Loren Rhoads's Blog, page 11

Did Jane Austen Understand Horror Fiction?

Guest post by Emmy Z. Madrigal

When you think of Jane Austen, you don’t think of a horror novelist. Her work conjures images of Regency fashion, tea parties, and a disapproving Mr. Darcy. That is because most people have never heard of her little-promoted novel Northanger Abbey.

Northanger Abbey was the first book she had ever written, yet it was one of the last published: posthumously, after her death in 1817. It has a lot of the trappings of a first novel: the high-handed lectures about what is wrong with the world, the silly asides speaking directly to the readers, and the innocent lead character, Catherine Morland, experiencing things for the first time.

Believe it or not, Jane wrote an entire book centering around Gothic Horror fiction and a young miss fangirling over Gothic novels like The Monk and The Mysteries of Udolpho.

I’ve been told people don’t like Catherine because she’s just a silly, naive girl that lives a large part of her life in her head. I’ve also been told that she’s unrelatable because she likes Gothic novels and horror. I will attempt to prove that Catherine Morland was not simply some ignorant young miss, wiling away her hours in a fantasy world, but she was a horror fan misunderstood by her peers, with a healthy imagination. By understanding Catherine, we understand Jane and her knowledge of horror.

To understand Catherine as a horror fan, you have to break down the attributes of a horror fan.

First:

We are people who like to be scared in a removed way through movies, books, and music. Inspecting a horrid situation from a distance not only allows us to experience danger without any real harm to ourselves but also prepare ourselves for the true horrors of life that may come — like the zombie apocalypse. Horror Addicts are just like any other fan. Fans of Jane Austen might read Jane Austen all weekend, or attend a Northanger Abbey ball. Horror Addicts might read Stephen King all weekend or go to a horror film festival. As a rule, we aren’t axe murders, we don’t glorify serial killers, and we definitely don’t want to die at the hand of a chainsaw-wielding maniac. We do, however, like spooky things like ghosts, vampires, and like Catherine Morland, spooky old abbeys that may contain such creatures.

Second:

We have active imaginations. This may be said about any reader. How many times have you watched a movie based on a book and been dissatisfied? The movies are never better than books, right? Those of you who agree with that statement have vibrant imaginations. The reason they can’t make the movie to please us is because our imaginations have woven such an awesome image of what we’ve read that no movie could possibly match. Just like Catherine conjuring up this gothic idea of Mrs. Tilney’s room…and then being disappointed at it looking just like any old bedroom.

Third:

The third aspect of a Horror Addict is we like to geek out with other Horror Addicts. One reason Catherine likes Henry so much is that he gets her. He is at least in part an addict himself. He is able to make jokes about the novel she’s read, and by teasing her, shows he likes her passion and accepts that part of her. And who doesn’t want to be accepted by someone who understands you?

Fourth:

Which brings me to attribute number four: horror fans often like to find the humor in things. We don’t take ourselves too seriously and often accompany our love of horror with comedy, either in an attempt to lighten the mood of such serious scary stuff or just because we are generally jovial people. Another reason Catherine likes Henry is because he has a good sense of humor and makes her laugh. For someone who likes humor, Jane painted the winner pretty clear. Grumpy old General Tilney, pompous Frederick, and ridiculously boastful Thorpe have no chance. Henry is clearly the best choice.

So given these attributes of a horror fan, I think we can all agree that Catherine Morland is one. Although she has some growing up to do, just because she learned something about the difference between fantasy and reality does not mean she ceased being a horror addict. I like to think that she went on to read more Gothic novels and perhaps even wrote some herself, but learned to not take them so literally.Contrary to popular belief, Horror Addicts don’t tend to grow out of our fascination with the macabre. I hate it when I read reviews that say Catherine grew out of her innocence and realized horror was just for kids. I don’t think that’s what Jane was saying at all. I think she captured perfectly the vision of a young Miss who didn’t know how to enjoy her passion without letting it bleed into reality. By experiencing more and falling in love, she could experience her passion in a somewhat removed way that didn’t get her in trouble.

Now, this is one of my favorite passages (abridged) of Northanger Abbey and shows her Horror Addict tastes.

Again she passed through the folding doors, again her hand was upon the important lock, and Catherine, hardly able to breathe, was turning to close the former with fearful caution, when the figure, the dreaded figure of the general himself at the further end of the gallery, stood before her! The name of “Eleanor” at the same moment, in his loudest tone, resounded through the building, giving to his daughter the first intimation of his presence, and to Catherine terror upon terror. An attempt at concealment had been her first instinctive movement on perceiving him, yet she could scarcely hope to have escaped his eye; and when her friend, who with an apologizing look darted hastily by her, had joined and disappeared with him, she ran for safety to her own room, and, locking herself in, believed that she should never have courage to go down again.

When I read that, I imagined how I might feel, being watched by a tyrant, but also still wanting to solve the mystery… WHAT IS BEHIND THAT DOOR??

  Catherine found herself alone in the gallery before the clocks had ceased to strike. It was no time for thought; she hurried on, slipped with the least possible noise through the folding doors, and without stopping to look or breathe, rushed forward to the one in question. The lock yielded to her hand, and, luckily, with no sullen sound that could alarm a human being. On tiptoe she entered; the room was before her; but it was some minutes before she could advance another step. She beheld what fixed her to the spot and agitated every feature. She saw a large, well-proportioned apartment, a handsome dimity bed, arranged as unoccupied with a housemaid’s care, a bright Bath stove, mahogany wardrobes, and neatly painted chairs, on which the warm beams of a western sun gaily poured through two sash windows!

Catherine had expected to have her feelings worked, and worked they were. Astonishment and doubt first seized them; and a shortly succeeding ray of common sense added some bitter emotions of shame.

She could not be mistaken as to the room; but how grossly mistaken in everything else!–in Miss Tilney’s meaning, in her own calculation!

She was sick of exploring, and desired but to be safe in her own room, with her own heart only privy to its folly; and she was on the point of retreating as softly as she had entered, when the sound of footsteps, she could hardly tell where, made her pause and tremble. To be found there, even by a servant, would be unpleasant; but by the general (and he seemed always at hand when least wanted), much worse! She listened–the sound had ceased; and resolving not to lose a moment, she passed through and closed the door.

At that instant a door underneath was hastily opened; someone seemed with swift steps to ascend the stairs, by the head of which she had yet to pass before she could gain the gallery. She had no power to move. With a feeling of terror not very definable, she fixed her eyes on the staircase, and in a few moments it gave Henry to her view.

“Mr. Tilney! How came you up that staircase?”

“How came I up that staircase! Because it is my nearest way from the stable-yard to my own chamber; and why should I not come up it? And may I not, in my turn, ask how you came here?  This passage is at least as extraordinary a road from the breakfast-parlour to your apartment, as that staircase can be from the stables to mine.”

“I have been to see your mother’s room.”

“My mother’s room! Is there anything extraordinary to be seen there?”

“No, nothing at all.”

“You look pale. I am afraid I alarmed you by running so fast up those stairs. Perhaps you did not know–you were not aware of their leading from the offices in common use?”

“No, I was not.”

“And does Eleanor leave you to find your way into all the rooms in the house by yourself?”

“Oh! No; she showed me over the greatest part on Saturday–and we were coming here to these rooms–but only… your father was with us. I only wanted to see…”

“My mother’s room is very commodious, is it not? Large and cheerful-looking, and the dressing-closets so well disposed! It always strikes me as the most comfortable apartment in the house, and I rather wonder that Eleanor should not take it for her own. She sent you to look at it, I suppose?”

“No.”

“Eleanor, I suppose, has talked of her a great deal?”

“Yes, a great deal. That is–no, not much, but what she did say was very interesting. Her dying so suddenly” (slowly, and with hesitation it was spoken), “and you–none of you being at home–and your father, I thought–perhaps had not been very fond of her.”

“And from these circumstances, you infer perhaps the probability of some negligence–or it may be–of something still less pardonable.”

She raised her eyes towards him more fully than she had ever done before.

Catherine Morland grew up in that moment. She realized sometimes when a most beloved mother dies, it’s just because she ceased to live, not because of some murder plot by an overbearing husband. And by learning the reality of such situations, this led her to build more devious and believable plots in her career as a novelist…or that’s how I’ve written the end in my head anyway.

In my modern take on Northanger Abbey — titled simply Northanger — I paint Catherine as a modern goth teen named Kat. Kat is a horror fan. She loves to read, watch, and listen to ghostly, frightening things most people shy away from. When she meets her perfect match, Henry, she knows he’s made just for her, but finding out his father may be a murderer puts a different spin on their relationship. Is Henry’s dad out for blood or just a misunderstood introvert who’s lost his wife? Only a trip to the famed murder house, Northanger, will reveal the truth.

Pick up a copy of Northanger for yourself at: https://amzn.to/3FDP96z

****

Œ

Emmy Z. Madrigal is the author of the Regency novella, Lord Harrington’s Lost Doe. Her previous works include the Sweet Dreams Musical Romance Series and the novelettes Anime Girl and Anime Girl 2. Emmy has been praised for her realistic portrayal of modern female characters and their will to survive in a world of adversity, prejudice, and economic hardship. To find out more about her, go to: emmyzmadrigal.com

This Year’s Word

In 2019. Facebook advertised a company that would put a word of your choosing on a silver washer and make a bracelet out of it. I thought about it for a while, but I couldn’t commit to a single word. I decided the advice I needed to wear was “Just Begin.”

I wore the bracelet like a charm whenever I was nervous about something: going to a convention, speaking at an event, reading in public, meeting strangers. It reminded me not to focus on the outcome, not to worry about the final product. All I had to do was begin. The ending would take care of itself.

In January 2020, before I understood what was to come, I chose “Seek Joy” as my directive for the year. I wanted to ease up on myself, to remind myself to enjoy the process, to take pleasure in simple things: lotion for my hands, the color of the sky, hugs. Joy didn’t need to be massive or life-shattering. It was around me, all the time, and I only had to realize it.

Last year, the phrase I chose was “Hold on to Hope.” Vaccines were on the horizon. My elderly parents had survived the pandemic and I hoped to see them over the summer, like in the Before Times. Choosing to be hopeful was easy, right up until January 6. It was really good to have the reminder.

So this year I wasn’t sure I wanted to make a bracelet again. I don’t expect to have anywhere to wear it. It would just sit in the dish on my desk… While I was able to commit to projects for this year, I didn’t want to pick a phrase to encapsulate its energy.

Until this morning.

My Intent had a quiz in their ad on Instagram. It suggested the words: Inspire, Create, Imagine. All beautiful words, but none of which captured what I want out of 2022. I mean, of course I want those things, too. Primarily, though, the energy I want to summon is more about finalizing things, not beginning them.

The word Complete occurred to me. I looked it up on Dictionary.com to be sure. I found:

having all parts or elements, lacking nothing, whole, entire, fullperfect in kind or qualitythorough, entire, undivided, uncompromised

Or as a verb:

to make whole or entireto make perfect

Exactly what I was looking for. My word for 2022 is Complete.

While I’m at it, my goals for the year are:

Finish the Death’s Garden Revisited project finally. My hope is to have it out in October.Edit an as-yet untitled book of short stories.Finish the sequel to This Morbid Life, to be called Jet Lag & Other Blessings.

We’ll see how it goes. I only finished one of the books I planned last year, but I’m really proud of how This Morbid Life turned out. The point is to have a target to aim toward.

If you’d like to make a bracelet (or necklace) with your own word of the year, check out MyIntent.com. I’m not an affiliate and don’t make any money from the recommendation. I just like them.

If you’d like to have some support for bringing your own projects to life, check out the Spooky Writer’s Planner I created with Emerian Rich. If you like to move pages around and set up your planners how YOU like them, it’s available as a printable download on Etsy. There’s a grab-and-go paperback version on Amazon.

Never Enough 2021: Part II

This is the second half of my year-end wrap-up. Normally, I’d talk about all the readings I did, the convention panels I was on, all the people I met. This year, being what it was, I lived all my professional life online.

Readings/Lectures:

I presented “So Busy Having a Good Time,” about my cemetery postcard collection,  for the “How to Make a Museum” class I took through Atlas Obscura. They encouraged me to make a book out of the collection. Hopefully, I’ll get the proposal done in 2022.

I held an hour to discuss “The Future of Death” at this year’s Nebula Weekend.

I read “With You By My Side It Should Be Fine” from Unsafe Words for the Wily Writers: https://lorenrhoads.com/2021/06/23/with-you-by-my-side-it-should-be-fine/

I presented “Postcards from History: San Francisco’s Mission Dolores as Recorded in Tourist Postcards” at the online conference for the Association for Gravestone Studies on 6/24/21.

I read “Ghost-Inspired Fiction” from This Morbid Life for Fright Girl Autumn.

I read “The Drowning City” — about the creature that stalks Venice after dark — from Best New Horror #27 for The Story Hour. You can check out the replay here. I’m in the second half-hour, but settle in and enjoy KT Wagner doing her thing:  https://fb.watch/8A7EKuvdZr/

Podcasts:

I joined author & cemetery tourist extraordinaire Tui Snider for her Tombstone Tuesdays podcast. Airdate: March 17, 2021. You can watch the playback here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uc8atGbwYis

A. F. Stewart hosted me on her Between the Pages Book Chat. Airdate: September 5, 2021. You can watch the replay here: https://www.facebook.com/afstewartauthor/posts/279841287283540

 

Tui Snider invited me back to her Offbeat & Overlooked podcast to chat about This Morbid Life. Airdate: September 16, 2021 You can catch the replay on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wd9nnnS-0M

Ken Volante invited me back to his Something (Rather than Nothing) podcast, where we had a great death-positive conversation about This Morbid Life and “dug into issues of how to deal with death, what it means for our life, the meaning of things, flowers, anatomy, something and nothing.” Airdate: September 28, 2021.

R.L. Merrill and Amy Z. Chan invited me to “What Are You Reading? the Horror edition!” on Clubhouse. The conversation included E. M. Markoff, Emerian Rich, and Naching Kassa. Airdate: October 15, 2021.

LaShell Scott and I had the best conversation, dreaming about the cemeteries we’d love to visit on her Stones, Bones & Shadows podcast. Airdate: November 7, 2021.

Interviews:

This one appeared at the end of 2020, but I didn’t get a chance to add it to last year’s list: Both Emerian Rich and I took part in a Chilling Chat interview on Horror Addicts about our Spooky Writer’s Planner on 12/29/20: https://horroraddicts.wordpress.com/2020/12/29/chilling-chat-swp-loren-rhoads-and-emerian-rich/

The Horror Tree chatted me up for their Women in Horror interviews on 3/2/21:  https://horrortree.com/wihm-12-quick-six-questions-with-loren-rhoads/

How Stuff Works interviewed me for “Who’s Buried in Pere Lachaise?” which was published on 3/5/21 and updated in August. https://history.howstuffworks.com/european-history/pere-lachaise.htm

The Creatively Green Write-at-Home Mom interviewed me about This Morbid Life and its follow-up book, coming out next year. The interview appeared on 8/30/21: https://creativelygreen.blogspot.com/2021/08/author-interview-this-morbid-life-by.html

Serena Synn interviewed me and ran a taste of one of the ghost stories in This Morbid Life on 8/31/21: https://serenasynn.blogspot.com/2021/08/interview-with-loren-rhoads-author-of.html

The Deadlands interviewed me to accompany my “Cemetery Postcards” essay: https://thedeadlands.com/issue-06/the-morbid-life/

Fanbase Press interviewed me about the art that inspired This Morbid Life on 9/23/21.

The Write Start interviewed me on 10/20/21.

Cemeteries:

It was a good year for cemeteries, even if I didn’t get a cemetery book finished this year.

I was thrilled to see 199 Cemeteries to See Before You Die amongst these wonderful books at the end of Roger Bowdler’s Tomb Tourism lecture for the Church Monument Society.

Wattpad chose my book Graveyard Field Trips for their Nonfiction Spotlight feature in February. You can read the book here. It will form the basis of Still Wish You Were Here, which I hope to have out in paperback in 2023.

My “Welcome to Cemetery Travel” video was finished finally this year, thanks to Brian Thomas for the camerawork and John and Leo Palisano, who did the editing. I’m really proud of it!

Witchcrafted Life included my Cemetery Travel blog in “13 Awesome Cemetery Focused Blogs Every Taphophile Should Be Following” on October 13, 2021.

Bookshop.org featured my list of Cemetery Books Every Taphophile Must Have in October.

Miscellaneous Good Things:

In January last year, I started hosting a session of Shut Up & Write on Tuesday mornings. Having the weekly date was so inspiring. Over the magic of Zoom, I met and wrote alongside authors from Hong Kong, Spain, Great Britain, and across the US. I’ve also been hosting two hours of Creative Support on Wednesday mornings. If you’d like to join us, let me know. I’d be glad to send you the links.

I hosted on episode of the great twitter chat Write & Wine on August 13, 2021. I love the concept of Twitter chats, but I’m not sure how you build the pool of contributors. Something to consider for next year.

This Morbid Life got some really great reviews this year:

Wayne Fenlon made a really beautiful animated cover for it, too:

My Goodreads giveaway attracted 665 entries for 100 copies. The reviews are still coming up there, but they’ve been better than I expected for a potentially prickly book.

As I try to get more comfortable making videos, I put together an Introduction to This Morbid Life on Youtube.

I was asked to blurb two books this year:

“Beautiful, heart-wrenching, and very funny, S. G. Browne’s Lost Creatures is the sardonic city-dwelling sibling of Grimm’s Fairy Tales. Browne creates deep empathy for his characters, then breaks your heart with the surprising and entirely understandable choices they make. This book is so original, it’s breathtaking. I absolutely loved it.”
— Loren Rhoads, author of Unsafe Words

“This lushly described Malaysian ghost story shocks like a sudden arctic breeze in the middle of a Kuala Lumpur summer. There were times, as I read Finches, when my blood ran cold. A. M. Muffaz’s exquisitely portrayed characters will continue to haunt you long after their story is over.” — Loren Rhoads, author of Unsafe Words

 

The best two things from last year were publishing the Behind the Scenes booklets for As Above, So Below and the In the Wake of the Templars novels. I gathered my favorite guest posts I’ve written about the books, alongside a master interview culled from all the interviews I’ve given and a short story set in the worlds of the novels. If you’d like to read one or both of these for free, here are the links:

As Above, So Below: Behind the Books: https://BookHip.com/KHJFPA

In the Wake of the Templars: Behind the Books: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/wuagew2m0f

I “finished” the As Above, So Below playlist on Spotify, although I keep stumbling across songs that make me like of Lorelei & Azaziel’s romance. Check it out: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4XQGeCIyoCXzwMHvAwJ4Db

Azaziel tea is full of flowers, to represent the Fields of Heaven.

Thanks to Adagio teas, I created As Above, So Below tea blends to represent the succubus and her angel. It was really fun!

 

 

 

Blogging/Social Media:

I started putting pieces from my cemetery postcard collection up on Instagram this year, which has been fun. Altogether I managed 110 Instagram posts this year, which is amazing, since I still don’t feel like I know what I’m doing. You can check it out for yourself @morbidloren.

I managed only 40 blog posts here in 2021, when my goal was to post every Monday. I’m going to work on that for next year.

I only posted 14 times on Cemetery Travel this year — and that didn’t even work out to monthly. I really need to get better about that in 2022.

Here’s to better days coming soon!

Never Enough 2021

Every year I recap the writing triumphs and disappointments of the previous twelve months. Practically every year I feel like I haven’t done enough. This year I didn’t do what I set out to do, but a whole lot of the middle of the year (between my second Covid shot and the booster) was spent catching up on the medical appointments three people and two cats had missed in the previous 18 months. So like last year, I feel that anything that got accomplished was a triumph against entropy.

Book publications:

I set out to finish 3 books this year, but that didn’t happen. Instead, I assembled This Morbid Life, a collection of 45 personal essays that detailed my obsession with the darker side of life. I’m really pleased with how to book turned out and the reviews have been good.

I assembled As Above, So Below: The Complete Story this year, too. The ebook set combined corrected versions of the succubus/angel novels I wrote with Brian Thomas, along with a “Dictionary of Demons, Devils, and Angels.” I’m really pleased with it, as well.

Short Fiction publications:

I had three short stories published this year.

“Dumb Supper,” an Alondra story about ghosts and Mardi Gras, was published by the Ladies of Horror Flash Project in March. It was inspired by the image on the left. You can read the story — it’s very short! — for free here.

“Devil in Her Heart,” a story about my succubus Lorelei back when she was working in the music scene in LA in the 1960s, was published by the Fabulist in October. You can read it for free here.

“Zoonosis,” a story not connected to any of my other characters, was also published in October. It’s about being a mom and all the constant calculations that run through your head. It appears in the 99 Tiny Terrors anthology, edited by Jennifer Brozek. Other contributors to the anthology include my friends L.S. Johnson, Emerian Rich, and Mary Rajotte, along with Seanan McGuire and so many more. It’s not available on Amazon yet, but you can get the ebook from Apple and other distributors: https://books2read.com/99TinyTerrors

I’ve had a Lorelei + Alondra story spoken for by another magazine, but we’ve only got a handshake deal. Since there’s no contract yet, I probably shouldn’t announce the details.

Short Nonfiction Publications:

“Cemetery Postcards,” the piece I’m most proud of this year, appeared in The Deadlands #6 on 10/19/21.

“Goal-Setting for Writers” appeared on the Liminal Fiction site 1/31/21: https://www.limfic.com/2021/01/31/goal-setting-for-writers/

“Lost Angels, Orally Fixated,” which talked about the kissing in the first As Above, So Below book, was reprinted on Emz Box on 2/16/21: https://sweetdreamsnovel.wordpress.com/2021/02/16/lost-angels-oral-fixated/2/16/21

My Goal-Setting essay was reprinted, along with my essays, “Overlooked Elements of Promotion” and “How to Write When You Don’t Feel Up to It” at the online HOW Con, hosted by Horror Addicts, February 22-24, 2021.

“How a Writing Planner Saved me Last Year” appeared on No Wasted Ink on 3/4/21:
https://nowastedink.com/2021/03/04/how-a-writing-planner-saved-me-last-year-by-loren-rhoads

I wrote about one particular “Unexpected Influence” that kept cropping up throughout This Morbid Life for MarthaJAllard.com 8/20/21: https://www.marthajallard.com/post/unexpected-influences-loren-rhoad-talks-about-her-new-memoir-this-morbid-life

I remembered the first time I watched a total lunar eclipse for Tillism.com in an essay called “I Fell in Love with the Moon” 8/22/21: https://tillism.com/2021/08/22/i-fell-in-love-with-the-moon/

A Bewitching Guide to Halloween posted my video introducing some of my favorite stories in This Morbid Life 8/23/21: https://www.abewitchingguidetohalloween.com/2021/08/this-morbid-life-by-loren-rhoads.html

“How I Grew into Being Morbid” appeared as a Tell Me feature on Jennifer Brozek’s blog on 8/23/21: http://www.jenniferbrozek.com/blog/post/2021/08/23/Tell-Me-Loren-Rhoads2

The Home for Wayward Spirits published my guest post about Near Escapes, a local tour company that took me to visit a local crematorium 8/25/21: https://homeforwaywardspirits.com/2021/08/25/guest-post-loren-rhoads/

“Ghost Hunting Tips from Loren Rhoads” appeared on The Paranormalists 8/26/21: https://paranormalists.blogspot.com/2021/08/ghost-hunting-tips-from-loren-rhoads.html

Horror Addicts published one of the essays that went into This Morbid Life, so I wrote a piece called “Claustrophobia Revisited” which appeared 8/30/21: https://horroraddicts.wordpress.com/2021/08/30/claustrophobia-revisited-by-loren-rhoads/

Hungry? I presented one of my favorite autumn recipes from This Morbid Life at Readers Entertainment magazine 9/12/21: https://readersentertainment.com/2021/09/12/my-favorite-dessert-by-loren-rhoads/

“Telling the Truth as a Radical Act” appeared on Emz Box 9/15/21: https://emzbox.wordpress.com/2021/09/15/telling-the-truth-as-a-radical-act-by-loren-rhoads/

“Living in a World of Ghosts,” about the cemetery I grew up with and my openness to ghosts, appeared on The Book Junkie Reads 9/17/21:
https://thebookjunkiereadspromos.blogspot.com/2021/09/spotlight-wguest-post-nonfiction-this.html

“Creating the Character ‘I'” appeared on the WordsMatter SCWA Surfside blog 10/18/21: https://wordsmattersurfsidescwablog.wordpress.com/2021/10/18/creating-the-character-i/

My list of the “Best Death-Positive Memoirs” appeared on The Shepherd List on 10/18/21: https://shepherd.com/best-books/death-positive-memoirs

“Blood-Drinking Freaks” about the vampires who appeared in Morbid Curiosity magazine and in This Morbid life, appeared as part of the Halloween Haunts series the Horror Writers Association blog 10/18/21:

Halloween Haunts: Blood-Drinking Freaks by Loren Rhoads

“The Heart of This Morbid Life” appeared on Ellderet.com on 10/23/21: http://www.ellderet.com/emmarkoff-blog/2021/10/21/guest-post-loren-rhoads-death-positive-movement-essay

“How to Blend Teas for the Holiday,” about making teas at Adagio, appeared on Mythical Books on 12/2/21: https://mythicalbooks.blogspot.com/2021/12/if-romeo-had-wings-and-juliet-barbed.html

My favorite ginger cookie recipe was published on Sadie’s Spotlight on 12/3/21: http://sadiesspotlight.com/as-above-so-below-box-set-giveaway/

 

Reading “The Angel’s Lair”

“One night an angel named Azaziel walked into a club called Lost Angels. His presence was too much for the succubus Lorelei to resist. From that point on, it’s a race to see who can tilt the other into falling first.”

The first chapter of our novel Lost Angels was originally written as a short story. I wrote it as a birthday present for Brian Thomas, who was so inspired that he unexpectedly wrote a second chapter, then a third chapter…and suddenly we were writing a book together.

Since the story was originally intended as a gift, I thought you might enjoy the story yourself. You have two free options to choose from:

Let me read to you!

Last year, I was honored to read “The Angel’s Lair” for The Story Hour. They recorded the reading, which is up on the Story Hour Facebook page. (Ignore the video image. That’s Mike Allen, who read a killer story about ghost spiders after I finished. It’s the right video — and you should listen to his story, too!) After Daniel Marcus’s very kind introduction, I start about 4 minutes in. https://www.facebook.com/The-Story-Hour-102109784794285/videos/656488545031376

Download the story to your ereader!

If you’d like to read “The Angel’s Lair” yourself, it’s available for free as an ebook on Bookfunnel: https://BookHip.com/KLSCKVZ

If “The Angel’s Lair” inspires you to want to read the rest of the story, you can find Lost Angels, the first novel of the As Above, So Below duo, here:

From Smashwords as a mobi, epub, or PDF. Smashwords is running a sale until the end of the year, so you can get the book at a discount!For the Kindle or in paperback from Amazon.In paperback from IndieBound or Bookshop.org.From Barnes & Noble for the Nook or in paperback.

Or get both Lost Angels and Angelus Rose as one ebook “set” from Amazon here: https://amzn.to/3dqq2IX

Behind As Above, So Below

Our novels Lost Angelus and Angelus Rose pose the question: If Romeo had wings and Juliet a barbed tail, could they find happiness in the City of Angels?

Over this past summer, I put together a giveaway ebook that collected my favorite guest posts I’ve written about the books while promoting them here and on other people’s blogs.

As Above, So Below: Behind the Books Lost Angels and Angelus Rose details the research, location spotting, character development and more that went into this sweeping epic series. Just as the novels combine paranormal romance and horror, these essays explore the number of kisses in the books as well as my inspirations for the exorcism. There’s a “master” interview combining the best questions asked in all the interviews I did to promote these books, a dictionary of angels and demons who appear in the books, and in-depth explorations of just where these characters came from.

Best of all, As Above, So Below: Behind the Books includes my story “Devil in Her Heart,” about Lorelei’s adventures in the music industry before she met Azaziel.

If you’re curious, you can download a copy of your own FREE from Bookfunnel: https://BookHip.com/KHJFPA

And if you’re curious about the books themselves, you can find Lost Angels, the first novel of the pair, here:

For the Kindle or in paperback from Amazon.In paperback from IndieBound or Bookshop.org.From Barnes & Noble for the Nook or in paperback.From Smashwords as a mobi, epub, or PDF.

Or get both Lost Angels and Angelus Rose as one ebook “set” from Amazon here: https://amzn.to/3dqq2IX

 

Visual References for As Above, So Below

I’ve talked before about the first photograph that inspired the character Lorelei in my original short story about the succubus who falls in love with the angel. The story sprang from a photo in Access magazine that accompanied an interview with Angelina Jolie just after Hackers came out.

As far as I am concerned, Angelina was the best part of Hackers. I loved the effortless sexuality she portrayed, the manipulative intelligence. And the snakeskin dress didn’t hurt when I combined the Kate Libby character with the devil girl I wanted to write about.

Once I mentioned Angelina as the inspiration for Lorelei, my co-writer Brian (who was working in the 20th Century Fox research library at the time) went on a mission to find more images of Angelina as Lorelei:

Angelina from the June 2000 issue of Maxim in a story to promote Girl, Interrupted.

From the cover story in the June/July 2000 issue of Talk magazine. The text that came with the photo talks about Angelina and her dad John Voight, so I wonder if she was filming the Lara Croft movie about this time.

I’m not sure where this photo came from. Maybe this is around the time Gia came out?

Brian and I talked about who might embody the look of Lorelei’s sister succubus, Floria. In the books, we describe Lorelei as voluptuous and dark while Floria is thinner and blond as a ray of light. Brian suggested Charlize Theron:

I’m not sure which magazine this came from, but doesn’t Charlize look like fun? There’s even a glimpse of the tattoo inside her ankle to hint that there’s more to her than glamour.

I love this cover of the January 1999 Vanity Fair. That expression is more like I think of Floria: She’ll perform for her prey when requires it, but really, she is done with this whole business.

I only ever had this one photo that represented Azaziel, an image of Rafe Fiennes from Strange Days. I couldn’t bring myself to like the movie, but the battered man with everything slipping through his fingers symbolized the angel who couldn’t see beyond his own loneliness.

It’s funny, but Brian sent me a whole lot more images to represent Yasmina, the temptress who wants to be Azaziel’s nemesis. The character of Yasmina was inspired — and took her name from — one the Victoria’s Secret models of the era, but Brian sent me some wonderfully snakelike visuals for the temptress with a taste for designer gowns:

I wish I knew where this photo came from. It’s clearly a runway show, but I can’t identify the designer or the model. She really captures the fierce, snakelike character Yasmina.

This leather jacket and skirt came from Gianfranco Ferre. It seems like exactly the sort of thing Yasmina would wear. In the books, she’s always entertaining herself by flaunting the serpent in her nature.

This is actress Carrie Ann Moss, soon after the first Matrix movie came out. She’s wearing a black leather dress by Richard Tyler for an interview in Movieline magazine.

Finally, Brian sent me some images to get the flavor of how he imagined the demons of LA ran their businesses. These guys don’t actually embody the demons we describe in the books, but they capture their spirits.

Now that you’ve got the images in your head, you can read the stories inspired by them! If I did this right, you can just click on the banner and be taken to Amazon. If not, the link is https://amzn.to/3dqq2IX

As Above, So Below: The Complete Story

Does your kindle need some warming up for the holiday? I collected both succubus/angel novels into a single “box set” that’s called As Above, So Below: The Complete Story. You can pick it up on Amazon.

One of my favorite reviews says: “The Good Guys are bad. The Bad Guys are good. Characters with complex morality make this book a rich and randy read. Angels and demons–sexy and dangerous–keep the pages turning.” Thanks, Angel!

You can find excerpts, more reviews, and behind-the-scenes peeks on the books’ page here.

Once again, I’m off on a blog tour in support of the books, thanks to Roxanne and Bewitching Book Tours. The first two stops went up today. There’s a Rafflecopter giveaway with prizes from me and other authors participating in the tour.

Watch this space for more goodies to come!

December 2 Mythical Books
https://mythicalbooks.blogspot.com/2021/12/if-romeo-had-wings-and-juliet-barbed.html

December 2 Midnight Musings with Bertena
https://midnightmusingswithbertena.blogspot.com/2021/12/making-tea-blends.html

December 3 Sadie’s Spotlight
http://sadiesspotlight.com/

December 6 Fang-tastic Books
http://fang-tasticbooks.blogspot.com

December 7 Paranormalists
https://paranormalists.blogspot.com/

December 8 Roxanne’s Realm
http://www.roxannerhoads.com/

December 9 The Creatively Green Write at Home Mom
http://creativelygreen.blogspot.com/

December 9 Lisa’s World of Books
http://www.lisasworldofbooks.net/

December 10 Westveil Publishing
https://www.westveilpublishing.com

December 13 Serena Synn
https://serenasynn.blogspot.com/

December 14 Jazzy Book Reviews
http://bookreviewsbyjasmine.blogspot.com/

December 15 Momma Says: To Read or Not to Read
http://mommasaystoreadornottoread.blogspot.com/

December 16 Sapphyria’s Books
https://saphsbooks.blogspot.com/

December 17 JB’s Bookworms with Brandy Mulder
https://jbbookworms.blogspot.com

December 20 The Book Junkie Reads
https://thebookjunkiereadspromos.blogspot.com/

December 20 I Smell Sheep
http://www.ismellsheep.com/

December 21 Supernatural Central
http://supernaturalcentral.blogspot.com

Behind “Devil in Her Heart”

I was an infant when the Beatles played the Ed Sullivan Show. My parents were young newlyweds, holding down their first jobs out of college, so I don’t know if they watched it. Despite that, the Beatles provided the unacknowledged soundtrack for my childhood, always on the radio.

I first tuned into their music in junior high when our choir director chose a medley of Eleanor Rigby and Here, There, and Everywhere for us — and was shocked that none of us seventh-graders recognized the songs. Soon after that, I discovered Yellow Submarine on TV for the first time. The first record album I bought was the the Yellow Submarine soundtrack.

In eighth grade I fell in with some girls who wrote stories about bands they liked. We didn’t call it fanfic back then — because we hadn’t heard the term yet — but that was basically what it was: self-insert stories about our adventures with our favorite bands. They wrote about the Bay City Rollers (who, to be honest, were closer to us in age). I wrote about the Beatles. Not the Beatles as they were at the time, in their late 30s, leading their own careers and raising their own children. I wrote about the Beatles as if the characters they played in the movie Help! were real people.

I pretty much forgot about those early stories until I saw a call for submissions for an anthology about the Beatles. Since I’d already written a story about Jimmy Page selling his soul (“Never Bargained for You,” which is in my short story collection, Unsafe Words), I thought I’d write one about why the Beatles stopped touring in 1966.

Off to Green Apple I went to research the real history of the band. I came across the book Beatles ’66: the Revolutionary Year, which was exactly what I needed, answering all my questions and providing the perfect context for the story. “Devil in her Heart” came together really easily after that.

Of course, the story didn’t make it into the anthology. Instead, it found a home at The Fabulist magazine. You can read “Devil in her Heart” for free here: https://fabulistmagazine.com/devil-in-her-heart/.

I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to read that story live, since I feel like most of its power is in capturing the way the Beatles spoke: the Liverpool accents, the slang, the puns and putdowns and affection for each other. I’m really pleased with how it sounds in my head as I read it, but I’m not sure I can ever do justice to it aloud.

All of this is on my mind because I watched the first episode of Peter Jackson’s Beatles documentary last night. It’s longer than it needs to be, frustrating to watch just as it must have been for the Beatles as they slogged through those sessions. It’s also incredibly brave for them to have allowed themselves to be filmed as they struggled to write songs when they didn’t have anything they were burning to say. Even at the best of times, the creative process is messy and painful and spiraling — and this was not the best of times. Still, amongst the chaos flashes brilliance: Harrison playing I Me Mine for them for the first time, McCartney fumbling to assemble Get Back, Lennon singing Give Me Some Truth, which would appear to devastating effect on his Imagine album.

The Beatles had broken up before I discovered them. John Lennon was assassinated while I was still in high school. Over the years, I’ve read their biographies, watched movies dissecting their impact on popular music and the world. I sang their songs to my colicky baby when she was fussy. She grew up on their movies. I’m immensely grateful that nearly sixty years after their first album, they still provide me with inspiration and food for thought.

Nanowrimo in the Days of Covid

I had such good intentions for Nanowrimo this year. I was going to pull together all the pieces I’ve written about writing and assemble them into a workbook for the writers I mentor through the Horror Writers Association. The book, which I was calling Writing in Cafes, was going to include the homework I find myself giving my mentees over and over, some exercises on how to create a writing practice, and my thoughts on all the turmoil that goes along with an art that requires you to spill your thoughts onto a page without getting too emotionally invested in them.

I spent the first week of November pulling all the stuff I’ve written about writing together. All told, it added up to about 60,000 words, but there was no structure to it. Some of it was repetitive. There were a lot of topics I didn’t cover. I had lists and lists of things I wanted to add.

And there I stalled. On the 9th, I went back to visit my elderly folks in Michigan. The flight out was challenging for someone who hasn’t really left home in the last two years. The plane hadn’t even taken off before the woman in the row ahead of me took off her mask. I had a vacant seat beside me, but the woman on the aisle kept taking off her mask so she could nap. The flight attendants kept waking her to put it back on, but I didn’t feel safe.

And that was a motif for the trip. When I bought my plane tickets at the end of October, Michigan only had 34 people per 100,000 testing positive each day. After I’d been there 3 days, 17,779 tested positive on one day — the highest positivity rate in the country. The daily average of new cases of Covid in Michigan was over 7,000 a day.

I’ve talked before about having a kid with a chronic illness. Over the last 20 months, we have sacrificed so much and held to such strict protocols to keep them safe. In my neighborhood in San Francisco, people continue to walk around outside alone with their masks on. I was horrified but not surprised to discover that none of that held true in Michigan. I was often the only person in a room with a mask on. All around me, people were shopping and eating in restaurants and going to church as if the pandemic was over, even as the news droned on and on about how bad things were going to get.

This was a highlight, though. Glorious Sunset Hills at the tail-end of autumn.

[image error]It was exhausting. I was so tired at the end of every day that it was all I could do to fall into bed with a book.

Flying home was even worse. As soon as the plane took off, the woman at the end of my row had a dry cough she couldn’t get under control. Around the plane, other people coughed on and off throughout the flight. The woman beside me disappeared half an hour before we landed, only to return to her seat with a full-size trash bag she’d gotten from the flight attendants. She coughed and dry-heaved into it until the plane had landed.

I’m triple vaxxed and was double masked, but only today, after my second negative Covid test, do I feel like I’m finally starting to unwind.

Needless to say, I haven’t even looked at Writing in Cafes. It feels horrible, like I’m a failure.

I am trying to cut myself some slack and be gentle with myself. For years, I’ve told other writers that it isn’t important to “win” Nanowrimo, it’s only important that you write. Any work you have done by November 30 is work you didn’t have done before.

If I don’t write another word this month, I’ve still pulled together 60k words of what amounts to a rough draft. I have a much better handle on this project than I had in October. From here, I have something to edit, something to structure — something I can play with.

The lesson I’m learning this year isn’t the one I anticipated, but it’s still useful to know.

Are you participating in the National Novel Writing Month this year? How is it going for you?