Beyond the shadow you settle for

COMPANION: How do you think your readers will relate to the book?

ANNE: I honestly don't know. I write the book I want to read and hope they will want to read it. That's all I can do. If they liked the "cast of thousands" in Queen, if they liked its worldscope plot, they might find The Body Thief too quiet and too linear a book for their tastes. The Body Thief is more a fast-paced tale of jeopardy and self-discovery and intense love. But many readers may want to be with Lestat again, as I do. I loved writing Queen but it got quite far away from the original intent and emotional tone of the Chronicles.

And frankly, though I hate to insult my earlier work, I think The Body Thief is attempting something a little more difficult, a little finer perhaps -- a truthful statement about honesty and art in the entire Chronicles which needed to be said. The Body Thief tries to come to terms with the lies in the Chronicles. Evil is, after all, evil. It is not beautiful, really.

In sum, I feel the new book is more like Interview with the Vampire -- a deep dark debate on salvation and damnation, on truth and personal ruthlessness -- how far each of us is willing to go to be happy, to achieve excitement, to feel alive. And surely it is a window into a character's dark and tormented and very human soul. Lestat and Louis argue bitterly in the novel. Lestat continues to be my hero, of course, my dark alter ego -- the demon with a conscience, who refuses to be bad at being bad. There's more I could say, but the novel must say it. If Lestat can't say it for me, I've failed. Oh, I miss him already.

COMPANION: Will there be another vampire novel?

ANNE: Had you asked me that question two months ago, I would have said, "Perhaps not." Now, I'm not so sure. I can't live long without Lestat. I am already thinking about a fifth novel -- starting to see it. You might say the fifth novel is like a spectral figure gathering density and strength in the haunted corridors of my mind. And, of course, he has blond hair. I do know I wasn't content ending the Chronicles with Queen. There was something very wrong with that. Ending them with this fourth novel, The Body Thief feels infinitely better. It carries the whole philosophical inquiry fathoms deeper than Queen. Lestat really examines his conscience in The Body Thief and, of course, Lestat has always had a conscience -- even though he always manages to have a lot of fun doing whatever he's doing, no matter how devilish it may be..." But I'm not saying there won't be fifth novel -- only that, if there isn't, the quartet has a feeling of resolution and substance now which gives me a little peace.

COMPANION: When did you get the idea for The Body Thief?

ANNE: Actually, it came to me the week after I finished Queen. I took my first notes which captures the entire shape of the thing. The story never stopped growing in my mind, but I had to put it on hold.

COMPANION: Why did it take so long?

ANNE: Two reasons. One, there must be time between episodes of the vampires, time for me to perceive a full spectrum of implications of each book, before I proceed to the next. But mostly it was that I had to do The Witching Hour. I'd been brooding over that book for years, and I knew if I postponed it again, it might die. Books do that. If you don't get to them in time, they'll die away. Right now I have a book dying on me. It's called Ruby. It's very dark and sinister -- like all my work, I guess. But I just can't get to Ruby and I feel Ruby slipping away.

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This is the whole thing. It does include other amazing lines such as: “My job is to write books. I love being 3,000 miles from Hollywood.”