Anne Rice, age 80 passes away

(originally posted on 13 Dec 2021)

In 1995 I was publishing a little newsletter called VRI News. In the March issue, I wrote a little piece about her.

I read the Vampires Chronicles almost religiously through the late 1980s and 1990s. I wish I could say I ever met Anne Rice or even wrote her a fan letter, but I did not. She was one of my writing inspirations through my 20s. After some effort I learned I could never write as baroquely as she could. I got so frustrated that I started to reject her work. I rejected her as if she were my parent so that I could grow and become independent. In the late 1990s, I wrote BadBlood as a short story as my way of trying to break free from the vampire genre (as we can see that didn't work out so well).

I will never forget reading and rereading some of her work and what it was like to get lost in those worlds. I'm not even sure which of her books I read last. Maybe it was Violin. At any rate, she looms large in my list of inspirations; a godparent in my writing pantheon.

Rest in peace dear Anne.

~Liriel