"To be able to take the tools, the apprenticeship, whatever I learned from being a vampire writer, or whatever I was -- to be able to take those tools now and put them in the service of God is a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful opportunity," she said. "And I hope I can redeem myself in that way. I hope that the Lord will accept the books I am writing now."

*****

"My objective is simple: It's to write books about our Lord living on Earth that make him real to people who don't believe in him; or people who have never really tried to believe in him," she said.

She pressed the point: "I mean, I've made vampires believable to grown women. Now, if I can do that, I can make our Lord Jesus Christ believable to people who've never believed in him. I hope and pray."

Less than a year after buying a luxury home in the city's tony La Jolla neighborhood, author Anne Rice is selling the dwelling and moving to the desert for a warmer climate and simpler life, her real estate agent said. "She still loves La Jolla very, very much," said Connie Adams of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage. "She had been used to the heat of New Orleans for so many years, and she found La Jolla cold."

*****

Rice decided to move west in 2004 after attending a book-signing at Warwick's bookstore in La Jolla. Her son, Christopher, lives in Los Angeles and her husband had died in 2002.

She bought a 3,000-square-foot home in downtown San Diego for $2.35 million, but quickly decided she needed more space and put it back on the market. Last February, she bought the three-story, 10,089 square-foot La Jolla home for $8 million and replaced the deck with French limestone balustrades, said Adams, who represented her in the purchase. The 13-year-old home, which sits on a third of an acre of land, has six bedrooms, nine bathrooms, a gym with a sauna and steam room, an upgraded media room, wine cellar, elevator, four-car garage, pool, spa and ocean views, according to the property listing. The selling price includes the furnishings, some of which come from the finest antique stores in New Orleans, Adams said.

"It's completely furnished, down to the last fork and napkin," she said. Rice recently closed escrow on a $4.2 million home in Rancho Mirage, a desert community 85 miles northeast of San Diego.

Now nature has done what the Civil War couldn't do. Nature has done what the labor riots of the 1920's couldn't do. Nature had done what "modern life" with its relentless pursuit of efficiency couldn't do. It has done what racism couldn't do, and what segregation couldn't do either. Nature has laid the city waste - with a scope that brings to mind the end of Pompeii.

*****

I know that New Orleans will win its fight in the end. I was born in the city and lived there for many years. It shaped who and what I am. Never have I experienced a place where people knew more about love, about family, about loyalty and about getting along than the people of New Orleans. It is perhaps their very gentleness that gives them their endurance.

But to my country I want to say this: During this crisis you failed us. You looked down on us; you dismissed our victims; you dismissed us. You want our Jazz Fest, you want our Mardi Gras, you want our cooking and our music. Then when you saw us in real trouble, when you saw a tiny minority preying on the weak among us, you called us "Sin City," and turned your backs.

Well, we are a lot more than all that. And though we may seem the most exotic, the most atmospheric and, at times, the most downtrodden part of this land, we are still part of it. We are Americans. We are you.