Thank You Anne Rice, Thank You!

As an avid book lover nothing makes me happier than when I discover a new book in a favorite series is going to be released in the next year. Unless of course I discovered one of my favorite authors has returned to a series that I love after stating very publicly they will not write any more books in that series.

So this morning when I discovered Anne Rice has written a new book titled Prince Lestat that is a sequel to her original Vampire Chronicles, specifically Queen of the Damned, I was beyond happy. My coworkers are now all looking at me like I am crazy because I won't stop talking about how excited I am about the new book.

But they don't get it. They have no idea of the long relationship I have had with Anne Rice and her vampire friends. I credit Michael Jackson's Thriller video with my love of zombies and Anne Rice with my vampire obsession.

It all begin innocently enough. A friend had given me Interview with the Vampire to read, her older sister had read it and she thought I would like it also. I liked things that go bump in the night, I had already started watching horror movies and had devoured all the age appropriate "scary" books at my local library. When my friend handed me the book I was excited, it was an adult book about vampires. I read Interview with a Vampire for the first time when I was 11 or 12 (I have read it several times since then).

From that moment on I was truly obsessed with Anne Rice and vampires. I will admit to not understanding everything the first time I read the book but I knew enough. I soon had read all her books and patiently waited for the new ones to come out. And while I waited I was introduced to other authors of horror and the occult like Stephen King and Dean Koontz.

I will tell you that it is one of those books that made an impacted. I huge impacted. Reading it was one of those pivotal moments in my life. Is it weird that a fictional book had such an impact on my life? But it really did. I discovered a whole new strange world and I was fascinated by it. It started to shape my view of the world.

I am not going to say that it completely changed my view or made me a darker or twisted, I am sure those things were going to happen regardless. To be honest I am not sure how it changed me, it just did. Great books will do that to you, they will just impact you in a way that you can not describe. No matter what you think about Vampires, horror books and the occult its a really great book. With out it we wouldn't have the barge of vampire/urban fantasy books we have today.

For whatever reason I want to say thank you to Anne Rice for discovering another story to share with us about Lestat. I feel like I am be reunited with an old friend.

Prince Lestat comes out October 28, 2014 just in time for Halloween. I wonder if I can pre-order it yet.