Loren Rhoads's Blog, page 36

Live in 2017

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Reading ghost stories at the Literary Speakeasy.

Never Enough doesn’t really describe this year’s live events, because I’m pleased with how many times I got to speak or read in public. I’m not sure I could have managed anything more.

Readings:

FogCon

Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading

Friday, March 10, 2017 at 4:30 pm

Members of Broad Universe — Rebecca Gomez Farrell, Valerie Estelle Frankel, Sarah Grey, LS Johnson, and I — read a spectrum of work.  I read the prison attack from No More Heroes.

Rebound Bookstore

Something Weird Just Landed!

Wednesday, March 29, 2017 at 7:00 pm

S. G. Browne and I led off an Open Mic at San Rafael’s Rebound Bookstore. I read from No More Heroes, the third of the Templars novels.

StokerCon

Friday, April 28 at 1 pm

I read with Sumiko Saulson on the fabled Queen Mary. I read a bloody bit from Kill By Numbers, the second Templar novels.

BayCon

Friday, May 26 at 2:30 pm

I was in the mood to read something more from No More Heroes.

 

Octopus Literary Salon

Wings Unbound release party

Saturday, August 26, 2017 at 4 pm

Rebecca Gomez Farrell invited me and Daniel Potter to help celebrate the release of her novel Wings Unbound. I read from No More Heroes again.

Green Apple on the Park

Tuesday, October 3 at 7:30 pm

This was the debut of 199 Cemeteries to See Before You Die. It was also my first opportunity to read at the lovely Green Apple sister store.

Borderlands Cafe

Saturday, October 7 at 3 pm

My homecoming at Borderlands was amazing. My friends turned out in force to help me celebrate 199 Cemeteries to See Before You Die.

Lit Crawl

Hippos, Heroines, and Spaceships

Borderlands Bookstore

Saturday, October 14 at 6:30

I read as part of Phase 2 of the Lit Crawl with Sarah Gailey (River of Teeth), Sarah Kuhn (Heroine Complex), and Carter Scholz (a huge number of short stories). I read a not-yet- published story called “The Assassin’s Mirror,” which combines space opera and cemeteries.

Stories Bookstore and Cafe

October 17 at 8 pm

I returned to Stories in LA’s Echo Park for the first time since the release of Morbid Curiosity Cures the Blues. I read a little of 199 Cemeteries to See Before You Die and talked about the cemeteries I’ve visited.  It was great to see Megan Rosenbloom, director of the Death Salon, and meet Karie Bible, a tour guide at Hollywood Forever. Also in the audience was Agatha French, who interviewed us for the LA Times.

[image error]Mysterious Galaxy

October 20 at 7:30 pm

This was my first visit to the legendary Mysterious Galaxy bookstore in San Diego. Thanks to a feature in the San Diego Union Tribune, I had a great crowd as I raved about 199 Cemeteries to See Before You Die.

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Women in Horror

Sunday, October 29th at 6:30 pm

I joined Erika Mailman (Murderer’s Maid, a novel about Lizzie Borden) and Dana Fredsti (Spawn of Lilith and the Plague World trilogy) in a reading and interview moderated by Bay Area author, editor, and raconteur Terry Bisson at the American Bookbinders Museum.

Literary Speakeasy – the Martini Bar of Horrors 

Monday, October 30, 2017 at 7 pm

Martuni’s, San Francisco, California

Emceed by James Siegel, with Carson Beker, Meg Elison, Richard Kadrey, and Sumiko Saulson, I read some ghost stories from 199 Cemeteries To See Before You Die.

2017 Miscellaneous Live Events:

[image error]Borderlands Cafe

Sunday, February 5 at 3 pm

Borderlands celebrated Women in Horror Month by hosting a panel discussion between me, Horror Writers Association president Lisa Morton, and Bram Stoker Award-winner Rena Mason.

Stokercon

Saturday, April 29 at 11 am

I debuted a brand-new lecture called “Whistling Past the Graveyard” on the Queen Mary. I talked about ghosts, graveyards, and things that go bump in the night. The room was packed and people asked great questions.

Bay Area Book Festival

Saturday, June 3, from 10 – 6

It’s become an annual tradition for me to spend a day hanging out with the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the Horror Writers Association at the Book Festival in Berkeley. I sold a ton of books this year.

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At Barnes & Noble in Flint, Michigan

Barnes & Noble

Saturday, July 29 from 1 pm to 4

The Barnes & Noble at Genessee Valley Mall in Flint, Michigan let me sign the updated edition of Wish You Were Here.

Death Salon

Saturday, September 9, 2017

I was honored to facilitate a lunchtime discussion at the Seattle Death Salon. We talked about cemeteries, of course.

Ipso Facto

October 18 at 5:30 pm

It was great to sign 199 Cemeteries at the legendary Goth shop Ipso Facto. I’ve known Terri, the owner, since way back in the Morbid Curiosity magazine days, when she was a frequent advertiser, but I’d never gotten the chance to visit her before.

Dark Delicacies

October 21 at 4 pm

The first professional book signing I ever did — for the Sins of the Sirens anthology — was at Dark Delicacies in Burbank, California. It was wonderful to be invited back to sign 199 Cemeteries.

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At the SF Elks Lodge, talking about cemeteries to a Taco. Photo by Jill Tracy.

San Francisco Elks Lodge #3

Sunday, October 29th, 12:30 pm

Now I am a party clown. I was invited to the Elks Halloween party to show some slides and get kids interested in cemeteries.

Borderlands Cafe

In November, I once again hosted Nanowrimo Write-ins at the Borderlands Cafe.  It’s inspirational to join so many writers banging out their books.  Although the first night was packed, I was all alone the night before Thanksgiving. Still, I look forward to doing it again next year.

Convention Panels:

I was on two panels at this year’s FogCon:

Social Media for Writers and Authors

Friday, March 10 at 3 pm

I moderated a well-attended panel about the variety of social media available to help writers connect with readers.  Joining me were Rebecca Gomez Farrell, Valerie Frankel, Phyllis Holliday, and Heather Rose Jones.

Pitches, Presentations and Proposals: making your point without resorting to kidnapping your boss

Saturday, March 11 at 4:30 pm

I participated in a panel moderated by Karen Brenchley, with Marie Metivier-DeMasters and Alfred Nash. We each brought different skills to the topic, from pitching panel topics to selling books, articles, and columns. The highlight was when we threw open the second half of the panel and let the audience pitch their books to us. Not only was it fascinating, it felt like we were being extremely useful.

At BayCon I pitched three panels and ended up moderating them all. I even got to participate in other people’s writing-oriented panels.

Girls Will Be Girls

Saturday, May 27 at 4 pm

Why are so many YA dystopias centered on young women? What about this particular genre is so appealing to (or inclusive of) young women and what does it say about our society? I moderated, with Teresea Edgerton, Margaret McGaffey Fisk, Linden Tarr, and Carrie Sessarego participating as panelists.

Women Of Horror

Sunday, May 28 at 11:30 am

Emerian Rich of HorrorAddicts.net led a discussion between me and Pat MacEwen about the stereotypes, expectations, and discrimination involved with writing in this mostly man-dominated genre.

Dystopian Space Opera from Ancillary Justice to Rogue One

Sunday, May 28 at 1 pm

I moderated again, with Juliette Wade, Douglas Berry, Andrew Clark, and Chuck Serface as panelists. What is it about galactic empires that turns the future into a dystopia? We’ll discussed fiction, television, and film and tried to figure out what form of galactic government would make everyone happy.

Harry Potter and Dystopian Fantasy

Sunday, May 28 at 4 pm

The final panel I moderated, with Jean Batt, Colin Fisk, and Linden Tarr participating, looked at dystopia in fantasy. What’s a main character to do when the government (whether the Ministry of Magic or the Empire of Melnibone, the Head of the White Council or rightful King of Westeros) will use magic and lies to keep the populace in line?

The Dreaded Outline

Monday, May 29 at 10 am

Technique discussion about outlining and other pre-work that helps keep writers motivated to the finish line. Tip-focused rather than memoir, it really highlighted all the different ways writers do the advance work (or in my case, outline once I get stuck in the middle). Moderated by Margaret McGaffey Fisk, with me, Jay Hartlove, Maya Kathryn Bohnhoff, and J. L. Doty.

Never Enough, 2017 edition

Every year I recap the writing triumphs and disappointments of the previous twelve months. Every year I feel like I’ve never done enough. This year, even with all that’s happened, I still feel like I wasted too much time. If only I’d hustled a little more…

Book publications:

[image error]My major accomplishment of the year was the publication of 199 Cemeteries to See Before You Die. I signed the contract last December and turned in the first draft in March. It came out on October 3 and is already going back for a second printing. It’s the first book I’ve written to gain the notice of Time, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal. I’m looking forward to doing more speaking engagements about it next year, including lecturing at Cypress Lawn in September.

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Wish You Were Here: Adventures in Cemetery Travel, the second edition of my collection of cemetery travel essays, came out in paperback in August. I was able to update the essays and add an index. My book designer did a great job with the new cover, using one of my favorite photos from my first trip to Highgate Cemetery.  Doing the work to update it made me start to think about assembling a second book of essays.

Short fiction publications:

[image error]An Alondra story called “The Drowning City,” which appeared in Nevermore! Tales of Murder, Mystery, and the Macabre, appeared in Best New Horror #27, edited by Stephen Jones. It was my first time sharing a table of contents with Neil Gaiman and Gemma Files. It was also the first time I had a story in a Best Of collection, the first time I got to autograph a signature sheet, and the first time a story of mine appeared in hardcover.

[image error]“Guardian of the Golden Gate,” an Alondra story about magic in San Francisco and the hunger that lives beneath the Golden Gate Bridge, appeared in the Strange California anthology. The book includes stories by Seanan McGuire, Tim Pratt, Laura Anne Gilman, and so many more.

 

Short fiction sales:

“Something in the Water,” an Alondra story about San Francisco’s Academy of Sciences, sold to Occult Detective Quarterly for an upcoming issue. I don’t have the details yet.

I’ve also placed “Elle a Vu un Loup,” an Alondra story set in Michigan, but the contract isn’t signed yet. I’m really excited about the venue, though.

Nonfiction publications:

I published two more cemetery essays on Gothic Beauty: about Two Rock Valley Cemetery in Northern California and Barcelona’s Poblenou Cemetery.

Cemetery Sights: Norton, Emperor of the United States, my first essay about cemetery treasures, went up on Legacy.com.

My second piece on Mental Floss, published in October, proposed 5 Cemetery Road Trips for the Ultimate Taphophile.

In September, I started a column called Grave Fascinations for the Horror Writers Association’s monthly newsletter.

Guest Post publications:

What a Piece of Work is Man, about visiting the Capuchin catacombs of Rome, was published on HorrorAddicts.net in January.

Reading Your Own Work was published on No Wasted Ink in May.

Did You Know There Are Travel Sites Dedicated to Visiting Cemeteries? appeared on The Author Spot (Stacey Turner’s blog) in October.

The Most Haunted Cemetery in the World, about Greyfriars Kirkyard, appeared on Horror Addicts in October.

Cemeteries and the Ghost of Marie Laveau appeared as part of the October Frights feature on A. F. Stewart’s blog.

The Ultimate Romantic Cemetery, about the cemetery at Stoke Poges, was published on Emmy Z. Madrial’s blog.

An outtake from 199 Cemeteries appeared as American Vampires on the Emz Box blog.

 

Write with me tonight?

[image error]How’s your Nanowrimo going? If you need to pound out some words — and you’re in San Francisco — come join me tonight at the Borderlands Cafe for a couple of hours of writing.

If you can’t be come to the Borderlands Cafe in person, please join us virtually.  Comment below or ping me on Facebook or Twitter and let me know you are writing.  I’ll be with you in spirit.

The Borderlands Cafe is at 870 Valencia Street in San Francisco’s Mission District.  It’s between 19th and 20th Street. I’ll be at the tables in the back from 6 to 8 pm.

And my Nanowrimo?  Well, I’ve gotten 23,000 words that I didn’t have before.  I don’t think there’s any way that I can “win” this year, considering I’d have to write more in the next week than I’ve managed in the last three, but it doesn’t matter.  I’m that much closer to the end of this book, which keeps growing as I get deeper into it.

I’ve been working on the Pioneer Cemeteries of the San Francisco Bay Area book again.  It’s a nonfiction guide to graveyards from Cloverdale in Sonoma County to Gilroy in Santa Clara. It visits the graves of Donner Party survivors, the first transman to vote in a presidential election (for Lincoln, of course), a mountain man who survived a grizzly bear gnawing on his skull, the only Emperor of the United States, and winemakers, highwaymen, suffragettes, murder victims, ranchers, priests, paupers, and more. It spans in history from the Ohlone, Miwok, Wappo, and Kashaya villages through the Spanish missions, the Mexican land grants, the Bear Flag Revolt, the Gold Rush, and on up to the dawn of the 20th century.

The book is 71,000 words so far (which includes this year’s Nanowrimo addition). I expect it will be closer to 90,000 by the time I’m done.

Come tell me about your book tonight — and let’s get some work done!

Nanowrimo Write-in Tonight

[image error]For the third year in a row, I’m hosting a series of National Novel Writing Month write-ins at Borderlands Cafe in San Francisco’s Mission District. This year they’ll take place on Wednesday nights from 6-8 pm (except for 11/15, when the cafe has something else going on).  It’s free to come and write, but the cafe would appreciate it if you’d buy a cup of coffee or something to help keep the lights on.

If you can’t be come to the Borderlands Cafe in person, please join us virtually.  Comment below or ping me on Facebook or Twitter and let me know you are writing.  I’ll be with you in spirit.

You do not have to be signed up for Nanowrimo to join the write-in, although I encourage you to do it if you’re up for a challenge.  It’s amazing to feel part of a community of people pounding out the words and shaping reality.

At times like these, when the surface of reality is shifting beneath our feet, it is more important than ever to write.  Tell YOUR story. Spill out your fear and frustration.  Or  make something up and create a place to escape. It doesn’t matter what you write, only that you do.

Every word that you write will heal you a little more.  If you’re lucky, you may also heal someone else.

The Borderlands Cafe is at 870 Valencia Street in San Francisco’s Mission District.  It’s between 19th and 20th Street. I’ll be at the tables in the back.

Martini Bar of Horrors tonight!

[image error]Tonight is my final event for 199 Cemeteries to See Before You Die. James J. Siegel, the host with the most, describes it like this: Halloween is almost here! And so is Literary Speakeasy’s Martini Bar of Horrors! We have five amazing writers tonight (October 30) to give you the creeps, including the wonderful Loren Rhoads! This is her third time performing at our Halloween show and Loren can tell a great ghost story! Her latest book is 199 Cemeteries To See Before You Die. Come see Loren tonight at Martuni’s!

Here’s the whole lineup:

Literary Speakeasy celebrates All Hallows’ Eve with its Martini Bar of Horrors! Join us for five macabre authors and storytellers: Carson Beker, Meg Elison, Richard Kadrey, Loren Rhoads, and Sumiko Saulson. Your spooky host and curator is James J. Siegel.

Literary Speakeasy is always FREE with NO drink minimum. And everyone in attendance receives a FREE raffle ticket for their chance to win the evening’s haunted Speakeasy prize!

Come out, dim the lights with us, conjure some spirits, and celebrate the season with these amazing performers!

Performer bios:

Carson Beker is a writer, playwright, storyteller, and co-founder of the Art Unschool Escapery. Their stories has appeared in Foglifter, Gigantic Sequins, and Radar Literary Series. Their plays have been produced or in development through Custom Made Theater, Exit Theater, and Z-Below. They are a Lambda Emerging Writer Fellow in Fiction, and a former Tin House Scholar. They can be found at CarsonBeker.com and atwww.Escapery.org. They are most definitely haunted.

Meg Elison is the author of The Book Of The Unnamed Midwife, Tiptree recommendation, Audie Award nominee and winner of the Philip K. Dick Award. Her sequel, The Book Of Etta, was published in February 2017. She has also been published in McSweeney’s, Catapult, Compelling Science Fiction, Terraform, and many other places. Elison is a high school dropout and a graduate of UC Berkeley. Find her atmegelison.com and on Twitter @megelison.

Richard Kadrey is a freelance writer living in San Francisco. He is the author of dozens of stories, plus thirteen novels, including Sandman Slim, Kill the Dead, Aloha from Hell, Devil Said Bang, Kill City Blues, The Getaway God, Killing Pretty, The Perdition Score, The Kill Society, The Everything Box, The Wrong Dead Guy, Metrophage, and Butcher Bird. Kadrey created and wrote the Vertigo comics mini-series ACCELERATE, which was illustrated by the Pander Brothers. He has written and spoken about art, culture and technology for Wired, The San Francisco Chronicle, Discovery Online, The Site, SXSW, and Wired For Sex on the G4 cable network.

Loren Rhoads is the author of 199 Cemeteries to See Before You Die and Wish You Were Here: Adventures in Cemetery Travel. She also writes horror short stories and space opera novels. She doesn’t see a contradiction in those things.

Sumiko Saulson is a horror, sci-fi and dark fantasy writer, winner of the StokerCon Scholarship from Hell and 2nd Place Carry the Light Sci-Fi Short Story Award. She wrote 60 Black Women in Horror Fiction. Her novels include Solitude, The Moon Cried Blood, Happiness and Other Diseases, and Warmth. She has written short stories for anthologies including Forever Vacancy, Babes and Beasts, Tales from the Lake 3, and Clockwork Wonderland. She writes for Search Magazine. Born to African-American and Russian-Jewish parents, she is a native Californian, and has spent most of her adult life in the Bay Area.

James J. Siegel is the author of the poetry collection “How Ghosts Travel” from Spuyten Duyvil Press, which was nominated as a finalist for the Ohioana Library Book Award. He lives in San Francisco where he hosts and curates Literary Speakeasy at Martuni’s, which showcases Bay Area authors, poets, and songwriters. His work has appeared in several journals including The Cortland Review, Assaracus, Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, The Good Men Project, and more.

Martuni’s is at the corner of Market and Valencia Streets in San Francisco. The reading runs from 7 to 8:30 pm.

5 Questions with Emerian Rich

[image error]I met Emerian Rich through a a Facebook group dedicated to women who write horror.  She invited me to contribute to The Horror Addicts’ Guide to Life, then invited me to join her — the first time I attended BayCon — in a group reading from the book.  It was amazing to meet her in person.  She is a bundle of energy.

Officially, Emerian Rich is an artist, horror host, and the author of the vampire series Night’s Knights. She is the hostess of the internationally acclaimed podcast HorrorAddicts.net. Under the name Emmy Z. Madrigal, she writes the musical romance series, Sweet Dreams. She’s also the Editorial Director for the Bay Area magazine SEARCH. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and son.

Loren Rhoads: Did something in the real world inspire your book?

Emerian Rich:  Yes, I am always inspired by the world around me. The series started as two stories that I put together. One was about three vampires I patterned after different inspiring individuals I have known in my life. The other story was about the yin and yang of how I see myself vs. how I want to be seen. Although this is a vampire series, it’s very much about humans and how we deal with life’s tribulations.

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

ER: Wow. There are so many. This book series follows so many different lives, it’s hard to choose just one favorite scene. But if I could step into my book, I’d want to visit the vampire artifact museum located deep inside NOSS headquarters. They are a government agency who track and record the going-ons of supernatural beings. When one of my old vamps visits the museum, he comes face to face with a grisly painting of himself. I would love to be in the room when he sees it. Here’s an excerpt:

In the painting, Reidar stood atop a snowy mountain ridge, a bloodied corpse at his feet and wolves by his side. He looked quite Viking-ish with fur and leather covering him, a massive Mjölnir in his hand and his mouth open, showing elongated canines. At first sight, Reidar chuckled.

“Painted by one of our scribes. Grandfather always wanted you to see this to tell him if it was an accurate depiction of events.”

“Not so dramatic, but yes, I suppose I might have appeared as grisly when emerging from battle.”

“He thought you may think it was over the top, but wondered if he got the amulet right.”

Reidar’s eyes fell to the left side of the painting where his twin clutched an amulet in his hand.

“My word, it’s spot on.” A sharp pain pierced his heart.

“He would’ve been very proud to hear it.”

Taking a deep breath and swallowing hard, Reidar let the pain in his chest subside. Memories of his sister could still shake him to the core. It had been hundreds of years, but he still couldn’t let the pain of her passing go.

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

ER: I’m a pantser. I just write. The characters want to take me on these adventures and I follow. There is very little plotting for me and if I do plot, it’s only to keep the characters in a semi-straight path, but they have their own ideas about where the story is going. I mostly let them have their way. I have no choice.

LR: Are you doing anything unusual to promote the book?

[image error] LR: What do you have planned next?

ER: No acrobatics or death-defying feats of strength or anything, but I get excited about making book-specific favors for my VIP party and special edition packs that I send out. This time it will be a short story booklet and a couple of items from the book like a pouch of Kingdom Tea, a drink from heaven that makes you forget the past.

LR: What do you have planned next?

ER: I am working on the third book in this series, Day’s Children. There is a planned fourth book to round out the set, Dawn’s Drog. I also have a modern retelling of Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey coming. It’s the story of a Horror Addict, so it’s right up my alley.

[image error]Dusk’s Warriors by Emerian Rich

Heaven has opened up and welcomed the vampires of Night’s Knights into a new reality. As they struggle to find their place in their new world, trouble brews on Earth.

Demon servant Ridge is causing havoc by gathering up all the souls on Earth that have been touched by immortality. When he injures one of the Night’s Knights crew, he launches a war between the vampires of Heaven, the Big Bad in Hell, and a mortal street gang of vigilante misfits.

Will Julien, Markham, and Reidar be able to defeat the evil that’s returned, or will they once again need Jespa’s help?

Praise for Dusk’s Warriors:

“All hail, the queen of Night’s Knights has returned! Emerian Rich’s unique take on vampires delights my black little heart.” ~Dan Shaurette, Lilith’s Love

“A world of horror with realistic characters in a fast-paced thriller you won’t be able to put down.” ~David Watson, The All Night Library

Praise for Night’s Knights: 

“Fresh, original, and thoroughly entertaining.” ~Mark Eller, Traitor

“Emerian brought the vampire novel back from the dead.” ~C. E. Dorsett, Shine Like Thunder

Available now at Amazon.com in print and eBook

https://www.amazon.com/Dusks-Warriors-Nights-Knights-Vampire/dp/1544628803

SF in SF: Women in Horror tomorrow!

[image error]Join us tomorrow — Sunday, October 29th — for a lively evening of reading and discussion with authors Loren Rhoads, Erika Mailman, and Dana Fredsti, moderated by Bay Area author, editor, and raconteur Terry Bisson.

Join us early for cupcakes (including some gluten-free options), candy, snacks and drinks! (Did I mention it’s a Halloween party, too?!)

Doors and bar open at 6:00PM

Event begins at 6:30PM



Loren Rhoads is the author of 199 Cemeteries to See Before You Die and Wish You Were Here: Adventures in Cemetery Travel, as well as the editor of Death’s Garden: Relationships with Cemeteries and Morbid Curiosity Cures and the Blues. Her well-trafficked blog, Cemetery Travel, details her first-hand visits. She lives in San Francisco.

Erika Mailman is the author of Witch’s Trinity, a San Francisco Chronicle Notable Book for 2007, House of Bellaver, and Woman of Ill Fame. Murderer’s Maid, a novel about Lizzie Borden, was published in October 2017. She lives in Northern California.

Dana Fredsti is the author of the Ashley Parker Plague Town trilogy, Murder for Hire, and A Man’s Gotta Eat What a Man’s Gotta Eat, as well as a frequent short fiction contributor and author (under pseudonym) of a number of erotic fantasy novels. She has been a producer, director, and screenplay writer for stage and film, and was the co-writer / associate producer on Urban Rescuers, which won Best Documentary at the 2003 Valley Film Festival in Los Angeles. Her new book is about stuntwomen and monsters in Hollywood is called Spawn of Lilith.

For over a decade SF in SF has offered readings, films, and special events in the Bay Area for readers of science fiction, fantasy, and speculative fiction. Hosted by Terry Bisson, past guests have included Connie Willis, Gene Wolfe, Laurie King, Nancy Kress, Lev Grossman, Patrick Rothfuss, Gail Carriger, Cory Doctorow, Peter S. Beagle, and many others. We hope you will join us!

$10 at the door (no one is turned away for lack of funds). As always, Borderlands Books will be on hand with copies of all of the authors’ work.






The American Bookbinders Museum is located at 355 Clementina Street, San Francisco, California 94107.


For more information, email Rina Weisman at sfinsfevents@gmail.com

SF Elks’ Club Halloween

[image error]Calling all ghastly gals, ghoulish guys, and parents of all ages to join SF ELKS #3 in celebrating the most spooktactular holiday of all, Halloween, at our (maybe or maybe not) HAUNTED LODGE on Union Square!

Fall under the eerie and beautiful spell of musician Jill Tracy on the grand piano, and take part in an interactive musical seance ~ Celebrate Dia De Los Muertos by decorating your own sugar skulls ~ Be transformed into your favorite monster with a keepsake character portrait by Michael Capozzola ~ Travel through a twisty and terrifying Lost Mine ~ Learn all there is to know about cemeteries from author Loren Rhoads ~  Be surprised by special storytelling guests during Batty-Bat Storytime, hosted by Alia Volz ~ Grab an armful of free books sponsored by The San Francisco Public Library and Green Apple Books ~ An awesome photobooth, fantastic face-painting, and you may even leave with some CANDY!!!

So slither, crawl, or just walk like a zombie to BPOE#3 on Sunday, October 29th from 12 – 3 pm  for a rare opportunity to visit our historic lodge and enjoy our annual Halloween on The Square Party. 

This Halloween Party is FREE and open to the public (especially kids).

DETAILS:

San Francisco Elk’s Lodge #3 @ 450 Post Street (Kensington Park Hotel) 3rd Floor. Sunday, October 29th, 12-3 pm  FREE

CONTACT:

For questions, and RSVPs for groups of 10 or more, please contact: Kevin Hunsanger.

ABOUT ELKS:

The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks is a national charitable organization with over 1800 lodges throughout the United States.  Community outreach is a priority, and major projects include providing aid for children with disabilities, and veteran support.

ABOUT OUR LODGE:

San Francisco Elk’s Lodge #3 is the oldest extant lodge in Elkdom, having been established in San Francisco in 1876.  Our current lodge building was opened in 1926 to replace the one destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and conflagration, and is a true San Francisco gem. www.sfelks.org

199 Cemeteries at Dark Delicacies

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This afternoon I’ll be at Dark Delicacies at 3512 W. Magnolia Boulevard in Burbank, California for the last of the Southern California events for 199 Cemeteries to See Before You Die. The book signing begins at 4 pm.

I’ll also have copies of the new edition of Wish You Were Here: Adventures in Cemetery Travel to sign.

Dark Delicacies has the best collection of cemetery books for sale that I’ve ever seen.

See you there?

 

199 Cemeteries at Mysterious Galaxy

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Just a reminder that I’ll be at the amazing Mysterious Galaxy bookstore at 5943 Balboa Avenue in San Diego at 7:30 pm tonight. I’ll be talk about some spooky cemeteries around the globe.

Come tell me your favorite cemetery ghost story.