We have brought Anne home. The moment the plane rolled to a stop in New Orleans, the heavens opened, and the thunder rolled, and it was as if the spirit world had heralded her return to the city of her birth, the city that always held her heart. The service was quiet and private, and a chance for close family to express their grief. The public celebration of life we will hold later in the year will be open to all of you, and it will be loud enough for Anne to hear us in heaven. She has joined my father in the tomb in Metairie Cemetery she designed for him after his passing; their marriage, unbroken for decades, has entered immortality. My sister resides with them as well. On Anne’s Facebook page I have shared a portion of the eulogy I read graveside. Unfortunately it is too long to post on Instagram. I send you all my love. You helped make Anne as great as she was. Love, Christopher #annerice #ripannerice
Today we ask you join us in wishing a happy 80th birthday to our beloved @annericeauthor, who is celebreting this special day at her home in the Coachella Valley with her beloved son @christopher.rice.writer, dear friend @ericshawquinn and sister Karen. #authorsofinstagram #writersofinstagram #annerice #thevampirelestat #thevampirechronicles #lestat #thelivesofthemayfairwitches #vampires
This is Christopher. It was raining in Los Angeles this morning, raining like it did in New Orleans when the plane carrying Anne home touched down on the tarmac this past January. Rain is so rare here in Southern California it’s hard to see it as coincidence. A year ago this morning I came to after a night of dozing fitfully in an uncomfortable chair next to my mother’s bed in the ICU. We’d brought in a small stereo to play classical music for her as she transitioned. While she was no longer responsive, every few minutes I would take her hand in mine and assure her, “I’m here, Momma. I’m here.” She lingered for more than a day after the doctors told us we were sure to lose her at any moment. Late in the morning on December 11, 2021, we would move her to a quieter and more private area of the hospital where she would peacefully slip away later that evening. When the moment came, I wept at her beside. When I reached the hospital bathroom, the door closed behind me, I slid to the floor and wailed. Anne, gone. It still seems impossible. A woman that momentous in talent and with a personality as powerful as thunder cannot simply disappear from this realm. The agony of her grief — for her mother, for her daughter, for her husband — built a dazzling galaxy of art and beauty and yearning in which so many of us found comfort and hope and answers. Now we were tasked with grieving her. During that time, I hope you have discovered what I have. She is not gone. She lives on in not only in her work, but through the messages you leave here about the first moment her incomparable and uncompromising voice found you in the dark. Love, @christopher.rice.writer
She waited nervously in the other room. He’d told her to quit her job so she could devote herself to writing and the stack of pages she’d given him was the result. She wasn’t sure how to categorize what she’d written, wasn’t sure it would ever be published. It was transgressive and impossible to categorize, and it had come pouring out of her in a feverish rush. Finally, Stan walked into the room. He’d finished reading. He looked her in the eye and said, “This is going to change your life, baby.” Happy birthday to the novel INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE, published on this day in 1976. Love, @christopher.rice.writer #annerice #ripannerice #interviewwiththevampire #thevampirechronicles #bookstagram
#oscars
Today I’m celebrating my mother’s 81st birthday with this iconic press photo of her from the SERVANT OF THE BONES tour. (The one with the gold bus, for those who remember!) And the Tab! Anne was never without a can of Tab for most of the 80’s and 90’s. I’m deeply grateful for all the warm well wishes that have been sent our way on this day. It isn’t easy, marking this occasion for the first time without Anne here with us, but we cherish the manner in which so many of you love and remember her. Love, @christopher.rice.writer #authorsofinstagram #annerice #happybirthdayannerice
Anne was so moved to receive this photograph today, and she’s asked us to share it with all of you. A close family friend placed these flowers on the Rice family mausoleum in Metairie Cemetery outside New Orleans in honor of Michele Rice’s birthday. Anne’s beloved daughter was taken from us at the age of six by a terrible form of leukemia. She would have been fifty-five years old today, but as many of us know, she lives on as the inspiration for the child vampire Claudia in INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE. For years Michele lay in an unmarked grave in a Northern California cemetery, the victim of the financial strain that fell upon the Anne and Stan in the wake of Michele’s long illness and heartbreaking death. Some years back her remains were relocated to the Rice family mausoleum outside New Orleans, seen here, that was constructed a year after the passing of Anne’s husband, Stan. His remains are here as well. One of Michele’s favorite songs was “Free The People” by Delaney and Bonnie, which we’ve shared in the comments below. (Posted by Anne’s Team)
This is @christopher.rice.writer. Today in Anne’s stories I shared a quite long but important announcement about Anne’s Celebration of Life. It’s now pinned in her highlights for all who wish to read. Thank you for your patience and support.
Today we celebrate the birthday of Stan Rice, Anne’s late husband, lost to brain cancer 2002. He would have turned 79. Stan was the love of Anne’s life from the moment they met in high school in Richardson, Texas. As a young artist and then tentured professor in the San Francisco Bay area, he was hailed as an “Adonis poet”. His looks and confidence served as Anne’s inspiration for the vampire Lestat. They were married as teenagers and remained so until Stan’s passing. While his career as a painter blossomed towards the end of his life, he also published several volumes of poetry during those later years as well. One of them, “The Radiance of Pigs”, featured this poem, “Early Spring” EARLY SPRING Silver lipstick is On the japanese plum Leaves. We are in our second stage of love. After flesh falters, after The eyes we know look at us As a stranger. It’s early spring again. Nature’s voluptous skeleton Sits up! #annerice #stanrice #authorsofinstagram #poetsofinstagram #writersofinstagram #paintersofinstagram #thevampirelestat
COVER REVEAL. “RAMSES THE DAMNED: THE REIGN OF OSIRIS” By Anne Rice & Christopher Rice @christopher.rice.writer A pharaoh made immortal by a mysterious and powerful elixir, Ramses the Great became counselor and lover to some of Egypt’s greatest and most powerful rulers before he was awakened from centuries of slumber to the mystifying and dazzling world of Edwardian England. Having vanquished foes both human and supernatural, he’s found love with the beautiful heiress Julie Stratford, daughter of Lawrence Stratford, the slain archeologist who discovered his tomb. Now, with the outbreak of a world war looming, Ramses and those immortals brought forth from the mists of history by his resurrection will face their greatest test yet. Russian assassins bearing weapons of immense power have assembled under one command: all those who loved Lawrence Stratford must die. From the glowing jewels at their necks comes an incredible supernatural force: the power to bring statues to life. Anne Rice is the author of thirty-seven books. She lives in Southern California. Christopher Rice published four New York Times bestselling novels before the age of thirty and has twice been nominated for a Bram Stoker Award. Together with his best friend and producing partner New York Times bestselling novelist Eric Shaw Quinn @ericshawquinn, he runs the production company Dinner Partners. Among other projects, they run the video and podcast network TDPS, which can be found at www.TheDinnerPartyShow.com. AN ANCHOR ORIGINAL. #annerice #ramsesthedamned #themummy #themummyorramsesthedamned #ramsesthedamnedthepassionofcleopatra #thepassionofcleopatra #coverreveal #ramsesthedamnedthereignofosiris #thereignofosiris #authorsofinstagram #writersofinstagram #bookstagram
This is @christopher.rice.writer. Michele Rice, Anne’s daughter, would have turned 56 today had she not been taken from us so cruelly at such a young age by an aggressive form of leukemia that at the time was almost impossible to treat in young children. Michele’s life and death were no doubt the inspiration for the child vampire Claudia in the novel “Interview With The Vampire”, a fact that my mother came to accept later in life. I was born several years after her death. Around the age of six I accidentally learned of her existence for the first time. A teacher who assumed I’d been told about her made a sympathetic reference to her death in front of our classroom. In the years that followed that stunning instant, my parents generously shared their memories of Michele in those moments when I was filled with questions about her that burned with a child’s curiosity. Michele laughed and joked even when sick. Her child’s mouth struggled the word “take” and she’d often asked my parents if they’d “caked a shower”, which filled their heads with comic images. Her nickname was Mouse. Happy Birthday, Mouse.
To celebrate Anne’s 80th birthday, her son @christopher.rice.writer and dear friend @ericshawquinn hung many of her late husband Stan’s paintings in her new home in the Coachella Valley. The job took several days, some scaffolding (not pictured), and a very healthy amount of “museum wax” designed to secure large items in the event of earthquakes. But she is enormously pleased with the result. It really brings Stan and his memory into the home. (Posted by Anne’s Team) #stanrice #annerice #stanriceart #christopherrice #ericshawquinn #thevampirechronicles #coachellavalley #paintings
“Ramses The Damned – The Reign of Osiris”, the novel my mother and I completed shortly before her death, is now on sale. It seems inconceivable that we are releasing one of Anne’s novels out into a world that no longer has Anne in it. Especially this novel, which like so many of her great works is about death, miraculous resurrection, and the emotional labyrinth of immortality. In the late 1980’s, Anne traveled to Hollywood to sell producers on her idea of a romantic and rapturous and deeply diverse updating of the classic mummy tale. But it’s central premise would be as revolutionary as the idea of interviewing a vampire — what if, when the mummy’s wrappings came off, they revealed not a stalking, desiccated monster, but a figure who was gorgeous, soulful and infinitely wise? TV didn’t bite, so Anne wrote the book herself over a feverish few weeks. The result was “The Mummy or Ramses The Damned”. Even as her vampires came to rule and further sequels were temporarily abandoned, “Ramses”, as it was affectionately called, went on to gain its own legion of fans. After decades, their pleas for a sequel could go unheard no longer — our first collaboration,”Ramses The Damned – The Passion of Cleopatra” was the result, and now we bring you the third, “Ramses The Damned – The Reign of Osiris”. This Sunday, in our first unscripted podcast episode of “TDPS Presents CHRISTOPHER & ERIC” since Anne’s death, @ericshawquinn and I sit down to discuss the writing process of both sequels, including the rousing discussions of ancient history, the little quarrels and caffeinated note-taking sessions that came define my collaboration with Anne during her final years. What a gift it was that she invited me to join her in this world, with its delicious fusion of Edwardian English elegance and timeless high fantasy adventure and gothic Anne Rice romance. The hours I spent with Ramses and Julie and Cleopatra and Bektaten were also hours I spent with Anne, and now I can take heart in the fact that those hours have been enshrined in the words we wrote together. Thank you for all your loving messages of sympathy and support in the days since Anne left us. Love, @christopher.rice.writer
ANNE RICE: BIRTH OF A VAMPIRE is perhaps one of the most emotional documentaries that’s ever been made about the events of Anne’s life leading up to her success as a writer. It’s been unavailable for purchase for years now, but can now be viewed on You Tube. Here’s a clip that takes you inside Anne’s home at 1239 First Street in New Orleans and her office in the early 1990’s. The special also features extensive interviews with her late husband Stan Rice and her older sister Alice Brochardt, who was also a writer. And a very young @christopher.rice.writer. #annerice #lestat #vampirechronicles #thevampirechronicles #livesofthemayfairwitches #neworleans #gardendistrict #vampires #witches #BBC #Lifetime #writersofinstagram #authorsofinstagram
This is @christopher.rice.writer. We’ve unearthed some wonderful family photographs in storage that have never been shared publicly, and I’m excited to start bringing them to you on the page. This is a collection of personal shots that were taken of Anne in the summer of 1996 in at the Hotel Danieli in Venice, Italy. We were on a lavish family tour of Italy to celebrate my graduation from high school. Anne was between the publications of MEMNOCH THE DEVIL and SERVANT OF THE BONES. I can’t remember another time when so many of us traveled together. The trip was full of magical moments. My grandmother, never a big classical music fan, was moved to tears by a Vivaldi violin concert we attended just steps from this hotel. And it was during this trip that the creative seeds were planted for VITTORIO THE VAMPIRE, a book for which we’d make a return trip to Italy in February of 1998, when the weather was far colder and the Arno River in Florence was threaded with ice. For those of who you read my first novel, A DENSITY OF SOULS, the Rome sequences were inspired by this trip as well. Anne was a fiercely generous person throughout her life who believed in spending the rewards of her success on those she loved. This grand tour was but one example. More photos and memories to come in the weeks ahead. Love, Christopher #annerice #thevampirechronicles #venice #authorsofinstagram #hoteldanieli #italy #italytravel #lestat #vittoriothevampire #adensityofsouls
This is @christopher.rice.writer. We’ve unearthed some wonderful family photographs in storage that have never been shared publicly, and I’m excited to start bringing them to you on the page. This is a collection of personal shots that were taken of Anne in the summer of 1996 in at the Hotel Danieli in Venice, Italy. We were on a lavish family tour of Italy to celebrate my graduation from high school. Anne was between the publications of MEMNOCH THE DEVIL and SERVANT OF THE BONES. I can’t remember another time when so many of us traveled together. The trip was full of magical moments. My grandmother, never a big classical music fan, was moved to tears by a Vivaldi violin concert we attended just steps from this hotel. And it was during this trip that the creative seeds were planted for VITTORIO THE VAMPIRE, a book for which we’d make a return trip to Italy in February of 1998, when the weather was far colder and the Arno River in Florence was threaded with ice. For those of who you read my first novel, A DENSITY OF SOULS, the Rome sequences were inspired by this trip as well. Anne was a fiercely generous person throughout her life who believed in spending the rewards of her success on those she loved. This grand tour was but one example. More photos and memories to come in the weeks ahead. Love, Christopher #annerice #thevampirechronicles #venice #authorsofinstagram #hoteldanieli #italy #italytravel #lestat #vittoriothevampire #adensityofsouls
While Anne’s funeral on January 15th was a private and family affair at graveside, we wanted to share the moment of her return to the city she loved with her beloved readers. I’ve previously shared photographs of the arrival, but today we bring you this edited video footage of Anne’s arrival at Louis Armstrong New Orleans Airport and Metairie Cemetery. We hope this helps many of you with your grieving process. My profound gratitude to my best friend @ericshawquinn for walking next to me during these painful moments. Plans for the public celebration of life in New Orleans are underway and I will post all updates far and wide as soon as I have them to share. Love to you all, @christopher.rice.writer #annerice #ripannerice #neworleans #metairiecemetary
This is @christopher.rice.writer. Greetings from Amsterdam. While we were here, @ericshawquinn and I decided to pay a visit to the Talamasca Motherhouse.
Watch this space… 9/17/21
Today Anne congratulates her son @christopher.rice.writer on the announcement of his new pen name devoted to “steamy and emotional” tales of romance between men, C. TRAVIS RICE. The first C. Travis Rice novel, SAPPHIRE COVE, is now available for pre-order. Here’s the announcement from Publisher’s Marketplace: “With the Sapphire Cove series, multi-genre New York Times bestselling author, podcaster and producer Christopher Rice introduces a new pen name, C. Travis Rice, devoted to tales of steamy and emotional romance between men. Set at a beachfront resort in Southern California, the first three titles in the series, SAPPHIRE SUNSET, SAPPHIRE SPRING and SAPPHIRE STORM, went to Blue Box Press in an exclusive submission, with audio rights sold to Brilliance in a good deal with the author as narrator. “
Anne is thrilled to share this cover art and synopsis for one of the four new novels her son @christopher.rice.writer is releasing this year. If you haven’t heard about her collaboration with @christopher.rice.writer for the third novel in the Ramses the Damned series, coming this February, visit her feed. DECIMATE is on sale May 10, 2022. You can pre-order now through the link in Christopher’s Instagram bio. shorturl.at/aqKZ1 A desperate family confronts the mysteries that lie between life and death in this soul-gripping novel of supernatural suspense by Amazon Charts and New York Times bestselling author Christopher Rice Claire Huntley and her brother, Poe, were on a midnight hike in Montana when the woods went wild — a blinding, devouring light and a rumbling pulse that blasted them off their feet, leaving both kids with little memory of what happened. Their father insisted it was a violent extraterrestrial abduction; his wild obsession would tear their family apart in the wake of the trauma. Fourteen years later, Claire, who’s battled anxiety attacks since that fateful hike, wants to heal her relationship with her brother, which has been damaged by his years of addiction. But only hours before their reunion, Poe’s crowded passenger plane plunges into the Colorado mountains. No one survives the fiery crash. In the midst of her grief, Claire accepts her estranged father’s request to join him in Montana, where he continues to investigate the paranormal force he believes altered his children down to their bones. As they reunite, Claire’s anxiety attacks take on a new dimension. Is she experiencing hallucinations or visions? Is her brother’s presence in them a symptom of grief, or is she receiving messages from beyond life? The answers Claire and her father seek will take them on a breakneck journey deep into the Montana wilderness and the shadows of history, where they will unearth a secret force with terrifying implications for their family—and the world. #DecimateCoverReveal
