Phone Message Transcript: October 1, 1997
[appearing on Anne's fan phone line]

"Hi, guys. This is Anne Rice. It's October 1st, 1997, Wednesday. I'm in New Orleans and I want to answer a few questions for you.

The Fan Club Ball is on November 1st, 1997, which is the Feast of All Saints. It's Saturday night here in New Orleans. The Fan Club is handling and I believe they have a listed number or the number is publicized. I know that they are definitely concerned about getting all of you members your tickets and all of that kind of thing. They're working on it very hard. But I'm not really directly connected, and I will pass on your messages to them. I wish I could answer you personally or that they could, but I think that time is long past. Nevertheless, thank you for your patience and for putting up with us.

October 15th is our first signing at Britton Trice's Garden District Book Store in The Rink on Prytania and Washington. It starts at 4:00 p.m. The second booksigning is October 31st in The Rink, no, no, not in The Rink, I'm sorry, it's downtown, I think, somewhere in New Orleans, probably Bookstar. I should have this together before I come to the phone. But I'm almost certain it's Bookstar. And we're going to be signing books there.

And then on November 2nd, we're going to have a concert for Leila Josefowicz. If I've gotten these dates wrong it's because the number part of my brain is just going out, and with it the lyrics part and the music part, as far as memorizing and getting things straight. By anyway, November 2nd is our concert for Leila, which pertains to numbers and to music, and we will have it in New Orleans at a beautiful location. We'll get more of that to you later. We're firming up the arrangements now. The tickets are free and we have about 600 left. Leila Josefowicz is a wonderful concert violinist and she was a great inspiration to me when I was writing my novel VIOLIN. VIOLIN is coming out on October 15th. I don't think it will reach any store in the country before that date. It's called the lay down date in the official terms.

I also wanted to tell you about our shop in The Rink called The Anne Rice Collection. I don't think we've ever advertised it or talked about it. In some ways it's kind of difficult to express our feelings about it. It's a personal collection of things that we've developed, me, some of my family, other people. All done or mostly done by New Orleans artists. There are T-shirts in there with drawings that were commissioned; there is a doll that we have received from brilliant, brilliant doll makers in England, who are making it for us; and there are tote bags that I love to hand write on; there are umbrellas with our imprint. There are things that range from little children, for little children, that are very affordable, to very strange items. We have some jewelry in there that's inspired by our readers and the jewelry that they send to us and the jewelry that they wear to the signings. We're going to be developing a lot more things for the shop. Anyway, it's a labor of love.

I know some people are going to call it a commercial enterprise. I don't think it could be, at this moment, any more uncommercial than it is. It's really a form of creative flair. It's something I've always wanted to do. And I think the shirts, the tÑshirts, the faces, all that, are going to be changing over the years. We have some terrific drawings now, but there are lots of different concepts for the characters that I want to develop with our wonderful artist, Patricia Hardin. Anyway, the shop is open every day in The Rink and I wanted to tell you about it. I can't conceive of it actually turning a profit, but that's not the point. It's a lot of fun, and if you want to know about it, it's there. I've never, I don't think, really announced it on this line before, and I'm wondering if anybody will turn up at The Rink just because of this. Of course you don't have to. There's no pressure to. As a matter of fact, it's really not something that's for everyone. It's for people who like to wear T-Shirts, carry tote bags, collect things, put things away. As the great Mel Brooks would say: "merchandising, merchandising, merchandising.

Anyway, God bless you and keep you. I wish this message were longer, but the machine is going to cut me off anyway. Thanks for all your calls. Remember these movies that are really, really great: WHAT'S EATING GILBERT GRAPE, BULLETPROOF HEART and ANGEL BABY, a new movie from Australia. FABULOUS ANGEL BABY. I heard about it from someone at Warner Bros. I wish, wish Michael Rymer would get involved with INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE, not INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE, that's done, but THE VAMPIRE LESTAT or THE QUEEN OF THE DAMNED. God bless you and keep you. Take care."