Anne Rice adores Joe Manganiello and Matt Bomer

Undisputed Queen of Vampires Anne Rice has turned her attention from vampires to werewolves in her latest book, The Wolf Gift. Rice is best known for her 1976 book, Interview with the Vampire, which was recently nominated by the Horror Writers of America association as a candidate for best vampire novel of the century. Rice’s subsequent books in The Vampire Chronicles series have also had great success.

After more than thirty years, Rice has decided to turn her writing to another classic creature in the Gothic horror genre – the werewolf. Her latest book, The Wolf Gift, is the story of Reuben, a young newspaper reporter who is savaged by a mysterious beast on the Northern California coast when he tries to go to someone’s rescue. As he recovers, he finds that his senses have become more acute, and begins to discover the parameters of his werewolf gift, while struggling with his desire to do good by perpetrating horribly brutal attacks.

As part of her research for The Wolf Gift, Rice said that she watched hours and hours of werewolf movies. A huge fan of the hit TV series White Collar, Rice also said that she modeled Reuben after White Collar star Matt Bomer, adding that she would love for Bomer to play Reuben, if the book is ever made into a movie. And just to prove that whole six degrees of separation thing, Bomer’s college buddy, Joe Manganiello, who plays werewolf Alcide on True Blood (and who recently guest starred on a White Collar episode) is also one of Rice’s inspirations. Incidentally, Bomer, when asked if he would like to reciprocate with a turn on True Blood, said that while he was Team Alcide all the way, he would want to play a vampire if he ever got to do a guest spot on the hit HBO series.

It’s obviously a mutual admiration thing between Rice and Manganiello, as we can see in this YouTube video in which Manganiello surprises Rice with flowers just before a book-signing, and tells her what a huge fan of her books he is. Awwww. Who would have thought that the Queen of Vampires, and the sexiest werewolf on television could be so sweet!

Source: New Vampire Books