Anne Rice

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Name: Anne Rice
Also Known As: Anne Rampling, A.N. Roquelaure
Occupation: author
Medium: novels
Works: Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, The Queen of the Damned
Official Website(s): annerice.com and Anne Rice's Facebook
Fan Website(s): Vampire Lestat Fan Club
On Fanlore: Related pages

Anne Rice was the author of the popular Vampire Chronicles series, and Sleeping Beauty Trilogy BDSM fantasy series (the latter under the pseudonym "A.N. Roquelaure.")

Rice was the creator of Interrogating the text from the wrong perspective.

Rice passed away December 11, 2021 due to complications from a stroke.

Identifying with Lestat: Anne

In 2001, Anne wrote:

Lestat...it's hard to describe Lestat. Lestat, in a way, is my whole life, because even when I'm not writing about Lestat, I'm looking at the world through Lestat's eyes, and it's Lestat who has made me a world traveller. Lestat who's transported me out of myself, and my preoccupation with my limitations, both physical and spiritual. Lestat is more than just a created charcter [sic] to me. He is a symbol of some kind of freedom and dominance, and yet I never kid myself about his evil. He represents the ruthless side in us, but he's part of my thoughts night and day. And, part of my conversation night and day, I suppose. Almost everything I see, I ask myself 'What would Lestat think of this...how would Lestat react to this,' so I would say that he is the other half of me, but he is the male ruthless half of me that, thank God, does not exist, except in fiction.[1]

Specs: A Fiction Term

Early fics based on the Vampire Chronicles were called specs. These fics were posted on alt.books.anne-rice beginning in the early 1990s. While Rice did not approve of them, she did not take any action against them until 2000. [2][3]

From that list's FAQ in 1996:

What are specs? -- Not an easy topic to nutshell, specs are, in essence, Anne Rice Fan Fiction. Consider them a creative way of discussing "What if?" ideas (such as "What if Lestat and Lasher met?" "What if Louis became mortal again?" etc.) that come up on the group anyway. This "What if?" is what inspired the name "Spec" since the story is a "Speculation" about what might happen.

Why does the word "SPEC" appear in the subject heading? -- For those who either don't like specs or *only* like specs, the word "SPEC" is put into the subject heading of any spec posting so that the stories can be easily found or avoided. Like spoiler warnings, this is another common courtesy which is suggested strongly enough that it's as close to an official rule as abar gets.[4]

Up until 2000, this Usenet group had a fiction archive called The Black Rose: "The official abar Spec Archive can be found at http://www.eskimo.com/~ash or ftp.eskimo.com/u/a/ash. Heather Meloche is the keeper and Adonia updates the databases. Here you can find specs, poems, rpgs, Mayfair family trees, FAQs and everything else which makes abar and the archive the treasure that it is." [5] See a Black Rose sample page here.

The very first fanfic on the archive: Memnoch the Spec.

See Spec Writer Massacre (2000).

Rice's Attitudes Regarding Fans and Fanfiction Based on Her Work: Official Policies

Unknown Date

1990s

1995

From the rules on Rices' mailing list in 1995:

No specs.

There are two main reasons we don't use specs. The first reason is that we choose to respect Anne's personal wishes, as stated many times, but specifically as expressed in an online chat on Compuserve on August 3, 1995:

Deborah Fort asks: Anne - Do you have any interest (or have you ever) read anything written by your fans involving your characters?

Anne Rice: No, I haven't. I'm very possesive [sic] of my characters. I think it would hurt me terribly to read anything with some of my characters. I hope you'll be inspired to write your own stories with your own characters.[6]

1996 From December 20, 1996 to February 28, 2004, Anne placed messages on a phone line for fans.[7]

1999 In 1999, Rice described her relationship with fans: "How do I cope with being so public? Actually, it's not that hard. I am seldom really bothered by people. Outside my front gate, I almost always stop to sign autographs, if asked, or to pose for pictures. People are always extremely polite. I've never been harassed by anyone." [8]

2000s

2000

Rice's statement on April 8, 2000 (still on her website in 2016):

I do not allow fan fiction. The characters are copyrighted. It upsets me terribly to even think about fan fiction with my characters. I advise my readers to write your own original stories with your own characters. It is absolutely essential that you respect my wishes.[9][10]

TBQ remembers fans receiving Cease and Desist orders:

Speaking as one who was affected by the Anne Rice thing when it happened - which was WELL before LJ was a gleam in a Russian bot’s eye - I’d like to clarify that it never got as far as a court of law. She had her lawyer send Cease & Desist orders out to various high-profile members of the fanfic side of fandom. Some of those C&Ds implicated the private businesses of the people involved. Because all of us were poor, we didn’t challenge the C&Ds. Instead we took our stuff off of the websites they knew about and hid the fic away.[11]

2001

From a 2001 post on her official website:

What happened to the mailing list? From the webmaster: Several years ago, Mrs. Rice's staff kept a mailing list and sent out the newsletter Commotion Strange. However, as technology advanced, the decision was made to update fans through the web site, not through the mail. Therefore, Commotion Strange and the mailing list were discontinued. Updates are now released through the web site and through Mrs. Rice's fan phone line.[12]

2003

  • Reader Interaction, Messages to Fans, Archived version, Anne's Messages to Fans: Archive of her official web page, 2003-2004
  • Messages From the Beach 2003 #1, Archived version, in which Anne talks about fan interaction, ends the phone line comments with this post: "I do want to be in contact with you, however. And having recently made the momentous step of going "On Line" and learning how to send E-mails—that is, having joined the techno-digital world at last—I can write to you direct through the website for the first time and this is my first direct greeting. Let me take up several points. First of all, be assured as always that the messages you leave on my phone line in New Orleans are reaching me. They're transcribed and sent here to Florida by fax daily. I hear you! I need you. People are calling now from all over the country and I love it." July 17, 2003
  • On My Method of Writing: Messages From the Beach 2003 #2, Archived version, in which Anne talks about the internet as a "Public Record," how reviews and comments affect sales, and how she refuses to be edited in any way (August 24, 2003)
  • Thoughts on BLOOD CANTICLE: Message #1, Archived version, December 14, 2003

2004

2005

2007

2009

On writing, my advice is the same to all. If you want to be a writer, write. Write and write and write. If you stop, start again. Save everything that you write. If you feel blocked, write through it until you feel your creative juices flowing again. Write. Writing is what makes a writer, nothing more and nothing less. --- Ignore critics. Critics are a dime a dozen. Anybody can be a critic. Writers are priceless. ---- Go where the pleasure is in your writing. Go where the pain is. Write the book you would like to read. Write the book you have been trying to find but have not found. But write. And remember, there are no rules for our profession. Ignore rules. Ignore what I say here if it doesn't help you. Do it your own way.[13]

2010s (more nuanced position)

2012 In April 2012, Anne Rice was quoted in an interview as having a more nuanced position towards fanworks:

I don’t ever want to read about my characters in someone else’s writing. It’s too upsetting for me, because they are mine and from my mind. I never read fan fiction. Other writers feel differently about it and are happy and encouraging of it. I don’t make judgments—I prefer to ignore it. But if Fifty Shades of Grey grew out of that, well, there are no rules—books can come out in any variety of ways.[14]

Similarly, in November 2012, she elaborated the "softening of her opinion":

I got upset about 20 years ago because I thought it would block me,’ she says. ‘However, it’s been very easy to avoid reading any, so live and let live. If I were a young writer, I’d want to own my own ideas. But maybe fan fiction is a transitional phase: whatever gets you there, gets you there.’ [15]

2016

Anne loves to interact with her beloved fans, who she calls the “People of the Page,” on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Follow her for the latest news and interaction on a stunning array of topics.[16]

2017

... a close relationship with her fans is nothing new to the author, who reminded us “I have always been very close to my readers. From the beginning, they gave me immense support. I loved meeting them at signings over the years, listening to their responses, answering their questions. Social media expanded all this enormously for me, and it is very important to me to stay in contact with them and to learn from what they tell me.”

Times have certainly changed since Warner Brothers made a movie version of Queen of the Damned in 2002, one that bore little resemblance to the novel. “Hollywood in the last ten years has come to recognize the importance of the fans; it has come to see we are living in the age of the nerd, the geek, the fanboy or fangirl, the avid devoted reader. Hollywood has stopped dismissing and condescending to this audience and has started to respect it, only perhaps because Hollywood has no real choice. The immense success of Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and Game of Thrones has made it clear: fidelity to the books is where success lies.” [17]

Rice's Own Fanfiction

Jokes about her previous position abound, such as this April Fool's joke on tor.net: Anne Rice Admits to Writing Jesus Fan Fiction.[18] This was based on her actual writing of two books presented as the autobiography of Jesus Christ, books from Jesus's POV, Christ The Lord: Out of Egypt, and Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana [19]

one of the icons generated by the fandom wank discussions. the text reads: due to technical difficulties and a severe lack of space, Anne Rice's ego will not be appearing in this icon. Icon creator: darkwitch666
another icon from the fandom wank discussion. The text is a quote from Anne Rice which was the subject of much mockery in fandom: you are interrogating the text from the wrong perspective. icon creator: sailoreagle

Interrogating the Text from the Wrong Perspective

Main article: Interrogating the text from the wrong perspective

In 1999, Rice wrote of her discovery of Amazon.com: "How many of you use the Internet? How many of you know about Amazon.com? I just recently discovered that not only can you order books through Amazon.com--we've been doing that for a long time-- but that the website publishes reader responses to each and every one of my books on an individual basis. I discovered something like over a 150 reviews of MEMNOCH THE DEVIL, some as recent as this month. There were current reviews of CRY TO HEAVEN, and THE VAMPIRE LESTAT as well, books published in the 1980's. In other words, Amazon.com keeps the discussion of books alive as new readers discover those books in paperback form or in used bookstores." [20]

It turns out that fans' ability to say what they thought on an immediate and very visible platform didn't always sit well with Rice.

In September 2004, Anne Rice posted a reply on Amazon to critics of her book "Blood Canticle", in which she rejected all negative reviews.[21] Many fans found Rice's response intemperate, jargonistic, and disconcerting, leading to amusing Amazon replies, professional author and editor commentary, and a Fandom Wank post which led to seven pages of comments and an number of icons. The New York Times wrote about it, under the title "Fan power takes on new meaning.".[22]

One line in particular—"interrogating the text from the wrong perspective"—is now a favorite catchphrase on Fandom Wank and elsewhere.[23][24] It is used ironically by fans to mock someone, either the original author of the text using authorial intent to trump what actually appears on the page, or another reader who assumes that there can be only one "correct" interpretation of the text. The text (fanfic or published writing) in question is usually problematic or badly written, and the mocked individual may be the lone defender. See also resistant reading.

Removal of Fan Fiction Based on Anne Rice's Works from Fanfiction.net

A report on the page "Where Has the Anne Rice Fanfiction Gone?" from 2000 says:

This statement was then followed up by attacks on Anne Rice fanfic authors. The attacks consisted of, amongst other things, e-mailed threats regarding not only the writing of fanfiction but any writing that any fanfic author attempted to engage in (regardless of who owned the copyright), attacks on businesses that the fanfic authors owned and weeks of harassing personal letters sent to fanfic author's e-mail addresses and guestbooks. Personal information about fanfic authors was also dug up by Anne Rice employees and used as part of the harassment. Suffice it to say, Anne Rice made her displeasure clear.[25]

In May 18, 2001, Rice's lawyers sent a letter to fanfiction.net demanding that the site remove fic based on The Vampire Chronicles and other Anne Rice fanfiction. The text of the letter:

From: "Christine Cuddy" <address withdrawn for privacy>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, May 18, 2001 12:47 PM
Subject: "The Vampire Chronicles" by Anne Rice

We represent Anne Rice, the author of the above series of novels and the creator of all characters contained therein, including, without limitation, Lestat, Louis, Claudia, Marius, Armand, Pandora, Mael, Maharet and Khayman (collectively, the "Property"), and the owner of all copyrights thereto. As the copyright owner, Ms. Rice has the exclusive right to use such characters in literary material.

It has come to our attention that your website fanfiction.net makes available over the Internet numerous stories and other literary material which contain the above-listed characters and other material from the Property. Even when done on a nonprofit and/or amateur basis, such use of such characters and material without Ms. Rice's permission constitutes copyright infringement. While Ms. Rice greatly appreciates the interest of her fans in her characters and material, it is her and our responsibility to make sure that her rights are not infringed.

Accordingly, we must insist that fanfiction.net immediately refrain from making available over the Internet or otherwise any work based on any element of the Property, including, without limitation, the above-listed characters. It is essential that you confirm immediately by e-mail that fanfiction.net has complied with the foregoing. If we do not receive the foregoing reassurance from you by the close of business on Monday, May 21, 2001, we will have no choice but to advise fanfiction.net's Internet server of this matter, and to ask such server to take appropriate action. The foregoing is stated without prejudice to the rights and remedies of Ms. Rice and her publisher, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., all of which are hereby expressly reserved.

Very truly yours, Kleinberg Lopez Lange Brisbin & Cuddy LLP.[26]

On May 20, 2001, there was a single sentence in FF.net's news post: "Anne Rice: Vampire Chronicles, the category, has been removed at Anne Rice's request." [27] On September 25, 2002, Xing Li posted: "The FanFiction.Net Content Guidelines have been updated to state that the site will not accept entries based on the work of Anne Rice and Anne McCaffrey. This policy is not new but had not been clearly displayed on the site prior to the amendment." [28]

Fanfiction.net put this on their guidelines: "FanFiction.Net respects the expressed wishes of the following authors/publishers and will not archive entries based on their work ... Anne Rice".[29][30]

A fan in 2015 commented: "What is it with female authors of sexy vampire books, that makes them act like their lead character is their secret boyfriend who’ll be cheating on them if he makes an appearance in someone else’s story?" [31]

Comments by Fans

Regarding Negative Reviews

In September 2004, there was much discussion regarding Anne Rice's book, "Blood Canticle," on Amazon.com.

A crafter uses pages from an old Anne Rice book as part of a project

1993

I went to a book signing for Anne Rice's new book, Lasher. Neat to get to see the lady, but remind me never to go to another book signing for anyone that famous again. We stood in line for almost four hours to see her for about seven seconds, and the book cost me twice what it would have at Sam's. Hmmm. Anyway, I've loved her books for years and always said they needed to do a good vampire movie and do Interview with the Vampire. Now they're doing it, and who do they cast for Lestat but Tom Cruise??? Cripes! Out of all the actors out there, one would think they'd have enough sense to get someone who fit the part. I'll cry if they screw this up. [32]

1994

<insert a startled silence here>

Have we been annoying our alt.books.AR fellows with our story writing?

I'm afraid I just jumped in to the writing fray head first and without looking back. Please forgive if you feel I've been cluttering up the board.

What does the group think? Should we maybe take the stories elsewhere?

I just wanted to help pass the time `till the next AR release of anything As I said, if you guys feel this is not the place for stories, please let me know and I, for one, will cease and desist forthwith.

Mick

Oh, heavens no. Don't cease and desist. I think the story writing is great fun, although it could possibly get us all in legal trouble with Ann or her publishers or her lawyers. I've been following the continuing adventures faithfully. I wish I could join in, but my news reader prevents that (sniffle).
Unless someone wants to start up another newsgroup (perhaps alt.books.ann-rice.creative), I don't think there is another way to do this sort of thing. And, as I said, I believe there are legal obstacles to doing that. Keep it up, I say.
Roxanne
I agree with Roxanne. Keep 'em coming. I would say that a separate group for creative posts would be in order except that these little stories _are_ really illegal and if anyone "official" ever notices them we're pretty much screwed. IMO creating a separate group for them (especially one with anything like "creative" in the title) would be just asking for attention and therefore trouble.
If these creative posts are bothering other people and "clogging up" the news group I'm really sorry. I for one have really enjoyed reading them. The only thing I can suggest is that whenever someone posts a bit of fanfiction or something regarding to it they could put "story" or "creative"(err no, how about "speculation", that sounds better lawyer wise) in the title so that those who don't wish to read any of this stuff could easily creat[e] kill files to filter it out.
Drake [33]

1999

While [your spec] was crafty and good, it just didn't feel right. It was great writing but it wasn't what I was used to. I'm spoiled by Anne's monotony (not in a negative term). Please forgive me for this. While some specs are indeed good, they just don't feel right if they didn't come from the mind of Anne Rice. It seems like SHE'S the supreme decider of what her characters do and how they feel and act. I can't accept it any other way.[34]

2000

I remember when I first started reading Rice, and when the Internet just became available to the public, I was enthralled to find this newsgroup. It was "the connection" I was so in love with. There were others who were just as passionate about the content as I. They were not all caught up in the minutiae and logistics of the details. Actually, they were very caught up in them, but in a way which felt connected. I feel that is all lost now in ABAR. For the most part people are blaming Anne and her new books which some feel are not up to snuff. They may be right, but I am still loyal to Anne for the works that DID float my boat. That DID change my life and my way of seeing things, my perspective. For that I will always be grateful to her.[35]

All this bashing about her recent books and about how she has "lost touch" with her characters and all is saddenning me deeply. It reminds me of this Stephen King book "Misery", people tend to fall in love some much with their own vision of the characters that they quickly convince themselves that they know better what the characters should do, say and feel than the author who created them. Sometimes I may get surprised and confused by what Anne comes up with (like in Memnoch for example) but then I try to understand why those things happens, what lies beyond and what are the feelings that gave birth to those unsual events. It's more of a challenge and Anne has always tried to surprise the readers and to go further and to come up with something new with each book. TVL was a surprise and a very different book than Interview. It takes me some efforts and introspection to fully get the meaning and the emotional point of most of her books, but that is what makes me grow, it widens my understanding. Some people prefer to think that Anne is not good enough anymore or that some editor should improve her work. They have the right to think so but I have the right to disagree and I'm thankful to be able to read exactly what Anne wants us to read.[36]

WHERE CAN I READ FANFICTION BASED ON ANNE RICE'S BOOKS?

Nowhere. You can't. On April 7, 2000 Anne Rice had the following message to say on her webpage:

"I do not allow fan fiction.

The characters are copyrighted. It upsets me terribly to even think about fan fiction with my characters. I advise my readers to write your own original stories with your own characters.

It is absolutely essential that you respect my wishes."

This statement was then followed up by attacks on Anne Rice fanfic authors. The attacks consisted of, amongst other things, e-mailed threats regarding not only the writing of fanfiction but any writing that any fanfic author attempted to engage in (regardless of who owned the copyright), attacks on businesses that the fanfic authors owned and weeks of harassing personal letters sent to fanfic author's e-mail addresses and guestbooks. Personal information about fanfic authors was also dug up by Anne Rice employees and used as part of the harassment. Suffice it to say, Anne Rice made her displeasure clear.[37]

Many of you have been very upset about Anne Rice's stance on fan fiction. Many of you have stated over and over again Anne's position.

Some of you think there are motives other than those Anne has stated. Some of you think she is concerned about protecting her fiction.

You are both right, for reasons neither of you understand.

I work for a publishing company that was until recently considering biding on the paperback rights to Anne's upcoming book Merrick. After meeting with her people we and at least one other publisher have decided to not even bid.

The fiction Anne is aiming at protecting through her latest statements on fan fiction are not her present works but her future release - Merrick.

Some of you may have noticed that she has been asking whether or not she should release Merrick in serialized form on the internet before she releases the hardback. One of the reasons we have decided to not even bid is that the decision has been made to do exactly that. The "feedback forms," whether they started out as legitimate or not, are now just a vehicle to drum up market demand.

[snipped]

Anne Rice doesn't care in the least about fan fiction one way or another. She doesn't hate it, she is simply protecting herself from unwarranted accusations. She simply returns any manuscripts sent to her unopened and refrains from reading it because of the very simple fact that she doesn't want any fan fiction writers to be able to claim she has stolen an idea of theirs. Although the fan could not have copyrighted anything sent to her she just doesn't want to deal with any such creative accusations, even though such fans would have no legally standing.

However, by posting so prominently her last, very pointed and seemingly emotional statement Anne's handlers have been able to pit two very large groups of her fans against one another. In the process of their arguing they have both quickly taken the stand that wholesale copyright violations should never be tolerated. Anne's pretorian guard fans say this matter-of-factly as an afterthough. Fan fiction writers say it in self defense in order to show that they are defenders of Anne's writing rather than theives of it.

Therefore, when Merrick is serialized on the web, Anne's people predict that both groups will rabidly hunt down and report anyone who decides to repost her soon to be mega-profitable electronic version of Merrick. Thus her electronic venture will not only be more profitable for her, more people would supposedly buy more paperbacks from us because anyone asking for free copies from their internet buddies would be treated like lepers by her emotionally whipped up fans.

[snipped]

You will all be, for free, unwittingly doing for Anne what a thousand lawyers could never accomplish. Even more importantly, since all of you by that time will have gone on record against illegally copying and/or posting Anne's original works; most of you will not even email copies to many of your fellow friends and email penpals, out of fear of being untrue to your stated views - even if you and your fellow fan friends are the only ones that would know.

That phenomenon would probably never have occured if both ends had not been played so shrewly against one another. It would have never occured if so many of you had not been egged on into arguing so vehemently with one another.

Thus, when Merrick is released electronically, Anne's people expect far less numbers of copies to be pirated and shared and will thus greatly increase her profits.

And all it took was getting thousands of fans vehemently upset and hostile towards one another! Of late, fans have been viewed by Anne's "handlers" as little more than resources. Perhaps this is genuinely due to her recent illness and not a fault of hers. Sometimes truly nice people end up being represented by not so nice people. Regardless of the reason, however, both groups on both sides of the fan fiction debate have essentially been had.

Unfortunately though for us, though it seems to be working, paperback profits are "ifey" at best so we had to take a pass. Don't get me wrong and think we did it out of concern for the way you fans are being manipulated. It was purely a business decision. As were Anne's statements about fan fiction.

Continue to be pawns, or respect one another and put down your weapons [38]

Anne Rice has posted a message in her site, where she says she doesn't allow fanfictions and she shows not very much respect for her fans who don't have commercial purposes in their creations. Mrs.Rice will probably ask many fan sites to close their activity and I think this is no good and goes against the freedom of expression and has no connection with copyright problems. Honestly speaking...how many of us made money with her characters? NObidy, I think...so I believe you got the point. This general attack of Mrs. Rice against specs is useless, she has to concentrate only on copyright infringers. And...well...specs have always existed...just think to the Sherlock Holmes character almost 100 years ago... Please, let Mrs. Rice hear your voice.[39]

Mrs. Rice is right for one side of the problem and wrong for another.

She's absolutely right when she forbids the use of her characters for COMMERCIAL USE (Lestat is different from the Beauty, who is not copyrighted for it's part of the common traditions even before Grimm, the same for historical characters as Cleopatra...nobody can copyright them and everybody can use them freely): it's not fair that someone uses her creation to make money...this is theft!

BUT...what about people (like us...) who use the vamp chronicles fanfiction NOT FOR COMMERCIAL USE, but only for pure passion?? We make her universe richer and we spread her fame worldwide. I know people who started reading her books AFTER reading a spec!! Mrs. Rice attack must be more reasonable and oriented on people who use her work for gain and not passion! Hope she understands this point.

Last, allow me to be a little satyrical... Due to the very low quality of her latest books...is Mrs. Rice afraid that some fanfiction could be better of her original creations?? Sorry...:)

- Andrea

Personally I think Anne may just be trying to stir up some talk among fans. Perhaps she knows how big the Fanfiction community is and figers if she wants to be talked about then trying to pick on a large fan base (Although it's not the smartest idea she's ever had). I say give it a month or so and everything will be back to normal.
Now I'm in no way supporting Anne... hell I have quite a few spec myself that are out in the open now. And perhaps she is jealous. She has run out of idea that keep to the "rules"(be interesting to see Anne write a slash with Lestat and Louis...)she has created and is upset that her fans are writing better stories. Maybe she thinks that if fans cannot write stories any more they'll send them to her, she'll say write a story with your own characters and then steal the idea (Okay it's out there but in a small way possible). But I'll go back into my hole and type away at the computer writing my little specs.
~ Nicole [40]

2002

In 2002, a fan posted a comment to alt.books.anne-rice:

This failure of Mme Rice to write the kind of book a certain section of her fans were waiting for... with, it must be admitted, an exaggerated degree of expectation.

I have often suspected a lot of the trouble, the spec frenzy, the particular critical attitudes, the rather extraordinary bitchfest, was largely due to influences from sf fandom - which has been rife with exactly that kind of thing from an early date. Certainly some of the people at the root of the trouble were rather involved in sf, and Star Trek fanfiction and what not. Brat Queen springs to mind. Love turns to obsession in the atmosphere of the hothouse; passion leads to the conviction of possession... And the author, the Beloved may find herself (or himself, what matter, in this particular instance, hein?) a prisoner. Write the same thing over and over again or be damned?

Anne Rice eventually wrote more works in the Vampire Chronicles, but they were too different and arrived too late to please the section of disenchanted admirers under discussion. In the hothouse that was ABAR, a high level of hubris had been reached, of course. Anne wouldn't write the proper Lestat, Louis, Armand? Well, the spec writers were better than Anne anyway (LOL) and she might benefit from reading them... and surely she just had to be secretly reading the specs eh?

Quite a few of these 'Anne Rice fans' became fans of this or that spec writer. And then of course we had this whole [['declaration of the VC characters' independence' thing]], when she disappointed the spec writers by making a pronouncement against specs, and set the lawyers on them. A good few had left by then, and others had already become enemies rather than fans. Odd to recall - as I seem to, correctly I hope - that Anne Rice had come out against specs as early as 1995. The whole row might have been expected. (Indeed, it may have been... because some of the 'Surely Anne wouldn't be such a bitch as to object' protestations Brat Queen and others made regarding the early specs in 1995 look a little disingenuous in this light.)

It must have been a tad bitter for the people involved in these campaigns to realise that, as their own day was passing, a whole new generation of readers was discovering Rice, often showing signs of enjoying exactly the books they hated, or at least disagreeing with much of the criticism and having little taste for the tone in which it was being delivered.

I'm not so much attacking the Specistas as commenting on their predicament, mind. Though much rubbish was written, some spec writers were talented, and a few specs were worth reading, to me at least. But their criticism and campaigning went way over the top.[41]

In February 2002, a fan explained:

Back in 2000, Anne decided that she did not allow fanfiction. What her concern with it up to that point was, we don't know. She posted her message on her website and then performed a witchunt on any and all websites that dared post any form of fanfiction and had her lawyers send nasty-grams to all the site owners to cease and desist under threat of financial disembowelment. Thus the the SpecWriter Massacre of 2000 took place. If there are any fanfiction sites still on the 'net, they are so well hidden that unless you have the addy you won't find them.[42]

2016

Legend has it that if you say “I don’t own these characters and I am not making any profit” in the mirror three times, Anne Rice’s lawyers will appear.[43]

Do NOT trust Anne Rice

Hello, Vampire Chronicles fans.

Sit down. We need to have a chat.

You see, while some people are very much excited for a new show about our pompous king of the assholes (and I say this as a term of endearment, having loved Lestat since I was a depressed teenager living in New York, shuffling through my mom’s fiction section) we need to pause and remember this:

Anne Rice does not support fan fiction or anything that is not glowing praise.

Read it again, slowly.

Anne Rice does not support fan fiction or anything that is not glowing praise.

This is difficult for younger fans to understand, but let’s take a walk down memory lane.

She has threatened to sue writers in the past. She is one of the most prolific writers of our generation, and she does not support people using her characters for their own work.

In fact, in 2000 she went on a binge-attack against her fans. She threatened legal action against fans who wrote or drew her characters, but especially those who wrote with them. She sent them weeks of harassing letters and doxxed them on the internet.

Let me repeat that.

She doxxed people who wrote fan fiction.

She harassed them online and threatened to contact employers.

She used her fans to outright attack other fans.

This isn’t even something she can just shake off now, with the comment of “It was so long ago” because she did this to a writer who wrote commentary on her story in 2013.

In 2013.

While it was not that she wrote fan fiction, she still shows that she has no respect for people who are in fandom.

Remember those disclaimers used in fan fics, at the beginning? “I do not own …. ”? Yeah, a lot of that has to do with the fact that Anne Rice and others like her would attack fandoms and threaten them, and was in hopes that they would just leave us alone. She didn’t.

In short: Do not trust Anne Rice. I love her writing, I have read every book she has even written, but I do not trust her.

You shouldn’t, either.[44]

Fanworks

Notable Fiction

Vids

Fanart

Fan Fiction Links & Resources

  • alt.books.anne-rice, also refereed to as "ABAR," or sometimes "a.b.a.r."
  • Fiction tagged with "Anne Rice".
  • Anne Rice Character Slash "Anne Rice Character Slash". Archived from the original on 2003-10-27. Description"Take LeStat (The Vampire Chronicles) and the many other characters created by Anne Rice and slash them to the max. We're interested in the gooey sweet of smarm and beyond. All stories will eventually be posted to the WWOMB unless they include a Do Not Archive notation. I don't have the time or inclination to moderate this list for tender ears, so adults only, okay?" (mailing list)

Meta & Further Reading

1990s

2000

2002

2004

2007

2013

2014

2015

2017

Fan Letters to Anne Rice

The links below are letters Rice has posted to her website.

Reviews

Further Reading/More Information

References

  1. ^ Welcome To Anne Rice.com!, Archived version (2001 version)]
  2. ^ Immortals of the Insurrection - Louis - Fan Fiction, Archived version
  3. ^ "This information that Anne Rice had this policy [stating she found fanfic hurtful] as early as 1995 is very credible but other mailing lists and sources seem to indicate that while that may have been her policy, she also had a policy of not confronting fans with lawyers. In January of 1998, Kenneth Allen Hyde or Cennydd.... said on [Mercedes Lackey's mailing list] the following: 'Most fanfic is illegal. However, the authors in question have either announced that they do not intend to pursue legal action.' (Anne Rice has taken this position, for example)" -- The Blackwood Farm Argument
  4. ^ from FAQ (1996)
  5. ^ from FAQ (1996)
  6. ^ ""About Anne Rice" and "Anne Rice Books" Mailing Lists: Frequently Asked Questions". Archived from the original on 2000-11-21. Retrieved November 3, 2016.
  7. ^ When the fan phone line was active, Anne placed transcripts of her phone line messages on the web site. You'll find them here. Click the date to view a phone message transcript. It will pop up in a separate window. Close the window to close the message." See: Archive of Anne's official web page; WebCite
  8. ^ her comments on her phone message service, April 13, 1999, transcript
  9. ^ "IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM ANNE ON "FAN FICTION"". Archived from the original on 2015-06-02. Retrieved 2010-11-18.
  10. ^ This statement is still on Rice's website as of November 2016. See "Messages to Fans". Archived from the original on 2016-11-29.
  11. ^ "TBQ Tumblr response to fanfic copyright discussion". 2018-05-09. Archived from the original on 2020-05-24. Retrieved 2018-05-11.
  12. ^ "FAQ (2001 version)". Archived from the original on 2015-04-20.
  13. ^ On Writing (2009 version), Archived version, Guest post: Writing tips by Anne Rice (a 2012 version), Archived version; accessed November 2016
  14. ^ Anne Rice On Monsters, Facebook And Fifty Shades Of Grey: Chicagoist, Archived version, interview by Tony Peregrin, retrieved 2012-4-15
  15. ^ How fan fiction is conquering the internet and shooting up book charts, Archived version, retrieved June 9, 2013
  16. ^ from Anne Rice's Website, accessed November 2016
  17. ^ Anne Rice Reflects on Her New LESTAT Novel and the VAMPIRE CHRONICLES TV Series (Exclusive), Archived version
  18. ^ Anne Rice Admits to Writing Jesus Fan Fiction April 1, 2009, an April Fool's Day joke, accessed 2010-11-19
  19. ^ Anne Rice Admits to Writing Jesus Fan Fiction, Archived version
  20. ^ Anne's comments on her recorded fan phone line, February 23, 1999, see transcript
  21. ^ In particular, she told the "negative voices" that they were interrogating the text from the wrong perspective, that they have used this site as if it were a public urinal to publish falsehood and lies, and I fought a great battle to achieve a status where I did not have to put up with editors making demands on me, and I will never relinquish that status. Caoine: From the Author to the Some of the Negative Voices Here, Archived version full text copy, accessed 2010-11-23
  22. ^ WebCite query result, Archived version
  23. ^ "Interrogating the text from the wrong perspective". Archived from the original on 2012-12-06. Retrieved 24 November 2010.
  24. ^ A July 31, 2012 Google search for the phrase gave 15,400 results.
  25. ^ Croatoan Fanfic - Where has Anne Rice fanfiction gone?, Archived version Posted some time in 2000, accessed 2010-11-18
  26. ^ posted at "Corporate Bandwagon," a regular column at Fanfiction.net: Corporate Bandwagon: Fanaticism Corporations Relations for the Internet Generation, May 31, 2001
  27. ^ "News Posts". Archived from the original on 2001-05-20.
  28. ^ "News Posts". Archived from the original on 2002-11-23.
  29. ^ "Guidelines". Archived from the original on 2022-06-05.
  30. ^ However, by 2010, simple searches on fanfiction.net for Anne Rice, Vampire Chronicles, and Lestat produced a total of several hundred stories. - Search for Anne Rice on fanfiction.net accessed 2010-11-18
  31. ^ elfwreck at Fandom First Friday, January 2015
  32. ^ from Lionheart #8. (December 1993)
  33. ^ conversation at alt.books.anne-rice , see Attention Observers (I think "Lurkers" is rather rude!) (December 28, 1994)
  34. ^ a fan comments on another's fan fic at Specs (February 25, 1999)
  35. ^ comment by Victoria, June 3, 2000, at Anne Rice, unedited
  36. ^ comment by Lionel, June 3, 2000, at Anne Rice, unedited
  37. ^ from Where has Anne Rice fanfiction gone?
  38. ^ from BELOW IS A SATIRICAL PIECE OF WORK., a April 20th, 2000 post at alt-books-anne-rice by Martha
  39. ^ from alt.books.anne-rice, THE BATTLE OF FANFICTIONS BEGINS (April 9, 2000)
  40. ^ FANFICTION again, exchange at alt.books.anne-rice (April 13, 2000)
  41. ^ comment by Nevermort, The Blackwood Farm argument, a 12-page discussion with 234 comments
  42. ^ Anne Rice FanFiction, Archived version, discussion at alt.books.anne-rice, February 2002
  43. ^ "thesummoningdark.tumblr". Archived from the original on 2020-05-24.
  44. ^ "rsasai.tumblr". Archived from the original on 2017-05-11.
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