ANNE RICE ENTERS THE TWILIGHT ZONE (PART 1)

ROD SERLING'S THE TWILIGHT ZONE MAGAZINE

Vol. 5 No. 4

October, 1985

TZ Publications

Publisher: Milton J. Cuevas

Associate Publisher and Consulting Editor: Carol Serling

Editor: Michael Blaine

Cover: Josie Yee

Pages: 98

Cover price: $2.50

We last left off in this series of posts with THE TWILIGHT ZONE MAGAZINE #5. It seemed appropriate to jump ahead several years later to pay tribute to the late Anne Rice's greatest fictional creation, Lestat de Lioncourt, from her famous series of vampire novels. This issue of TZ features an exclusive excerpt from "The Vampire Lestat" (1985), the follow-up novel to the first in the series, "Interview With the Vampire" (1976). It must have been quite a scoop and I would venture a guess that this was one of the better selling issues in the magazine's history.

But Lestat is not the only character lurking within these pages. There are other notable writers who contributed to this issue. "The  Secret of Rowena" is by one of my favorite authors, Ray Russel, and Donald R. Burleson, known for his contributions to the Lovecraft Mythos, offers "The Terminator".

But the one story from this issue that left me haunted was "The Night People", by Michael Reaves. After several more readings over the years, it has not lost its eeriness. I'll let you decide. Reaves is known for his scriptwriting of a number of animated series and several Star Trek novels. "The Night People" appeared in his eponymous collection published in 2005.