost. The matter of pacing and proportion is the thing I call style.
“I’m a very instinctive writer. You can have a road map, but you have to be completely open to the surprises that happen.” So does Rice have a specific formula for crafting her novels? “I do, but very loosely. It’s not an outline in a formal sense, but I make notes regarding what I want to achieve or what will happen. Usually all of that changes when the writing begins. I don’t look back.
“Most of the time those notes help me think about the story and rev up, or get going. The great thing about writing is that there aren’t any real rules. You can write [your story] any which way you like. It’s not like playing the violin where there are standards of rules. We really can make anything happen in the book; so the outline is part of the mysterious process.
“The best part [of writing] comes when I get up in the morning and write because I want to see what happens. It’s like watching a movie when it’s really working.” Do the characters lead the story? “I think they do, they definitely come to life on the page. That cliché is true. In Christ the Lord, The Road to Cana, there is a character named Jason who comes to life on his own.” He wasn’t a planned character, just someone who happened to appear along the way.
“I have always trusted the characters, even with Interview with the Vampire. Interview was completely my creation, and in that I had to trust the characters. There were times I would throw out 30-40 pages because it just didn’t feel write.” But that didn’t stop Rice from moving forward with the story and having faith that it would all come together as it was meant to be.
Angel Time’s narrator, Toby O’Dare isn’t the easiest character to immediately feel empathy for, so how did Rice balance showing his human side and his true nature? “I think it was a challenge to show someone who is as evil as Toby had become. But even that question is complex. The main thing I believe about evil is that it is always complex. Toby’s belief that he was working for the government was complicated; his pure conscious was that he felt safe working for the right man.
“How to make that character sympathetic was important because I really felt sympathy given what had happened to him, especially what goes on in New York and in describing an 18-year-old who is very young and reckless. The anguish he feels about not being able to save everybody – I think that psychology has implications for everyone.
“It was very important for me to get into all of this in the book. If the book is going to be good, it needs to have levels and to take on depth. I love it - I love doing it. I don’t want to write something shallow and brittle. Because I am an instinctive and spontaneous writer, I allow the book to evolve.”
How important is risk taking in Rice’s writing? “I definitely believe that half commitment can ruin a book. If you are afraid to take the plunge, the book will be lukewarm. You have to be fearless. You are trying to make the best universe that you can and keep many forces going at once. You have to tell all you know.You can’t hold something back. You have to go for it. You can’t be cautious. Some of my books are so different, but I have always been willing to risk my career by doing something different.
“With The Vampire Chronicles, I went at [writing them] as if it was absolute reality. That is the only way to make fantasy work. If you drift around the subject it won’t lock into the reader. I think that it’s a wonderful compliment - that you would make anybody believe that vampires exist. You have to be in that world if you want to be real. I’ve never believed in Vampires, but I believed in the fiction. Lestat was psychological, understandable and real. I could understand his playfulness and willingness.”
So many new players have come on to the Vampire scene in literature, most notably Charlaine Harris and her Sookie Stackhouse series. “I have been reading Charlaine’s series, and I love [the HBO series] True Blood. I think it’s very playful and witty and she does a marvelous and interesting job. The novels are very much books about the South, and I enjoy that. I am really enjoying the series and every week we are locked in. Anna [Paquin] and Steven [Moyer] do a beautiful job. It’s so funny at times, the lines that come out of their mouths. It’s nothing like what I would have done but that is what makes it so fun.
Why the Songs of the Seraphim? What inspired Rice to bring the Angels into our reality? “I love the Seraphim, their being next to the throne of God and singing constantly. I love that choir of Angels and I love the idea that special people have special Guardian Angels. We do have a lot of theology about Angels, and I thought Malchiah could overrule the Guardian Angel, who wouldn’t want Toby being involved, and therefore send him into danger. Malchiah has a bigger plan for Toby.”
How important are readers and their faith in Rice? “Tremendously important. But, I have to write what I think is the best book. My readers are capable of quarrelling over which book is best.” Rice’s favorite of The Vampire Chronicles: “My personal choice of which book was the best is Memnoch [the Devil].
“I go with my strong belief, that whatever I am writing was the best book to write. But I have to respect my readers as the quarrelsome group they are. I write the book I want to read and if it is interesting to me it will be interesting to some, but not all. They can’t all agree.
“My husband was the most important reader to me, and he didn’t care for the Mayfair Witches. So my readers are extremely important, but I have to write the book I want to read. I have to, in a way, think only of that and hope for the best.”
There are themes of divine intervention and redemption in both Memnoch and Angel Time. Both of these novels are windows into the author’s subconscious as well as the trials of the characters. “One of the main theme’s of Memnoch is really my doubts [at the time]. Lestat’s painful doubts at the end are really my doubts. Angel Time has a much firmer frame work in the belief of the goodness of God. It’s not the same as Memnoch. In Memnoch the lines are blurred. But what was terribly important was does God exist– andif he does what should we do?”
The character of Memnoch the Devil was nefarious and difficult for the reader, and the vampire Lestat, to trust. “Now the gift of faith has been given to me and I can completely trust Malchiah. There is no doubt the devil is tempting Toby at a certain point. But it’s Anne still having the same passion and concerns about good and evil and what do we do.”
What dreams have been realized for Rice? “I think being a successful writer itself was the biggest dream. I think what you fear more than anything is indifference. I still have to pinch myself when I see my books in print and read people arguing about them on Amazon, years after they were in print. Just to have people care…it’s wonderful and so that dream is the most important thing.
“Being published changes what you write and does give you the opportunity to write the best books you can, knowing that they will be in print and that is a wonderful, wonderful thing. I feel like I have had a great life.”
What advice does Rice offer to aspiring writers? “DO NOT compromise your own voice. Your characters are the most important. Do not listen to critics and ignore the people who reject it. It takes no ability to be a critic. It is seductive to spout opinions about someone else and their work. The world is crying for new voices, but it isn’t crying for imitations. It wants a new fresh voice that sounds like you.
“People told me Interview was too weird, too strange and it didn’t fit anywhere. I had to take rejection as a write of passage – once it gets to the reader, they will judge the book. Be true to yourown voice, characters and story. Ignore the critics. Remember, if someone hurts your feelings, that doesn’t mean they are right. Be strong and be tough. I was gifted with profound confidence called nerve. Everyone has moments where you are scared. But don’t give up.
“My Motto is go where the pain is and go where the pleasure is.” With this creed, Rice proves fearless in her pursuits to bring real, authentic and utterly captivating stories into her readers’ lives. “The critical statements that hurt me are when a critic responds to my novel as though the language is pedestrian. How I feel about the language, well it’s almost like singing. I have a special love of music and I am very vulnerable to music. It can be a great restorative if I am sick or tired.”
The Vampire Lestat once said, “I want you to read every page I write. I want my prose to envelop you. I’d drink your blood if I could and hook you into every memory inside me, every heartbeat, frame or reference, temporary triumph, petty defeat, mystic moment of surrender.” Rice has the gift of doing just that – ensnaring her reader in the pages of each book she writes, in the heart of each hero, each narrator and each voice that tells a captivating story.
To see why angels are the new vampires and why Toby O’Dare is the next great hero, pick up a copy of Angel Time today.
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Images courtesy of Anne Rice's website
Comments
enfim anne rice e edmais mesmo e incrivel a sua habilidade nos seus personargens e estou esperando o tenpo dos anjos quero velo
Amazing. Thank you, Paige. And thank you, Ms. Rice.
First: Such an inspirational article. Thank you!
Second: Can you fix the "write / right" typos in the article. :)
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