The Vampire Chronicles

The Vampire Chronicles is a series of novels written by Anne Rice, and began with the 1976 book Interview With the Vampire, a romantically dramatic story as told by the vampire Louis to a young journalist. Subsequent novels are written from the point of view of Lestat and other vampire characters. Rice continued this series through 2003, therefore claiming that she would never write about Lestat, but a few years later she returned with the books (Prince Lestat in 2014) and posteriorly conclude the series in 2018.
Interview with a Vampire was made into a film in 1994, with Lestat played by Tom Cruise and Louis by Brad Pitt. The film played up the slashy side of their relationship and the array of male eye candy (the film also starred Christian Slater & Antonio Banderas) certainly helped to popularise the series among fans. Currently in 2022 a television series based in Interview with a Vampire and directed by Bryan Fuller is in production for Paramount.
==List of books in the series==
===The Vampire Chronicles===
*Interview with the Vampire (1976)
*The Vampire Lestat (1985)
*The Queen of the Damned (1988)
*The Tale of the Body Thief (1992)
*Memnoch the Devil (1995)
*The Vampire Armand (1998)
*Merrick (2000)
*Blood and Gold (2001)
*Blackwood Farm (2002)
*Blood Canticle (2003)
*Prince Lestat (2014)
*Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis (2016)
*Blood Communion: A Tale of Prince Lestat (2018)
===New Tales of the Vampires===
*Pandora (1998)
*Vittorio the Vampire (1999)
===Lives of the Mayfair Witches===
The Vampire Chronicles and Rice's Lives of the Mayfair Witches series have a few crossover novels, making Witches part of the Vampires universe.
*The Witching Hour (1990)
*Lasher (1993)
*Taltos (1994)
*Merrick (2000)
*Blackwood Farm (2002)
*Blood Canticle (2003)
==The Leonard Nimoy Connection==
In June 1983, Leonard Nimoy commented upon this book, and his interest in being cast in the role of Lestat in the film: 
==Online Fandom==
While Vampire Chronicles fandom flourished online in the 1990s, it is often better remembered for the events that followed Anne Rice's 2000 statement that she disapproves of fanfiction. (Anne had made a similar statement in 1995 which had little impact on fan activity.) The subsequent threats of litigation and cease & desist letters forced many spec (fanfic) writers to go into hiding, on private mailing lists and locked archives and communities. 
The Vampire Chronicles is still held up as a cautionary tale. Whether fans are baffled by disclaimers or suggest fanfiction authors should be paid for their work, they are often told old war stories featuring Anne Rice's lawyers.So I’m on AO3 ...(the forgotten history of disclaimers), a meta with many replies referencing Anne Rice fandom (2016)What’s going on with all the “if you donate to AO3 you’re evil” posting on Tumblr?, a meta with many replies that menton Anne Rice as one reason why fanfiction should remain non profit. (2021)
==Fandom==
Some fans point to a perfect storm, occurring in the mid-90s, which allowed Vampire Chronicles fandom to grow in new online communities. It was a time when "the Eternal September coincided neatly with the adaptation of IWTV, the Memnoch the Spec movement, and the subsequent waves of fixit fic that arose post-Memnoch."hey vc fans Tumblr post by goth-mabel. Reblog by codenamecesare. (Within VC fandom, fanfiction is often called spec) Others believe the surge in VC fan activity may have been later than the eternal summer of 1993. 
Vampire Chronicles fandom did indeed flourish on Usenet. Alt.books.anne-rice was a newsgroup with a large number of users. It was also associated with the award-winning VC Spec Archive, where much of the newsgroup's fanfiction was hosted. The Vampire Connection also had its origins on the newsgroup. Originally a space for fans to find contact details for spec writers; the early site may have resembled a fanlisting.abar FAQ Later (possibly in 2000), following a domain change, the function of The Vampire Connection also changed. TVC was now "more like a search engine" for VC fansites.TVC Home page, archive from Aug 26 2001.
In 2000, the author of the Vampire Chronicles posted a message on her site, saying that she disapproves of all fanfiction based on her writings.IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM ANNE ON "FAN FICTION" on her official Message to Fans page, posted April 2000, accessed 2010-11-18Where Has the Anne Rice Fanfiction Gone? Posted some time in 2000, accessed 2010-11-18 This day has been referred to as the Spec Writer Massacre. In the months and years that followed, Anne Rice threatened to sue authors writing VC spec and fanfiction archives hosting those stories. This led to much of the fandom going underground.
Many multifandom archives bowed to pressure from Anne Rice and deleted all VC fanfiction from their sites. This included Fanfiction.net and later AdultFanfiction. To this day, Vampire Chronicles fanfiction cannot be archived at FanFiction.Net. The category for works based on her book was removed from the website in 2000, following Anne Rice's comments. Archives removing VC fanfiction en masse resulted in some authors losing their only copy of their own fics.Help me find my fics! :( posted at vc-fanfiction LJ community, 2010. 
Despite everything, VC fans continued to write fiction about the vampires and world created in her books. Fans in the know shared those on private mailing lists and locked journals. Some believe that the fandom's use of the word spec to describe fanfiction stories, may have nominally protected some authors from Rice’s lawyers.A Fandom History Primer (Part II) by Linda H. Codega (2018) Croatoan Fanfic: Where has Anne Rice fanfiction gone? is a webpage created in 2000, which gives a sense of the precautions VC fanwriters were taking to avoid harassment by the author. It contained the following suggestions: 
While a quick web search shows that there are many fics publicly available, it is impossible to know how many fics were lost - either deleted by archives or authors fearing litigation or posted on now defunct mailing lists or locked archives. The Forbidden Archive was one locked archive, created by VC fans sometime in the 2000s, that may have been viewed as a possible safe haven for VC works and is still online today. One fan in 2016 pointed out that much of VC fan activity is limited to roleplay, fanart and cosplay; with fanfiction appearing to remain rare in the fandom.[https://i-want-my-iwtv.tumblr.com/post/139861649469/what-they-say-im-fine-what-they-mean-why-is what they say: I'm fine.
what they mean: Why is there so little Vampire Chronicles fan activity or content?] by i-want-my-iwtv 2016
In 2017, it was announced that a new Interview with the Vampire series was in the works. Fannish reaction was mixed.It looks like Anne Rice is back. Has anyone warned the new kids? at :/r/FanFiction, Aug 29 2021.Do not trust Anne Rice, Tumblr post by rsasai
===Fan Comments===
==Example Fanworks==
===Spec (Fanfiction)===
* Memnoch the Spec
===Meta===
* Where has Anne Rice fanfiction gone? (2000)
* The AIDS Crisis in The Queen of the Damned by starshine_shimmyshufflesmile (2019)
* Do NOT trust Anne Rice by rsasai (2017)
===Fanart===
===Graphics===
* by veronicaesque
===Vids===
=== Zines ===
Théâtre des Vampires
==Communities, Webrings & Mailing Lists==
* alt.books.anne-rice, and an associated site The Vampire Connection
* Sublime Requiem
===Webrings===
* Vampire Louis Ring, a webring
* The Vampire Armand Webring
* Spec Writers' Coterie WebRing
===Mailing List===
* Anne Rice Character Slash Description"Take LeStat (The Vampire Chronicles) and the many other characters created by Anne Rice and slash them to the max. We're interested in the gooey sweet of smarm and beyond. All stories will eventually be posted to the WWOMB unless they include a Do Not Archive notation. I don't have the time or inclination to moderate this list for tender ears, so adults only, okay?" 
===Livejournal & Dreamwidth===
* vc-fanfiction (https://vc-fanfiction.livejournal.com/) 
* vc-media (https://vc-media.dreamwidth.org/)
==Challenges==
* Vampire Chronicles Secret Gift Exchange
* Interview with the Vampire Big Bang
==Archives & Fannish Links==
*VC Spec Archive
* Forbidden Archive
* Rue Royale Specs, Inc.
* Vampire Chronicles - Anne Rice works on Ao3
* Interview With the Vampire (1994) works on Ao3
* The Vampire Chronicles works at Squidgeworld Archive, many early works imported from WWOMB
==References==
Category:The Vampire Chronicles