The Passing of an Author

[Booknblues]

Anne Rice has passed away! :(

https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/12/entert...

[Peacejanz]

Thanks for the info. Sad. But as I near her age at death, I realize and acknowledge that all of us will die physically some day. RIP.

[Theresa]

I never read her vampire series - not my thing. But she wrote an excellent historical fiction about the castrati and at some point I skimmed her porn retelling of Sleeping Beauty.

My personal Anne Rice story is from my only trip to New Orleans. A friend and I were doing a self-guided walking tour of some of the old houses in the Garden District when 2 guys jumped out of a car and robbed us at gunpoint. We were fine, if a bit frightened, and of course inconvenienced (this was about 25 years ago) - they took our purses and my camera, hopped into the car and drove away. Since cellphones were not the norm, we walked back a couple of blocks to a conveninece store and asked them to call the police. The cop who answered the call came and asked us a bunch of questions (I had memorized the license plate and had good descriptions of the 2 guys), including where we were from. When we said NYC, his comment: "well you certainly knew how to be careful!". He then gave us a lift in his squad car back to our hotel -- and gave us a scenic tour on the way, including stopping in front of Ann Rice's home in the Garden District and driving across the pedestrian only main square downtown. The guys were never caught (car had been stolen), but what could have left a traumatic memory of New Orleans ended up being anything but because of that cop and his kindness. Plus Amex couriered new credit cards to us (actual courier), and my sister sent us cash by Western Union (still needed cash for things like taxis in those days and ATM cards were not common).

I vividly remember Ann Rice's house - it was beautiful with lovely gardens.

[Meli]

I have never read her books, surprisingly, but I can appreciate her influence and it was pretty sad to hear of her passing :(

[Tracy]

I love her earlier vampire novels, the witches of Mayfair (the Mayfair house is the Garden District house where she lived), her Sleeping Beauty erotica and her standalone books.

As she got older, I felt like her writing quality declined, especially after her husband died, but she remained spunky and politically active.