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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.
