I first picked up Anne Rice in Grade 9. I was young, a reader and crushing on a boy who loved Anne Rice. I tried my hand at "Interview with a Vampire" and it ended miserably. I managed to get through the first 25 pages before wondering out loud what anyone saw in Rice's work. Fast forward a year, an encouraging English teacher and "The Vampire Lestat" and second time was lucky: immediately I became a fan. Over the next year I read everything I could get my hands on. I started with vampires, moved on to witches, carried through with odd ball titles not part of a collection, discovered the aliases and even read through the erotica. I've been a fan ever since and my favourite of her works is easily "Queen of the Damned" (thought the movie was tripe).

Anne lost me with "Blood and Gold" which I thought suffered greatly from lack of editing, something which I attribute in part to the publisher. I revisited her work with "Blood Canticle" which feature both Lestat and Mona and was an interesting cross over between her two worlds but I lost track until I gave her another shot with "Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt" which was a surprisingly entertaining and thought provoking novel. I haven't gone back to read what I've missed over the last few years but doing some research I've discovered that she has "Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana" coming out later this year.

What all this book talk is really about is a recent interview at Time Online in which Anne divulges that she may still return to her beloved vampires. She rediscovered religion a few years back and swore never to go back to vampires but now she says that there's one more story to tell and having heard enough authors talk, this isn't something that just goes away.

Personally, I think this is fantastic news. She seems to be back on track with the writing and Lestat rising from the ashes could be what fans are looking for. I'm just hopeful that I have the opportunity to see another of her book tours. She's an amazingly gracious and personable individual. If I can find them, I'll have to post some photos of my meeting with her at the height of my love for her and likely the height of her success as well.