Anne Rice, Interview with the Vampire Author, Dies at 80

Anne Rice, the author of the popular Interview With the Vampire series, has passed away from complications due to a stroke. She was 80 years old. Her son, Christopher Rice, announced the news on Anne Rice's Facebook page, which she had an active presence on. "Earlier tonight, Anne passed away due to complications resulting from a stroke," Christopher Rice wrote. "She left us almost nineteen years to the day my father, her husband Stan, died. The immensity of our family's grief cannot be overstated. As my mother, her support for me was unconditional — she taught me to embrace my dreams, reject conformity and challenge the dark voices of fear and self-doubt. As a writer, she taught me to defy genre boundaries and surrender to my obsessive passions. In her final hours, I sat beside her hospital bed in awe of her accomplishments and her courage, awash in memories of a life that took us from the fog laced hills of the San Francisco Bay Area to the magical streets of New Orleans to the twinkling vistas of Southern California."

Rice was a prolific writer best known for her series of vampire novels, which followed immortal characters like Lestat and Louis as they navigated complicated romantic entanglements that unfolded over centuries. The first three books in the Interview With the Vampire series were adapted into film – the first movie Interview With the Vampire was nominated for several awards, but Queen of the Damned (which combined events from The Vampire Lestat and the Queen of the Damned novel) was a dud. Rice has publicly criticized the latter film. Interview With the Vampire is currently being developed as a television series by AMC, with Sam Reid set to star as Lestat.

Rice's other novels include two trilogies of horror novels, one about witches and one about the mummy Ramses the Damned. The final novel of Ramses the Damned trilogy, which is co-written by Rice's son Christopher, is scheduled to be released in 2022. Additionally, Rice wrote a pair of novels about Jesus Christ after converting to Roman Catholicism. She later distanced her self from the Roman Catholic Church due to their stances on certain social issues, but stated that she remained spiritual. She also wrote several erotic novels under the pseudonyms Anne Rampling and  A. N. Roquelaure.

Rice will be buried at her hometown of New Orleans in a private ceremony, with a public celebration of life planned for next year. Fans, friends and readers are encouraged to attend Rice's public ceremony next year.