And I can hardly believe it… She has even ventured into wolfing, with her new series The Wolf Gift Chronicles. I can’t believe that at the age of 74 she is still releasing new books. Well, I better. I’m glad that her Vampire Lestat is back, this time as Prince Lestat in her book released just last year which I had the good fortune to come across in Kinokuniya Singapore.
The Vampire Chronicles influenced much of my teenage life and imagination. I was absorbed in following her vampires all over Renaissance Europe, from Louis to Armand to Vittorio. I was very intrigued by her seemingly asexual and amoral characters who seem to grapple with the concept of good and evil throughout their immortal lives. All these before the days of twinkly vampires.
On writing, this is what she has to say to potential authors.
If you want to be a writer, write. Write and write and write. If you stop, start again. Save everything that you write. If you feel blocked, write through it until you feel your creative juices flowing again. Writing is what makes a writer, nothing more and nothing less.
Critics are a dime a dozen. Anybody can be a critic, but writers are priceless. Write the book you would like to read. Write the book you have been trying to find but have not found. The world is crying for new writing, for fresh, original voices, new characters and new stories. If you won’t write the classics of tomorrow, well, we will not have any. Good luck.
Wan Phing Lim 