Anne Rice became a household name with the publication of her best-selling novel Interview with the Vampire in 1976. The stories of Louis, Lestat and all the rest earned her a loyal following over the course of her career. She wrapped up both the vampire saga and the tales of a witch family with 2003’s Blood Canticle.

Rice has a new book out which some see as a departure for the author but that she sees as the logical evolution of her work. Christ the Lord; Out of Egypt is the tale of seven-year-old Jesus bar Joseph as he and his family return to Nazareth after the death of King Herod. It’s the first in a series of books Rice plans about Jesus’ life. (Rice says she thinks there will be three or four total.)

Anne Rice is in Birmingham to promote her book this weekend and WBHM’s Rosemary Pennington got a chance to speak with her about the novel and its opening chapter in which Jesus kills a child and then raises him from the dead — a scene from the Apocrypha.