Loren Rhoads's Blog, page 29
October 5, 2018
Death: An Oral History
Death: An Oral History by Casey Jarman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The spectrum of people who are interviewed in this book is impressive. They range from someone who’s researching composting humans to a former death row warden who has become an anti-death penalty advocate. Particularly fascinating to me were the talk with a hospice volunteer who doesn’t shy from discussing the deaths of strangers and the interview of philosopher Simon Critchley, who has so many interesting things to say that I’m going to track down his books.
The interview with the woman who wants to start a psychedelic hospice, where the dying can trip out as they come to terms with their mortality, was really intriguing, but unfortunately short on details. A pipe dream, you might say.
Some of the pieces where people face their grief are wrenching to read. Some of the interviews drift far from death, particularly the talk with Art Spiegelman, which ends up being more about life as a cartoonist when I wanted to hear about his experiences facing death on psychedelics. Others grow repetitive and, for my taste, those could have been shortened. I have to admit I skimmed in places.
Full disclosure: Casey interviewed me for the book in August 2015. I wasn’t paid for the interview and had to buy my own copy of the book, but I’m glad I did. It contains much food for thought.
You can pick up a copy for yourself at Amazon: https://amzn.to/2pBkO49
View all my reviews on Goodreads.
October 4, 2018
The full list of interviews, updated
I am always glad to be interviewed about writing and/or cemeteries. Please get in touch if you’d like to chat.
Here’s the list of all the interviews I’ve done as of September 2018:
Fiona McVie interviewed me about writing and The Alondra Stories for her extensive series of author interviews, September 6, 2018.
“The Horror Tree presents an interview with Loren Rhoads” by Ruschelle Dillon, August 18, 2018.
Lucy Coleman Talbot interviewed me for Death and the Maiden, December 12, 2017.
“A Kind of Serendipity: 199 Cemeteries to See Before You Die” interview on the Funeral Zone, November 24, 2017.
“Ask the Author: A Q&A with Loren Rhoads” on Sonorawrites.com, August 15, 2018.
Terri Leigh Relf asked me back to her Day in the Life of an Author interviews, March 2018.
“New Contemporary Fantasy from Loren Rhoads” interview by Martha J. Allard, February 28, 2108.
Women in Horror Month interview: “Loren Rhoads takes us through the gates of the cemetery” at Library of the Damned, February 22, 2018.
“The Best Historic Cemeteries to Visit Around the World” in The National Trust for Historic Preservation, October 27, 2017.
“Hurry to see a cemetery while you can still appreciate it, says author Loren Rhoads”
in the Los Angeles Times, October 18, 2017.
“What Gets Remembered: How Visiting a Cemetery Can Teach you About History” in
Time magazine, October 3, 2017.
“Cemetery-book author takes readers to 199 of her favorites” in the San Diego Union Tribune, September 27, 2017.
Tim Prasil interviewed me about The Alondra Stories for his site, The Merry Ghosthunter, on September 17, 2017.
Interview about Automatism Press on HorrorAddicts.net, December 4, 2016.
J. Scott Coatsworth interviewed me on his blog about The Dangerous Type books, November 27, 2016.
31 Days of Halloween…with Loren Rhoads on Library of the Damned, October 14, 2016.
Casey Jarman interviewed me about Morbid Curiosity and cemeteries for his book Death: An Oral History. It came out August 2, 2016.
Margaret L. Carter interviewed me at length about Dracula and succubi for the May issue of her deliciously dark newsletter. You can subscribe to it here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/margaretlcartersnewsfromthecrypt
Coreena McBurnie interviewed me on her blog about Lost Angels and writing, May 2, 2016.
Eric Fomley interviewed me about writing and Lost Angels for Deviant Worlds, April 16, 2016.
Carl Slaughter interviewed me about grimdark, violence in space opera, Mary Sues and kick-ass heroines at on SFSignal, February 29, 2016.
Lisa Haselton interviewed me and ran an excerpt of No More Heroes on her Reviews & Interviews blog, November 4, 2015.
Wendy Van Camp interviewed me about No More Heroes on No Wasted Ink, November 4, 2015.
Terri Leigh Relf featured me on her Day in the Life of an Author interviews, October 2015.
Alyx Dellamonica made me face The Heroine Question, September 23, 2015.
Carole Ann Moleti interviewed me about Kill By Numbers on her blog, September 13, 2015.
Laurel Anne Hill interviews “Award-Winning Author Loren Rhoads” for her blog about The Dangerous Type in September 2015.
“Cemetery tourism: History, Spirituality, Scenic Beauty draw Visitors to U.S. Burial Places” by Irene S. Levin for the Chicago Tribune, August 2, 2015.
Fiona McVie interviewed me about writing and The Dangerous Type for her extensive series of author interviews, July 21, 2015.
Shells Walter interviewed me about The Dangerous Type on her blog in July 12, 2015.
“Women in Horror: Loren Rhoads” on How to Dismantle Your Life, March 3, 2015.
Awwthentic Magazine interviewed me about my memoir All You Need Is Morbid and the Wattpad HQ award it won, March 2, 2015.
“Contributor Appreciation Month: Loren Rhoads” by Amanda Rose on Scoutie Girl, November 2014.
“The Morbid, The Merrier” interview by Natasha Ewendt on Goodreads, October 28, 2014.
“This is the Life of a Graveyard Tourist” by Cheryl Eddy on io9, October 27, 2014.
“Travel Memories from Loren” on the Travel Tester blog by Nienke Krook, for her Vintage Travel Memories feature, June 8, 2014.
“A Word with Loren Rhoads” interview with Tonia Brown on her Backseat Writer blog, March 27, 2014. This is a silly one.
“She’s Been Everywhere” by Patti Martin Bartsche in American Cemetery magazine, October 2013.
“Ladies of Sins of the Sirens: Interview with Loren Rhoads” by Meli Hooker, Dreadful Tales, February 21, 2012.
“Interview with Editor and Writer Loren Rhoads” in Black Sunday #1, September 11, 2011. Reprinted online May 27, 2012.
“Panel of Experts,” Gothic.Net, February 12, 2011.
“Exploring the Strange and Unusual with Loren Rhoads” by Dylan Madeley, Morbid Outlook, October 2009.
“Loren Rhoads: Life is a Morbid Curiosity” by David Niall Wilson, Macabre Ink, February 16, 2008.
“Tracing the Graves: Inside the Mind of Morbid Curiosity’s Loren Rhoads” by Alex S. Johnson, Vial #3.5, Winter 2002.
October 2, 2018
Morbid Curiosity Cures the Blues
[image error]My first big book sale came in 2008, when Scribner bought a collection of essays I’d culled from my Morbid Curiosity magazine. Morbid Curiosity collected true first-person confessions from people around the world, talking about the crazy stuff they had survived. It was fun to pull some of my favorite essays together into a book.
When it came time to submit the book, I never had any question about what the title would be. Morbid Curiosity Cures the Blues was the only thing I ever considered.
The title came from a quote about how the mere task of getting curious about something can cheer you up. It was just a throwaway line I read in a magazine, probably National Geographic. Once I added the “morbid” part to it, the title summed up exactly what I had intended for the magazine (and its book) to do: give readers some perspective. Yes, the world had dark corners and all of us are born to die. But, damn, look at the stuff these people survived to laugh about!
The book opens with M. Parfitt’s “Why,” which may well be my favorite essay that I ever had the luck to publish. She’s an artist who collects things other people throw away — dog fur, menstrual blood, playing cards — and makes art out of them. Her essay explains her original inspiration.
The book then went on to serve as a medical guinea pig, dance in a bikini bar, drink blood, visit Auschwitz, survive a car crash, dodge a pub bombing in London, and ends with some delicious ghost stories.
Fatally Yours said, “Morbid Curiosity Cures the Blues is a collection of the strange, the shocking, and the sinister, but at the same time the stories are all so personal that they are heartfelt and heart-wrenching. These stories go beyond mere voyeurism. Through them, you take a journey to some very dark places. Like the authors, you won’t emerge unscathed, but perhaps you’ll have a deeper understanding of the dark side of the human psyche, including your own.”
I’d really love it if you are tempted to check the book out. You can buy a copy from me and I’ll even inscribe it for you! Here’s the link to my book store: https://lorenrhoads.com/bookshop/
October 1, 2018
5 Questions for Sephera Giron
[image error]I was lucky enough to meet Sèphera Girón many years ago at the first Haunted Mansion Writers Retreat. Spooky things follow her around! I had the pleasure of editing her works for the Haunted Mansion Project: Year Two. (That book is out of print now, but I still have a couple of copies available for sale. Drop me a note if you’d like one.) I interviewed Seph back in 2013 in conjunction with that book and couldn’t wait to talk to her about her latest work.
Sèphera Girón is the author of over twenty books and numerous short stories. She is the current astrologer for Romance Daily News (https://www.romancedailynews.com/), where she writes weekly horoscopes for all the signs. You can follow her on Patreon and be the first to see and hear about her writing and acting gigs at http://www.patreon.com/sephera. Sèphera is also head of the Ontario Chapter of the Horror Writers Association: http://www.horror-writers.ca/.
About her new book, Captured Souls:
Dr. Miriam Frederick is brilliant but lonely. She is an award-winning scientist and professor at a local University. She uses her grant money to build a secret lab in her basement where she conducts mysterious experiments. Her subjects are the most perfect of humans. An intelligent author, an athlete with great stamina, and a beauty queen. Her dream is to combine all their qualities to create a family that will satisfy her deepest desires. However, the specimens aren’t always willing. And sometimes, secrets are discovered. Will the doctor be successful in her quest for companionship? Find out in the thrilling horror story Captured Souls on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2Ncu6kk.
Did something in the real world inspire Captured Souls?
[image error]The working title for Captured Souls was The Narcissist’s BLT: The Beauty, the Linguist, and the Triathlete. It was inspired by several real-world ideas: What if an award-winning grant-receiving tenured professor at the University of Toronto had a secret lab in her basement to conduct sex experiments on real humans? In Toronto, at the time I began making notes for the book, swingers/sex clubs were coming aboveground and becoming a way of life for people in alternative scenes.
Back nearly ten years ago, when I first began making notes for the book, narcissism was growing as a societal norm and boy, has it ever exploded. Everyone thinks the world owes them a living these days. That’s partly why there’s so much division in North American societies these days. (I can’t speak for the rest of the world as I don’t know firsthand,)
In real life, almost everyone dreams of romantic love and great sex with someone who looks like their dream preference, so this is an exploration into that fantasy. One step up from robot sex dolls, I guess!
What is your favorite scene in Captured Souls?
Well, spoilers… There’s an “off-camera” shark attack and, well, who doesn’t like shark attacks? There are many scenes in the book I love but they are all spoilers!
What was your writing process like as you wrote the book?
Captured Souls was my first book after a very traumatic life event that still has me shaken years later. However, I needed to get back into writing again. I began the book as writing from the various Specimens point of view. Then I wrote parts of it in third person. I threw out some of the book and then some of it was reformed into my novella Flesh Failure and set in 1888 instead of modern times.
I ultimately decided on journal format for the book, so we could see the mind of the mad scientist and only her POV to reveal her narcissism. It’s a bit like Mistress of the Dark in that way. I get away from technical this and that by indicating there are two diaries, one for thoughts (which is Captured Souls) and one for the scientific mechanics of how this all goes down, which we don’t see!
What was the best thing that happened during your promotion of Captured Souls?
I admit I’ve not been great at promoting this book as it was originally published by Samhain and was my first “e-book only” book. I had no idea how to promote an e-book. My very first ventures onto Instagram (my sons kept telling me to join Instagram to promote my books, so I have to thank them for that plunge) were of me taking tiny videos of myself as Dr. Miriam Frederick in an attempt to drum up interest for the book! It’s so fun to dress up as your own characters and do stuff. The videos are still on Instagram and on my YouTube channel. I read from part of the book at a Chi Series event and the recording is on my YouTube channel as well.
After Samhain Horror shut down, Scarlett Publishing took over publication and Captured Souls is now available in both print and e-book.
What do you have planned next?
The next book in my erotic horror Witch Upon a Star series is Taurus and that should be done in a couple of months. I’m also working on two horror novels and writing a space opera, which is nearly finished.
Follow Sèphera on Social Media!
Her homepage: http://sepheragiron.ca
Her Amazon page: https://amzn.to/2PXwf27
Twitch TV: https://www.twitch.tv/sephera666
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/sephera
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/sepheragiron
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sepheragiron/
On the Tarotpaths blog: http://tarotpaths.blogspot.ca
Do you need a freelance editor for your book, story, or website? http://scarlettediting.blogspot.ca
September 27, 2018
Kicking off Nanowrimo in San Francisco
This Saturday, September 29, the National Novel Writing Month is being celebrated in San Francisco at The Bindery at 4 pm. I’ll be one of the guest speakers.
This announcement is quoted from the official invitation:
The Kick-Off will include a raffle, guest speakers, lots of hanging out and camaraderie. We look forward to talking with you and hearing about your projects. It is always fun for us to meet before Nano gets started – make some new friends, get some writing buddies, meet the fine folks you will be writing with in November! Remember, even if you are shy, we don’t bite. Just find local liaisons Rachel or Barrington and they will help you meet your compatriots, if you need help with introductions. RSVP here so we know how much snacky stuff to get. We will also go through rules and region-specific write-in stuff, as well as reveal our super-fantastic-like-whoa Thank Goodness It’s Over venue.
Official Nanowrimo Business:
You can now create your novel on the website, if you are ready to do so.
Forums are heating up, so if you feel like chatting with like-minded people on the internet, have we got some forums for you!
The Nano store has some cute new stuff if you feel like getting anything or making a donation.
Kick-Off Business:
We’ve gotten some lovely raffle prizes (some donated, so we’ll have some thank you cards at Kick-Off if anyone cares to sign them!) for people to win. Raffle tickets are only $5 each and all proceeds will go towards regional expenses during Nano as well as towards things for TGIO. If there are funds left over after TGIO, we will donate them to Nano in the name of our fabulous region.
Raffle prizes so far:
Autographed copy of Pep Talks for Writers, by our very own Grant Faulkner (Thanks, Grant!)
10 Tote bags from Green Apple Books (we might put things in them, not sure yet!), donated by the good folks at Green Apple (Big thanks!)
A $25 dollar gift certificate to Christopher’s Books in Potrero Hill (Thanks, Christopher’s!)
An assortment of books donated by Chronicle Books, one of our favorite local book publishers! Huge thanks, Chronicle Books! (writerly books, really lovely ones!)
This year’s official Nanowrimo poster (so cute!)
“Writer’s Emergency Kits” – a mug, tea or coffee, and some chocolate, for emergency use only!
5 Gorgeous fountain pens, handpicked by Barrington (And he’s a man of taste, so… Just saying!)
A copy of Brenda Ueland’s If You Want To Write (this book helped me while I was getting my MFA in writing)
Some books donated by our friends at Stripe
Some books donated by our very generous guest speaker writers
Here is the list of guest speakers:
Judith Janeway is the award-winning author of four novels. Her lifelong love of mystery and suspense infuses her recent works, The Magician’s Daughter and the psychological thriller, Odds of Dying. The Street Artist, a piece of flash fiction, won the Orlando Prize and was published in the Los Angeles Review. Judith also has a short story, Get A Life, in the forthcoming Sisters in Crime anthology, Fault Lines. Website: JudithJaneway.com Instagram: @judithjanewayauthor Twitter: @judithjaneway
S.G. Browne is the author of the novels Breathers, Fated, Lucky Bastard, Big Egos, and Less Than Hero, as well as the short story collection Shooting Monkeys in a Barrel and the heartwarming holiday novella I Saw Zombies Eating Santa Claus. He’s an ice cream connoisseur, Guinness aficionado, cat enthusiast, and a sucker for It’s a Wonderful Life. You can learn more about his writing at www.sgbrowne.com.
Loren Rhoads is the author or editor of 11 books, including 199 Cemeteries to See Before You Die, the succubus novel Lost Angels, and a space opera trilogy called In the Wake of the Templars. This is her 15th year doing Nanowrimo — and her fourth year hosting Nanowrimo write-ins at Borderlands Bookstore. Her home is lorenrhoads.com.
Keith White’s fondness for Detective fiction (suspense/mystery) and historical supernatural thrillers is evident in the 5 novels he has written. Three of his novels, The Missing Target, Town of No Exit, and Dark Reckoning have all received favorable reviews from Kirkus and Publisher’s weekly reviewers. Town of no Exit was a semi finalist in last year’s Book Life Prize for Fiction by Publishers Weekly. Since 2001, he’s taught creative writing and self-defense as a volunteer teacher during the school year to 4th and 5th graders at an elementary school in San Francisco. He also never has, and never will, eat a banana.
September 24, 2018
5 Questions for Ben Monroe
Ben Monroe is a new member of my local Horror Writers Association chapter. I haven’t had the chance to meet him in person yet, but I’m looking forward to it.
Ben grew up in Northern California and has spent most of his life there. He lives in the East Bay Area with his wife and two children. He can be reached via his website at www.benmonroe.com and on Twitter @_BenMonroe_.
His new novel In the Belly of the Beast is set in the post-Cthulhupocalypse. It tells the story of a small group of human survivors trying to find a safe haven amidst the ruins of civilization. While traveling through a treacherous mountain pass, they find themselves caught between rival cults and discover there are worse things in the cold places of the world than frostbite. Based on the best-selling strategy game Cthulhu Wars, this book contains glimpses into the apocalyptic madness and chaos of this blasted world. The time is the near now, and the world trembles before Cthulhu and the other Great Old Ones.
You can pick up at copy of In the Belly of the Beast on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2MYbccQ. Ben says, “The ebook is actually live on Amazon right now, but is scheduled for a free day on September 27th. The print edition is almost done and should be up soon.”
[image error] Did something in the real world inspire In the Belly of the Beast?
Kind of! The book is set in the world of the Cthulhu Wars board game, a strategy game of warring cults and Lovecraftian monsters in an awful post-apocalypse. One of the things I needed to do was to choose a couple of cults to focus on in the story. Per the publisher, one of the cults had to be Cthulhu and his loathly followers. The other was up to me.
I’ve long been fascinated by Wendigo mythology since reading Blackwood’s “The Wendigo” as a child. The “Windwalker” faction of the game is all about wendigos and the awfulness they bring. It seemed like a theme that not many Lovecraft Mythos writers ever touch on, so I decided to go with that.
As luck had it, my son’s Boy Scout troop had a snow-camping trip planned as I was working out the details. I didn’t really want to go, as I hate the snow. Spending a weekend being cold and wet sounded awful, but they were short a driver. If I didn’t go with them, the whole trip they’d been planning for months would have been cancelled. So I spent a weekend camping in the California Sierras in the middle of February. I tried to make the best of it, but it was predictably awful.
In the end, that trip influenced a lot of the story. I set the lion’s share of the tale right up there near where we’d been camping. My experience being cold, wet, and miserable for two days influenced the latter parts of the book when the awful wendigo magic summons up snowstorms in the middle of the summer.
What is your favorite scene in the book?
There’s a scene where the “Rime if Ithaqua” is spreading around, chasing the protagonists of the book out of their safe space. This awful crystalline fungus sort of thing seeps and grows, forming fractal tendrils as it crawls around the walls of the building, searching out for human flesh to feed on.
It was actually inspired by a part of a film I saw a few years ago, The Day After Tomorrow. It was a pretty awful action movie about the end of the world and a flash freeze that destroys civilization. There was this one scene, where the heroes of the movie are in a library in New York City, and they’re being chased by fractals of ice rushing down the hallway. The ice is growing along the walls as they run away from it. I watched that thinking, “This is pretty much the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen in a movie.”
But it stuck with me. Over time, I found myself thinking, “What if the ice wasn’t just growing fast because it was cold? What if there was some malevolent intent behind the ice? What if the ice was actually seeking out human warmth and flesh?” I kept that in mind when I started writing those parts of the book and had a lot of fun with them.
What was your writing process like as you wrote In the Belly of the Beast?
I’m an unrepentant “pantser” when it comes to writing fiction. I like to start with an idea for a scene, or maybe a character or two, and just hit the ground running.
With this book, however, I had a tight turnaround time. The publisher needed me to hand in the final draft in about 4 months, so I knew I had to focus. To help with that, I built a quick “structure” diagram using Joseph Campbell’s various stages of his Hero’s Journey theory. I simply named each of my chapter folders in Scrivener after one of the stages of the Hero’s Journey and started writing.
I don’t know if I necessarily followed along his path (which can itself be constraining), but it really helped to keep me focused. Almost like taking a meandering road trip and seeing signs on the side of the road, giving you an idea of how far until the next turnoff.
In addition to that, the publisher had requested a few elements that I needed to include at the end of the book (essentially a big fight between two specific factions from the Lovecraft mythos). So I kept that in mind as an end point.
Aside from that, I was really able to write the story very loosely. I made a point to sit with the manuscript for at least an hour a day (I never managed more than three hours in any given day) during the period I was writing it. Usually I’d reread the previous day’s writing before jumping in to whatever I was doing that day. I also found that ending the day’s writing when I was getting really excited about it helped me a lot. I got so jazzed to come back to the page the next day, that I’d make sure to get my writing in as soon as I could.
As a freelance writer, and stay-home parent, I did have the luxury of fitting my writing in throughout the day in small chunks, if I needed to. And having Scrivener’s daily word count tracker helped me to keep an eye on the volume I was doing each day. My target word count was somewhat flexible, but it helped me a lot to just see how much progress I was making each day.
What was the best thing that happened during your promotion of In the Belly of the Beast?
That’s an interesting question. For the most part, my publisher has taken on all the duties associated with promoting the book. I’ve been talking it up on Twitter and Facebook and pretty much to anybody who’ll listen, but they’ve got a pretty huge customer base and have been talking it up to them a lot.
The best thing for me is just seeing how excited people are for the book. I’m really happy with the content and enjoyed writing it. I just hope the people looking forward to it enjoy it, too.
What do you have planned next?
I’m currently writing a graphic novel script for the same publisher. It’s based on their Planet Apocalypse board game and is a lot of fun. Never written a comic script before, so I’m learning a lot.
And I’m about 10k words into another novel now. It’s a ghost story with a decidedly cosmic horror angle to it. Hoping to be able to finish it this year and start shopping it around in early 2019.
You can follow Ben’s work at amazon.com/author/benmonroe.
September 17, 2018
5 Questions for Sheri White
[image error]Sheri White has lived in Maryland all her life and has the crab-picking skills and the big can of Old Bay in her pantry to show for it. Her stories have been published in many anthologies, including Be Very Afraid (edited by Edo Van Belkom), Decadence 2 (edited by Monica J. O’Rourke), Once Upon an Apocalypse (edited by Scott Goudsward and Rachel Kenley), and Fresh Blood, Old Bones (edited by Kasey Lansdale). Magazine appearances include Lamplight, The Sirens Call, Devolution Z, and Beware the Dark. She is the editor of the UK magazine Morpheus Tales. Find her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/sheriw1965.[image error]
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Sacrificial Lambs and Others is Sheri White’s first collection. From quiet horror to bloody violence, these flash fiction pieces and short stories are chilling and emotionally visceral. You will find people teetering on the brink of sanity, dark farms, creepy carnivals, weird kids, and Armageddon. These stories will stay with you long after you’ve closed the book.
Did something in the real world inspire Sacrificial Lambs and Others?
My stories are inspired by my childhood. I was raised by abusive parents. In addition, my mother became a “born-again Christian” when I was 12 and suddenly everything I did or thought assured my eternity in hell, which was going to happen when God destroyed the world in the year 2000. I spent years in a constant state of fear of dying in an apocalypse and burning in hell.
What is your favorite scene in the book?
My two favorite stories in the collection are “Scarecrow Night” and “Things Happen Here After Dark.” They were fun to write and actually creeped me out as I wrote them. Scarecrows unsettle me. What if you see one move out of the corner of your eye while you’re in the pumpkin patch? And carnivals at night are definitely spooky. Everyone knows that!
What was your writing process like as you wrote Sacrificial Lambs and Others?
Since these are short stories, they were mostly written for specific submission calls or contests. I don’t have an office or a desk; I write while sitting in my recliner with my laptop. Usually a dog or cat is sleeping next to me.
What was the best thing that happened during your promotion of the book?
The best part of having my collection published is that my mother-in-law, who was my best friend and mom, got to see it and hold it before she passed recently from cancer. She was my biggest fan and always read everything I wrote. After she passed, my father-in-law gave me a folder of everything I had emailed her to read, printed out. She also kept every small-press magazine and anthology I had stories in.
What do you have planned next?
I’m still writing mostly short stories and have several subs out I’m waiting to hear about. But I’m also planning a memoir based on the trauma I suffered from my parents, which, while not in the horror genre, is still dark.
You can pick up a copy of Sacrificial Lambs and Others on Amazon at https://amzn.to/2N8a0bg.
September 11, 2018
The Marquis de Sade and Me
One of our local movie theaters is showing a series of movies about authors and writing every Thursday evening this month. Local authors have been invited to read a little beforehand. This Thursday (September 13) I’m going to read a taste of my succubus novel Lost Angels before Quills, which stars Geoffrey Rush as the Marquis de Sade in the madhouse.
The movie explores the gray area between creativity and madness and the challenge imposed by censorship. I’m looking forward to seeing it again. Hope you can join me.
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September 10, 2018
5 Questions for Angela Yuriko Smith
[image error]Angela Yuriko Smith’s work has been published in several print and online publications, including the Horror Writers Association’s Poetry Showcase, volumes 2-5, Christmas Lites, volumes 1-6, and the Where the Stars Rise: Asian Science Fiction and Fantasy anthology.
She has written nearly 20 books of speculative fiction and poetry for adults, young adults, and children. Her first collection of poetry, In Favor of Pain, was nominated for an 2017 Elgin Award.
Her newest book is The Bitter Suites:
Book a stay at the Bitter Suites, a hotel that specializes in renewable death experiences. Whether you schedule your demise as therapy, to bond with a loved one, or for pure recreation, your death is sure to give you a new lease on life. Renewable death is always beneficial… at least to someone.
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Did something in the real world inspire The Bitter Suites?
I had a friend that was trapped in suicidal behavior set on repeat. She could pull herself up for a short time, but then she would slide back into the negative situation she had created for herself.
I wish she could just kill herself and move on, I thought one day. Of course, I didn’t mean actually die, but just somehow get it out of her system. I wanted her to have a near-death experience that would illuminate her shadows and show her the path up and out of the pit she had created. I wished she could get it out of her system, realize it didn’t help, and move on.
Bitter Suites was born from that fantasy. When the curtain of depression falls across our vision, the world is colored melancholy. People that have never experienced suicidal thoughts can’t understand. Even those of us that have may not understand—but we can empathize. Bitter Suites is my wish that there was a return path.
What is your favorite scene in the book?
Probably the Romeo and Juliet romantic partner death. I’m not a huge fan of romance, so it was really entertaining to write my idea of how two lovers would get along trying to re-enact the infamous death scene from Shakespeare’s play. Of course, pain brings out our true selves… along with other, even more unpleasant things.
What was your writing process like as you wrote The Bitter Suites?
At the time, I worked a lot of hours in my day job, so I really had to squeeze in a few words anywhere I could. I switched all my work over to Google Drive so it would be in the cloud and I could work anywhere with just my phone.
I had all the chapters laid out so I didn’t have to waste time thinking of would happen next. I still got surprises, when the characters went rogue and did things on their own. Popcorn was written almost entirely on my phone as I waited for an appointment to show up.
What was the best thing that happened during your promotion of the book?
Officially I released it at Kansas City Crypticon on Friday the 13th. Sales were good and I came very close to selling out. Just in case, I had grabbed a stack of some of my older books that I happened to have on hand.
On the last day, this wonderful gentleman came up to purchase a copy of Bitter Suites and he noticed there was only one copy left of one of my other books. Next thing I knew, he had grabbed a copy of every book I had out on display and bought them. Signing and writing a message in each one felt like I was writing another story. It seriously made my day.
What do you have planned next?
Right now I’m wrapping up two poetry collections. They are Psychonauts and Altars and Oubliettes. My husband has written a massive dark fantasy called Shadow’s Lament that I am pre-editing for him. Of course, I’m also busy writing Suite and Sour, the second Bitter Suites book. I hope to have it ready by early next year.
You can follow Angela’s blog at http://angelaysmith.com/ and keep an eye out for her new books at her Amazon page: https://amzn.to/2Af9aUA.
Pick up a copy of The Bitter Suites at https://amzn.to/2LZTLce.
September 9, 2018
199 Cemeteries at Cypress Lawn
[image error]Next Sunday, September 16, I will show some of my favorite photographs from 199 Cemeteries to See Before You Die at one of my favorite cemeteries in the book, Colma’s Cypress Lawn Memorial Park.
Cypress Lawn was founded in the 1890s as a garden cemetery. To this day, it is full of lovely statuary, an exotic arboretum, carpet flowerbeds, and monuments to the founding fathers of San Francisco. It also has acres of stained glass in its public catacombs. It’s one of the loveliest cemeteries in Northern California.
My talk starts at 2 pm in Cypress Lawn’s Reception Center at 1370 El Camino Real in Colma, California. It’s free and there will be refreshments. You can get more information here: http://www.cypresslawnheritagefoundation.org/events/lectures/ or call 650-550-8812.
I’ll have copies of 199 Cemeteries to See Before You Die and Wish You Were Here: Adventures in Cemeteries Travel available for sale. You’re also welcome to bring your own copy for a signature.
This is the only 199 Cemeteries event I’ve got scheduled so far this far, so don’t miss it. In fact, come early and have a lovely ramble in Cypress Lawn.
