** Like I said, who is Anne Rice anyway?

Anne Rice, born Howard Allen (no, she didn't have a sex change, it's just a name) O'Brien on Oct. 4, 1941 is the wife of Stan Rice and the mother of Christopher Rice. Known for her lush, gothic writing style, she is most famous for her series The Vampire Chronicles, though she has written many other books. Anne's popularity comes from writing books that draw the reader into the time and place of the story. She has also been very influential in changing the old myths and stories of the supernatural (Newsweek cited Anne's work as the reason why the movie of Bram Stoker's Dracula deviated so much from the original book).

Anne and Stan Rice also have a daughter, Michele, their first born, who died of Leukemia at age six.

Here is the list of the books Anne has written with their dates of publication. Books that are in a series have been kept together and put under their series name.
Under the name of Anne Rice:

The Feast of All Saints (1979)
Cry to Heaven (1982)
The Mummy (1989)
Servant of the Bones (1996)
Violin (1997)

The Vampire Chronicles:

Interview With the Vampire (1976)
The Vampire Lestat (1985)
The Queen of the Damned (1988)
The Tale of the Body Thief (1992)
Memnoch the Devil (1995)
The Vampire Armand (1998)

New Tales of the Vampires:

Pandora (1998)
Vittorio the Vampire (1999)

Lives of the Mayfair Witches:

The Witching Hour (1990)
Lasher (1993)
Taltos (1994)

Under the name of Anne Rampling:

Exit to Eden (1985)
Belinda (1986)

Under the name of A. N. Roquelaure:

The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty (1983)
Beauty's Punishment (1984)
Beauty's Release (1985)

Yes there is, but only for some of the books. Others either have short enough names or just aren't talked about enough for a shorthand form to be necessary. Here's how some of the books are referred to either in writing or conversation (and how I'll write them in this FAQ):
Feast of All Saints: FOAS

Cry to Heaven: CtH

Exit to Eden: EtoE

The Sleeping Beauty Trilogy: The Beauty books

The Witching Hour: TWH (Though this series is known as the Lives of the Mayfair Witches, for some reason this title has not caught on. It is referred to as the TWH series)

Interview With the Vampire: Interview or IWTV (Note: some people will call IWTV "Vampire" but this is discouraged by most as the word "Vampire" can refer to far too many things in the series for the meaning to be clear.)

The Vampire Lestat: Lestat, TVL

The Queen of the Damned: Queeen, TQD, QotD

The Tale of the Body Thief: Body Thief, TotBT

Memnoch the Devil: Memnoch, Mem., MtD

The Vampire Armand: TVA, Armand

Vittorio the Vampire: VtV, Vittorio

The Vampire Chronicles: VampChron (Sometimes it's written as VC but this often gets confused with The Vampire Companion which is called VC more often than VampChron is so VampChron is more common. In this FAQ, VC will refer to the Companion, which I'll talk about later, only).

Servant of the Bones: SotB

Anne's newsletter, Commotion Strange, will be written as CS with the appropriate letter number beside it whenever I'm quoting from it directly.

Anne has written three of these:

"Interlude With the Undead"
Playboy, January 1979

"David Bowie and the End of Gender" (Article, not a story)
Vogue, November 1983

"The Master of Rampling Gate"
Redbook, February 1984 (Also in The Ultimate Dracula and Lovers and Other Monsters)

Quite a bit actually. From the Mayfair house on First Street to the deck of cards that Lestat uses to play Solitaire, things from Anne's life turn up everywhere in her books. The most notable example of this is Violin where the word from the stables is that one can mix and match the characters we meet in that book with real people from Anne's life. Not exactly, of course (Stan's still alive, for example) but they are there.

Anne lived in both NO and SF for quite some time and she's very fond of them (esp. NO where she grew up and lives today). She brings her characters there because of both her fondness and familiarity with the towns.

Anne has said that, while she does not believe in vampires, she does not rule out the existence of witches or ghosts. In fact, her house on First Street is supposedly haunted, though Anne claims she has never seen the ghost in question.

In a related note, Anne, like many authors, does see her characters as being "real" so you will hear of her speaking of Lestat as though he was someone who makes regular appearances in her life. This is different, though, from believing in vampires stalking the earth.

From CS#3:

"Guys, why are you always asking me why my characters don't work on State of the Art Computer equipment. They do! When Lestat wrote his bio, he was working on what HARDWARE was out that year. And Mona had the top of the line HARDWARE when LASHER was written? I mean, I don't get it. Don't you guys like WORDSTAR?"

I'm not sure if Anne realizes that our complaints are about the software, but assuming that she does, I'll answer her question by saying that no one hates Wordstar in the sense that they were attacked by it as a child, but that it is an old and very plain program which makes it hard to believe that Lestat, consummate materialist that he is, wouldn't move on to something which costs a lot more and has more bells and whistles for him to play with.

From CS#3:

"ON AFRO-AMERICAN CHARACTERS IN MY SUPERNATURAL WORLD. Maybe I'm just not sure enough of myself to put them in. I'm not sure I really know what they would think or feel. I don't know."

It should be noted that FOAS, though it is not within a supernatural genre, is about the Free People of Color in New Orleans.

That depends on the kind you're looking for. If you're looking for more hard-copy versions, the easiest way to start is to head over to your local library and type in the keywords "Anne Rice" or "Vampires" into their computers. You'd be amazed at how many turn up.

There is. It's called Prism of the Night and it's written by Katherine Ramsland.

Anne has installed a phone line in her house for fans to call in and give their opinions (good or bad) about her work. The number is (504) 522-8634. Once you call you will get an answering machine on which you can leave a message for Anne.

You can also send messages on Anne's home page which she responds to with general letters or phone messages to fans.

A few years back, Anne decided to send out a newsletter entitled "Commotion Strange" to those fans who are interested in getting it. This has since petered off and mostly been replaced by the phone messages and things that go up on her web page. However, if you are interested in trying to get on the list should she decide to send out more, send a letter or postcard to:
Anne Rice
1239 First St.
New Orleans, LA 70130

Shay Mitchell has a website on Line for Commotion Strange

The above address will work just fine for that, or you can try sending it via her web page.

No, because then Anne would not have time for the little important things like, oh, breathing. She just gets too much mail from her dear fans to be able to read it all. She has an assistant, Suzy Q. who goes through her fan mail for her and let's Anne know what her fans are saying.

From CS#3:

"ANSWERING PERSONAL LETTERS. Can't do it anymore. Just downright impossible. Occasionally I have a minute, but my life now is a desperate fight to find a few hours to be alone with this machine, writing on my work. what distracts me is not only continuous requests for publicity, but my great and loving family whom I enjoy and want to spend time with, and wouldn't give up for the world. But I have become OVERBOOKED, there is no doubt about it."

What Anne does now, in order to make sure her fans get a personal response, is to answer their comments and questions in her phone messages and on her web page (starting to sense the theme here?) so that she can get the information out to many at once and not have to repeat it over and over again.

In theory, yes. But please keep in mind something that she said in CS#2:

"Our addresses are well known, including that of St. Elizabeth's Orphanage. But do remember, please; the family lives in our houses; they are private residences. And though we love you, we can not come to the door, or meet with people personally. We thank you for your understanding. We do have a great deal of security; men on patrol; dogs, all of that. But in general, we have found that our readers are the kindest, gentlest people in the world, and we are honored that sometimes you want to stop on the corner of First and Chestnut,or of Napoleon and Prytania. We love to look at New Orleans houses too, as always have."

Along those lines, let me add that Anne has said that it becomes very hard for her to write her books when fans come to the door and distract her. Plus, Mojo and Lestat's mastiffs were based on Anne's dogs so do you really want to chance it?

Here you're in luck. St. E's is open for tours every day except Monday from 11am to 3:30pm and all that's needed is a $7 donation.

No you do not meet Anne as a part of the tour, but you do see a nice bit of the inside of the buildings which is fun. Also keep in mind that the tour schedule is very day to day. You might not find out that the tour for that day has been cancelled until you show up at the gate. But still, it's worth a try.

Yes there were. First Street and the Mardi Gras house were both open for free tours. However due to some Garden District politics they unfortunately had to be shut down. Keep your eyes open, though, sometimes Anne will be able to sneek in a free tour of those houses every now and again. It's worthwhile to keep an eye on her web page.

No. There is an email address on her web page but that is for the page maintainers who then forward mail as needed. There are also forms on the page for the purpose of sending Anne information should you wish.

Nothing, actually. Even though Knopf has assigned Anne a (in Anne's opinion) very wonderful and skilled editor, Anne does all the editing for her books herself. Anne has gone on the record as saying that if you find any errors in her books, she is the only one to blame for them and not anyone at Knopf.

Anne expressed her views on editing in a 1997 televised interview with Charlie Rose. You can read it here

Anne apparently enjoys speaking her mind often and one of her favorite topics is President Clinton. In the past she has taken out full-page ads to support him, left phone messages about him and so on.

One of the biggest controversies to come down the line, this is still a topic which sparks a lot of debate and bad blood. I'll do my best to give you the jist of the story, keeping in mind that since I wasn't directly involved anything I report should be taken with the usual grain of salt.

There was a Catholic chapel in the Garden District which Anne bought after secret negotiations with the various clergy members involved. Neither Anne nor the clergy told the parishoners about this until after the sale when they found out that they were being locked out of what had been their church for generations and told to go elsewhere. The parishoners naturally complained and felt very slighted and a bad situation was made worse when Anne went on the record as saying the parishoners didn't deserve the chapel and that she was doing New Orleans a favor by buying it and fixing it.

To see Anne's statement, click here: A MESSAGE FROM ANNE RICE

To say a catfight ensued from there is a bit of an understatement. It got so bad that the story was eventually picked up by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and NBC.

It should be noted that the Diocese of New Orleans put the chapel up for sale, due to a lack of funds with which to keep it in good repair. It was in fact their responsibility to inform the parishoners of this.

Straya's is a restaurant created by Al Copeland which was the subject of another controversy with Anne. The restaurant is located on the site where Lestat "left" Anne after Memnoch. It is also one of the biggest eyesores that you've ever seen. Anne, for reasons which are unclear, decided to go on a public crusade against it, starting during Mardi Gras of 1997 by taking out a full page ad to apologize to the tourists for the fact that it existed. Al Copeland naturally did not take too kindly to this and the situation snowballed into back and forth full page ads of the two of them essentially sneering at each other, lawsuits and counterlawsuits and parodies in many a Mardi Gras parade and local paper.

The lawsuits were eventually thrown out of court and both Al and Anne are silent on the subject currently.

Anne has been known for going in and out of the hospital on a far too regular basis, all of which culminated in Dec. 1998 when she was rushed to ICU due to a blood sugar problem. Anne was then diagnosed with adult onset diabetes which can be controlled if she eats the right diet and takes her insulin shots.