The Forbidden Archive
The Forbidden Archive began as a 1993 Usenet group called alt.books.anne-rice (ABAR, a.b.a.r., abar). This was an internet newsgroup for Anne Rice fans to gather and talk about the books, movie, characters, plots, etc. Up until 2000, it had an official fan fiction archive called the VC Spec Archive (or The A.B.A-R Spec Archive). Heather Meloche (Ash) was the keeper and Adonia updated the databases.
In April of 2000, Anne Rice released the following statement regarding the non-profit fan fiction endeavors of her fans:
"I do not allow fan fiction. The characters are copyrighted. It upsets me terribly to even think about fan fiction with my characters. I advise my readers to write your own original stories with your own characters. It is absolutely essential that you respect my wishes."
She then proceeded to send cease and desist notices to a number of fan fiction sites and individual authors via her lawyers. The VC Spec Archive was transferred into the care of Black Rose and hosted on her website, Digital Midnight. Fan fiction was shared on a private, password protected forum.
In August of 2002, the VC Spec Archive was given a new name, location and layout. The Forbidden Archive was kept in the careful hands of Mevinan until July of 2007 when she announced that she could no longer maintain it. That is when the hosts of Sublime Requiem offered to take over. The site was maintained with its original layout until November of 2009 when it was updated to a members only eFiction site. Many of the old fan fictions were uploaded to the new site and attempts were made to contact the original authors so they could return and re-claim their stories. This is still in the works today.
"Live and let live..."
In 2012, Anne Rice was interviewed for an article about fan fiction where she stated the following:
"I got upset about 20 years ago because I thought it would block me. However, it's been very easy to avoid reading any, so live and let live. If I were a young writer, I'd want to own my own ideas. But maybe fan fiction is a transitional phase: whatever gets you there, gets you there."
This caused other fan fiction related sites such as fanfiction.net and archiveofourown.org to open up submissions for Anne Rice based fics. There was no longer a need to keep them under lock and key.
2024 brings new life to the Archive with the planned addition of a fan art gallery, a forum and a social media presence.
With all this history behind it, The Forbidden Archive remains the only one of its kind; a unique and constantly evolving repository of Vampire Chronicles fan fiction.
Art used with permission of Dany & Dany.
