36 ratings | 34 reviews
avg rating: 3.78

(since August 07)

Loren's bookshelves

read (37)
currently-reading (5)
to-read (4)
lenoresbooks (10)
to-be-sold (4)

Loren's friends (64)

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Loren Rhoads

author profile

born

October 22, 1963

gender

female

place of birth

Flint, Michigan, United States

website

http://www.charnel.com/loren

genre

Horror, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Nonfiction

influences

Ray Bradbury, Brian Hodge

about this author

edit data

For ten years, Loren Rhoads was the editor of the cult nonfiction magazine Morbid Curiosity. Before that, she wrote about cemeteries for Gothic.Net. Her short fiction has appeared in Cemetery Dance, City Slab, Not One of Us, etc., and in the chapbooks Ashes & Rust and The Paramental Appreciation Society. She’s written erotica for Unzipped, Sex Toy Tales, and Noirotica 4, with varying degrees of honesty. She's now part of a four-woman anthology called Sins of the Sirens: Fourteen Tales of Dark Desire, alongside Christa Faust, Maria Alexander, and Mehitobel Wilson.

books by Loren Rhoads

combine editions
avg rating: 4.11 | 13 ratings | 2 distinct works

	Sins of the Sirens (Paperback) by Maria Alexander, Christa Faust, Loren Rhoads avg rating 4.33 — 6 ratings — published 2008	my rating:
	Deaths Garden: Relationships With Cemeteries (Paperback) by Loren Rhoads (Goodreads author!) avg rating 3.67 — 3 ratings — published 1995	my rating:

* Note: these are all the books on Goodreads for this author. To add more, perform a search.

Loren's writing

Excerpt from Macabre Ink interview (Horror)

1 chapters — updated 02/17/2008 06:08AM

description: http://macabreink.com/interviews/loren-rhoads-interviewed-life-is-a-morbid-curiosity

Loren is currently reading

	10/20 Loren is currently reading: The American Resting Place: 400 Years of History Through Our Cemeteries and Burial Grounds (Hardcover) by Marilyn Yalom bookshelves: currently-reading	my rating:
	add a comment
	01/12 Loren is currently reading: 1984 (Paperback) by George Orwell bookshelves: currently-reading	my rating:
	Loren said: "I'm trying to source the quote: "In a time of universal decay, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." Can you help? " add a comment
	10/19 Loren is currently reading: Carousel Animals: Artistry in Motion (Hardcover) by Tobin Fraley, Gary K. Wolf bookshelves: currently-reading	my rating:
	1 comment

Loren's recent updates (rss)

November 10

Loren made a comment on Claudius's profile:

Loren wrote: "Thanks for being my friend. "

October 28

Loren said "yes" to attending the event: Ghost story reading hosted by Instant City magazine.
date: October 29, 2008 07:00PM
location: Gypsy Honeymoon, 3599 24th Street, San Francisco, CA, United States
description: You’ve always suspected your overpriced Victorian apartment is haunted. Every time you walk the ridge of Dolores Park you hear whispers that you’re sure ain’t the J Church. Is it true about the downtown businessman who, possessed by the ghost of a pirate captain, ordered maintenance to dig a hole in his building’s basement? What about the notorious masked man of the Western Addition who hides under women’s beds?

In celebration of San Francisco’s favorite holiday, Halloween, join I...more

October 20

Loren is currently reading:
The American Resting Place: 400 Years of History Through Our Cemeteries and Burial Grounds (Hardcover)
by Marilyn Yalom
bookshelves: currently-reading

my rating:

add a comment

Loren added:
Shiela Crerar, Psychic Investigator (hardcover)
by Ella Scrymsour

my rating:

read in September, 2008

Loren said: "I have been -- very slowly -- making my way through the Ash-Tree Press Occult Detective books. A occult detective uses forensic methods to unravel hauntings. I've just finished reading 2006's Shiela Crerar, Psychic Investigator.

Almost all psychic...more I have been -- very slowly -- making my way through the Ash-Tree Press Occult Detective books. A occult detective uses forensic methods to unravel hauntings. I've just finished reading 2006's Shiela Crerar, Psychic Investigator.

Almost all psychic detectives are male, from Carnacki to Kolchak. That's true even when a woman creates the character; I'm thinking of Dion Fortune's Dr. Taverner. I was excited to read about a woman investigator, particularly one who was young and psychically aware. Most of the men are either disbelievers or use science to drive away the supernatural. This girl was right in the thick of it, fighting without any science or magic. She used logic and compassion and nothing more than her ability to see ghosts.

In the first story, she meets a young man with whom she falls shyly in love. He asks her to give up all this dangerous, late night ghost-hunting and settle down. She has just discovered her vocation, at this point, and protests that she must help more people. The young man is a recurring character. Each time they meet, they are pulled closer together. In the end, Shiela gives up her work for a ring.

The stories were initially published from May to October 1920. Almost nothing is known about the author, which led me to wonder if she used a pen name. Of all the research provided by the editor, he doesn't seem to have considered the reason that he couldn't find out anything about her was that she didn't exist in the world as Ella Scrymsour. Still, having read the stories, I would bet money the author was female.

So why would a woman give her creation such a wonderful skill and desire to help people, only for her to give it up in the end? My suspicion isn't that this was simply the mores of the time: proper wives did not work, especially in such peril. My guess, although this is stated nowhere in the text, is that Shiela Crerar believes she will lose her psychic ability with her virginity.

I'm not sure where that fear originated. Does it date to the Sybils and temple maidens of Greece? Is it a corruption of the Christian doctrine of the Fall? I'm not even sure where to begin to research the question.

Anyway, the subtext fascinates me more than the stories at hand. They were enjoyable. Some were a little unnerving, although none were frightening. In the end, I liked Shiela Crerar. I was sad she couldn't continue to help people terrorized by the supernatural. Getting married was probably the safest choice for her, but it's one the male detectives never seem to have made. Perhaps they were clinging to their own virginity and its inviolability as well?...less "

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Loren gave

to:
Words Written Backwards (Chapbook)
by Gemma Files

my rating:

read in April, 2008

Loren said: "I am a Gemma Files fan, since her days of selling chapbooks at the World Horror Convention in Chicago. This chapbook was published by Canada's Burning Effigy Press. While it is fascinating, I didn't think the story was entirely successful.

For a...more "

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Loren gave

to:
Valiant: A Modern Tale of Faerie (Paperback)
by Holly Black

my rating:

read in September, 2008

Loren said: "When a friend described this book's plot to me, I was underwhelmed. Only after I forgot what she'd said and found the book on my shelf again could I enjoy it as much as I have. This is my favorite of Holly Black's Faerie books (so far) because the ...more "

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Loren gave

to:
Bloodangel (Paperback)
by Justine Musk (Goodreads author!)
bookshelves: to-be-sold

my rating:

read in October, 2008

Loren said:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

add a comment

October 19

Loren gave

to:
The Experiences of Flaxman Low (Hardcover)
by Kate Prichard, Hesketh Prichard

my rating:

Loren said: "I love psychic detective stories and will be eternally grateful to Ash-Tree Press for collecting up all the original pulp stories.

Flaxman Low was one of the original detectives. His adventures were published in 1898-99. He's basically Sherlock Ho...more "

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Loren gave

to:
General Slocum's Gold (Softcover Chapbook)
by Nicholas Kaufmann

my rating:

Loren said: "I gulped this chapbook down in one sitting. It's rare that a story sets my heart pounding, but Kaufmann's prose in this is so assured, its pace so headlong, that I couldn't put it down. Highly entertaining! "

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see all 37 of Loren's books »

Loren's groups (recent posts)

NaNoWriMo — 45 members — last activity 05/25/2008 04:31PM
Any NaNoWriMo people out there? What are you reading in the off season? What are you reading to get ready for November?

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