ANNE RICE

(FROM ANNERICE.COM) One of America's most read and celebrated authors, Anne Rice is known for weaving the visible and supernatural worlds together in epic stories that both entertain and challenge readers. Her books are rich tapestries of history, belief, philosophy, religion, and compelling characters that examine and extend our physical world beyond the limits we perceive.

Anne lives and works in California. Anne's life experiences and intellectual inquisitiveness provide her with constant inspiration for her work.

Anne Rice Fact File: UPDATED MAY 11, 2008

1. Born Howard Allen O’Brien on October 4, 1941, Anne chose the name “Anne” when she entered the first grade at St. Alphonsus Grammar School. She attended Catholic schools until 1958 when her family moved from New Orleans to Richardson, Texas.

2. After graduating from Richardson High School, in 1959, Anne attended Texas Woman’s University in Denton, Texas and later North Texas State College.

3. After a year’s stay in San Francisco, during which she worked as an insurance claims examiner, Anne returned to Denton, Texas to marry Stan Rice, her childhood sweetheart.

4. Stan and Anne lived and worked in the San Francisco Bay Area from 1962 to 1988, experiencing the birth of Hippie Revolution first hand as they lived in the soon to be fabled Haight Ashbury. Both attended and graduated from San Francisco State University.

5. Stan Rice became a professor at San Francisco State shortly after receiving his M.A. there. He published many books of poetry, and later, after the couple’s return to New Orleans in 1989, painted over three hundred paintings in the attic of their Garden District home (see below.)

6. In 1972, Stan and Anne lost their daughter, Michele, to adult leukemia just before her fifth birthday.

7. Christopher Rice, born to them in 1978, seemed a gift from God in that both of his parents stopped their heavy drinking when faced with another chance at parenthood.

8. Anne wrote Interview with the Vampire while the couple still lived in Berkeley, California, just before Christopher’s birth, and has written over 28 novels.

9. Christopher Rice, who attended school in San Francisco, and later in New Orleans, has published four novels, all of which were New York Times bestsellers. Christopher attended Brown University for one year, and also attended New York University, before writing the first of his novels, A Density of Souls, which brought him national recognition.

10. In New Orleans in 1989, Stan and Anne bought the Garden District Greek Revival house that would become the setting for five or six of Anne’s novels. This house would also house Stan’s attic painting studio. It was here that Christopher wrote his first novel. This home was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream for Anne, who had passed the beautiful house frequently in her early years, going to and from her parish church of St. Alphonsus from her home on St. Charles Avenue. During the 1990’s, Anne owned many buildings in New Orleans, including St. Elizabeth’s Orphanage, her childhood home on St. Charles Avenue, and other restoration projects. The family enjoyed apartments in Florida and New York, and traveled frequently to Europe. Anne and Stan also traveled to Israel. Anne made a second visit in 2005. The 1990’s also saw Anne’s first novel, Interview with the Vampire made into a motion picture, starring Brad Pitt, Kirsten Dunst, and Tom Cruise. Anne’s screenplay was the basis for the adaptation, directed by Neil Jordan. Years later, Anne’s novel, The Feast of All Saints, about the free people of color of Lousiana, would be made into a Showtime mini-series, scripted by John Wilder. Please see the page devoted to the book and the series on this site. A Broadway musical, Lestat, was also developed in 2004 by Elton John, Bernie Taupin, Linda Woolverton and Rob Roth. Though the play closed, there are rumors of a New Orleans revival.

11. Anne returned to the Catholic Church in 1998, and in 2002 consecrated her writing entirely to Christ, vowing to write for Him or about Him. She remains passionately loyal to the readers of her earlier works. Please see the Essay on this site devoted to that subject.

12. Stan Rice died in 2002 within four and a half months of being diagnosed with brain cancer. His many beautiful paintings will soon find a permanent home in a southern museum. Eventually, his collected poems will be published. His extensive diaries are now being edited. They include many observations about his poetry and his painting.

13. In 2005, after completing Christ the Lord, Out of Egypt, Anne left Louisiana and her beloved city of New Orleans to live in California. Within months of her departure, Hurricane Katrina devastated the area.

14. Christ the Lord, the Road to Cana, was published in 2008. A spiritual memoir by Anne entitled Called Out of Darkness will be published in the fall of 2008 as well.

15. Anne now lives and works in the California desert, a few hours drive from her son, Christopher, who lives and works in West Hollywood.

For even more information about Anne Rice please check out her website at: www.annerice.com

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GREG BEAR

Multiple Hugo and Nebula award-winning author, Greg Bear is one of science fiction's most accomplished writers. Bold scientific speculation, riveting plots, and a fierce humanism reflected in characters who dare to dream of better worlds distinguish his work. Now Bear has written a mind-bendingly epic novel that may well be his masterpiece.

complex...beautifully written tale will appeal to sophisticated readers. - Publisher's Weekly

Greg Bear is the author of more than thirty books of science fiction and fantasy, including CITY AT THE END OF TIME, BLOOD MUSIC, THE FORGE OF GOD, DARWIN'S RADIO, and QUANTICO. Awarded two Hugos and five Nebulas for his fiction, one of two authors to win a Nebula in every category, Bear has been called the "Best working writer of hard science fiction" by "The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Science Fiction." Bear has served on political and scientific action committees and has advised Microsoft Corporation, the U.S. Army, the CIA, Homeland Security, and other groups and agencies.

It's the second decade of the twenty-first century, and terrorism has escalated almost beyond control. The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem has been blown to bits by extremists and, in retaliation, thousands have died in another major attack on the United States. New weapons are being spawned in remote basement labs. No one feels safe. In North America, the FBI uses cutting-edge technology to thwart domestic terrorists. Sat-linked engine blockers stop drug-traffickers cold; devices the size of Magic Markers test for bio-hazards on the spot; 3-D projectors reconstruct crime scenes from hours-old evidence; and sophisticated bomb suits protect against all but the most savage forces. Despite all this, the War on Terror has reached a deadly stalemate. Now the FBI has been dispatched to deal with a new menace - a plague targeted to ethnic groups-Jews or Muslims or both-has the potential to wipe out entire populations.

Casseia Majumdar was a daughter of one of Mars' oldest, most conservative Binding Multiples - the extended family syndicates that had colonized the red planet. But her life was changed forever by the student protest of 2171. Those brief days of idealism forged bonds that would last a lifetime, and set the stage for a more dramatic act of revolution than anyone could have imagined. Charles Franklin, too, was caught up in those days of passionate youth. A brilliant young physicist with a deep love for his native planet, he was forced to leave his world behind to gain the training he needed. And in those years, the political distance between Earth and Mars was growing wider than the empty reaches of interplanetary space. Moving Mars is Greg Bear's brilliant conception of humanity's colonization of the red planet, with lovingly painted details and a grand historical sweep, embellishing an audacious scientific speculation.

A "virus hunter" at the Epidemic Intelligence Service has pursued an elusive flu-like disease that strikes down expectant mothers and their offspring. Then a major discovery high in the Alps--the preserved bodies of a prehistoric family--reveals a shocking link: Something that has slept in our genes for millions of years is waking up.

Following the events in "The Phantom Menace", Obi-Wan Kenobi is entrusted by the Jedi Council to train Anakin Skywalker as a Jedi Knight. Obi-Wan, as did his slain Master Qui-Gon Jinn, believes Anakin is the Chosen One, destined to bring balance to the Force. But Obi-Wan must help his undisciplined apprentice find his own balance.

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RON HANSEN

(FROM WIKIPEDIA) Ron Hansen was born in Omaha, Nebraska, and earned a Bachelor's degree in English from Creighton University. He then went on to graduate studies, receiving his MFA at the University of Iowa and receiving another Masters Degree from Stanford University. As of 2006 he is the Gerald Manley Hopkins Professor in the Arts and Humanities at Santa Clara University, where he teaches courses in writing and literature. He is married to the writer Bo Caldwell and is the stepfather of her two children, John Scott "Scotty" Caldwell Arnold and Kate Arnold. Scotty attends Hansen's place of employment, Santa Clara University, and Kate is pursuing her medical degree at Georgetown University.

Hansen has published numerous short stories in literary magazines nationwide. His first book was Desperadoes (1979), a Western novel that reimagines the story of the Dalton Gang. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford , a 1983 novel chronicling the life and death of the iconic outlaw, was Hansen's most popular work and brought him wide critical acclaim, as well as his being a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award.

Many of his novels combine elements of mainstream literature with a Western sensibility, and he avoids use of experimental or postmodern techniques. He frequently writes about the Old West, mixing history with morality and drama. Catholic themes of unconditional love, redemption and resurrection also recur in Hansen's novels and stories. Mariette in Ecstasy (1991), a study of the faith and religious experience in the context of a cloistered Catholic nun who apparently bears a stigmata, earned him near universal critical praise, as well as the fiction prize from the Bay Area Reviewers Association and the Gold Medal for Excellence in Fiction from the Commonwealth Club of California. His 1996 novel, Atticus, about the bond of love between a father and a son who has died under mysterious circumstances in a dusty Mexican town, was a finalist for both the National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award. Hitler's Niece (1999) is a historical novel that offers a view of Hitler as seen through the eyes of Geli Raubal, the daughter of his half-sister. Isn't It Romantic? (2003) is a comic novel about two sophisticated Parisians stranded in small-town Nebraska.

In addition to his novels, Hansen has published a short story collection (Nebraska), a compilation of essays (A Stay Against Confusion), and a children's book (The Shadowmaker). Hansen also wrote the screenplay for the 1996 film adaptation of Mariette in Ecstasy.

In 2006, The Assassination of Jesse James was adapted for the screen in a film written and directed by Andrew Dominik and starring Brad Pitt as James. Initially intended for a 2006 release, the film was postponed and re-edited for a September 21, 2007 release.

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JAMES ROLLINS

JAMES ROLLINS is the New York Times, USA Today and Publishers Weekly bestselling author of The Judas Strain, Black Order, Map of Bones and other adventure thrillers. Rollins is also a veterinarian in Northern California, who when not writing or working in his veterinary practice, can often be found underground or underwater as an amateur spelunker and scuba diver. These hobbies have helped in the creation of his earlier books Subterranean, Deep Fathom, Amazonia, and Sandstorm.

The Judas Strain, a thriller that garnered rave reviews, including this comment from the Charleston Post-Courier, saying Rollins "invests...with his characteristic command of detail, along with a creeping dread.," spent 5 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list — and broke onto international bestseller charts as well, proving that this riveting author has won countless numbers of new fans, both at home and abroad. Rollins' previous thriller, Black Order was proclaimed by People Magazine as one of summer's "hottest reads." Map of Bones was chosen by Publishers Weekly as one of the most likely to win over Dan Brown's faithful audience, and the New York Times rated the book as one the summer's top crowd pleasers.

In 2008, Rollins will also release Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, a novelization of the long-awaited Lucasfilm sequel starring Harrison Ford.

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ROBERT HASS - APRIL


ROBERT HASS is a professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley and served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry at the Library of Congress from 1995 to 1997. During his tenure as Poet Laureate, Professor Hass battled illiteracy by putting into action his belief that, "Imagination makes communities." Of his passion for promoting iteracy, he explains that, "when I got the (Laureate) job I did a lot of reading about literacy...One of the things that struck me was just how powerful a presence poetry has been in our culture when we were, as a people, teaching ourselves to read. At the beginning of the 19th century, less than 60% of American males could write their name, and that was far higher than in most of Europe. If you were black, you could get killed for reading. But we made literacy a civic religion from the idea that you couldn’t have a democracy without it, and we taught a whole people to read. It’s one of the great achievements of the American democratic experiment -- and one of the indicators of the hunger for literacy, was a taste for poetry."

As Poet Laureate, he also sponsored a weeklong celebration of American nature writing called "Watershed." His commitment to environmental issues led him to found the River of Words poetry contest which is run through the International Rivers Network.

Born in San Francisco in 1941, Professor Hass remembers as a child happening on a poem which, "made me understand what the word `swoon' meant...It was the first physical sensation of the truthfulness of a thing that I had ever felt." He went on to earn his bachelor's degree from St. Mary's College, Moraga, California and his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University. While beginning his teaching career, he entered the Yale Younger Poets competition and won it for his first book, Field Guide. He has also published Praise (1979) for which he won the William Carlos Williams Award of the Poetry Society of America, Human Wishes (1989) which won the Commonwealth Club of California Medal for Poetry, and Sun Under Wood (1996) for which he won the National Book Critics Circle Award for poetry.

Professor Hass has also won acclaim for his work in translation and editing, including his work with poet Czeslaw Milosz which won two PEN/BABRA Translation Awards. He edited and translated The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson, and Issa and wrote a collection of essays, Twentieth Century Pleasures: Prose on Poetry (1984) which won the National Book Critics Circle Award. Among his many honors, one which is especially meaningful is having been named Educator of the Year by the North American Association for Environmental Education in 1996 for his work on the River of Words project. Thousands of schoolchildren participate in the program which helps students learn their watershed and their ecological address.

Mr. Hass lives in the Bay Area with his wife, poet Brenda Hillman. They have four children.

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PETER S. BEAGLE - APRIL


BIOGRAPHY FROM PETERBEAGLE.COM

Born in Manhattan on April 20, 1939, Peter Soyer Beagle, son of Simon and Rebecca Soyer Beagle, was raised in the Bronx, New York. From an early age he was a voracious reader, and his parents encouraged him in his pursuits of the literary arts. As early as sixth grade, he proclaimed that he was going to be a writer, and during his years at the Bronx High School of Science (Class of '55), he was a frequent contributor to the school literary magazine. It was in this period that his work caught the attention of the fiction editor at Seventeen Magazine. In his senior year of high school, he entered a poem and a story into the 1955 Scholastic Writing Awards Contest, without realizing that one of the top prizes was a college scholarship. His poem took first place, and he spent the next four years at the University of Pittsburgh.

In his sophmore year at U Pitt, one of his short stories, Telephone Call, won first place in a Seventeen Magazine short story contest. In short order, he acquired an agent, cranked out several more pieces (including "A Fine and Private Place" when he was only 19), and graduated with a degree in creative writing, a minor in Spanish, and a passion for writing.

He then spent a year overseas, returning home when he found himself enrolled by his very capable agent in a writing workshop at Stanford University, where, besides honing his writing skills, he met Enid, who would later become his first wife.

After his time at Stanford had ended, he kicked around the East Coast for a while, before deciding that his heart belonged with Enid in California, and so he and a friend undertook a cross-country motorscooter trip, which would later become the basis of I See By My Outfit. Once he had married Enid and moved in with her and her three children, he supported himself and his family as a freelance writer for years, even after the well-received publication of "The Last Unicorn".

In the 1970's, Beagle increasingly produced screenplays, (he continues to write for the screen to this day) while also pursuing his avocation as a folk singer, delighting audiences with songs in English, Yiddish, French and German. A live album of his songs has been released, and he once played at The Palms in Davis, CA. According to him, "singing (and dishwashing) are the only other things I've done for money." Between 1973 and 1985 he performed every weekend at the club L'Oustalou in Santa Cruz, California. In 1980, his marriage to Enid ended, and in in the summer of 1985 he moved to Seattle, Washington for several years.

At some point, he evidently decided he had had enough rain, and moved back to California. (I know he lived in Santa Cruz at some point, but can't find the exact time frame.) He now resides in Davis with his wife of ten years, the Indian writer and artist Padma Hejmadi. As he says, "I'm in the phone book." I checked - he is. Beagle is active in the Davis community, and is a member of the "Friends of Davis" group, which recently protested the opening of a Borders Bookstore, which would put many local Davis bookstores out of business, instead of another business such as a clothing store, which the Davis community desperately needed. The Friends of Davis ended up taking the city to court to block the project - all information I can find now is that the court action is "ongoing".

I am informed that Beagle "is a regular on the university circuit where he gives readings, lectures, and concerts," and I know that he appears at the occasional fantasy convention. (Check out the appearances page for current information.) He has conducted writing workshops at such institutions as The University of Washington and Clarion West.

His works have been translated into at least 15 languages to date, and he continues to write wonderful, magical books, thank heavens.

Visit peterbeagle.com

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MICHELLE RICHMOND - MARCH

Michelle Richmond is the author of the story collection The Girl in the Fall-Away Dress, as well as the novels Dream of the Blue Room and The Year of Fog. Her third novel, No One You Know, will be published by Delacorte in 2008.

Her stories and essays have appeared in Glimmer Train, Playboy, Oxford American, The Believer, Salon, The Kenyon Review, The Missouri Review, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of the 2006 Mississippi Review Fiction Prize and the 2000 Associated Writing Programs Award for a short story collection, and has received fellowships from the Millay Colony, the Saltonstall Foundation, and the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, among others.

Michelle holds an MFA from the University of Miami, where she was a James Michener Fellow, and teaches in the MFA program in creative writing at California College of the Arts. She has served as Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at St. Mary’s College of Moraga, and as Distinguished Visiting Writer at Bowling Green State University.

A native of Mobile, Alabama, Michelle lives in San Francisco. She is the founding editor of the literary journal Fiction Attic, and she serves on the advisory board of the Christopher Isherwood Foundation. She is represented by Valerie Borchardt of Georges Borchardt, Inc.

Visit michellerichmond.com

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TERRI FARLEY - FEBRUARY

Terri Farley is a cowgirl at heart. She has always loved horses. Growing up in Los Angeles and San José, California didn't keep her from saving her allowance for rides at nearby stables. After college, she taught English and Reading in an inner-city high school, but always longed for the open range, where mustangs ran free. At last, she married and followed her dreams to northern Nevada, the land of wild horses. There, she continued to teach and began writing magazine articles which put her in the saddle.

She followed wild horse round-ups and cattle drives. She learned a lot writing an article about buckaroo camp. Though she still can't rope a steer, Terri makes pretty good campfire biscuits. As part of a Pony Express reenactment, she carried mail on a headstrong white Polish Arab.

Phantom Stallion is Terri Farley's first series for young readers. She loves writing the adventures of Samantha Forster, Jake Ely and the mysterious silver stallion known as the Phantom. In these stories, she lives the adventures she longed for as a horse-crazy city girl.

When she's not writing or riding, Terri Farley gives workshops for writers, teachers and children. Her favorites are those attended by adopted mustangs and their owners.

Terri Farley lives in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains with her journalist husband, two children and way too many pets. Her menagerie includes a bossy gray cat named Sherlock and a rambunctious foster puppy -- yellow Lab and Brittany spaniel -- named Zito.

Visit phantomstallion.com

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LAURIE KING - JANUARY

Mystery Author / Writer
Since Laurie R. King’s first book, A Grave Talent, came out in 1993, she has gained a reputation as a prize-winning, best-selling author who holds an undying place in the hearts of readers ranging from fourteen year-old girls to members of the House of Lords to ninety year-old retired Air Force colonels.

King was born in northern California, the third generation in her family native to the San Francisco area. She spent her childhood reading her way through libraries like a termite through balsa, and her middle years raising children, traveling the world, and studying theology, earning a BA degree in comparative religion and an MA in Old Testament Theology. She now lives a genteel life of crime, back again in northern California.

Her fiction falls into three areas. First in the hearts of most readers comes Mary Russell, who met the retired Mr Sherlock Holmes in the winter of 1915 and became his apprentice, then his partner. Starting with The Beekeeper’s Apprentice and continuing through Locked Rooms, Russell and Holmes move through the ’teens and ’twenties in amiable discord, challenging each other to ever greater feats of detection.

King’s other series concerns San Francisco homicide inspector Kate Martinelli, her SFPD partner Al Hawkin, and her life partner Lee Cooper. In the course of her five books, Kate has encountered a female Rembrandt, a modern-day Holy Fool, two difficult teenagers, and a manifestation of the goddess Kali.

King has also written three stand-alone suspense novels. A Darker Place truly stands alone, being the story of a middle-aged professor of religion who goes inside religious movements (so-called “cults”) to investigate their stability for the government, and here encounters a movement that embraces the ideas of alchemy.

The other two independent novels are actually very loosely linked, telling the stories of two people whose lives overlap very slightly in each book. Folly tells of woodworker Rae Newborne, who comes to a deserted island to rebuild a house, and her life. Keeping Watch is the story of Vietnam vet Allen Carmichael, who draws on his combat experiences to rescue abused women and children, until he comes across a boy whose problems may rival his own.

In addition to crime novels, she has written a futuristic novel, Califia’s Daughters (published in paperback original under the name Leigh Richards), and several short stories.

King has won the Edgar and Creasey awards (for A Grave Talent), the Nero (A Monstrous Regiment of Women) and the MacCavity (for Folly); her nominations include the Agatha, the Orange, the Barry, and two more Edgars. She was also given an honorary doctorate from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific.

Visit laurirking.com

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