True Blood’s Joe Manganiello Joins Anne Rice at Los Angeles The Wolf Gift Signing

Steve Barton |

Feb 19, 2012

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Anne Rice's The Wolf Gift If you’ve attended a horror convention, you’ve no doubt been star-struck once or twice, but it isn’t often you see celebrities themselves in that position. That’s exactly what happened when actor Joe Manganiello met author Anne Rice at her February 17th The Wolf Gift signing in LA.

The “True Blood” star surprised Ms. Rice just before the proceedings started at a local Barnes & Noble, presenting her with flowers and citing her works as a big influence during his formative years. She responded by calling his Alcide her “favorite werewolf”. Both were obviously flustered and flattered, but they were nowhere near as excited as the crowd was once Manganiello walked her out into the waiting throng in the store. And then he recorded a quick promo for the book, which we have below along with videos of their meeting and arrival to the event.

Just three more dates remain for Anne’s tour in support of The Wolf Gift:

2/24/2012
BOOKS INC OPERA PLAZA, 601 VAN NESS AVENUE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102 – 7:00 pm

2/29/2012
CHANGING HANDS BOOK STORE, 6428 S. MCCLINTOCK DR #C-101, TEMPE, AZ 85283 – 7:00 pm

3/3/2012
JUST FABULOUS BOOKSTORE, 515 NORTH PALM CANYON DRIVE, PALM SPRINGS, CA 92262 – 2:00 pm

Synopsis:
A daring new departure and a whole new world — modern, sleek, high-tech, and at its center, a story as old and compelling as history — the making of a werewolf, re-imagined and re-invented as only Anne Rice, teller of mesmerizing tales, conjurer extraordinaire of other realms, could create it.

The time is the present.

The place, the rugged coast of northern California. A bluff high above the Pacific. A grand mansion full of beauty and tantalizing history set against a towering redwood forest.

A young reporter on assignment from the San Francisco Observer… an older woman, welcoming him into her magnificent, historic family home that he has been sent to write about and that she must sell with some urgency… a chance encounter between two unlikely people… an idyllic night — shattered by horrific unimaginable violence… the young man inexplicably attacked — bitten — by a beast he cannot see in the rural darkness… a violent episode that sets in motion a terrifying yet seductive transformation as the young man, caught between ecstasy and horror, between embracing who he is evolving into and fearing who — what — he will become, soon experiences the thrill of the wolf gift.

As he resists the paradoxical pleasure and enthrallment of his wolfen savagery and delights in the power and (surprising) capacity for good, he is caught up in a strange and dangerous rescue and is desperately hunted as “the Man Wolf” by authorities, the media, and scientists (evidence of DNA threatens to reveal his dual existence). As a new and profound love enfolds him, questions emerge that propel him deeper into his mysterious new world: questions of why and how he has been given this gift; of its true nature and the curious but satisfying pull towards goodness; of the profound realization that there are others like him who may be watching — guardian creatures who have existed throughout time and may possess ancient secrets and alchemical knowledge; and throughout it all, the search for salvation for a soul tormented by a new realm of temptations and the fraught, exhilarating journey still to come, of being and becoming, fully, both wolf and man.

The Wolf Gift is now available in bookstore and via all online outlets. For more info be sure to “like” Anne Rice on Facebook.