Loren Rhoads's Blog, page 30

Author Interviews

I was just interviewed by Fiona Mcvie for her long-running series of chats with authors via Here is my interview with Loren Rhoads. I talk about the Alondra chapbooks.

Graveyard Field Trips

[image error]When I put together my first book of cemetery essays, I had so many essays written that I had to leave some of them out. I tried to be conscious of how many California cemeteries I included, how many times I rambled around graveyards with my mom, how many times I raved about how beautiful any particular burial ground was.  I wanted to include as many historically significant sites as possible, which meant leaving out some of my more personal stories. I wanted Wish You Were Here: Adventures in Cemetery Travel to be complete, but not an omnibus.

In 2014,  the year that the Red Room site went down — taking my blog with it, I switched over to Wattpad. It wasn’t a blogging platform in the same sense, but it allowed writers to publish books in a serial format.  The Wattpad team encouraged me to put together some nonfiction. They even helped by creating a cover for me.

[image error]That first book was All You Need is Morbid. It’s a collection of essays about traveling with my husband. Of course, it includes some cemetery essays, including a trip high into the mountains of the California Gold Country to find the tiny village graveyard of Iowa Hill, visiting the Bone Chapel of Kutna Hora on my birthday, searching out the Capuchin Catacombs on our first day in Rome, and stumbling across casts of people buried in the ruins of Pompeii.

All You Need is Morbid made the Featured Nonfiction list on Wattpad shortly after it was published. Then it won one of the first ever HQ Love Watty Awards.

Wattpad has included the book in a number of promotions since then.  Because they’ve been so generous, it’s been my intention to put together another essay collection for a while. This summer, I finally assembled a new book called Graveyard Field Trips.

[image error]This time I concentrated on stories about sharing my love of cemeteries with other people:

I poked around a tiny farming graveyard in Michigan with my brother, looking for a monument to circus roustabouts killed in a train wreck.
I visited artist M. Parfitt at the height of summer so we could explore the cemetery where she eventually became a tour guide.
My old friend Brian Thomas took me on a night tour of Westwood Memorial Park, to visit Marilyn Monroe’s grave.
My friend Ann Marie and I went on a doomed quest for the burial ground of the Tule Lake Concentration Camp.
Forestter Cobalt led me on a ghost hunt in Chicago’s Rosehill Cemetery.
I stood beside my great aunt as her own gravesite.
Mason and I explored the glories of ancient Rome.
My daughter and her friend met a scorpion in a graveyard in Singapore.
My family escorted me to see the Kiss of Death in Barcelona.
And more, of course!

The whole book is completed now and can be read for free on Wattpad.  It’s spooky, sentimental, star-struck, and deeply curious about life, death, and all the messy, beautiful things that make us human.  Please check it out at https://www.wattpad.com/myworks/151274118-graveyard-field-trips-a-memoir.

 

 

5 Questions for Erin Sweet Al-Mehairi

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Erin Sweet Al-Mehairi has Bachelor of Arts degrees in English, Journalism, and History. She has 20 years of experience in the communication and marketing fields and is currently a writer, journalist, editor, publicist, and a consultant, among many other things.

Her collection Breathe. Breathe. has been an Amazon bestselling title, debuting at #2 in Women’s Poetry behind NYT-bestselling poet Rupi Kaur. Erin is featured in the anthology from Unnerving called Hardened Hearts, published in December 2017. Her story “Dandelion Yellow” from Breathe. Breathe. is featured in the My Favorite Story anthology of the Project Entertainment Network. Currently, Erin is working as guest editor of a new anthology of poetry and short stories called Haunted are These Houses, coming from Unnerving this Fall.

Erin’s description of her book Breathe. Breathe.:

Breathe. Breathe. is a collection of dark poetry and short fiction exploring the surreal depths of humanity. It’s a representation of how life breaks us apart and words put us back together. Purged onto the pages, dark emotions flow, urging readers into murky seas and grim forests, to the fine line between breathing and death.

Amid these pages, the haunting themes of oppression, isolation, revenge, and madness unfold through folklore, nightmares, and often times, raw, impulsive passion crafted to sear from the inside out.

With a touching foreword by the Bram Stoker-nominated author Brian Kirk, Breathe. Breathe. will at times unsettle you and at times embrace you. Erin Sweet Al-Mehairi offers up a mixed set of pieces, identifying her as a strong new voice in dark fiction that will tear the heart from your chest, all the while reminding you to breathe.

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Did something in the real world inspire Breathe. Breathe.?

Breathe. Breathe. was inspired almost in its entirety by the world around me. That’s not to say there aren’t fantastical, mystical elements to it, but in each, there is also a bit of real-world trauma infused, too. Many of the poems in one section of the poetic half of the collection stem from living with domestic abuse, effects of sexual assault and rape trauma (in other words, #metoo before #metoo even started trending), chronic illness, disorders such as PTSD, anxiety, OCD, and depression. The other section of poetry, though featuring creatures, monsters, and entities from folklore and mythology, also intersperses threads of these issues, weaving together a look at humanity and how we treat each other.

As far as the short stories, yes much of the real world inspired all of them in different ways. “Vahalla Lane” is inspired by my own experience of living with domestic violence. In each of those women, there is a piece of me, yet they go much further with revenge. I suppose it was my way of continuing healing, in a horrifying sort of way! Some of the scenes in it–for instance, how the women were treated–really happened to me. I just channeled some inner Dolores Claiborne to make it a set of domestic horror revenge pieces.

In my short story “The Madness of the Woodpecker,” I infused elements of dealing with OCD, both in people around me and myself. Some of the other real-life elements came from this story being inspired by an actual woodpecker who had decided to stop pecking at our trees (we live in the woods) and begin to hammer the side of the home each morning and afternoon. As beautiful as he is, the bugger got rather bloody annoying.

“Life-giver of the Nile” was based on a reoccurring childhood nightmare of being drowned and gagged repeatedly and my continual need to keep beginning my life again year after year, never really getting any sort of normalcy or routine, and yet in that, becoming a cycle and routine all its own, albeit a toxic one.

“Dandelion Yellow,” one of the fan favorite stories from this collection, is a story written for all those who were affected by child abuse in one form or another or think they might have been. As well, it considers how so many of us in horrid situations create fantasy worlds in our mind or surroundings to mask the true horror. It’s for so many I know, dealing with the after effects of trauma and for all those still living with the trauma.

I think most of my best writing will always have pieces of real life, whether mine, those I know, or real-life issues humanity is facing. There will sometimes not be good endings, but in a majority of my work, people will find tiny rays of hope.

What is your favorite scene in Breathe. Breathe.?

I’d say one of my favorite poems is “Earl Grey Tea,” because I like the setting, the atmosphere, the mystery and suspense. I tried to write it as a very, very mini-Agatha Christie novel, an author who is a great inspiration to me.

What was your writing process like as you wrote the book?

I write in snippets. Firstly, I had already had some pieces stored away that I had just wrote during my healing process, as well as many I had been writing ongoing when inspired or when I felt compelled to write. I was able to see which of these fit into a coherent, flowing theme of “breathing” through trauma, fear, and pain. Then, I was able to write more pieces that adhered in some fashion to the main idea. Thanks to the brain lightbulb from my good friend and Bram Stoker-nominated author Brian Kirk, who also wrote the beautiful foreword for Breathe. Breathe., I divided the poetry into sections and rounded the collection out with the short stories. Unnerving, my publisher, first put out a chapbook with about half the poems and only two short stories and it sold out. A few months later, I wrapped up writing more pieces, and it was published in expanded format in print and e-book as well.

What was the best thing that happened during your promotion of the book?

At the time the book came out, I was also going through one of the worst years of my life. In fact, my entire life was falling and failing around me. It was all I could do to keep myself and my children going in some sort of positive fashion so none of their lives were marred by it. We suddenly had to move rurally. There weren’t many avenues for wi-fi hook-up, which took a huge toll on my business. Even to drive to a nearest spot offering wi-fi was over twenty minutes. That all said, the best thing that happened to me was how all my friends rallied for me and shared my collection. Every time I would be able to get to wi-fi, I would be astounded to see so many pushing and promoting my book for me. It was so heartwarming and humbling, and I am forever grateful to so many. I think it’s the one thing that helped get me mentally through such an awful time. What should have been the most exciting time in my life–publishing this collection that was written from such a deep place inside me–was almost ruined, but my writing pals and clients and even fans lifted me up and kept me going.

What do you have planned next?

I have a poem called “Wrapped in Battle” in a collection called Dark Voices, which came out from Lycan Valley Press in July.  The proceeds go to various breast cancer organizations. I wrote it in honor and memory of all my family and friends who’ve fought cancer.

I’m currently almost complete with the first draft of a collection of poetry, featuring everything and anything water. Water is a big inspiration to me. These poems feature lakes, rivers, even backyard pools and bathtubs. It has nostalgia, heartbreak, emotion, murder as well as sea creatures and shipwrecks. I’m seeking a publisher. It would be awesome to publish in 2018, but we’ll see!

I’m also currently in very slow process with my novel featuring beloved poet Emily Dickinson and a young lady that works at the library in Amherst, Massachusetts. The protagonist is in an abusive marriage and Dickinson’s ghost helps plot the revenge.

I’ve got some other ideas I’m plodding along with too, like a novella spin-off from Vahalla Lane and a few of the characters, a short story collection inspired by the art work of Van Gogh, and much more. I’m anxious to write a cult novel with author Duncan Ralston from an idea I have, but we are both finding the time in our busy schedules to work out the details yet.

Breathe. Breathe. is available on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2JYKAak and in print at Barnes and Noble and other fine online retailers.

You can e-mail Erin Sweet Al-Mehairi at hookofabook (at) hotmail (dot) com and find her easily at www.hookofabook.wordpress.com. You’ll also find her on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest where she loves new friends.

5 Questions for Sonora Taylor

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Photo by Karen Papadales

Sonora Taylor has been writing for many years. She is the author of The Crow’s Gift and Other Tales, a collection of short stories, and Please Give, a novel. Her next short story collection, Wither and Other Stories, will be released October 9, 2018. She lives in Arlington, Virginia with her husband.

Sonora’s description of The Crow’s Gift and Other Tales:

When seeking gifts from others, the greatest gift is often a connection. A lonely fourth-grader finds an unlikely friendship with a murder of crows. A college student tries, against all odds, to meet her favorite author. A commuter sees a stranger every day on her way to work. And a man who lives alone in the woods seeks a connection with anyone, so long as they’re another body to hold.

The greatest gifts, however, don’t always mean the greatest rewards. The fourth-grader learns that a crow’s idea of loyalty may challenge her own. The college student learns that in a battle between herself and fate, neither may be the victor. The commuter never learns her new friend’s name, which may be a gift in itself. The man in the woods sees any connection as a reward — though not necessarily for those he seeks.

Connections with others keep us afloat, in varying degrees and at varying costs. As the man in the woods so aptly says, “We all want closeness and companionship. Some of us just gain that by burying people in the floorboards.”

Sonora’s lovely book cover was designed by Doug Puller.

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Did something in the real world inspire The Crow’s Gift and Other Tales?

Three of the four stories were inspired by the real world. “I Love Your Work” and “I Never Knew Your Name” were both inspired by occurrences in my own life. “I Love Your Work” follows a girl who wants to meet her favorite author, yet never seems to be able to. I have favorite authors who I always seem to miss when they’re in town for a ticketed event. “I Never Knew Your Name” follows a woman who sees the same stranger every day. When I worked at my old job, I often walked by the same person every day who walked in the opposite direction. We developed a rapport, saying hi and smiling when we’d walk by each other, but that was it. In both of these instances, the stories ended there in my own life. I added sinister twists to the stories in the book.

The title story, “The Crow’s Gift,” was inspired by a story I read about a little girl who befriended a murder of crows by leaving them food. Soon, she found objects left on her porch as “gifts” from the crows. The crows remembered her and reciprocated her kindness. I thought this was a wonderful story and a great example of how human crows can be. Crows are also known to remember how different people behave toward them, including bad behavior. I focused more on that as I wrote “The Crow’s Gift.”

What is your favorite scene in the book?

My favorite scene is in the fourth and final story, “All the Pieces Coming Together.” Unfortunately, it’s a spoiler, so I’m hesitant to share it. Without revealing too much, it’s the scene that begins with the narrator saying, “You’ve got to be shitting me.”

I also like the scene at the end of “The Crow’s Gift,” where the main character, Tabitha, reflects on what it means for her to be friends with this particular crow.

What was your writing process like as you wrote The Crow’s Gift and Other Tales?

I wrote each story as they came to me. When I wrote them, I didn’t originally plan to collect them in a book. I decided to do so when I decided to self-publish my work. I realized after putting them together that they were connected — and funny enough, that theme was connection. Each character seeks to make a connection. It’s what that connection entails that leads to the horror.

What was the best thing that happened during your promotion of the book?

People buying it! I’m self-published and do all my own marketing. It always makes me happy when I see another sale.

I also loved seeing my book in print. I initially sold The Crow’s Gift and Other Tales as an ebook only, but then I used CreateSpace to offer a paperback version. When I got my proof copy, it made me feel really special to hold an honest-to-God book — one that I wrote — in my hands.

What do you have planned next?

I have another collection of short stories coming out on October 9, 2018. It’s called Wither and Other Stories, and features four new stories: “Wither,” “Nesting,” “Smoke Circles,” and “We Really Shouldn’t.”

I am also in the process of revising my second novel. It’s currently called Without Condition and is a combination of horror, dark comedy, and romance. It’s dark, sharp, and tender — my favorite kind of story.

You can pick up your own copy of The Crow’s Gift and Other Tales from Amazon here: https://amzn.to/2K9cKiO.

Follow Sonora on her website at https://sonorawrites.com/ and read her blog at https://sonorawrites.com/blog/.

WorldCon in My Back Yard

[image error]Last weekend, the science fiction community’s WorldCon came to San Jose.  It was just far enough away that I decided to stay in San Jose, rather than try to commute back and forth to San Francisco. This turned out to be smart. Points to me.

I arrived in SJ at noon, to discover the room I’d reserved only had a single bed. Cue panic. When I changed the reservation to include a roommate — and changed the room to a two-bed configuration — only half of the change got recorded.  The hotel had no two-bed rooms available, except for the Executive Suite at $450 a night.  My poor roommate agreed to sleep in a rollaway.  The hotel also only had one working elevator — the back of the house elevator — which was also worrisome and probably not safe, but I had no time to stress about it.

I dragged my books over to the Dealers Room and checked in at the Broad Universe and Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America tables. Then it was off to my only panel of the convention: What Turns People onto Horror, moderated by E.M. Markoff. I got to sit between Richard Kadrey and L.S. Johnson, down the table from Scott Sigler and Fred Wiehe.  We had a good conversation about where our loves for horror started and how our fears inspire our work.

[image error]Afterward, I did my first WorldCon autograph session at the SFWA table. I was tucked back in a lonely corner, but people seemed fascinated by 199 Cemeteries to See Before You Die, the only book I didn’t bring for sale. I think I sold a couple of ebooks, though.

I hustled back to the hotel to meet with my roommate, then we went over to the Borderlands Bookstore Sponsors Party, which was great. So many of my favorite people were there! That devolved into dinner with Dana Fredsti, David Fitzgerald, Rebecca Gomez Farrell, and the venerable L. E. Modesitt, Jr.

Friday morning, my shift volunteering in the SFWA Suite got pushed back an hour, so I sat in the cafe at the San Jose Museum of Art and wrote for an hour.  That was lovely.  Unfortunately, the SFWA Suite was very quiet, so my services weren’t really needed, but I had a good time hanging out chatting to the other volunteers in the hallway.

I caught a couple of panels, then scooted over to the Borderlands Suite for tea and cake.  That turned out to be the best place for conversation.  There was a lovely cake too, but it wasn’t cut in the hour I hung out, so I fortified myself with a cup of strong coffee and met J. Tullos Hennig (my last WorldCon roommate) for an apple crisp dinner. She’s such an inspiration to me.

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This is the site of the old Mexican-era juzgado, the courthouse where bandit Tiburcio Vasquez was hung. No ghost story, though.

I’d really looked forward to the ghost and history tour that evening, but it turned out to be disappointing. The group was very large, the guide was very quiet, and there was an unfortunate lack of ghost stories. I ditched out before the end of the tour.

Saturday morning, I went back to work in the SFWA Suite, but again it wasn’t very busy. That meant I got a chance to hang out with Cat Rambo and Jeffe Kennedy while it was quiet.

I loitered at the Broad Universe table in the Dealers Room for a couple of hours, handing out copies of the Alondra chapbook I made especially for the convention.

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Hanging out with Roberta Rogow. Thanks to EM Markoff for the photo!

That evening was the highlight of the convention for me.  The Broad Universe Really Fast Reading I organized went really well. 15 readers filled the hour with science fiction, fantasy, and horror, ranging from space opera to high fantasy to literary horror and rushing through every flavor in between.  I was so proud of how things came together.

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I read just a touch of No More Heroes, the third book in my space opera trilogy. It was really fun to hear those words again.

After hanging out at the SF in SF dinner party, I scurried over to the 50th anniversary party for the Clarion Workshop. I met some great people, none of whom turned out to have attended Clarion. I wish we’d had ribbons or some other way to identify each other. I’d really looked forward to talking to anyone else from back in the days of Tom Disch, Algis Budrys, Kate Wilhelm and Damon Knight. Oh, well. The SFWA people I met were fascinating.

E. M. Markoff and I went out for a glass of wine and ended up talking until long past my bedtime. She said the kindest things about my novel Lost Angels, so I think I am finally inspired to put my head down and finish the sequel. We talked about Mexican realism, ghost stories, and comic cons, of all things. If the bartender hadn’t wanted to go home, we might still be there talking.

I met Laura Blackwell for coffee in the morning, which was lovely. We shared the table of contents in the Strange California anthology and I can’t wait to read her new novel. The time went too fast and I had to rush off for my shift at the Broad Universe table.

All in all, it was a great weekend. I met and chatted with a whole lot of people, more than I would’ve expected from an introvert who’s spent most of the last year trapped at home with a sick kid.  The chapbooks were a great idea, both as a small gift and calling card.

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Thanks to Laura Blackwell for this photo.

Next year’s WorldCon will be in Dublin, with NASFIC in Utah, so I think I’ll miss them. I heard good things about Norwescon and the Nebula Weekend, which will be in Southern California next year, so I may try those conventions out. Do you have other conventions you like to participate in?

5 Questions for Lisa Mannetti

 

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I met Lisa Mannetti at one of the World Horror Conventions when we were on a panel about social media and how writers should use it — and I learned a lot from her. Since then, her writing has garnered many nominations and several awards. I wanted to hear more about her book, The Box Jumper.

Lisa Mannetti won the Bram Stoker Award twice: for her debut novel The Gentling Box and for her short story “Apocalypse Then.” She has been nominated five additional times in both the short and long fiction categories. Her story “Everybody Wins” was made into a short film called Bye Bye Sally and her novella “Dissolution” will soon be a feature-length film, also directed by Paul Leyden. The Gentling Box, “1925: A Fall River Halloween,” and The Box Jumper have been translated into Italian.

Lisa also authored The New Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, two companion novellas in her collection Deathwatch, a macabre gag book 51 Fiendish Ways to Leave your Lover, as well as nonfiction books, numerous articles and short stories in newspapers, magazines, and anthologies. Forthcoming works include several other short stories, a dark novel about the dial-painter tragedy in the post-WWI era called Radium Girl, and another dark novel titled Cultus.

Lisa lives in New York in the 100-year-old house she grew up in with two wily (mostly black) twin cats named Harry and Theo Houdini.

The Box Jumper:

One of Houdini’s premier assistants (a box jumper, to be exact) claims she has been in contact with the great magician and escape artist even after his death and knows all his secrets. But is she telling the truth?

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Did something in the real world inspire your novella The Box Jumper?

Harry Houdini has fascinated me since I was a nine-year old kid and first saw a rerun of Houdini starring Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh. I was so taken, I actually went to our local library to check out a biography and then I read it with a great deal of interest.

That said (I don’t know too many dark fiction writers who are not enthralled on some level by Houdini) there are several incidents and settings in the book based on my real life, my fears and experiences. On Saturday mornings, my mother often brought me to St. Agnes Hospital (also mentioned in the novella) where she was a nurse. I really did see a room (quite large as I recall) that had scores of empty iron lungs. Luckily by that time, polio was already becoming a disease conquered by vaccines, so there were no patients. It struck me, even at that young age, as unutterably sad that the patients’ vision would have been so limited by the size and shape of the iron lungs (like enormous fat water heaters lying horizontally) that the only way they could see a human face was by large rectangular mirrors mounted above their own heads. I remember crying about it. The stone grotto described (but gussied up for the book) is real and in fact, it’s still there. The hospital is now a medical office building. Of course, many of the landmarks and places are absolutely real—I did a lot of research to get the geography and the details right.

What is your favorite scene in the book?

When Leona Derwatt, the narrator, is hospitalized (not at St. Agnes but elsewhere), Houdini comes to visit her. She’s an unreliable narrator, so we can’t be sure that things take place just as she tells them, but according to her, Harry speaks of his love for her. I do think (even if she’s magnifying the incident) the Houdini I wrote in this long novella probably did have a serious relationship with her. (While many characters in the book are historical figures or compilations of actual historical figures, some are entirely fictional—like Leona herself.) The scene is a favorite of mine because of the tenderness Houdini displays toward her—a trait not many people got to see during his lifetime.

He also had an abiding interest in children and often went out of his way to perform free magic shows for those who were underprivileged or hospitalized. In Edinburgh, he bought 300 pairs of shoes for barefoot kids he saw wandering along the cobblestoned streets. The shoes were distributed during his shows for the children of the city.

My other favorite scene is a supernatural one in which dozens of photos of missing children suddenly rise up in the air and begin to circle like a mad carousel or the whirling spout of a tornado. It’s both terrifying and poignant.

What was your writing process like as you wrote The Box Jumper?

I did a great deal of research about Houdini, the times (1920s), magic, locations and more—all of which I thoroughly enjoyed. I worked on it fairly slowly over about a year and half, but the book had even more meaning for me because it was the last project I was able to talk to my dad about before he died. I finished it about a month and a half before Dad passed away. I was even more pleased to note that for some reason the publisher chose an artist who drew a portrait of Houdini for the cover that (although in life they had no real resemblance to one another) looks like my dad. A pure accident, but a very happy one for me.

At any rate, I had piles of books and tons of Kindle fare and while I was writing, I’d look up some specifics if I needed to double-check—but that was after the fact that I’d read every word of every book beforehand. I also watched as many films about Houdini, magic, and magicians as I could find—and there are a lot of them. I also researched mind control (again through books and films), scientific esoterica, the supernatural and paranormal, demons etc. I had a whale of a good time. I tend to write like Vonnegut (for the most part); I don’t go onto the next section till I’ve gotten down exactly what I want to say and how I want to say it. For this reason, most of my first drafts can stand “as is” when it comes time for the editing process. Well, except for a tendency to use too many commas and too many semi-colons.

What was the best thing that happened during your promotion of The Box Jumper?

There were a few amazing “best things”: A Bram Stoker Award nomination, an even more prestigious Shirley Jackson Award nomination, and winning “Novella of the Year” from THIS IS HORROR in the U.K.

What do you have planned next?

A sort of secret project I can’t really talk about, a novel I’m working on called Radium Girl. It’s about the dial painter tragedy in early 1920s. One girl in particular becomes so deformed she’s forced to work in a circus sideshow to earn money to live. I also have a few short stories and other pieces coming out sometime later this year.

Order a copy of The Box Jumper from your local bookseller or pick up a copy on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2K3gDpA.

For more information about Lisa’s upcoming work, visit her author website: www.lismannetti.com

Visit her virtual haunted house: www.thechanceryhouse.com

Watch Bye Bye Sally, starring Malin Ackerman and based on Lisa’s story “Everybody Wins” at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkuvRp0KrAA&t=73s.

 

Broad Universe Really Fast Reading tonight!

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Broad Universe will be hosting a Really Fast Reading at WorldCon tonight from 5 to 6 pm. Here’s the program:

Broad Universe is a nonprofit international organization of women, men, and all others dedicated to celebrating and promoting the work of women writers of science fiction, fantasy and horror. In our Rapid-Fire Reading, members will read a few minutes of their works: just enough to whet your appetite. Watch how many genres we can jam into one group reading!

Loren Rhoads is the author of a space opera trilogy about rogue journalists in a galaxy where humans are a minority. She’s also published a series of short stories about a witch named Alondra DeCourval. You can get a story for free at WorldCon or track her down at lorenrhoads.com.

Despite having maintained a few professions in this world—equestrian, dancer, teacher, artist— J Tullos Hennig has never successfully managed to not be a writer. Ever. Her most recent work, an historical fantasy series re-imagining the legends of Robin Hood, gives special prominence to both pagan and queer viewpoints. http://www.jtulloshennig.net

Roberta Rogow writes historical mysteries; she often twists the history. Her current series follows the adventures of Halvar Danske, ex-mercenary turned reluctant sleuth, in a world where Manthattan is ruled by Spanish Moors (Last of the Mohegans crossed with Arabian Nights, with a Spanish accent.) Her Facebook Author’s Page is Manatas Skyline.

The work of freelance editor and Pushcart Prize nominee Erin Wilcox appears in journals, magazines, radio broadcasts, and collections including Cirque, Short and Twisted (Celapene Press), and Veil: Journal of Darker Musings (Subsynchronous Press). wilcoxwrites.com

Sally Wiener Grotta’s books include The Winter Boy (a 2015 Locus Award nominee) & Jo Joe (a Jewish Book Council Network book). Her nonfiction and fiction have appeared in scores of publications. Her globe-trotting experiences as a journalist flavor her work with a sense of wonder, otherliness, and common sense. (SallyWienerGrotta.com)

E. C. Ambrose writes “The Dark Apostle” historical fantasy series about medieval surgery, concluding with Elisha Daemon (DAW, 2018). Her work has appeared in Clarkesworld, Fireside, and Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader. As Elaine Isaak, she wrote The Singer’s Crown and its sequels. http://www.thedarkapostle.com

Wendy Van Camp writes science fiction, regency romance, and poetry. Her blog “No Wasted Ink” features essays about writing craft, poetry, flash fiction, and author interviews. Her short story “We Can Rebuild Him” is part of the horror anthology Murder They Wrote. Website: http://nowastedink.com Medium: https://medium.com/@wvancamp Twitter: https://twitter.com/wvancamp

Rebecca Gomez Farrell chases dragons and dissects wine glasses as a spec fic author and food and drink blogger. Her first book, Wings Unseen, an epic fantasy, came out in 2017. She has a story appearing in the Fright into Flight anthology this fall.

Sue Burke is a writer and translator of short stories, poetry, and articles. Her novel Semiosis was published by Tor this year; the sequel, Interference, is coming 2019. She’s participated in writer’s critique groups everywhere she’s lived: Milwaukee; Austin; Madrid, Spain; and now Chicago. Website: https://semiosispax.com/

Kathryn Sullivan writes stories where girls are the explorers, the wizards, and the ones who solve problems and rescue people, because she couldn’t find that type of book when she was growing up.

http://kathrynsullivan.com

L.S. Johnson is the author of the gothic novellas Harkworth Hall and Leviathan. Her collection, Vacui Magia: Stories, won the 2nd Annual North Street Book Prize and was a finalist for the World Fantasy Award. Find her online at http://www.traversingz.com.

Elizabeth Crowens won First Prize in the Goethe Awards for Turn-of-the-Century Historical Fiction for alternate history novel and First Prize for Steampunk in the 2017 Independent Press Awards, Silent Meridian (also a finalist for 4 other awards.) She writes The Poison Apple for BlackGate.com and also writes in the suspense genre.

Jude-Marie Green writes science fiction and fantasy, has edited for online magazines Abyss&Apex, 10Flash Quarterly, and Noctem Aeternus, and published stories in magazines and anthologies, online and podcast. She graduated Clarion West 2010 and won the Speculative Writers Foundation’s Older Writers Grant. See more at http://judemarie.wordpress.com.

Writer, artist, and surfer Tina LeCount Myers grew up with a prophecy hanging over her head: Her parents hoped she’d be an author. The Song of All is her debut novel. Dreams of the Dark Sky (Book 2 The Legacy of the Heavens series) available February 2019 (Night Shade Books). http://www.tinalecountmyers.com

Award-winning Latinx author E.M. Markoff writes stories about damaged heroes and imperfect villains. Her works include To Nurture & Kill and The Deadbringer, which Booklist described as “A fantastic action-adventure, tinged with Mexican folklore, that will appeal to fans of A Game of Thrones.” Visit her at http://www.ellderet.com.

My WorldCon 2018 Schedule

[image error]WorldCon comes to San Jose, California this week from Thursday, August 16, through Monday the 20th.

Thursday at 2 pm, I’m on a panel with Richard Kadrey, L.S. Johnson, Fred Wiehe, and Scott Sigler, moderated by E.M. Markoff, to discuss What Turns People onto Horror. “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown. Roller coasters and skydiving, horror movies and dark fiction, mythology and folklore: what scares us and why are we drawn to it? Members of the Bay Area chapter of the Horror Writers Association share their first experiences with horror and discuss how their fears inspire their work. Audience members are encouraged to share their own experiences.”

Afterward, I’ll be doing an autograph session at the SFWA table at 4.

That night is the Borderlands Sponsors Party, which should be a good time.

Friday, I’ll be hostessing in the SFWA Suite in the morning, catching the Stress Management for Writers panel in the afternoon, then going on the San Jose ghost walk that evening. I’m so looking forward to that!

Saturday morning, I’ll be hostessing in the SFWA Suite again, then signing books at the Broad Universe dealers room table from 1-3.

That evening is the highlight of the convention for me.  I’ve organized a Broad Universe Really Fast Reading on Saturday from 5-6 pm. 15 readers in 1 hour = it should be amazing!

The 50th anniversary of the Clarion workshop is being celebrated by a party on Saturday night.  I went to the 20th anniversary party in 1988, which is where I met Harlan Ellison. I’m curious to see who will turn up at this one.

Sunday I’ll be staffing the Broad Universe dealers room table from 11-3.

See you there?

5 Questions for K. R. Morrison

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K.R. Morrison has lived in the Pacific Northwest for over 25 years. She moved there from California, after the Loma Prieta earthquake caused her to rethink her stance on “never moving again.” After her first sight of Oregon, she never looked back.

She wrote her first book Be Not Afraid after a nightmare would not leave her mind, even when awake. UnHoly Trinity came next. The third and fourth in the series are being worked on as of this writing.

When not writing or working,K.R. quilts or works in the garden. She lives with her husband, her very artistic daughter, and a monster-sized cat. Her son makes an occasional visit from his temporary home in Brazil.

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Her summary of UnHoly Trinity:

What happened in the moments after Judas hanged himself? Where did Cain go after the death of Abel? Myths abound and some of them have similar endings.

Cain murders his brother out of jealousy. Judas betrays Jesus to those who want to see Him dead. Vlad the Impaler destroys without mercy and is legendary as Count Dracula. Three souls: collected and bound together in the same body by Lilith, Satan’s mate and favorite slave. Cain, Judas, and Vlad Tepes all fall into the same trap: weakened by pride but too stubborn to turn back, they become cursed to walk the world through all of time. Pursued by Hunters — a group first established by Cain’s tribe when he was abducted by Lilith and the Serpent — the trio must keep one step ahead of their enemies from century to century. The tale starts in Genesis, moves to the time before and after the Crucifixion, then makes the journey into what will become known as the Carpathian Mountains. We are dropped briefly into the 15th century, pass through time in Romania and Scotland, then conclude in 19th-century New Orleans. This is where the story, and the three-souled Beast, must await another day and another century.

Did something in the real world inspire UnHoly Trinity?

This is the second in the series Pride’s Downfall and it was a result of two things—one, the people who read Be Not Afraid (book 1) were clamoring for more, and two—I had done a lot of research for the first book and found the mythos of Cain, Judas, and Lilith. I have always held the belief that Cain and Judas had both been treated unjustly in the Biblical narratives, so this book gives my spin on why things happened to them the way they did. No doubt, however, that the story treats their vampire existence as one that is totally evil.

What is your favorite scene in UnHoly Trinity?

Because of my odd sense of humor, the scene that sticks out the most in my mind is one where Lilith, her demon mentor/guardian/jailer Lucius, and Bestias, the two-souled human/vampire, are hiding in a ship to get away from the Hunters who want to destroy them. On the way, as they are dormant in the bowels of the boat, Lilith wakes up, scratches herself, and stumbles upstairs to the deck. We hear a shriek, then a splash as a body hits the water, and then she comes back down and goes back into dormancy. It’s all so casual—like she’s going up to get a drink of water or something.

What was your writing process like as you wrote the book?

I remember taking a lot of walks so that I could set scenes straight in my head before I wrote them down.

What was the best thing that happened during your promotion of the book?

Just getting to know others and being able to talk with them about writing and such.

What do you have planned next?

I got myself into the editing business—not for profit, for sure—and I work a full-time job, so I haven’t had time to write much of anything. I’d like to do a small-town type of book, where people are just a little weird. It’ll be based in Oregon, so that won’t be too difficult to write—ha! However, there are those who want more horror, so I will probably go down that way again. I recently found a foreign coin in my backyard and have no idea where it came from. It will most likely be the basis for my next horror-genre book.

Pick up your copy of UnHoly Trinity on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2uWMTpF

Check out Book 3 in the series: https://krmorrison325.wordpress.com/

Or hear about Kathy’s adventures around the world: https://kathyree.wordpress.com/

5 Questions for Stephanie M. Wytovich

[image error]Stephanie M. Wytovich is an American poet, novelist, and essayist. Her work has been showcased in numerous anthologies such as Gutted: Beautiful Horror Stories, Shadows Over Main Street: An Anthology of Small-Town Lovecraftian Terror, Year’s Best Hardcore Horror: Volume 2, The Best Horror of the Year: Volume 8, as well as many others. Her Bram Stoker Award-winning poetry collection, Brothel, earned a home with Raw Dog Screaming Press alongside Hysteria: A Collection of Madness, Mourning Jewelry, An Exorcism of Angels, and Sheet Music to My Acoustic Nightmare. Her debut novel, The Eighth, was published by Dark Regions Press.

Stephanie describes The Eighth: After Paimon, Lucifer’s top soul collector, falls in love with a mortal girl whose soul he is supposed to claim, he desperately tries everything in his power to save her from the Devil’s grasp. But what happens when a demon has to confront his demons, when he has to turn to something darker, something more sinister for help? Can Paimon survive the consequences of working with the Seven Deadly Sins-sins who have their own agenda with the Devil—or will he fall into a deeper, darker kind of hell?

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Did something in the real world inspire The Eighth?

One night while I was procrastinating on the internet instead of writing, I took one of those tests to find out which of the seven deadly sins I was. I can’t even remember what the result was now, but I know that I didn’t agree with it, and when it came down to it, I couldn’t really pick which one I identified with the most. That got me thinking: was there possibly an eighth deadly sin? One that I felt was worth sinning for? Dying for? That’s what got me writing. That’s where The Eighth began.

What is your favorite scene in the book?

Without giving too much away, my favorite scene is the creation of the eighth deadly sin, mostly because that’s when readers really get to know — and see — The Seven (the keepers of the deadly sins).

What was your writing process like as you wrote the book?

The Eighth was my MFA thesis at Seton Hill University, so its writing process was vastly different than anything I had worked on before or since. I worked with two mentors (Scott Johnson and William H. Horner) and a handful of critique partners. It went through six drafts by the time Dark Regions bought it, which was shortly after I got my MFA in January 2014. I was writing anywhere from 30-60 pages a month then, and because prose was such a different direction for me at that time (I consider myself a poet first and foremost), I would brainstorm and outline chapters by writing them as poems first, and then write them as prose. It was a wild ride, but worth every minute.

What was the best thing that happened during your promotion of the book?

For me, it was getting to share the beautiful cover art by Samuel Araya, which I just felt matched the storyline perfectly. He’s an extremely talented artist. I encourage everyone to check out his artwork when they get the chance. Here’s the link: www.ArayaArt.com.

What do you have planned next?

Right now, I’m working on an apocalyptic science fiction poetry collection—which has been challenging, but a lot of fun to write—and I’m also finishing up a weird horror novelette that I’ve been working on-and-off on for about three years now. Once I finish up these projects (which I think will be by fall), I’m going to get back to working on the sequel to The Eighth.

You can pick up a copy of The Eighth here:  https://amzn.to/2NAkZGZ

Ways to connect with Stephanie:

Website: http://stephaniewytovich.blogspot.com/

Amazon Author page:  https://amzn.to/2uWwBMS

Facebook: Stephanie M. Wytovich

Twitter: @swytovich

Instagram: @swytovich