Phone Message Transcript: Feb. 26, 1997
[appearing on Anne's fan phone line]

"Hello, everybody. This is Wednesday, the 26th of February, and I wanted to make a couple of news announcements.

Number One - The Cafe Lestat has been relocated. It's not going to be on St. Charles Avenue. We have, for a number of reasons, decided that the strip is not the place for our restaurant, and we are moving our restaurant to Magazine Street. We have a very exciting location. I wish I could discuss it in more details, but the deal is still hot right now and we're working on it. But we will definitely be on Magazine Street. And I think you'll find it very pleasant. It will present absolutely no competition with Straya or with Mr. Copeland. It has nothing to do with that. It's a cafe that's going to serve light food, rather like Le Madeleine and going to have continuous vaudeville entertainment. And it's also going to have quite a bit of Gothic decor and theme worked into it, and statues and wax figures and dolls, and things of that kind. So it will be quite an interesting place to visit. Really, again, there's plenty of room in New Orleans for all different restaurants. There's no competition at all with Mr. Copeland. For those of you who don't know Mr. Copeland, who are calling from out of town, he's a restauranteur and he seems to think that I'm in competition with him. I'm not.

Because I'm working on ARMAND today, I wanted to read you a small passage from THE VAMPIRE LESTAT and this is the passage in which Lestat first sees Armand. He and Gabrielle are hiding in Notre Dame from what they know are a horde of vampires who are chasing them, and they don't understand this horde of vampires. They can read their thoughts and they know that they are menacing and they know that the vampires are afraid to come into the church. And they are hiding in the chruch because they're not one bit afraid of the church. They know it can't hurt them. But as Gabrielle and Lestat wait, in comes Armand. And this is the section:

But as I stared past her at the open doorway, I saw a small figure appear. Compact it was, the figure of a young, not a man...And the creature was not human.

Gabrielle made some soft wondering sound. It sounded almost like a prayer in its reference.

The creature wasn't dressed as men dress now. Rather he wore a belted tunic, very graceful, and stockings on his well-shaped legs. His sleeves were deep, hanging at his side. He was clothed like Magnus, actually, and for one moment I thought madly that by some magic it was Magnus returned.

Stupid thought. This was a boy, as I had said, and he had a head of long curly hair, and he walked very straight and very simply through the silvery light and into the church. He hesitated for a moment. And by the tilt of the head, it seemed he was looking up. And then he come on through the nave and towards us, his feet making not the faintest sound on the stones.

He moved into the glow of the candles on the side altar. His clothes were black velvet, once beautiful, and now eaten away by time, and crusted with dirt. But his face was shining white, and perfect, the countenance of a god it seemed, a Cupid out of Caravaggio, seductive yet ethereal, with auburn hair and dark brown eyes.

I held Gabrielle closer as I looked at him, and nothing so startled me about him, this inhuman creature, as the manner in which he was staring at us. He was inspecting every detail of our persons, and then he reached out very gently and touched the stone of the altar at his side. He stared at the altar, at its crucifix and its saints, and then he looked back to us.

He was only a few yards away, and the soft inspection of us yielded to an expression that was almost sublime. And the voice I'd heard before came out of this creature [came now], summoning us again, calling upon us to yield, saying with indescribable gentleness that we must love one another, he and Gabrielle, whom he didn't call by name, and I...

Okay, that's just the first time Lestat sees Armand and since I'm working on ARMAND I wanted to read it. Thank you for bearing with me and please do leave me your one minute messages. I listen to all of them. My love to everyone.

Our TV show, by the way, which is going to be on CBS probably next fall, is called RAG AND BONE. It's ANNE RICE'S RAG AND BONE. There was something in the paper this morning about changing the title to TRINITY but apparently that's a mistake. It's definitely going to be called RAG AND BONE. And it's about a policeman and a ghost policeman and it's set in New Orleans. And I am Executive Producer and I'll be very heavily, heavily involved in the show. Heavily involved with the stories, heavily involved in seeing that the Anne Rice ambiance, as I like to call it, remains with the show throughout.

My love to all of you. There's nothing else to report. In Hollywood there are no movies being made of my work. But, alas, I go on writing. And VIOLIN, by the way, has a pub date now of October, which gives me a long stretch to write in. So I hope after ARMAND I'll be able to go on to another book about the vampires, or possibly about the Mayfair Witches.

God bless you all. Thank you for calling. Leave me a message. I love you. Take care."