I can see and hear without any problems, but the higher energies of maybe what they call angels, come in a string of perfect little triangles with each one being a perfect form as they catch the light and take on different colors, then start expanding and taking on larger forms, but nothing distinctive looking human, just energy. When I see it, I know there is a change coming. I have heard the air sound above my head but never heard anybody talk about it, sounding like it was circling with a whirlpool effect. Fact or fiction, I think it is a book I’ll read.

Anne Rice is an interesting writer. Her books will probably be around for years to come. I found it particularly interesting that she isn’t touring anymore but focusing on her website as a marketing tool. As she said herself, it’s a new world out there, at least in the world of publishing.

Thanks for this interview, Joni.

I actually haven’t read any of her books.  My knowledge is limited to the Interview with the Vampire.  This just reminded me of when it was coming out that Ms. Rice at first didn’t like it at all, and then later praised it.  I said to my roommate that I wondered what changed her mind, and he said, "Someone explained ‘percent of gross’ to her."  That always made me laugh.

This book sounds interesting, though.  I need to break out of my little cache of comfy authors and try someone new. 

I really miss Lestat. In fact I’m thinking of going back and re-reading from The Vampire Lestat on through Blackwood Farm (I was never that crazy about Interview after seeing Tom Cruise try to be Lestat).

As for the angels, Memnoch the Devil is an amazingly intriguing and thought provoking book.

As far as the Interview… movie went, I thought that Tom Cruise did an excellent job of playing…himself, as always. But I think he’s creepy anyway, so I may be prejudiced. I liked Interview with a Vampire, and The Vampire Lestat, but Anne Rice started losing me in Queen of the Damned (which may be the one in which Lestat tries to give himself a permanent tan). Lestat is a monster, no question about it, and a sadist, and narcissistic, and incredibly self-pitying. Even so, I enjoyed him (but then, I kinda liked Hannibal Lecter too, until the author started making excuses for him), and Louis, and Claudia. The Queen of the Damned had some fascinating concepts, but the Queen and Lestat flying around blowing up other vampires was not one of them.

But Ms. Rice lost me from there. Too much moralizing, angst, questions that seemed deeply steeped in dogmatic representations of Good and Evil. The characters and the stories became hazy, then lost. And angelic presences. Just as quite a few authors are now doing vampires (ad nauseum…and Mrs. Rice was not the first to present the "romantic" type, there was previously the series in which appeared the Comte St. Germaine), so they are doing…angels. In the interview she seems a bit vague as to why she is doing angels now. However, previously she has stated that she thought of her vampire characters as representations of "evil" and regretted doing the books as she was returning to her Roman Ctholic roots. Perhaps the angels are a form of repentence, this would fit with the RC concept of atonement. Now she seems quite fond of her vampires again. Perhaps that is common sense and dollar signs. One must live on something.

I do find the concept of experiencing angels interesting. I myself do not believe in angels, however, I have had some quite peculiar, disturbing and inexplicable experiences. It is difficult to talk about such things. People who believe me are often people whom I would not care to associate with…they also believe in charlatan "psychics" and are themselves claiming "abilities" that are dubious at best. People who don’t believe frequently think that I am exactly the sort of poser that I try so desperately to avoid. Also, many folks insist that without religion, or a belief in a sentient, caring supreme being, I cannot possibly be spiritual in any sense. O, well, I think there is more to "Life" than matter. Dead things lack more than brainwaves…and there appear to be more than five senses.