Openly Rice
Author Christopher Rice sends chills through Atlanta with his new thriller

By MATT SCHAFER
MAR. 14, 2008

Christopher Rice tells Southern voice that he loves life as he prepares to visit Atlanta as part of a 22-city book tour to promote “Blind Fall,” his new psychological thriller.

“I have a pretty great life, and I don’t feel like I have a great hole in my life,” Rice says from his Los Angeles home, apparently with a newly adopted cat running through his legs asking for attention.

The 30-year-old author is enjoying success, writing columns for the Advocate, serving on the Lambda Literary Foundation Board and the warm reception thus far for “Blind Fall.” Not bad for a guy who moved to Hollywood to write movies with no prospects.

“I moved out here with the intention to be a scriptwriter, and the fortunate thing is I fell in love with the lifestyle,” he says.

Life in L.A. provided ample inspiration for “Blind Fall.” The story follows a young, former Recon Marine who protects the gay lover of the man who saved his life in Iraq. Not quite a departure from form, Rice says his new novel is shorter and faster-paced than its predecessors.

“Compared to my last book and ‘The Snow Garden,’ this is just over 300 pages,” Rice says. “I wanted to write something that was lean, focused and clear.”

Rice says he improves with each book and has grown as a person as well.

“I think I was a child of the movies, and I’ve worked to become an adult of the novel.”

“BLIND FALL” REPRESENTS the first time Rice has written the majority of a story from a straight character's perspective. To help him get inside the head of the elite Recon Marines, Rice enlisted friends who couldn’t talk openly about what they experienced in the service.

“The way it was explained to me by one Marine, there are at least two kinds: ones who came in knowing they are gay, or the teenage marine who goes in at 18 or 19, and discovers their gay once they're in Marines and go crazy,” Rice says. “They don’t have anyone they feel they can talk to, and they don’t know how to handle it.”

Gay Marines must often live their lives in careful balance, and writing about that balance piqued Rice’s curiosity.

“Its ugly,” he says. “I was attracted to the topic for the obvious reasons. I think Marines are hot, whatever. Once I got into it and saw the sacrifices they had to make to sacrifice for the country, it's a strange paradox to me.”

When writing about a highly charged political topic, authors have to walk a thin line so that the book doesn’t turn into a personal diatribe

“I think all really good thrillers draw on current events, and I think that the way you avoid being preachy is to represent both sides,” Rice says.

RICE’S ABILITY TO WRITE NOVELS instead of sermons is part of what makes him one of today's most successful openly gay novelists. His last name doesn't hurt either. Novelist Anne Rice and the late poet Stan Rice are his parents. His mother is most famous for "The Vampire Chronicles" series, and his father was well known in literary circles.

“If you look at the course of my career, gratitude is the only appropriate response for me," he says. "There is certainly no substitute for the Rice family name, but that only opens the door. I still have to produce.”

The other side of having a famous last name is that while Rice does get more attention than other gay authors, his subject matter might limit his appeal.

“A lot of people says if you take out all the gay stuff, you might have made a lot more money,” Rice says. “I don’t necessarily believe that, because it made an interesting publicity story because Anne Rice’s son is openly gay.”

The publicity helps prompt record turnouts, like the crowd that showed up the last time Rice visited Outwrite.

“One of the biggest book signings we ever did was in Atlanta for my second novel 'Snow Garden,'” he says. “We had standing room only at Outwrite. It was great.”

Rice has already started work on his fifth novel, but won’t spill any details.

“It’s too soon to talk about the plot, but I can say that I spent all of January in Thailand and Hong Kong doing research,” he says.

Ellie