Friday, October 3, 2025

Critical Sociocultural Examinations of Gender Discrimination and Persecution

 Stay Tuned; I'm co editing and coauthoring a chapter for this forthcoming textbook.  Erzebet plays a serious role, as she did in my last book, Warpaint-Ethics and Beauty, The Ethics International Press.

Others have taken up her cause, and the injustice, falsehoods, political assassination and folklore associated with her case.  I will share the bibliography as the book progresses.  I've also written of her in With Love from Tin Lizzie; A History of Metal Dolls . . . 

Will keep you posted.



Thursday, June 12, 2025

Tribute to a Legendary Author

 Anne Rice Tribute

 

I first read Interview with the Vampire when I was sixteen.  Since then, I have taught Anne Rice, created courses about her, read nearly all her books, watched media, and had chapters about her published in books.   I lead a book group on Cry to Heaven, and presented a paper on Michael Curry at a conference. I even wrote about Rice in my dissertation.

In honors comp at SIUC, I taught The Witching Hour; my class was enchanted.  I later emailed Anne to tell her I was teaching a course on her, and was there anything she wanted me to say about her books.  I still have her gracious and kind response, giving me free reign to say what I felt.

Also, she was my muse because we liked many of the same things.  Dolls, Anne Boleyn, Tudor history, religion, witchcraft, vampires, Emily Bronte, and more.  I am privileged to own some of her books, and two small dolls from her collection.  I am the director of American Doll and Toy Museum, and Lestat in doll form is, well, family to us.  I made a doll house inspired by Claudia and Louis, as well as my own Lestat doll of clay.  Her quote from Taltos which reads “When you loved dolls, you learned to love all kinds of people too . . .” sums up what we feel about dolls, and why we began the museum.

She was brilliant, compassionate, eclectic,  truly a gifted storyteller.  The world is not the same without her