Loren Rhoads's Blog, page 35

5 Questions for Sumiko Saulson

[image error]I “met” Sumiko Saulson for the first time when she was kind enough to include me in a list of Bay Area horror writers for a piece she wrote for the Examiner Online. After that, we kept running into each other through Horror Addicts and at BayCon. We’ve read together for Litquake San Rafael, the Literary Speakeasy, at StokerCon on the Queen Mary, and a week ago at the UnValentine reading at Old Devil Moon in San Francisco.

Sumiko Saulson is a cartoonist and horror writer, editor of Black Magic Women and 100 Black Women in Horror Fiction, author of Solitude, Warmth, The Moon Cried Blood, and Happiness and Other Diseases. She wrote and illustrated comics Mauskaveli, Dooky, and the graphic novels Dreamworlds and Agrippa. She writes for SEARCH Magazine. Sumiko is an Oakland resident who has spent most of her adult life in the San Francisco Bay Area. You can find all her books at Amazon.

Sumiko’s new book is Black Magic Women: Terrifying Tales by Scary Sisters. Imagine horror where black characters aren’t all tropes and the first to die. Imagine a world written by black sisters where black women and femmes are in the starring roles. From flesh-eating plants to flesh-eating bees; zombies to vampires to vampire-eating vampire hunters; ghosts, revenants, witches and werewolves: this book has it all. Cursed drums, cursed dolls, cursed palms, ancient spirits and goddesses create a nuanced world of Afrocentric and multicultural horror. Seventeen terrifying tales by seventeen of the scary sisters profiled in the reference guide 100 Black Women in Horror.

Black Magic Women includes stories by Mina Polina, Nuzo Onoh, Kenesha Williams, Crystal Connor, Valjeanne Jeffers, Sumiko Saulson, Nicole Givens Kurtz, Kenya Moss-Dyme, Lori Titus, L. H. Moore, R. J. Joseph, Delizhia Jenkins, Cinsearae S, Kai Leakes, Dicey Grenor, Kamika Aziza, Tabitha Thompson, and Alledria Hurt.

What inspired you to put the book together?

Black Magic Women contains stories by eighteen of the women from 100+ Black Women in Horror, which is a reference guide, sort of a who’s who of black women who write horror. That is an update to the 2014 book 60 Black Women in Horror. The original book’s eBook version included four short stories by myself, Valjeanne Jeffers, Crystal Connor, and Annie Penn. For the update, I decided to have a separate book of stories. I came up with the name Black Magic Women and the concept of stories prominently featuring black women and magic as a nod to the Black Girl Magic concept, but as it applies to horror writers. I was so fortunate as to have Mocha Memoirs Press sign on quickly, thanks to Nicole Kurtz. I think we were also very inspired by Linda Addison and Kinitra Brook’s project Sycorax’s Daughters, and earlier similar anthologies showcasing African American horror such as Dark Matters.

[image error]Do you have a favorite story about putting the book together?

While we were working on Black Magic Women, Sycorax’s Daughters ended up on the Bram Stoker preliminary ballot, along with its companion book, Searching for Sycorax, which is an educational study of black women who write horror by Dr. Brooks. Nicole and I both exclaimed that we hoped our book would get nominated. We also started rooting for the Sycorax books to make it onto the final ballot. They both did! You know, I first met Dr. Brooks at the Afrofuturist Symposium II at Loyola Marymount. She was there with Nisi Shawl and I was totally intimidated by all of these educated women with PhDs, but they took us out for beer and ribs later so everything was cool. I think Nicole and I both started squealing when the Sycorax books made the final ballot. Did you know that around a third of the women in our book were in that anthology? This is an exciting time for black women in horror.

What was the process as you asked for stories and put the book together?

I wrote a call for submissions and gave a copy to Nicole Kurtz at Mocha Memoirs Press, and we started to promote it in blogs and small press. Graveyard Sisters, HorrorAddicts.net, and Colors in Darkness are some of the places we promoted it, as well as on my blog and Mocha Memoir’s. The world of black women who write horror is relatively close-knit. We’re a community. Nicole and I were the two members of the selection committee, so we read each story and ranked them in a secret ranking process. We also checked to make sure they met the submission criteria. I edited them and sent the edit back to the authors. They approved or disapproved. Then they went off to the proofreading team at Mocha Memoirs Press. MMP compiled them into a whole book. I designed the cover art as well. It’s an acrylic painting of mine. I did the layout for the eBook cover. We had to get someone else to help out with the print cover, though.

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

During the prerelease period, our eBook shot up to #1 on the Amazon Horror Anthology list! We were up there above Stephen King and Clive Barker. Everyone was so excited! The authors were posting screenshots of it, tweeting people doing victory dances, and posting hilarious celebratory gifs on Facebook. It really made us feel like a team. The sense of excitement was contagious.

What do you have planned next?

100+ Black Women in Horror, a reference book with the biographies of over one hundred black women, came out on February 21, rounding out the Black History Month and Women in Horror Month 2018.

 

5 Questions with AF Stewart

[image error]I met Anita Stewart last year through a group of women horror writers on Facebook.  She was kind enough to allow me to guest post on her blog last October, when I was finding homes for a series of cemetery ghost stories.  My Marie Laveau story appeared during her October Frights series.

A steadfast and proud sci-fi and fantasy geek, A. F. Stewart was born and raised in Nova Scotia, Canada and still calls it home. The youngest in a family of seven children, she always had an overly creative mind and an active imagination. She favors the dark and deadly when writing—her genres of choice being fantasy and horror—but she has been known to venture into the light on occasion. As an indie author she’s published novels, novellas and story collections, with a few side trips into poetry.

[image error]Her latest book is Ghosts of the Sea Moon:

In the Outer Islands, gods and magic rule the ocean.

Under the command of Captain Rafe Morrow, the crew of the Celestial Jewel ferry souls to the After World and defend the seas from monsters. Rafe has dedicated his life to protecting the lost, but the tides have shifted and times have changed.

His sister, the Goddess of the Moon, is on a rampage and her creatures are terrorizing the islands. The survival of the living and dead hinge on the courage and cunning of a beleaguered captain and his motley crew of men and ghosts.

What he doesn’t know is that her threat is part of a larger game. That an ancient, black-winged malevolence is using them all as pawns…

Come set sail with ghosts, gods, and sea monsters.

Did something in the real world inspire your book?

Ghosts of the Sea Moon was inspired by folklore (tales of ghost ships, to be precise) and Greek mythology, although the start of the novel began with a story I wrote for a photo prompt contest. I took that piece of flash fiction (about a sea captain ferrying a sailor to the afterlife) and expanded on the idea to create the book. I included the original story as a book extra.

What is your favorite scene in the book — and why?

My favorite scene happens near the end of the book when a secondary character, Mouse, has his moment to shine. He’s a rather quiet, shy member of the ship’s crew and I enjoyed giving him his heroic bit of glory. He even gets a celebration afterwards.

What was your writing process like as you wrote Ghosts of the Sea Moon?

It was a bit of a labour actually. Ghosts of the Sea Moon was one of the hardest books I’ve written so far. Partly because the book kept changing: it started out as a short story, then a novella, then a novel, and then somewhere along the line the novel turned into a series called Saga of the Outer Islands. Also, I struggled with the ending and getting the final battle scene choreographed while maintaining the conclusion I wanted. It took me about two months to write the ending. Plus there was more nautical research than I thought. I even had to do math for the speed and distance calculations to get the timeline right. The book had several challenges I never expected or planned for.

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

The best thing is always when readers respond well towards a book and say good things. I had some very nice compliments about the cover of Ghosts of the Sea Moon — and about the book itself.

What do you have planned next?

Well, I have to finish books two and three in my Saga of the Outer Islands series. Book two, Souls of the Dark Sea, is in the editing stages and I’m working on book three, Renegades of the Lost Sea. There will be more monsters in the second book and some undead pirates showing in the third one. I also want to finish the third installment of my Killers and Demons series and work on the first novel in my Camelot Immortals series (there are a couple of short stories in this series, but this will be the first book).

Book Page: https://afallonblog.wordpress.com/saga-of-the-outer-islands/

Pinterest Book Series Board: https://www.pinterest.ca/scribe77/saga-of-the-outer-islands/

Book Trailer: https://youtu.be/8cr7tSCeI0A

Free companion prequel story, Sea Bound: https://www.instafreebie.com/free/Ge8gj

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37648721-ghosts-of-the-sea-moon

Buy Links:

Books2Read(all non-Amazon retailers): https://www.books2read.com/u/ml5GvM

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078MS397S

Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/Ghosts-Moon-Saga-Outer-Islands/dp/1981802223/

Author Links:

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/afstewartauthor/

Facebook Fan Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/348788975590362/

Twitter: http://twitter.com/scribe77

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afstewartauthor/

Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/author/show/1175681.A_F_Stewart

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/a-f-stewart

Website: https://afallonblog.wordpress.com/

Newsletter Signup: http://eepurl.com/OGrTT

Alondra’s Experiments

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“The three stories collected in Alondra’s Experiments are filled with sensual magic that whispers like velvet. Alondra DeCourval walks with monsters, magicians, and old and deep power. Be prepared to be absorbed into her world.” — Martha J. Allard, author of Black Light

Available now for the kindle is a collection of previously published stories about Alondra Decourval, a young witch with a passion to make things right.  Alondra travels from San Francisco to Prague to Olso, encountering magical creatures and searching for the limits she will go to for love.

The book includes:

“The Shattered Rose,” about a vampire in Golden Gate Park
“Catalyst,” which combines alchemy and absinthe in Prague
“Valentine,” set in Oslo, where Alondra discovers how far she will go to save Victor’s life
three short essays that tell the stories behind the stories

Alondra’s Experiments is the first of 5 novella-length chapbooks of the Alondra stories. It’s available for the kindle now: http://amzn.to/2HtVhli.

Love to Death

[image error]This Sunday, February 18, I’ll be joining the Love to Death UnValentine’s Day reading at Old Devil Moon in San Francisco. I’ll be reading the bloody bits of “Valentine” from my brand-new collection of previously published Alondra stories, Alondra’s Experiments. It’s available for the Kindle: http://amzn.to/2Bv7Cor.

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Love to Death is an Unvalentine’s Day Reading presented by The Escapery Unschool and Old Devil Moon Bar, with:

ANNA AVERY

REECE MULDROW

DANNY THANH NGUYEN

LOREN RHOADS

&

SUMIKO SAULSON

Bringing you Tales, Poems, and Essays on LOVE AND DEATH

Dead-good Raffle Prizes

Lovingly made drinks

And writers to break your heart.

Come drink & get your heart smashed…

The readers are:

ANNA AVERY is a queer poet and musician living in Oakland,CA. Avery’s work combines melodic drone and noise with poetry, and grapples with emotional labor, rhetoric, and the day-to-day life of working in the shadow of debt and environmental apocalypse. Avery’s work has been featured by the de Young, Bombay Gin, Elderly Magazine, and 580 Split. You can check out their work on Instagram @onlyinscreendreams, and at annaaverypoet.com.

REECE MULDROW is new to the bay area literary scene, and currently working on getting his first book published – a series of short stories focusing on science fiction, comedy, and transgender related issues. A poet since the tender age 8, writing has always been an important outlet for him to express life’s ups and downs.

DANNY THAHN NGUYEN is a Kundiman Fiction Fellow and a Lambda Literary Nonfiction Fellow. His short stories and personal essays have appeared in The Journal, South Dakota Review, Entropy, Foglifter, New Delta Review, Gulf Coast, and other magazines. He received his MFA from Indiana University and is the editor of AS IS, an anthology of Vietnamese American art and literature.

LOREN RHOADS is the author of a space opera trilogy called In the Shadow of the Templars. She’s also the author of the nonfiction guide 199 Cemeteries to See Before You Die. She sees no contradiction in those things.

SUMIKO SAULSON is a science fiction, fantasy, and horror writer. Her works include 60 Black Women in Horror Fiction, Solitude, Warmth, The Moon Cried Blood, Happiness and Other Diseases, Somnalia, Insatiable, Ashes and Coffee, and Things That Go Bump In My Head. She writes for the SEARCH Magazine and horror blogs HorrorAddicts.net  and SumikoSaulson.com. The child of African American and Russian-Jewish American parents, she is a native Californian who grew up in Los Angeles and Hawaii. She is an Oakland resident who has spent most of her adult life in the San Francisco Bay Area.

5 Questions with Monica S. Kuebler

[image error]Monica and I met in 2009, when we were roommates at the Bram Stoker Awards weekend in Burbank, California.  At the time, she was editing for Rue Morgue magazine and running Burning Effigy Press.  I’d just had my first professional anthology publication, the four stories in Sins of the Sirens.

Since then, I’ve been fascinated with Monica’s trio of YA vampire novels, because she’s the only person I know who is publishing a true serial.  She’s worked hard to build and grow her readership on Wattpad.com, a website designed for writers to form a community of readers.

Here’s the summary of Bleeder, the first book in the series:

What if everything you knew about yourself was a lie?

 Mildred “Mills” Millhatten had a good life: close-knit family, fantastic friends, decent grades and even a not-totally-annoying kid brother. You might say it was the best kind of ordinary. So nothing could have prepared her for being taken and cast into a strange, vicious world she didn’t know existed and has little hope of understanding. 

As a Bleeder — one whose lifeblood feeds the Nosferatu — her continued survival hangs ever in the balance. The creatures are keeping her alive because they believe her blood has mystical properties. Mills fears what will happen when they realize they are wrong.

If she hopes to survive and discover who she truly is, she needs an ally. She needs to befriend the mysterious boy who’s been secretly visiting her cell, even though he’s destined to become a bloodthirsty monster. Because she lives in their world now, and if she doesn’t do something fast, she’s going to die in it.

[image error]Did something in the real world inspire Bleeder?

Not really, not in the “torn from the headlines” sense anyway. There were certain themes and topics I wanted to explore in its writing that were born from the real world and some personal experiences, among them father/daughter relationships and the idea of personal responsibility. Bleeder was mostly inspired by two things: a) the kind of books I wished existed when I was fifteen and b) how generic and predictable YA paranormal fiction was becoming at the time. I wanted to write a story (which later became a series) that seemed cliché at the outset but went on to pull the rug out from under its readers’ feet and turn all their expectations on their heads.

What is your favorite scene in the book?

Hard question, and the answer probably changes month to month. There’s a very funny scene that everyone seems to love involving a box of condoms, one of the story’s few moments of comic relief, and I’m somewhat partial to that one because I’m not funny and I don’t write funny, so it’s kind of cool that it came out of me. As for an absolutely favourite scene, however, there’s one that takes place between the book’s two main characters in a storage closet following a huge fight. The vampire character says something so unexpected that it has repercussions that rattle throughout the rest of the chapter, maybe even the book. It’s not a big set piece, but rather a tense and emotional moment that both comes out of left field and doesn’t.

What was your writing process like as you wrote Bleeder and Ruler?

Bleeder I wrote and serialized online over the course of one year (2012). It was my second novel, but the first one I worked on with an editor. It was also the first one to see the light of day in any way. Because I was uploading weekly chapters, it was heavily outlined and there was a firm schedule for writing and editing. The second book in the series, Letters From New York, followed the same workflow.

[image error]But Ruler was a different beast all together. I started writing it, got pregnant, had a daughter, ran into some health stuff, got downsized at the day job and went through all the complicated emotions that go along with that, and found three years later that I was still writing the book, but posting chapters so sporadically it was barely worthwhile. Thankfully, at that point I realized that trying to do things the old, pre-kid way wasn’t working and I made a concerted effort to take some of the pressure off. Forget writing and posting at the same time, I told myself. I made myself scarce online and focused on finishing the damned book.

Now, a year after that big revelation, it’s finally done and I’m editing it while posting weekly chapters once more. Speaking of which, I’m flying solo on this one and miss my editor like crazy. That’s another thing that’s made Ruler a challenging book to write; I’m a much more confident writer when I have someone standing behind me with a red pen.

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

Because it’s an online serial, I’d say having it featured on Wattpad.com. Or perhaps getting interviewed about it on Space, which is the Canadian equivalent of the Syfy channel.

What do you have planned next?

Finishing editing and posting Ruler. Get the novel version of Bleeder out in physical/ebook form – that’s way overdue. And then write the fourth and final book in the series, Rebels. Basically, I’ll be mucking around with the vampires and sorcerers for a while yet!

***

Monica S. Kuebler is a contributing editor at Rue Morgue magazine, author of Rue Morgue Library #3: Weird Stats and Morbid Facts, co-producer of the Great Lakes Horror Company podcast, and founder of LibraryoftheDamned.com. She also writes monster stories and has spent the last half-decade serializing her young adult vampire series, which kicked off in 2012 with Bleeder (Blood Magic, Book 1). Find more information, visit http://www.blood-magic.net.

Webpage: http://www.monicaskuebler.com

Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/monicaskuebler

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/monicaskuebler

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/monicaskuebler

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/deathofcool

Wattpad.com (where Monica’s serial lives for free): http://www.wattpad.com/deathofcool

5 Questions with Martha Allard

[image error]What is your favorite scene in Black Light and why?

I have a couple that I really enjoyed writing, because they were surprising. They told me things I didn’t know about the characters, or the story.

The first one is when Tommi, the drummer, calls Asia and Weird in the middle of the night because his boyfriend, John, hurt him. Asia and Weird go to the boyfriend’s house and Asia is scared of what they will find. Weird, though, is pissed. He walks in prepared to kill John, but they only find Tommi, bleeding and barely conscious. Asia watches Weird turn into someone he doesn’t recognize. He’s gentle as he cleans Tommi up and carries him to the car. I loved writing that scene, because I didn’t recognize Weird, either. I also like that it’s about love that’s not romantic.

Another scene I really loved writing is when Asia meets Albrecht Christian for the first time. Asia knows that Albrecht is Trace’s new lover and that he’s paying for the band’s album. I think both Asia and I were surprised at how jealous he is. It might be the first time he feels heartbroken over the space it puts between him and Trace.

What was your writing process like as you wrote Black Light?

It’s funny, I think of Black Light as the thing that taught me to write in the first place. We (Loren and I) started it in 1983, which is the year the story takes place. We used to lay on the floor in one of our respective bedrooms and pass the notebook back and forth, each writing a paragraph, or a scene. That was back in the days when we thought we were cutting-edge with our electric typewriters. We stored the one copy in a typing paper box. This novel has been stored on floppy disk, on CDs, on flash drives, and now on sd cards. And literally hundreds of spiral-bound notebooks.

We wrote a lot in 1983. The bones of that story are still visible, at least to the two of us. But things changed. Loren moved across the country. You know, back in the day, when long distance was expensive. So, the novel got shelved and we wrote other things.

But for me, Trace and Asia never went away really. They hung out in my brain, walked through my dreams, and as I grew up, they had more and more to say. So, over the years, I pecked at it. I actually wrote the ending in 2002, then left it alone.

[image error]And then, you know, David Bowie died. I can’t really explain how much this affected me.  My father had died less than six months before and I couldn’t bring myself to cry for him, but I cried for David Bowie. When I went out to write the next day, I couldn’t focus, and I ended up in the Black Light file. It was, finally, the right time to finally finish it.

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

Well, that’s easy. The best day was at Wiscon, when you and I got to read together. That was as fun as it was terrifying.

Also, I work at the customer service desk at the bookstore and I hand-sell Black Light to customers that come in. Not a bunch, but some. Until last month, I’d never heard anything from any of them. At the height of Christmas, a man came up to the desk to ask me if I remembered selling him Black Light. I didn’t, of course, but he told me that he’s read it three times now and keeps it on his bedside table, because it’s his favorite book. Wow. I had to go in the back to cry. So that runs a close second.

What do you have planned next?

So many plans! I’m nearing the end of my next novel, which is called The Night Was Not. It’s a neo-Victorian story about an airship captain who falls in love with the star of a freakshow.  Yeah, it’s as fun as you think it is.

I’m also almost ready to put out two novellas that are mm paranormal romance. The first one is called Speak My Name, about a demon bartender who falls in love for a second time. The second one, Your Cruel Fingers Close My Eyes, is about Albrecht Christian from Black Light, in his youth. And the Loch Ness monster.  Yes, it’s a romance.

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Martha J. Allard is a writer of contemporary and dark fantasy. Her short fiction has appeared in magazines like Talebones and Not One of Us. Her story “Dust” won an honorable mention in The Year’s Best Science Fiction, 19th edition, edited by Gardner Dozois. Her story “Phase” was nominated for a British Science Fiction Award. They are both collected in the chapbook Dust and Other Stories.

You may also find a selection of her previously published works on Wattpad.com. She was the editor of “Nice Tattoo, the Magazine of Shadow Fiction.” Her nonfiction has appeared in the anthologies “Lend the Eye a Terrible Aspect” and “Deaths Garden.” Her novel, “Black Light” is a tale of love, sacrifice and rock and roll in the 1980’s. You can find her on her blog, marthajallard.blogspot.com.

Twitter: @Norabell and Facebook Martha Allard

***

The back cover text from Black Light :

Los Angeles, 1983. Trace Dellon, lead singer, knows exactly what he wants: the white heat of the spotlight. When his band Black Light is offered a record deal, Trace grabs for it. He will do anything to make it.

Asia Heyes, bass player, knows what he wants, too. It’s not fame or the adoration of groupies. It’s Trace. It’s always been Trace.  Though it’s been unspoken between them, Trace’s other lovers—his audience—push Asia aside.

With the contract, Albrecht Christian comes into their lives. He is a man with everything but what he needs to live: the energy that runs just under Trace’s skin. Even Trace isn’t enough, and Albrecht finds himself starving.

When everything crashes with a bullet, they all learn the truth. Rock and roll, like magic, requires both love and sacrifice. Then Black Light’s fragile trajectory to greatness really begins.

5 Questions with Dana Fredsti and David Fitzgerald

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I met Dana Fredsti in February 1990, which boggles my mind. Back then, I was living in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood and a friend brought her by. She wrote for Death’s Garden: Relationships with Cemeteries and many issues of Morbid Curiosity magazine, then invited me to contribute a Lorelei story to her succubus anthology Demon Lovers.

I met Dave Fitzgerald after Dana moved to San Francisco.  They let me come over to their house sometimes, so I can write with them.

I am really excited about their new book Time Shards, which came out on Tuesday.  To celebrate, they’re bringing the Dana and Dave Show to Borderlands Cafe in San Francisco this Saturday (2/3/18) at 3 pm.  It will be really funny. I cannot wait to get my hands on this book.

[image error]Did something in the real world inspire Time Shards?

David: On our way driving home from Comic-Con a few years ago, I was telling Dana about an idea I had back in college for an RPG that was part Time Travel, part Post-Apocalypse. The more I told her, the bigger her eyes got. Finally she said, “Dave, we HAVE to make a book series out of this!” We pitched it to her editor at Titan Books and they snapped it up!

What is your favorite scene in the book — and why?

Dave: I love the all the opening vignettes, and the action scenes, and the spookier, surreal incidents that occur to our 20th-century heroine Amber — but I think my favorite scene is the first meeting between Amber and our other main character, a first-century Celt named Cam.

What was your writing process like as you wrote Time Shards?

Dana: Before we started on the actual writing, we spent some time talking about various time periods and elements we both wanted to include in the series — and whether or not particular periods/elements would work or whether we were getting a bit carried away with personal preference. We wanted the historical elements to be as accurate as possible, considering we broke the timeline up willy-nilly into pieces. My main concern was getting a scene with a megalodon in there

Dave: For Book One, we mostly divided the work into Amber chapters and Cam chapters, then passed each other’s work back and forth until we both loved it.

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

Dave: I was really knocked out by the response from our fellow writers! My favorite came from Scottish author Mark Wilson (author of dEaDINBURGH), who said: “Time Shards is technically accomplished, smart, visceral and is by far the most creative novel I’ve had the pleasure to read this year. This book had me tearing through the pages in the daytime and dreaming about being in Fitzgerald and Fredsti’s kaleidoscopic world during my sleeping hours.”

What do you have planned next?

Dana: We’re hard at work on Time Shards Book Two (with Book Three waiting in the wings)!

Their official bios:

David Fitzgerald is an award-winning author, historical researcher, fiction writer & editor, activist, and a popular public speaker. He is the author of Nailed and The Complete Heretic’s Guide to Western Religion series. A linguistics enthusiast, he can say almost nothing in almost every language. He’s also an ancient/world/medieval history nut, avid swordfighter, kickboxer, animal lover and rescuer, and aficionado of books, comics, and movies. He lives in San Francisco with his wife, actress/writer Dana Fredsti, and their small menagerie of cats and their dog. He is often accused of being the Ferris Bueller of San Francisco.

Dana Fredsti is the author of the Spawn of Lilith series, about a monster-fighting stuntwoman in Hollywood.  She also the author of the Ashley Parker trilogy Plague Town, Plague Nation, and Plague World, which was described at Buffy meets Dawn of the Dead. Dana is an actress with a background in theatrical sword-fighting, whose credits include the cult classic Army of Darkness. She has been a producer, director, and screenplay writer for stage and film, and was the co-writer/associate producer on Urban Rescuers, a documentary on feral cats which won Best Documentary at the 2003 Valley Film Festival in Los Angeles.

To summarize Time Shards:

Imagine time itself….as a continuum…an infinite line containing everything that always was and always will be. Now imagine an Event shattering 600 million years of Earth’s timeline into fragments of space-time: time shards of everywhere & everywhen.

The world is now made of shattered remnants of the past, present, and future, all existing alongside one another in a patchwork of different time “shards.” Cities, countries, kingdoms, and nations are torn apart. Dinosaurs roam post-apocalyptic landscapes, alongside thundering buffalo herds and the automobiles of scattered refugees on disjointed stretches of modern highways.  Armies from long-ago battles are on the march. Forgotten empires have returned. The new world is up for grabs.

The first book is set in Britain where Cam, a young warrior from a native tribe in Roman Britannia, and Amber, a 23-year-old from 2015 San Diego, are brought together when the Event hits.  They discover a terrifying secret and find themselves in a race across their strange and dangerous new world to save it before the timeline splinters again and nothing remains.

Jonathan Maberry says:  “Time Shards is a brain-bending and mind-blowing science fiction adventure. Anyone would love it. Everyone should read it. Highly recommended!”

You can pick Time Shards up at Borderlands, Mysterious Galaxy, or wherever books are sold — or order it from Amazon here.

 

 

5 Questions with Erika Mailman

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Photo of Erika by Petra Hoette.

I met Erika Mailman last October when we both did SF in SF at the American Bookbinders Museum.  She struck me immediately as a kindred spirit.

Officially, Erika Mailman is the author of four historical novels: The Witch’s Trinity, a San Francisco Chronicle Notable Book which Khaled Hosseini called “gripping;” Woman of Ill Fame, which is about a Gold Rush prostitute; House of Bellaver, a literary ghost story set in Oakland; and now The Murderer’s Maid: a Lizzie Borden Novel. She holds an MFA in poetry from the University of Arizona, has been a Yaddo fellow, and served as a juror for the Shirley Jackson Awards.

Did something in the real world inspire The Murderer’s Maid?

Yes, my novel was inspired by a true crime case in 1892 Massachusetts: the murders of Andrew and Abby Borden, husband and wife. They were both killed by hatchet in their home, an hour or so apart (which meant the killer laid in wait for Andrew to return from his errands). Andrew’s daughter Lizzie Borden was accused of the murder, spent a year awaiting trial, and was acquitted by a jury that couldn’t believe a woman capable of such depraved violence. Rumors have followed her throughout her lifetime and beyond that she… somehow… got away with murder.

[image error]What is your favorite scene in the book — and why?

The opening scene where the family maid Bridget Sullivan is opening the door to Andrew Borden, home from his errands and minutes away from being murdered. For some reason, he couldn’t get in via the side door like usual and had to use his key at the front door—which for some reason wasn’t working. Bridget had to run to the door to let him in and even she had trouble with the triple locks. While she battled to let him in, she heard Lizzie on the staircase behind her laugh. It’s such a chilling moment that still “gets” me when I spend any real amount of time thinking about it… because Mrs. Borden was lying on the upstairs floor dead, visible to anyone standing on the stairs.

What was your writing process like as you wrote The Murderer’s Maid?

I wrote 100 pages of the historical storyline and they sat for two years (long story, and I don’t want to get my heart rate up). Then I wrote the rest very quickly. My editor suggested the contemporary storyline and I threaded it into the existing historical narrative. I tried to think in broad strokes, so I wouldn’t get distracted by googling research along the way. I added detail-work in after the draft was complete. I spent a lot of time on Lizzie Borden forums and pestering a wonderful expert Faye Musselman, who was very patient with me. Small problems arose, like did Lizzie really faint at trial at the sight of her father’s skull, or was that apocryphal? Further, was that really his skull or a plaster model? The skulls in the display cabinet at the Lizzie Borden B&B: are those plaster casts? If so, where are the real skulls? Et cetera. I indulged in this level of detail to make sure I got it right (even while feeling the liberty of adjusting and inventing because it is, after all, historical fiction).

The Murderer’s Maid: a Lizzie Borden Novel tells the iconic American true-crime case from the point of view of the family maid, an Irish immigrant named Bridget Sullivan. The murders took place in 1892 Massachusetts, at a time when the Irish were scorned and shopkeepers would put signs on their doors: “Irish need not apply.” Sullivan’s importance to the case (she was the only other person in the house that day besides the accused and the victims) was discounted because of her background. She was mocked in court for her brogue. The novel also incorporates a modern-day narrative with the daughter of a Mexican immigrant echoing the long-ago racism leveled at the Irish. I jokingly call this book “bloodthirsty with a social conscience.”

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

Meeting you!

If I knew how to goit, I would goiter

[image error]The month after my brother died, my throat began to feel really weird: like my voice had turned sideways and lodged at the base of my neck. In the bathroom mirror, I saw a large round lump on the left side, just above the collarbone. It was about the size of a quail egg.

I saw my doctor, who sent me to the Head and Neck Cancer Clinic at UCSF. To be honest, I hung up the first time I called them because I panicked at the word cancer. The student doctor assigned to perform my thyroid biopsy told me that I wouldn’t need an anesthetic, because as far as he was concerned, that was just one more needle in my neck. So he jabbed a needle into the base of my throat — cautioning me to hold still or else — but the surface of the goiter was thicker than he expected and he couldn’t pierce it.  Instead, he wiggled the needle around under my skin for what seemed like a very long time. I held very, very still and tried not to whimper.

I had an amazing bruise the next day. It looked like I’d been throttled. The good news was that the fluid inside my goiter was nothing to worry about.  The bruise — and the goiter — went away.

For the next 12 years, the thyroid scans continued . Sometimes I got get away with just an ultrasound. Other times, I had to undergo biopsies. Eventually, the thyroid doctor said that although my thyroid was full of cysts, they seemed to be stable. I didn’t need to come back to see her until things changed.

Last September, they did.  I was brushing my teeth one night when I noticed the tendons at the base of my neck were standing out. I’ve gained a bunch of weight this year, so I told myself that was all it was.  Besides, my kid has been sick with constant headaches since May and I never knew if she was going to make it to school — or make it through the day. I couldn’t be sure I could keep a doctor’s appointment, if I made one. And 199 Cemeteries was coming out in October and I was about to be busy like I have never been in my life. I didn’t have time to fuss with seeing the Head and Neck Cancer Clinic again.

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For reference:  the lump is camouflaged by the neckline of my shirt and my hair.

By November, the swelling in my neck hadn’t gone down. I tried to make an appointment with my doctor, but she wasn’t scheduling appointments. Ever. I don’t know if she left the practice or is off on medical leave or what. So I agreed to see someone else in her practice.

The new doctor blew off my talk of how heavy my legs feel these days and the fact that I’ve tripped over curbs twice because I can’t pick up my feet.  I feel weird, I told her. I feel sluggish and cold all the time and my hair is falling out and my skin is really dry and my cholesterol is creeping up even though I’m mostly vegetarian and my heart beat is under 60 bpm and my blood pressure goes down when I have a cup of coffee because the caffeine raises my heart rate.

She blew off the lump in my throat until the end of the visit, when she finally got behind me, put her cool hands around my neck, and felt it.

I felt her jump.

Flustered, she told me to stay in the office and wait to get some blood work done. While I waited for the phlebotomist, the doctor bustled into the lobby to say she thought I ought to have another thyroid ultrasound. I watched the other patients in the lobby take an interest in our public conversation. I agreed to see someone at St. Mary’s, rather than go back to UCSF.

St. Mary’s called that afternoon, ready to make the ultrasound appointment right away. The technician lingered over me, taking picture after picture of my throat. What normally took 15 minutes took 45.  I knew what that meant right away.

And then the new primary care doctor didn’t call with the results.  Eventually, I called her office and begged a nurse to send them to me.  Two months later, no one has discussed them with me yet, but I can read for myself:  increased vascularization, calcium formation. A whole lot more cysts than I had in 2014.

Without confirming anything, the primary care doctor directed me to go back to UCSF, since they’d done my original tests. Unfortunately, the thyroid specialist I’d seen there had moved on to Stanford, so I agreed to see someone else.

To my surprise, he hadn’t actually agreed to see me.  I arrived in his office 20 minutes early — and it took the whole 20 minutes to get through the line to check in. Ten minutes after my appointment was supposed to begin, a nurse took my blood pressure. Twenty minutes after that, a student doctor took me back for my ultrasound.

Five minutes later, she confirmed that I still have the cysts I had in 2014.  She apparently didn’t have the report from St. Mary’s and, like an idiot, I’d forgotten to bring it. I told her they had seen a cyst that was 8 mm. She said that would be as big as both her thumbnails put together. She didn’t see that at all. Rather than look, she hustled out.

An hour and a half after my appointment began, the doctor hurried in. He looked at me: 50ish, overweight, very gray, huddled into my winter coat because I was so cold in the examining room. He’d seen the pictures, he said. My thyroid looks great.

What about the lump? I asked.

We don’t see any lump, he told me.

My doctor could feel it, I argued.

He reached out and poked me in the throat. He didn’t use two hands to feel my thyroid. He didn’t ask me to swallow. He jabbed gently with the ends of his fingers.  I’d never had anyone examine me like that before.  Seems fine, he said.  I’m a surgeon who likes to operate and I don’t see anything to worry about.

And he rushed out.

I sat in the examining room and cried.

That was the week before Christmas. I went home to see my parents for a week. My daughter had a week of vacation after New Year’s, several days of which she spent in bed with a headache. School was supposed to start on January 8, but on the 7th, she came down with some kind of viral infection.  She stayed home the whole first week of school.

I could feel my voice twisting in my throat again. I could feel the lump rubbing against the collar of my shirt. I tried not to stare at it when I brushed my teeth at night.

I begged my doctor to tell me what my next steps should be. I have one thyroid scan that reads as precancerous. I have another that says there’s no change since 2014, even though I can still see it.  Should I get a third opinion?  Instead, she suggested I see an endocrinologist.

That appointment was scheduled for last Tuesday. That morning, the endocrinologist’s office called to say she’d had a family emergency and had jumped on a plane. They didn’t know when she would be back. They rescheduled me for the first week of February, hoping that she would be back by then.

My doctor says not to panic. The levels of thyroid hormone in my blood are still a hair above clinically worrisome, so my thyroid is still working. I can wait until the endocrinologist comes back.

[image error]Everyone — except the technician at St. Mary’s — has treated me like I’m overreacting. Maybe I am overreacting. All I know is that of the 7 symptoms for thyroid disease on the internet, I have 6. The level of thyroid hormones in my blood has been dropping for 15 years, but hasn’t yet crossed the magical line into clinically worrisome. My mom is hypothyroid. I have a history of goiter and known cysts in my thyroid. Those are part of my medical records, if anyone cares to look.

I don’t understand why this is such a struggle. I am tired of fighting to get people to listen to me. At this point, I just want to have the stupid swollen thing removed, so I don’t have to worry about it any more.

 

2017 Press and Radio

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At Green Apple on the Park

My chief lesson in 2017, when it came to work, was what exactly a big publishing house could do for me.  199 Cemeteries is my 11th book. I’ve worked with independent presses big and small, as well as running my own publishing house.  I’d even published with Scribner, so I thought I’d worked with a big professional house, but I think the size of the advance in that case worked against me.  In the months before Morbid Curiosity Cures the Blues was published, I worked with four different publicists at Scribner — and they didn’t get me any press at all.

This time around, Black Dog let me work closely with the Head of Marketing as well as with an A-#1 in-house publicist, Marisol Salaman.   I was amazed and deeply honored by all the media attention she was able to draw to my book.

Radio Interviews:
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Waiting to begin taping Under the Radar

Cemetery Travel: World’s Best Destinations (background for Blueprints for Living interview on ABC radio in Australia)

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/blueprintforliving/cemetery-travel—10-of-the-worlds-best/8667452

Tombstone Tourism on Blueprints for Living on ABC radio in Australia – includes link to listen to the podcast.

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/blueprintforliving/tombstone-tourism/8665726

Gary Shapiro’s From the Bookshelf aired on KSCO in Santa Cruz, California on September 25. My bit starts 23 minutes in. https://player.fm/series/gary-shapiros-from-the-bookshelf/guests-james-gleick-and-loren-rhodes

Agony Column (long version of Rick Kleffel’s show), broadcast on October 6 on KBCZ 90.1 FM, Santa Cruz Community Radio: http://www.bookotron.com/agony/audio/2017/2017-interviews/loren_rhoads-2017.mp3

[image error]The Agony Column (short version): http://www.bookotron.com/agony/audio/2017/2017-time_to_read/time_to_read_ep274_loren_rhoads.mp3

Finch Files Halloween episode, with Bay Area legend Peter Finch:

https://www.mixcloud.com/peter-finch2/finch-files-halloween-17-episode-94/

The Jim Bohannon Show aired several times on and around October 26 on more than 500 radio stations around the US. Here’s my bit as an audio file.


https://lorenrhoads.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/offbeat-cemeteries-1026.mp3

Callie Crosby interviewed me for WGBH’s program, Under the Radar: https://news.wgbh.org/2017/11/10/author-graveyard-aficionado-asks-whats-your-favorite-cemetery

My favorite interview ever might be Horror Addicts #150: Cure for the Holidaze. Emerian asked what I did to chill out and survive the holidays. One guess what my answer was. https://horroraddicts.wordpress.com/2017/11/18/horroraddicts-net-150-cure-for-the-holidaze-special/

At some point during October, I was on the Entertainment Weekly Radio show on Sirius XM. I missed hearing it, so I don’t have the airdate.

I appeared (briefly!) on the Sean Moncrief Show on Newstalk.com, a national radio broadcast in Ireland on November 6, 2017.

My last radio interview for the year was live on the Michael J. Thorp Show on December 20th. It is part of the SuperTalk 1570 Cumulus channel and broadcast in Flint, Michigan on WWCK AM.

Print/Online Interviews:

The only interview I did about my Alondra stories appeared as a Four Questions interview on the Merry Ghost Hunter blog: https://merryghosthunter.wordpress.com/2017/09/17/4-question-interview-loren-rhoads/

A Narrative Species article by Rich Kleffel accompanied his Agony Column shows:

“Loren Rhoads suggests 199 Cemeteries to See Before You Die: Life, Death, and Everything in Between.”

https://narrativespecies.wordpress.com/2017/10/02/loren-rhoads-suggests-199-cemeteries-to-see-before-you-die-life-death-and-everything-in-between/

Time magazine interviewed me for their 10/3/17 issue:

“What Gets Remembered: How Visiting a Cemetery Can Teach you About History”

http://time.com/4963379/cemeteries-history-rhoads/

San Francisco magazine interviewed me about Bay Area cemeteries that everyone should visit:

“Just in Time for Halloween, Bay Area Cemeteries to See Before You Die”

https://www.modernluxury.com/san-francisco/story/just-time-halloween-the-bay-area-cemeteries-see-you-die

I’ve been a subscriber to Real Simple for more than a decade, so it was a thrill to be interviewed for “10 Hauntingly Beautiful Cemeteries to Visit Before Halloween”

https://www.realsimple.com/work-life/travel/beautiful-cemeteries-to-visit

The San Diego Union Tribune interviewed me in advance of my reading at Mysterious Galaxy and drew in a big crowd: “Cemetery-book author takes readers to 199 of her favorites”

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/entertainment/books/sd-et-author-rhoads-20171010-story.html

The book writer for the LA Times came to my reading at Stories, then interviewed me and some of the audience members.  Her story appeared as “Hurry to see a cemetery while you can still appreciate it, says author Loren Rhoads”

http://beta.latimes.com/books/la-et-jc-199-cemeteries-20171018-htmlstory.html

“A Guide to the World’s Most Intriguing Cemeteries” was Allison C. Meier’s summary of the interview I did for Hyperallergic.

https://hyperallergic.com/403271/a-tombstone-explorers-guide-to-the-worlds-most-intriguing-cemeteries

USA Today columnist Larry Bleiberg asked me for “10 Great Cemeteries to Visit Before You Die”

https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/destinations/10greatplaces/2017/10/27/cemeteries/803205001/

The National Trust for Historic Preservation asked me for “The Best Historic Cemeteries to Visit Around the World”

https://savingplaces.org/stories/the-best-historic-cemeteries-to-visit-around-the-world#.WjarlVQ-f2Q

“Two of the 199 Cemeteries to See Before You Die are in Utah appeared in the Salt Lake Tribune

http://www.sltrib.com/artsliving/arts/2017/10/27/two-of-the-199-cemeteries-to-see-before-you-die-are-in-utah/

“A Kind of Serendipity: 199 Cemeteries to See Before You Die” is a more traditional interview, published by the Funeral Zone blog in the UK and Australia.

https://www.funeralzone.co.uk/blog/loren-rhoads-199-cemeteries-travel-book

Death & the Maiden also interview me about 199 Cemeteries to See Before You Die:

https://deadmaidens.com/2017/12/12/199-cemeteries-to-see-before-you-die/

Articles:

[image error]“Dark Tourism: Why Would You Want to Spend Your Holiday Visiting a Cemetery?” This news story was based on the interview for the Blueprints for Living show on ABC radio in Australia.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-06/tombstone-tourism-why-we-visit-cemeteries-on-holidays/8673454

“In Search of Cemeteries Alive with Beauty, Art, and History” on the Atlas Obscura site.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/cemeteries-to-visit-before-you-die-monuments

The New York Times featured the book in their Open Book column in the Books section:

“A Guide to Graveside Tourism”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/27/books/review/199-cemeteries-to-see-before-you-die.html

Did You Know focused on “7 Amazing Cemeteries to Visit Before You Inhabit One (if You’re into That Sort of Thing)”

http://didyouknowfacts.com/8-amazing-cemeteries-visit-inhabit-one-know-youre-sort-thing/

Mind-Blowing Facts echoed that with “10 Unique Cemeteries to Visit Before You Inhabit One”

https://mind-blowingfacts.com/unique-cemeteries/

The San Francisco Chronicle also featured the book in their Sunday Lit section:

Travel Books: “199 Cemeteries” A Lively Chronicle of Culture

http://www.sfchronicle.com/travel/article/Travel-Books-199-Cemeteries-a-lively-12241291.php?cmpid=gsa-sfgate-result

Mental Floss highlighted “12 of the Most Beautiful Cemeteries Around the World”

http://mentalfloss.com/photos/504533/12-most-beautiful-cemeteries-around-world

Lenore Gwynn was my editor at Gothic Beauty and provided a lovely blurb for the book. She wrote about it for her blog: http://lenore.online/199-cemeteries-see-die

Mental Floss was inspired to write “These Connected Graves in the Netherlands Prove Love Conquers All” after reading my book.

http://mentalfloss.com/article/505109/these-connected-graves-netherlands-prove-love-conquers-all

The London Dead review:

http://thelondondead.blogspot.com/2017/10/199-cemeteries-to-see-before-you-die.html

Vice had a different angle in “Being Dead Sucks Even More than You Thought.”

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/j5gwwy/being-dead-sucks-even-more-than-you-thought

Popsugar focused on “11 Cemeteries That Are Hauntingly Beautiful”

https://www.popsugar.com/smart-living/World-Most-Beautiful-Cemeteries-44166497

Travel Gumbo announced my book and linked to my blog: http://www.travelgumbo.com/topic/199-cemeteries-to-see-before-you-die-by-loren-rhoads

The Wall Street Journal wrote a lovely piece about my book in “Books for Impassioned Travelers.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-must-read-for-restless-fly-fishermenand-other-books-for-travelers-1509645620

The perfect review of Wish You Were Here and 199 Cemeteries appeared on Luna Luna as “Two Books to Delight the Tombstone Tourist in You.”

http://www.lunalunamagazine.com/dark/2-boos-to-delight-the-tombstone-tourist

Funeral Zone featured “10 Cemeteries to See Before you Die.”

https://www.funeralzone.co.uk/blog/10-cemeteries-see-you-die

“Cemeteries You Must See Before You Die: Scotland to Japan, the world’s most haunted and beautiful burial sites revealed” appeared in The Daily Mail about the UK edition of the book.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-5150991/The-worlds-hauntingly-beautiful-burial-sites.html

J’aime Rubio was kind enough to add my name to the page called “My Favorite Authors!” on her website: https://www.jaimerubiowriter.com/my-favorite-authors/

Miscellaneous Good Things:

[image error]199 Cemeteries hit #1 in Amazon’s Literary and Religious Travel Guides on September 22, 2017.

It made the Order of the Good Death Booklist:  http://www.orderofthegooddeath.com/resources/books#5

And Cult of Weird’s Morbid Must-Reads for Fall:

http://www.cultofweird.com/books/2017-fall-reading-list/

I was a guest on the Writers Chatroom:

http://archive.aweber.com/chatroom/7ljfO/h/Horror_Month_Presents_Loren_Rhoads.htm

It made the list of Best New Books list in Entertainment Weekly.

It reached #5 on the Borderlands Books Best Sellers in Hardcover in October.

Cult of Weird featured 199 Cemeteries on their Weird Book Wednesday on Tumblr and got a huge response.

And I got invited to join the TBD Writers Group, with Angel McCoy, Lisa Morton, Jennifer Brozek, and Allison McKenzie. They are inspiring me to write some new stories!

Books Lists & Gift Guides:

199 Cemeteries made Borderlands Books’ Opinionated Holiday Gift Guide.

The Cult of Weird Holiday Gift Guide:

http://www.cultofweird.com/curiosities/2017-holiday-gift-guide/

The Macabre Holiday Gift Guide 2017:

https://boroughsofthedead.com/macabre-holiday-gift-guide-2017/

The list of Macabre Non-Fiction Books for Darklings:

http://www.thespookyvegan.com/2017/12/macabre-non-fiction-books-for-darklings.html

The Weekly Gift Ideas from the Staff of Atlas Obscura:

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/weekly-wishlist-dice-fire-cemetery-flux-science-toy

And “14 Holiday Gift Book Ideas to Help You Finish off Your Christmas Shopping” at the Deseret News in Utah:

https://www.deseretnews.com/article/900005765/14-holiday-gift-book-ideas-to-help-you-finish-off-your-christmas-shopping.html