We sat down with the lengendary Anne Rice to tattle about the Modern vivid adaptation Interview With The Vampire : Claudia ’s Story , Lestat and Louis as same - sex parents , advice for aspire writer , and how she feel about the lamia invasion .
Rice answered question in a candid conversation with io9 . At 71 , she has sell more than a 100 million written matter of her novels , which include The Vampire Chronicles and The Mayfair Witches serial publication , and she is a spirited and gracious subject .
Interview With The Vampire : Claudia ’s narrative is a graphic novel adjustment by Ashley Marie Witter of Rice ’s 1976 classic told from the perspective of Claudia , the youngster - ferment - lamia . Rice prefers to be hands off when her work is licensed for adaptation , and once she approved of Witter ’s selection and depiction , she was content – and excited – to wait for the final result , devote little feedback .
She is completely enthusiastic about the result . We center over the initial Page together : Witter ’s artistic creation is delicate , with a baroque manga feel . An evocative choice was made to publish the book entirely in sepia , with the only color coming from scarlet rip ( of which there is a destiny ) .
Louis and Lestat ’s endearing face come to biography , dog collar are bungle with detailed antique lace , and many bites are bitten . Most effectively drawn is unseasoned Claudia , flashing from innocent to monstrous by the panel . Ms. Rice comment that she intend the book “ spectacular ” and “ there ’s never been anything quite like this . ”
io9 : Why Claudia ’s story ? Was question something you had want to explore from her perspective ?
AR : They [ Yen Press ] suggested doing the adaptation . They wanted to do it from Claudia ’s point of panorama , and I cogitate that that was great . It ’s an adaptation just as a screenplay is an adaption , or a play , or the book of a musical . Those are all adaptations , and I felt that it was completely logical for them to do that . And they ’ve done a beautiful job . Just a beautiful occupation .
io9 : What has the collaborative cognitive operation been like ? Did you write eminence for her , were you work with her –
AR : No , not really . You recognise , I ’m not a really good collaborator , and when I license something I usually appease out of it . Except the movie of Interview With The lamia , I did write the book for that . But once they started changing and shooting it , I was out of the process . But I trusted Yen to do the right adaptation with this .
io9 : What do you think about the graphical novel as a medium ?
AR : I love the in writing novel . I wish all of my works were in this form . I love that they can be so much more than what they usually are . There were earlier version of Interview With The Vampire and The Vampire Lestat – they were by companies that went out of business . I think at one point , one of the artist bragged about the fact that he had n’t read the book . It was just a very untamed form of thing .
io9 : How do you feel about the explosion in the popularity of lamia , even in just the last decade ?
AR : I ’m get . You know , kind of puzzled . When I come up , it was n’t that path at all , of course . There was a good deal of judgment of dismissal , whereas these days , there seems to be this unembarrassed market .
io9 : I think there ’re a lot of property that would not have survive without you blazing the trail , but now it seems like there ’s a dissimilar lamia movie each hebdomad . I was curious if you felt like a proud parent in terms of that , or of you were quick for something different preternaturally to —
AR : If I ’ve been an influence , I ’m happy . I think the vampire is such a howling conception , such a rich concept . I ’m not surprised if other people who have mine that conception have come up with dissimilar characters , unlike cosmogeny , different mythology . That ’s bound to happen . I gauge we ’ll have vampires with us now for a long time , kind of like the Western and the police detective novel . It will be just sort of an unending story .
io9 : speak of being a gallant parent , your son Christopher is a writer . Did you promote him in pursue the family business organization , or did you discourage him off from the lifestyle ?
AR : Oh no , no , I would never warn him off . But in reality he surprised me when he compose his first novel . I did n’t know he was working on it , and then he came out of the bedroom with this novel in his hands , and we were just blown away . He had always been into acting , and screenplay writing , things like that . In in high spirits school he was very much an actor , and so I thought he was going to go in that counselling . But dead he come out of his sleeping room with a novel . And I was happy that he had chosen my profession . I was thrilled .
io9 : Did you have words of wisdom to give him for him , that we could strain to our readers ? What is your advice for the young writer who ask for it ?
AR : Well you know , I do give sort of the same received advice over and over again . You have to go where the pain is , go where the pleasure is , and you ca n’t be afraid . And you have to write the book that you ca n’t regain in the bookstore , the book that you really want to read . And you have to write a al-Qur’an that you yourself would have intercourse to read , and a script you desire to live in , you want to be in . It has to be .
I do n’t cogitate I ever had to tell him that , I cogitate he just sort of did it . But I think that avail to focalise . When you say that to yourself , I ’m writing the Scripture I require to write , the account book I ca n’t find , the Holy Writ that has n’t been done yet the way that I would like to do it . And of course , we always have to remember that the world does n’t desire someone who sounds just like somebody else , they want an original voice . The creation is always weep for original voices .
You could go and and you could monish any writer that ever pen by saying , “ Who needs another novel ? What make you believe you’re able to be writing more about that ? ” You ’ve just generate to just totally brush aside it . The earth always is athirst for a steel new way to wait at something . Nobody could have promise Interview With The Vampire would have been a hit . Nobody could have predicted Harry Potter would have been a hit . If you went and lead these idea past an editor , they ’d probably tell you to give up . You have to ignore people .
io9 : That may be the key line .
AR : You have to ignore critic . critic are a dime a dozen . writer are unparalleled .
io9 : Lestat is one of your most well - known creations , and he looms big . How would Lestat feel about right now , today ’s humankind ? Would he be moved ? Detached ? Has he seen it all ?
AR : I think he would be dazzle by the technology . He always is dazzled by those thing . He ’s always got one base in the 18th century world , and he remembers what it was like last there , and I cogitate he ’s always dazzle , transport , by what ’s going on . Going into an all - night drugstore and just looking at the colour of all the bottles of shampoo , and how beautiful they are , you bed , that ’s very much what he does . And I think he would be even more dazzle , because the world contract more interesting and more exciting all the metre . I know he would feel that way .
io9 : He ’d probably he on agate line for the late iPhone .
AR : I do n’t know if he ’d be on line , but he ’d ramble into the storehouse and pick one up .
io9 : We heard there might also be a graphic adaptation of The Wolf Gift . Is that a secret , or can we –
AR : No , Yen [ Press ] is go to endure to do it . I do n’t know if the same artist is going to do it , whether it ’s pass to be the same mathematical group , but Yen need to do it , so I ’m very thrilled .
io9 : There ’s the construct of Louis and Lestat as Claudia ’s “ parent , ” which we see in the novel , moving picture and now in the graphic novel . When you know the narrative , it ’s not quite the advanced statement it could appear to be visually , in the adjustment . Are you hunky-dory with that as an idea for the new C ?
AR : Sure ! [ Laughs ] Sure ! I never cogitate of it , they were the first vampire same - sexual urge parent .
io9 : I had wondered if that had been a opinion on your thinker before .
AR : No .
io9 : That ’s the way that it seems to be shown , it ’s very much “ she ’s our girl now . ” So I can say , they ’re a same - sex activity twosome with children ?
AR : Absolutely ! Claudia ! She ’s their daughter .
[ We discuss Anne writing the screenplay of the picture interpretation of Interview With The Vampire ]
AR : I wish to go on Amazon now and see hoi polloi find now , what they ’re writing about it .
io9 : So you do peek behind the curtain ? You reckon at what lover and reviewers have to say ?
AR : Oh , sure , I do . Yeah , I read everything once , at least . I do n’t commend writer do that , though , some writers ca n’t take that . It can be very painful to read some of the very unfair thing that the great unwashed say . I do n’t opine that you should ever do anything that hurts your committal to writing . I was talk to a best - sell author not too long ago , and she was said she never live to Amazon , she never looks , and I realize . You ca n’t do anything that bruise you . You have to do what ’s good for you .
io9 : You ’ve live such an interesting liveliness that has taken you to so many property . You tell The New York Times , “ I was known as my own square ” when you lived in San Francisco in the Haight - Ashbury in its heyday when you were young .
AR : I was not a hippie . But I was in the very thick of it all .
io9 : A spectator to history .
AR : Yeah . It was kind of merriment . But I was going to school , and sort of struggling to be a writer , and I really was n’t interested in spend out . They were all dropping out around me .
io9 : You ’ve save under the pseudonyms Anne Rampling and A. N. Roquelaure . Do you ever feel like creating a new pseudonym and running godforsaken with it ?
AR : Sometimes . Sometimes , I ’d care to break off and maybe write some fresh smut where nobody knew it was me ! That ’s what I did , the pseudonyms gave me this wondrous anonymity to just do what I wanted , because it was n’t Anne Rice doing it . And then of course , I acknowledged them straight off , and secernate everyone they were mine . But I was end , I was done , and the freedom had been very helpful .
It was like if you were a stone singer and you were well known , and you were tug through the commonwealth in your limousine and you see a piffling tavern , and you reckon , “ Well , I ’ll go in there , ” and you go in there and there ’s a stage and a mic a pianissimo , and you just sit around down and you babble for about four hours , whatever float in and out , it ’s kind of like that . And you do n’t have to be your stone - star topology self , you know . you could babble out some one-time songs . And clobber you never get to whistle onstage .
io9 : Since we ’re at Comic Con , and you have so many impassioned fans here , we have to ask : have you had experiences that have either dazzle you in a good style , or made you take a footprint back ?
AR : No , they ’re always wonderful . There were a few multitude in line who had cracking fangs , and cat contacts , and they were lovely . I ’ve always get laid all that . I ’ve always been honored by it , and I think it ’s grand .
Speaking with Ms. Rice was crystallise , and we ’re excited for the new graphic novel adaptations , as well as the potential Lestat movie she let the panel know was in progress from Imagine Entertainment . We also hope she also goes ahead with the erotica . question With The Vampire : Claudia ’s Story will be available from Orbit / Yen Press November 20th . trailer can be seen on Ms. Rice’sFacebook page , which she frequents .
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