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The
wildly popular vampire craze that has sunk its teeth
into books, TV shows and movies started with
Anne Rice
. Long before
Stephenie Miller's
"Twilight" series hit the best-seller list,
before there was a Buffy the Vampire Slayer, before
"The Vampire Diaries" books and TV show, and
before
Charlaine Harris'
Sookie Stackhouse
novels formed the basis for the
Showtime
hit "True Blood," Rice's "Vampire
Chronicles" made Lestat a household name. Her
"Interview with the Vampire," published in
1976, is one of the best-selling books of all time.
But in
1998, Rice turned from her decades-long religious
skepticism and embraced the Catholicism of her youth.
She said in her 2008 memoir, "Called Out of
Darkness: A Spiritual Confession," that she felt a
call to use her storytelling tools only for God.
Since
that time, Rice suffered the death of her husband, poet
and painter
Stan Rice
, in 2002 from brain cancer, moved from
New Orleans
(before the flood) to
Southern California
and wrote two fictionalized books on the life of Jesus,
"Christ the Lord: Out of
Egypt
" and "Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana."
Her
newest release, "Angel Time: The Songs of the
Seraphim," will be out Thursday, just in time for
Halloween
. But no vampires or witches here. Instead, this novel
concerns a young hit man, an angel of God and an
assignment to respond to a prayer from a Jewish family
facing mob violence in the English town of Norwich
during the Middle Ages.
As the
well-told story develops, Toby, the main character, must
first accept that God can forgive any sin, even murder,
before he can be reconciled to God. Toby, like Rice,
grew up in the
Catholic Church
and even gives some thought to becoming a priest before
turning away due to a traumatic incident unveiled
partway through the story.
Rice, in
an e-mail interview, talked about her faith and her
latest book:
Q: How
have your vampire fans reacted to your change of subject
matter in your books? Have they pleaded for more vampire
books? And do you miss writing about your vampire
characters?
A: My
vampire fans have run the gamut on my conversion, with
some protesting and condemning, others accepting, and
some insisting that I write more vampire books. I would
say the vast majority have not only accepted my move
into Christian fiction, but have claimed that they see
the continuity binding all my work and are eager to read
the new books.
No, I
really don't miss writing about the vampire characters.
I'm obsessed with my new hero,
Toby O'Dare
, and the possibilities that await him as he works with
the angels.
Q: In
"Angel Time," your main character has a
childhood history of Catholicism that slips away in his
teenage years and in his decade of being a hit man, yet
he is still drawn to the missions and chapels. Is this a
bit autobiographical?
A: Yes, I
would say that
Toby O'Dare's
love of the missions in my novel is a reflection of my
earlier love for churches even when I wasn't a believing
Catholic. Toby is partly autobiographical. Alienated
from God as I was, he wanders churches, trying to pray,
angry and grief stricken for his lost faith. I certainly
used to do that, too. He, too, had an alcoholic mother.
And suffered as a consequence.
Q: Toby
must come to grips with the idea that God can forgive
any sin, even murder, before he moves forward. Was that
an important concept for you? Do you think most people
understand that, or do they most often think, "God
could never forgive what I've done," and so stay
away from him and faith?
A: Yes,
Toby does have to accept that God can forgive any sin,
and I think most people have trouble accepting or
believing this, too, especially people fighting very bad
habits of what they consider to be sin. It can be hard
to believe one is worthy of God's forgiveness. But all
things are possible with God, and anyone and everyone
who repents can be forgiven.
As the
novel unfolds, obviously Toby thinks of himself as
utterly damned, and does not even entertain the idea
that he might escape his job as an assassin. When the
angel, Malchiah, comes to him, he presents a totally new
possibility to Toby: Repent, change your life, work for
the angels and God, rather than for someone who sends
you to assassinate people.
Q: I
think readers will feel a great empathy for Toby even
before they know his back story. Who can resist a man
who plays a lute and appreciates such beauty as is found
in the
Mission Inn
, classical music and the
San Juan Capistrano
mission? Yet he coldly kills a young girl who had been
forced into prostitution. Was it difficult for you to
make him a "really bad" man?
A: Yes,
it was difficult to make Toby a really bad man. And yes,
Toby does kill a very young girl when he is on a brutal
rampage. But Toby is very young himself when he does
this. He's 18, and the losses he's suffered have all but
unhinged his mind. I could understand someone being
warped by intense suffering and striking out at the
world and murdering the innocent along with the
seemingly guilty. It was hard to write, but an author
can develop and create something worthwhile only if that
author explores what is painful and what is difficult,
and what has deep roots psychologically.
Q: Toby
prays, when he accepts God's forgiveness, "I am
heartily sorry. For all my sins because of the fear of
hell, but most of all, most of all, most of all because
I have separated myself from you." Is that how you
felt, back in 1998? As though in decades past, you had
separated yourself from God?
A: Yes.
Toby's confession, his act of contrition, is the same as
the one I made in 1998 when I returned to God. Those are
almost the words of the Catholic "Act of
Contrition." I did feel very strongly that I had
separated myself from God, and I think it was crucial to
me spiritually to have Toby say the words that I felt so
deeply.
Q: The
thought of Angel Time, that all of life through the
centuries is all viewed as one in heaven and thus open
to "time travel" — as opposed to natural or
chronological time on earth — is a fun one. Somehow,
you avoid making it seem like science fiction. Have you
thought a lot about this? Do you imagine God listening
to prayers down through the centuries and across the
continents as if the time is simply "now"?
A: The
idea of Angel Time, that God and the angels see all of
time simultaneously, is an idea I've picked up from some
of the theology I've read, and I do think this is a
dazzling idea and is consistent with beliefs that in
heaven, there is no time such as we experience on Earth.
If God can see all things, his view of linear time must
be almost inconceivable to us. I feel it is exciting to
meditate on this and what it might mean, and in the
novel, of course, it means the angels can move you to
another time to help save a person who is praying for
help, and that you yourself might be helped by someone
from another time. This gives me a perfect framework for
a series in which I can write about contemporary events,
and also in depth about other periods in history. I love
doing this.
Q: Will
we read more of Toby's adventures?
A: I am
indeed working on a third book with Toby and Malchiah.
The second one, yet untitled, was written last year and
is with my publisher. The third novel has me exploring
all kinds of new aspects of Toby's situation, and all
kinds of challenges from Malchiah. This is the first
time in my life that I have truly attempted a real
series of novels. I've done strings of books all right,
but they were more groups of stand-alone books about the
same characters. The "Songs of the Seraphim"
is an attempt to write the books as part of a true
series with underlying threads and real development of
themes from book to book. This is entirely different
from the vampire novels I wrote, which opened windows
into the lives of various characters without essentially
pursuing themes raised in other books.
Q:
Atheists would say that God, like your books, is
strictly fiction. What would you say to them?
A:
Atheists, of course, will believe what they feel they
must believe, but to me, God is no fiction. I have
always sensed that God exists, and that he is the
creator of the universe and all the beauty and
complexity we see around us. I cannot deny this any more
than I can deny that the sky is blue or that the sun
shines on us. But these are matters of faith and deep
inner conviction. I was never a real atheist and finally
had to admit it. I had to surrender to the belief in God
and the love for him I had always felt.
Q: You
tackle the issue of prayers in the book. Do you think
angels are literally answering prayers today as
messengers of God?
A: Yes, I
believe that God sends angels to answer prayers. There
are many books out today that include encounters people
have had with angels. These stories are deeply moving.
And I think that we can conclude that some of them,
perhaps many of them, are true. Angels move amongst us.
They are invisible until they want to be seen. And they
do intervene to help us in times of moral and physical
crisis. The world loves its angels. Sometimes, people
cling to a belief in angels when they can believe in
nothing else. I believe angels are proof that God loves
us very much.
Q: Many
people have an angel story, a time when they believe one
or more angels were at work in their lives. Do you have
one?
A: No,
but there have been times in my life when people
volunteered their help and provided great assistance to
me and to others, and there never seemed to be any real
reason why these people were so willing to help when
they did. But I would not presume to say these were
angels. Every now and then, I feel the veil is lifted
and I see how many coincidences there are, and how many
times this or that occurrence leads to something
marvelous. I feel that the seemingly random happenings
of life are all part of God's plan. His mind and mercy
are infinite and He maintains the entire weave of the
tapestry of all life in his mind. We live in his love,
and angels are a lovely and timeless expression of that
love.
Q: Is
there something you've learned about God in the last
decade that has surprised you?
A: What
has surprised me more than anything else is my deepening
awareness that belief in God involves surrender, and
that belief in God results in surrender. As my
conviction deepens, I give up more of my protests and
questions, and pondering. It is beside the point. God
knows all things, and therefore I don't have to know
them. I had a very strong inkling of this when I
returned to God, but the realization deepens all the
time. Surrender has become something glorious.
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