Author Anne Rice, known for her "Interview With a Vampire" and several other novels about the supernatural and vampires, is now speaking about her transition to writing for Christ and about religion and faith.

Rice says she is pleased that media reporters have allowed her to achieve her primary objective during her many interviews over last fall's release of "Christ the Lord:  Out of Egypt." In a recent media interview, she noted, "I've been given an opportunity to say that I made a conversion that I went back to the Church and that I dedicated life to Christ."

"Christ the Lord:  Out of Egypt" is a fictionalized personal account of a seven-year-old Jesus' life, based on the gospels but "in his own words." The book represents a complete return for Rice to her Catholic faith and personal belief in God after a seven-year journey and much tragedy. Rice says she has turned over a new leaf with this new novel, and she told Newsweek last fall that she has now promised to write only for the Lord.

Among the experiences that shook the author's existence in recent years are two illnesses and the death of her husband. Speaking on Fox News with Bill O'Reilly, Rice pointed out that her spiritual despair and searching were weaved into her "Vampire Chronicles" books ("The Vampire Lestat", "Interview With a Vampire", etc.). "They were always pretty fervently religious," she noted.

"They may have been negative, they may have been dark," Rice adds, "and they may have had a lot of misery in them and anxiety. But they were always about God and, always, a conversation was going on about religion in them."

The Catholic novelist hopes "Christ the Lord" will have a genuine spiritual impact on her readers. "I want this book to make Jesus real to people," she says, including "maybe people who have never thought about Him or people who just don't take Him seriously." In this book, the writer adds, "I've tried to create a probable reality – the way it might have been with the holy family day in, day out."

Rice says she is pleasantly surprised that fans of her fantasy fiction are following her into her new writing genre of religious fiction and is planning several sequels to "Christ the Lord:  Out of Egypt." The novel about the young Jesus is currently at number 11 on the New York Times hardcover fiction bestseller list.

© 2006 AgapePress.  All rights reserved.  Used with permission.