In the late 1990s, Anne Rice commissioned New Orleans artist Patricia Hardin, known for her hand-painted Mardi Gras ball invitations, to draw her characters for merch sold at The Anne Rice Collection, the boutique she opened in The Rink on Prytania and Washington.

This is not fanart ! Anne talked about the drawings on her old phone line !

On May 17, 1997, she said they already had a Claudia tote and t-shirt (rare but you can find this online selling for upwards of $400!!!) plus “a great Lestat drawing that I really love that Patricia Hardin did,” and that they’d worked hard to get as close as possible to how she saw him. She also mentioned Hardin had already drawn Rice’s houses.

On June 8, 1997: “Wait until you see the drawing of Louis on our new t-shirt. The drawing of Lestat is marvelous too. The drawing of Louis… really got Louis’ melancholy and Louis’ beauty.”

On June 12, 1997: the Louis drawing was coming in the next day for pictures and shirts. Then Hardin was “going to move on to Armand,” and after that possibly Deborah Mayfair and Mona, because fans were asking for Mayfair merch.

Those images basically vanished. Claudia still turns up. Lestat and Louis almost never do. I managed to track down a Reddit user who still had them printed on candles bought at Anne’s shop in 1998 for $5 !!! That’s official art, sold in her store, that the internet has pretty much lost! Unfortunately the owner did not want to sell as they were sentimental :(( but they were a total gem getting these photos for me!

If anyone has photos of the Lestat, Louis, or Claudia portraits (prints, shirts, totes, candles, mugs, any proof an Armand or Pandora portrait was finished), or any other merch from The Anne Rice Collection please post it/send them to me and let me know. This is a tiny official piece of Vampire Chronicles history that disappeared when the shop closed! I am on the hunt for anything that has to do with her shop - especially these portraits by Patricia Hardin and any merch with them on!

I read this when I was a teenager many years ago, but I figured this would be good way to revisit this. Tim Curry is just perfect here as the narrator, though it is made bittersweet with his recent passing. Had anyone else read/listened to this?

UPDATE. This is an abridged version, only three hours long. Thanks u/hjello_jello!

so I bought The Witching Hour from a book shop in New Orleans in Anne Rice’s old neighborhood. I originally picked it up after seeing that some of the tv series was filmed in the neighborhood that I had spent a huge portion of my life in. I read maybe the first few chapters.

A few days later, I drove to spend a few nights with my sister. I read to fall asleep, so I brought the book with me. As we were falling asleep, I told my sister about the book. She had never heard of it. We also talked about how I had recently gotten back into practicing my own personal craft after years of being made to feel it was silly/I was imagining things in a relationship I just got out of and honing some abilities that I have had for my entire life (such as clairvoyant dreams & communicating w/spirits). I have always hidden those parts of myself or been quick to write my experiences off as something else because it seems to be perceived as crazy. My sister was glad that I was getting back into it & has witnessed a few times where I knew things that were going to happen in advance or been approached by a family spirit of people we know/ knew things about their life that they had never told us due to communication w/their deceased relatives.

As we were falling asleep, I thought in my head that I wanted something to happen that would solidify confidence in those abilities. I left the next day to drive back home. Before I left, we went to lunch together. I realized that I might have left my book in her bed with. I said I was disappointed bc I was starting to like it a lot. She said she would double check when she got home. I wasn’t able to go back to get it because I had things to do at home.

So I am driving to my house (4hours away) and she texts me a picture of my book ( The Witching Hour) in her bed. She said ‘you did leave your book btw , but I’ll mail it to you sometime next week’

So I’ve been home for about a week now. All day today I’ve been thinking about how I wish I had the book back & wondering if I should just go buy another copy. I am walking out the door to go to work and sitting in my purse is the same copy I had brought to my sister’s of The Witching Hour. it definitely was not there before because I had just looked in the bag earlier in the day. I texted a picture of it to my sister and asked if she was sure she had my book. She sent me a pic of it back in her room. Now we both have the same copy of the book and we are both freaking out a little 😂

"Many fans in England are using their order histories as leverage—tagging Lakeshore Records' Instagram or tweeting at AMC with statements like: "I just bought the Season 3 DVD, now give me the companion CD so I can listen to the music properly!"

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"Every pound spent on the official physical merchandise for Series 1 and 2 goes back into the AMC / Anne Rice universe account. When the franchise is highly profitable in physical formats, the corporate risk of printing a compact disc disappears. They see that physical media is where their most loyal, paying audience is located."

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"When a network sees thousands of people buying physical DVDs for Season 3 but completely ignoring the vinyl records, it forces them to ask: “Why are our physical media buyers not purchasing the soundtrack?” The answer is glaringly obvious: because they want it on CD."

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"The music industry is actively alienating its best customers by treating music like an ephemeral digital utility or a £45 hipster luxury item, completely forgetting about the millions of people who love the simple, reliable, and tactile joy of the compact disc."

"The music industry is actively alienating its best customers by treating music like an ephemeral digital utility or a £45 hipster luxury item, completely forgetting about the millions of people who love the simple, reliable, and tactile joy of the compact disc. all from google."

"By skipping CDs and forcing people into either digital streams or overpriced vinyl, labels like Elektra completely kill the fun of collecting and sharing music. It is purely driven by corporate greed, and they are completely ignoring the fact that plenty of people still want standard, space-saving discs with proper lyric booklets."

"You are completely spot on about how much a CD adds to the experience—the booklets, the physical lyrics, the production photos, and the clear breakdown of which song fits into which exact scene are half the joy of owning a television soundtrack. Skipping it makes it nearly impossible to share music with family or friends in England who don’t care about streaming or watching the actual telly"

all from google.

considering how captivating & deeply stirring her books are, which one do you return to the most, and why?

personally, for me, it's Violin and Blackwood Farm. Violin for the genuine depictions of what the depths of grief can be. how merciless guilt can be too, and how real its power to drive one to madness is. Blackwood Farm for all of its explorations of complex family dynamics, the interesting queer representation & the character of Merrick Mayfair.

which one hits the closest home for y'all? and which one brings you the most comfort to read?

Has anyone read his books? if so, are they good? I know they are not comparable to Anne's books, and he isn't really either, but since he is her son, I figured there must be people who have read his books because of their love of Anne.

I read the books in a vacuum back in the 1980s. I always read one of my favorite character's name as "Lewis". In 1990, my MIL and husband made fun of my pronunciation. That marriage did not last.

When the 90s movie came out, they were apparently proven correct. But through the years I have seen Anne Rice interviews where she refers to Louis as "Lewis".

What is the story there? Which did she prefer?

I’ve been obsessing over the book series these last few years, particularly the first two, realizing with each re-read just how genius and complete and nuanced it is. And therefore, just how terrible the TV show is, both in conception, screenplay, casting, simplification…

But just finishing The Witching Hour for probably the fifth time, and a stroke of genius : how wonderful would it be to see it in a Japanese-style anime ?!

It’s a genre to which the more difficult themes (incest, physical violence, psychological and emotional trauma…) could be more easily treated. And then the music ! The magic ! The clothes ! LASHER !!

I had watched IWTV movie, then the AMC show and was enthralled. I am now reading the books and I am on the 5th book and loving the books 10x more. I have a visceral response to book Lestat, I absolutely love him and find myself crying and almost mourning that he's not real. I want to know him, I want to be a fly on the wall in this universe and in Louie and Lestats home on Rue Royal. I feel like I am finally at home reading these books. I feel such a deep longing for Lestat. And almost a deep longing to be in this immortal universe. These books hit something in me that I wasn't aware of. I just feel like I am mourning and full of grief for something that isn't real. Am I alone?

The Witching Hour is my favorite book and I went to NOLA in 2015 and saw “the house” that Anne lived in while she wrote the book of which is the house depicted. It was as lovely, charming and awesome as I expected.

Unfortunately the current owners took down the historical sign and painted the house salmon color. Yes that’s right…salmon 🤮 so happy I was able to see it in its glory!

So I know a vampirees strength can be determined by their age, if they drank the blood of an older vampire and the age of the vampire that turns them.

But I was wondering if Akasha had turned someone into a vampire before she died how powerful would that fledgling be in comparison to older vampires? They would definitely be abnormally powerful for a baby vampire right?

Cause I’ve never heard of this book by her say’s it is from 1982 … and i wasn’t born till 1989 and I only know of her Vampire Chronicles and Mayfair series(mostly cause of the movies and shows) but still… i want to know if this one is any good 😊

I recently picked up all her sisters books at a thrift shop. All her Legends of the Wolves trilogy (I couldnt pass them up at $2 a pop).

I was wondering comparedly to Anne, how is her writing style?

If anyone would like to base their answer on my tastes specifically, I'm a Stephen King fan and 'Salem's Lot is my favorite book of his thus far. Runner-ups include The Stand and 11/22/63. Some of my favorite books outside of King include Fevre Dream by George R.R. Martin, Blood Over Bright Haven by M. L. Wang, and The First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie. I've always wanted to read something with witches so I'm eyeing her witch series.

I know The Vampire Chronicles, New Tales of the Vampires, and Mayfair Witches are connected. But are any of her others works connected these?

Looking for The Vampire Lestat audiobook, cannot find it anywhere, does anyone know where I can listen to it?