When I was in 3rd grade I had a fascination with vampires. Something about their alluring personality and gothic fashion sense hit a nerve with my active imagination.

So it was no surprise that my brother took me to see the movie Interview with the Vampire.

I absolutely loved that movie. I fell in love with New Orleans, the fashion, the mannerisms and the seductiveness of the vampire world. It captured my little but growing mind to a romantic and deadly world of vampires.

A couple of weeks later I found out that the movie was also a book. My brother knowing my fascination with vampires got me the whole series of the vampire chronicles for Christmas. I remember that I didn’t open any other gifts after that. Those books were the only thing that existed.

I did not know that there was an order to which book needed to be read first. The only thing that made me want to read Interview with the Vampire was the cover. Something about the gold color jacket and the bold gothic writing was very alluring and I felt like I was reading something luxurious.

I had no idea that I was reading adult books at the time. I just wanted to read and be drenched in the world of Lestat. I absorb the words and fell in love with Anne Rice’s words, her vision and the way she shaped these characters.

After I read all of the books that my brother got me (five in total) within two weeks. I felt weird… like drained but I needed more. So I got a journal and a pen and started writing my own world. At that time I thought that writing was only for school. That it had to be something that was reviewed and graded. But I found out in my own way that wasn’t the case. Writing can be fun. Writing can make a small child’s active imagination into words and actions. So without that push from Anne Rice I would never have the courage or self realization that writing is more than what I thought it was.

So from my inner 3rd grade self. Thank you Anne Rice for writing your words. Creating your worlds and sharing them them to the world.