Loren Rhoads's Blog, page 40

In Memory of William Peter Blatty

[image error]I wrote this in the Fall about the impact The Exorcist had on me:

Halloween Haunts: Exorcism for Fun and Profit

by Loren Rhoads

I read The Exorcist early in high school. My mom was a school librarian and didn’t place any limits on what I read, figuring that if it was too mature for me, I just wouldn’t understand it.

She limited what I could watch, though. I wasn’t allowed to see The Exorcist in the theater, but I could read the novel. Long after everyone I knew was terrified – or claimed they were terrified – by the movie, I checked the novel out of the public library.

The part that struck me more than anything else was Blatty’s introduction, in which a man is tortured in a dirty prison cell with a cattle prod and a bucket of water. I was a farm girl. My dad’s cattle prod lived on the telephone desk in the kitchen, where it was close to hand in case the cows got out. I knew a cattle prod would make a 1200-pound steer sit down. I could easily imagine what it would do to a man.

Blatty’s point was that men did such evil to each other that demonic possession was easy to believe in. It would be decades before I wondered about humans possessing demons.

*

[image error]I came home from university one weekend when my parents weren’t home, so I invited a couple of friends over. My folks live out in the country, obviously. Because there was whiskey involved, everyone was expected to spend the night.

My memories of that night come in fragments, like a broken kaleidoscope: there was pizza. Whiskey, brought by one of the guests. Under-aged boys. My best friend from high school. It goes without saying there was puking.

In the middle of the night, I crawled out to the family room with my misery. Unable to sleep at the best of times, my friend Martha had the TV on. The only thing she could find to watch in the middle of that interminable night was The Exorcist.

I wonder now if the movie had been edited for TV. I remember the boils and the pea soup and the backbend and the spinning head. The possession was not, by a long stretch, the most horrific thing that happened that night.

Father Merrin, speaking the rites, lodged in my imagination.

*

Many years later, I wrote a short story for my friend Brian about a succubus pursuing an angel. Brian extended my story, possessing my succubus with a mortal girl’s soul. Clearly, if there was a possession, there would need to be an exorcist – and suddenly we were writing a novel.

I didn’t grow up Catholic, so I don’t know the rituals of the Church. I do know all too well how it feels to be a young woman completely out of control, when something takes control of your body and poisons you. The possession was easy to write. The exorcism worried me. I wanted to get it right, to do justice to my influences.

Poking around in the Brand Bookstore in Glendale, I came across Exorcism Through the Ages, published in 1974 by the Philosophical Library of New York. It was exactly the book I needed to guide the exorcism of a mortal girl’s soul from the succubus Lorelei. Wheels within wheels: a historical overview of exorcism inspired by a fictional exorcism inspired by the real-life exorcism of Roland Doe…and all of it inspiring the events in the back room at Lost Angels.

A taste of Lost Angels:

[image error]The exorcism was working. Lorelei felt a dreadful tearing in her chest, like the agony a cell feels as it divides.

Joseph watched her closely. He raised his hands to shoulder height, palms facing her, and began to pray. “Satan, Father of Lies, Author of Evil, look in pity on this your servant, now caught up in the coils of this human spirit. Unravel this angelic labyrinth, break asunder these snares and traps, put this childish ghost to flight. By this sign,”—he drew an upside cross—“let your servant be protected. Keep watch over the inmost recesses of her heart, rule over her emotions, strengthen her will. Let vanish from her flesh the temptations of this human child. As we call on your name, O Satan, allow this child to retreat in grace and in peace, so that this servant of yours may sincerely and steadfastly render you the service which is your due.”

The agony spiraled beyond anything Lorelei had previously imagined. The more she tried to shove aside Ashleigh’s ghost, the more of her own spirit she felt ripped away. Her flesh had turned to stone, galvanized by lightning. She convulsed and arced and struggled, breathing out a steady tormented moan.

***

Lost Angels is available at:

Amazon: http://amzn.to/2ccyw7N

IndieBound: http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780963679420

Smashwords as a mobi, epub, or PDF: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/624284

Or directly from me at the Bookshop tab above.

Son of Never Enough 2016

[image error]Interviews:

Carl Slaughter interviewed me about grimdark, violence in space opera, Mary Sues and kick-ass heroines for SFSignal February 29, 2016.

Eric from Deviant Worlds interviewed me about space operas and succubi: http://deviantworlds.blogspot.com/2016/04/interview-loren-rhoads.html April 16, 2016.

In May, Margaret L. Carter interviewed me at length about Dracula and succubi for her deliciously dark newsletter. You can subscribe to it here:  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/margaretlcartersnewsfromthecrypt

Coreena McBurnie interviewed me on her blog about Lost Angels and writing:

http://coreenamcburnie.com/2016/05/02/author-interview-loren-rhoads/ May 2, 2016.

Horror Addicts interviewed me about Lost Angels on September 16, 2016:  https://horroraddicts.wordpress.com/2016/09/16/an-interview-with-loren-rhoads/

[image error]The Library of the Damned interviewed me about the scariest thing I’ve ever read and what terrifies me in real life: http://libraryofthedamned.com/2016/10/14/31-days-of-halloween-with-loren-rhoads/

J. Scott Coatsworth interviewed me for his blog on November 27, 2016: https://www.jscottcoatsworth.com/author-spotlight-loren-rhoads/  I talked about Oscar Wilde and Philip K. Dick and the hottest lesbian scene I’ve yet to write, as well as Star Wars and Hammer Horror. You know, all my influences.

An interview with me about Automatism Press appeared on the Horror Addicts blog on December 4, 2016:  https://horroraddicts.wordpress.com/2016/12/04/kidnapped-week-automatism-press

Guest posts:

David Owain Hughes featured my favorite Hammer Horror-style scene from The Dangerous Type on his blog for Women in Horror Month February 11, 2016.

The Dangerous Type — and a giveaway of the audiobook of No More Heroes — were featured on the Queer Sci Fi site February 21, 2016.

Nina D’Arcangela was kind enough to feature me on her Spreading the Writer’s Word blog for Women in Horror Month February 26, 2016.

Women Who Submit invited me to talk about my quest to get 100 rejection letters this year  https://womenwhosubmitlit.wordpress.com/2016/04/06/the-rejection-game/ April 6, 2016.

On Emz’s Box, I wrote about my long-term adoration for SPK’s Zamia Lehmanni album and the stories I’ve written while listening to it https://emzbox.wordpress.com/2016/04/06/music-inspiring-writing-loren-rhoads/ April 6, 2016.

I was really excited about writing about the Presger gun from Ann Leckie’s Ancillary trilogy for SF Signal’s Mind Meld. Unfortunately, SF Signal closed up shop the next day, so seeing the piece published on May 5, 2016 was bittersweet.  http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2016/05/mind-meld-our-favorite-weapons-in-science-fiction-and-fantasy/

No Wasted Ink invited me to talk more about Making a Game out of Rejection June 3, 2016: https://nowastedink.com/2016/06/03/making-a-game-out-of-rejection-by-loren-rhoads/

I wrote about Sex-Positive Succubi at We Read with a Glass of Wine July 2016: http://wereadwithaglassofwine.blogspot.com/2016/07/lost-angels-by-loren-rhoads-brian-thomas.html?zx=1e8256c671d1e401

[image error]I hosted a discussion of language in science fiction world-building at Queer Sci Fi on July 27, 2016.  I talked about my mission behind the languages in the Templar books.  I’m really pleased with how my essay on the subject turned out: https://queerscifi.com/worldbuilding-week-day-one-languages-2/

My list of “Five Science Fiction Novels that Center on Bisexuality” went up on GirlsinCapes.com on August 17 2016: http://girlsincapes.com/2016/08/17/diversereads-sffbisexuality/

I wrote about 10 Overlooked Elements of Promotion for Queer Sci Fi on September 23, 2016:  https://queerscifi.com/do-it-yourself-week-day-four-promoting-your-work-2/

For the HWA’s annual Halloween Haunts blog series, I mused on the novel and original Exorcist movie and how they led to the Lost Angels novel on October 29, 2016: http://horror.org/halloween-haunts-exorcism-fun-profit-loren-rhoads/

Alison J. McKenzie asked me to talk about the best holiday of the year on October 30, 2016: https://alisonjmckenzie.wordpress.com/2016/10/30/the-best-holiday-of-the-year-guest-post-by-loren-rhoads/

Late in October, I raved about my favorite cemetery books on Kira Butler’s blog: http://www.kirabutler.com/top-ten-cemetery-history-books/

My essay about the Memorial to the Deportation and my husband’s heritage went up on Cemetery Travel on November 11, 2016: https://cemeterytravel.com/2016/11/11/deaths-garden-pastrami-in-paris/

Starting December 4, I “kidnapped” the Horror Addicts blog for a week.  Everything kicked off with an interview with me about Automatism Press, linked above, then continued with:

[image error]Death’s Garden’s Call for Submissions: https://horroraddicts.wordpress.com/2016/12/05/kidnapped-week-automatism-press-2/

Behind my erotic vampire horror story “The Shattered Rose”: https://horroraddicts.wordpress.com/2016/12/06/20827/

How Horror Writers Show Their Morbid Curiosity: https://horroraddicts.wordpress.com/2016/12/08/kidnapped-automatism-press-how-horror-writers-show-their-morbid-curiosity-by-loren-rhoads/

A Taste of “The Acid That Dissolves Images”: https://horroraddicts.wordpress.com/2016/12/09/kidnapped-automatism-press-the-acid-that-dissolves-images-by-loren-rhoads/

Finally, Valerie Frankel collected up the best self-promotional tips from a bunch of writers — and you can get a copy of the book for free.  My piece is about giving a reading as a way to sell your books.  You can download the collection FREE from Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/683123.

[image error]Miscellaneous Good Things:

Wish You Were Here, my book of cemetery travel essays, was the topic of discussion at the Morbid Curiosity Book Club in Toronto on January 27, 2016.

David Watson at Horror Addicts really liked Kill By Numbers, the second Templar book: https://horroraddicts.wordpress.com/2016/03/31/davids-haunted-library-kill-by-numbers/

The Borderlands’ Sponsors Party featured a giveaway of Lost Angels on April 2, 2016.

Kira Butler put together an amazing list of blogs to inspire horror writers. I was so honored to find Cemetery Travel alongside Atlas Obscura, Death Salon, Messy Nessy, Nourishing Death, and the rest: Inspiration for Horror Writers and the Macabrely-Minded in June.

I got to participate in Broad Universe Facebook Parties in August, October, and November.

I got quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle about what a great thing Litquake is.  It’s all true:  the vampires, the porn, the feeling like a rockstar:  http://www.sfgate.com/books/article/Litquake-makes-writers-feel-like-rock-stars-9773132.php

I signed the signature sheets for the Best New Horror book that’s coming out next year.  I’ve 1) never had a piece in a hardcover book before 2) never gotten to sign a sig sheet before and most importantly 3) never had a story in a Best-of book before, so I am completely thrilled. The book isn’t listed on Amazon yet, but I will let you know when it’s for sale.  My story is “The Drowning City.”

I was honored to beta read a new story by Brian Hodge for Dark Fuse magazine.  It’s intense and as beautiful as you’d expect from Brian: https://www.darkfusemagazine.com/2016/11/mommys-little-man-by-brian-hodge-released/

 

Bride of Never Enough 2016

[image error]Never Enough doesn’t really fit this year’s live events, because I don’t think I could have managed anything more.  But in the spirit of tradition, I’ll call this list Bride of Never Enough.

2016 was a great year for doing live events! Because I was pursuing 100 Rejection Letters this year, I chased every opportunity that came my way.  I met a great bunch of people as a result.

2016’s Readings:

Borderlands Sponsors’ Open Mic

Friday, January 22, 2016 at 7 pm

Borderlands Cafe, San Francisco, California

I read an action scene from No More Heroes.

FogCon

Saturday, March 12, 2016 at 10:30-11:45 am

I read from No More Heroes, the third of the Templars novels.

Borderlands Sponsors’ Open Mic

Friday, May 20 at 7 pm

Borderlands Cafe, San Francisco, California

I read something sexy from Lost Angels.

WisCon – Broad Universe Reading

Saturday, May 28, 2016 at 1-2:15 pm

Participants: Martha Allard, Sandra Ulbrich Almazan, Sandra Marie Grayson, Jude McLaughlin, and Loren Rhoads.

I read from No More Heroes.

WorldCon – My first solo reading at a WorldCon!

Saturday, August 20, 2016 at 7:30 – 8 pm

Kansas City Convention Center

I read a fight scene from the Raena Zacari trilogy. There was be carnage.

Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading at WorldCon

Sunday, August 21, 2016 at 10:00 – 11:30 am

Kansas City Convention Center[image error]

I emceed a great lineup: J. Tullos Hennig, Laurel Anne Hill, Roberta Rogow, Kathryn Sullivan, Paula S. Jordan, Katie Li, A C Elias, Tamara Jones, and Wendy Van Camp.

I read a snippet of Lost Angels.

Literary Speakeasy – the Martini Bar of Horrors 

Thursday, October 27, 2016 at 7 pm

Martuni’s, San Francisco, California

Emceed by James Siegel, with SG Browne, Dana Fredsti, Sunil Patel, and Alia Volz.

I told a ghost story about the house I live in.

2016’s Podcasts:

I had a goal to pitch 10 podcasts this year.  I pitched four and got onto all of them, although one hasn’t aired yet.  These did:

The Women Show

July 21, 2016 from 6:30 – 7 pm EST

I chatted with Elizabeth Black about Wish You Were Here: Adventures in Cemetery Travels, cemetery blogging, and Death’s Garden Revisited, the project for which I’m collecting essays about people’s relationships with cemeteries. You can check out the conversation here: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/bennetpomerantz2/2016/07/21/the-women-show-with-your-host-elizabeth-black-her-last-show

Other Worlds of Romance

August 16, 2016

Linda Mooney invited me to read from “The Angel’s Lair” and talk about succubi. You can check out the podcast here: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/other_worlds_of_romance/2016/08/16/loren-rhoads-is-my-guest-author-on-august-15th

Horror Addicts

September 17, 2016

Emz and David said really nice things about my Death’s Garden project and let me read a taste of Lost Angels: http://www.thebelfry.rip/blog/2016/9/17/loren-rhoads-horror-addicts

[image error]Miscellaneous Live Events:

April 17, 2016: The Science Fiction Book Club at Borderlands Books invited me to discuss The Dangerous Type. Answering their questions was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.

June 4, 2016: The local chapter of the Horror Writers Association held a booth at the Bay Area Book Festival. It was a great chance to get to know my fellow members better and sell some books.

September 11, 2016:  “Why Writers Write” I joined S.G. Browne and Dana Fredsti at Borderlands Cafe to discuss our motivations and the tricks we’ve learned to get the work done.

Every Friday in November:  Once again I hosted Nanowrimo Write-ins at the Borderlands Cafe.  It’s inspirational to join so many writers banging out their books.  I look forward to doing it again next year.

November 23, 2016:  Writing in the window at Paul’s Hat Works on Geary Boulevard fulfilled one of my bucket list items: I always wanted to write in public!

2016 Convention Panels:

2016 was my best year ever for being on panels at science fiction conventions.

I was only on one panel at FogCon:

From Caterpillar to Butterfly

Friday, March 11 at 4:30–5:45 pm

With Jamie L. Henderson, Ashley Christina, Theresa Mecklenborg, Colleen T. O’Rourke, and me.

We talked about strange biologies on earth and how those could inspired aliens. Everyone else was a scientist, so I got to hold down the literary end of the conversation. And I got to talk about how octopi inspired Vezali in the Templar books.

I pitched and got onto two panels at WisCon:

Genre Blending

Friday, May 27 at 9-10:15 pm

Moderator: Rebecca Holden

Panelists: Alex Jennings, Justine Larbalestier, Loren Rhoads, Kristine Smith, Brooke Wonders

Whether it’s a steampunk fairytale or an end of the world love story between science and magic or a Hong Kong-style revenge space opera, stories are spilling over the edges of genre.

Living into Dying

Sunday, May 29, 1-2:15 pm

Moderator: R. Elena Tabachnick

Participants: Kate Carey, Loren Rhoads, and Nadia Hutton

In this panel we will discuss how to live with death: the challenges of dying, the gifts we receive from it, and the stories that get us through.

I made it onto one panel at WorldCon:

[image error]Where’s Rey? Female Characters and Merchandise

Friday, August 19 at 4 – 5 pm

Kansas City Convention Center

With Leo d’Entremont, Jenifer Boles, and Loren Rhoads

Unfortunately, it is all too common for female characters to be left out of promotional material. We discuss the reasons for, the implications of, and possible solutions to this.

Convolution was crazy! I was scheduled for a record seven panels — and had a blast on all of them.

When does Fanfic become Pro Work?

Friday, September 30 at 3 – 4:30 pm

With Loren Rhoads (moderator), Shael Hawman, and Valerie Estelle Frankel

Classic Scary Stories: Shelley, Poe, and others

Friday, September 30 at 5 – 6:30 pm

With Chuck Serface (moderator), Tyler Hayes, Loren Rhoads, and Sarah Stegall

Looking back on some of the classics of literary monster-makers and scary storytellers.

[image error]The Monsters of Star Wars

Friday, September 30 at 8 – 9:30 pm

With Stacy Meyn (moderator), Loren Rhoads, Drew Morris, JC Arkham, and Jean Batt

Some of them live in pits. Some of them have vast underwater cities. Some of them will keep you warm through a cold Hoth night.

Devilishly Daring: Demonic Monsters

Saturday, October 1 at noon – 1:30 pm

With Laurel Anne Hill (moderator), Chuck Serface, Loren Rhoads, Emerian Rich, and J. L. (Jim) Doty

We’ll discuss the devils, demons, succubi, and lords of the underworld that feature in our genre fiction.

Authors: Going to That Dark Place

Saturday, October 1 at 3 – 4:30 pm

With Fred Wiehe (moderator), Loren Rhoads, Melissa Snark, Deborah J. Ross, Margaret McGaffey Fisk, and Anne Bishop

If you want the monstrous element to be truly horrifying, you sometimes have to dig to a dark place to write it believably.

[image error]Meet HorrorAddicts.net!

Sunday, October 2 at 10 – 11:30 am

With Emerian Rich (moderator), Loren Rhoads, Laurel Anne Hill, and Sumiko Saulson

Chat with the authors who comprise HorrorAddicts.net and find out their monster favorites!

The Monster is the Hero

Sunday, October 2 at 2 – 3:30 pm

With Ric Bretschneider (moderator), Jay Hartlove, Chad Peterman, and Loren Rhoads

Panel discussion of our favorite bits in which the monstrous element ends up being the hero and Man is the enemy.

Never Enough, 2016 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, that’s certainly true.

Books:

[image error]

After getting all three parts of my space opera trilogy out last year, I had great plans for this year. Instead, I managed to get the revised Lost Angels out in April.  I’m pleased with how it turned out, but I really hoped to finish Angelus Rose and get it out last month — and that just didn’t happen.  I’m not sure when it will really be coming out now.  That’s probably my chief disappointment of the year.

Short fiction publications:

[image error]My very short story “The Rush of Wind” appeared in the Flight anthology, published by Mischief Corner Books in September. One of 110 LGBQT stories in the book, my piece is about Ariel and Raena from the In the Wake of the Templars trilogy.

An Alondra story called “The Fatal Book” appeared in the May issue of New Realm magazine.

An Alondra story called “Sakura Time” came out in February in FRIGHT MARE: WOMEN WRITE HORROR, edited by Billie Sue Mosiman.

Short fiction sales:

[image error]

An Alondra story called “The Drowning City,” which appeared in NEVERMORE! TALES OF MURDER, MYSTERY, AND THE MACABRE, will appear in BEST NEW HORROR #27, edited by Stephen Jones.

“Guardian of the Golden Gate,” another of my Alondra stories, will appear in the STRANGE CALIFORNIA anthology. The book should be out early next year, but no date has been set yet.

Nonfiction:

I fell into a new cemetery column online at Gothic Beauty. The first three essays — about Highgate Cemetery, Singapore’s Fort Canning Park, and Madison’s haunting Forest Hill Cemetery — are up now.

I got my first piece up on Mental Floss in October:  Eight of the Most Fascinating Cemeteries You Can Visit.

[image error]An essay about San Francisco’s lovely columbarium and the Chapel of the Chimes appeared SEARCH magazine in the fall.

An essay about the Wave Organ appeared SEARCH’s Spring issue.

You can read both of them for free at Searchmagazine.net.

 

Kidnapped! Automatism Press : “The Acid That Dissolves Images” by Loren Rhoads

Just a taste of The Acid that Dissolves Images…

horroraddicts.net

A Taste of “The Acid That Dissolves Images”

by Loren Rhoads

This story was initially published in Lend the Eye a Terrible Aspect in 1994. It was republished in the Ashes & Rust chapbook.

You throw the magazine into the jumble of makeup heaped beneath the mirror. “Pretentious gory poseur,” the critic called you, “bastard love-child of Alice Cooper, Marilyn Manson, and the whole 20th-century shock-rock scene.” You draw a (hopefully) calming breath. The critic obviously hadn’t stayed for the whole show.

Obviously. Medusa is an angry itch inside you, mixed in the bile that creeps up the back of your throat. You suck miserably on a beer, but the bitter taste won’t go away. How long can this sane front hold?

Your hands shake as you load the gun. The first bullet shatters the mirror, your reflection; the second silences the digiplayer. As Medusa rises, you feel…

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Kidnapped! Automatism Press : How Horror Writers Show Their Morbid Curiosity by Loren Rhoads

It was such an honor to work with Brian Hodge, Brian Keene, Lorelei Shannon, and especially Simon Wood as I hosted the Morbid Curiosity Open Mics.

horroraddicts.net

How Horror Writers Show Their Morbid Curiosity

by Loren Rhoads

Because I hosted several annual Open Mics for Morbid Curiosity magazine at the World Horror Conventions, I had the opportunity to meet a whole bunch of horror writers.  I was surprised how easy it was to get them up on a stage, baring their real lives in front of an audience.

In fact, Brian Keene opened Morbid Curiosity #7 with a story that he’d rocked at the Open Mic in Chicago.  “Kick ’em Where it Counts” is one of my favorite stories that I was ever lucky enough to publish.  It’s about an industrial accident that nearly took Keene’s manhood and his life.  You can still wince along in sympathy (even I did and my manhood lives in a drawer) by picking up one of the few remaining copies of that issue of the magazine.

Rain Graves told the story of her…

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Kidnapped! Behind “The Shattered Rose” by Loren Rhodes

Here’s the story behind my vampire story “The Shattered Rose.”

horroraddicts.net

Behind “The Shattered Rose”

by Loren Rhoads

When I first moved to San Francisco, I lived in between the Castro neighborhood and Haight-Ashbury. The house, an old Victorian that survived the 1906 earthquake, became a focal point for a large group of friends.

Quite often we’d go wandering on weekend nights. Sometimes we’d hike over to Corona Heights, a former quarry turned into a park that had a spectacular view of the city. Other times we’d go to Buena Vista Park, where the rain gutters are lined with broken tombstones. When we were up for a longer hike, we’d walk to Golden Gate Park.

In the late 1980s, the Haight was no safer than it is now. Men would stroll the street, chanting, “Doses, doses” or “Kind bud” or “What do you need?” When the Dead were in town, kids slept in doorways, on the neighbors’ porches or under any…

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Another Morbid Wrap-up

Things are clearly getting away from me, these days. I keep pulling things out as research for my new book, but nothing every gets put away.  The piles just grow taller. (The weird thing is that it doesn’t look as bad in this picture as it feels in real life.)

Anyway, I’ve had a couple of things come out lately, so I figured I ought to do another link round-up.

Starting today, I’m “kidnapping” the Horror Addicts blog for the next week.  Everything kicks off today with an interview with me about Automatism Press:  https://horroraddicts.wordpress.com/2016/12/04/kidnapped-week-automatism-press

Valerie Frankel has collected up the best self-promotional tips from a bunch of writers — and you can get a copy of the book for free.  My piece is about giving a reading as a way to sell your books.  You can download the collection FREE from Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/683123.

You can win a copy of The Dangerous Type by commenting on my interview on J. Scott Coatsworth’s blog: https://www.jscottcoatsworth.com/author-spotlight-loren-rhoads/  I talk about Oscar Wilde and Philip K. Dick and the hottest lesbian scene I’ve yet to write, as well as Star Wars and Hammer Horror. You know, all my influences.

I signed the signature sheets for the Best New Horror book that’s coming out next year.  I’ve 1) never had a piece in a hardcover book before 2) never gotten to sign a sig sheet before and most importantly 3) never had a story in a Best-of book before, so I am completely thrilled. The book isn’t listed on Amazon yet, but I will let you know when it’s for sale.  My story is “The Drowning City.”

My second cemetery column went up on Gothic Beauty.  This one is about visiting the Old Christian Cemetery in Singapore and how my daughter almost died there: http://www.gothicbeauty.com/2016/11/cemetery-adventures-in-singapore/

My essay about the Memorial to the Deportation and my husband’s heritage went up on Cemetery Travel: https://cemeterytravel.com/2016/11/11/deaths-garden-pastrami-in-paris/

I was honored to beta read a new story by Brian Hodge for Dark Fuse magazine.  It’s intense and as beautiful as you’d expect from Brian: https://www.darkfusemagazine.com/2016/11/mommys-little-man-by-brian-hodge-released/

That’s all for now. Hope you’re finding some light in the season.

My Nanowrimo Song of Praise

How did your Nanowrimo go?  I sailed past the 50K-word goal early — for the first time ever — but that involved incorporating some things that were already written.  My goal on this project is to get a full first draft done by the end of the year.  I expect it’s going to run about 90K when I finish the rough, which needs to be edited down under 70K by mid-February. Nanowrimo helped me get 54K of that locked in already.

I can’t tell you the name of the project yet — the publisher has asked I hold off until January, when it will be available for preorder.

I can tell you this:  I am really very extremely excited about it.  See, an editor contacted me in September to ask if I might have an interest in writing a travel guide to cemeteries.  I told her I had been thinking along those lines for a while. The more we talked, more certain I was that I can DO this project. I am the woman for the job.  I have never felt so capable of accomplishing anything so big in my life.

This realization is huge for me. I don’t talk a lot about my insecurities here, but …  I spend a part of every year wondering why I don’t get a real job like a normal person.  This year, that drama lasted about a week before this editor got in touch.  Once again, I feel rescued by writing.

It took the better part of the last two months to iron out the contract, but that has been done now.  I’ve turned in my table of contents for the project and my editor is going over it.  Once she’s come back to me with her notes, I am going to put my head down and grind out the rest of the book.

So once again, I am grateful to Nanowrimo:  for the daily word goal, for the community, for the write-ins, for the writers writing alongside me.  I am grateful for the website:  I can’t tell you how much I enjoy seeing that bar graph grow day by day. I am grateful for the silliness and the support and the cheerleaders.

Nanowrimo helped me bang out this table of contents and my wordy first draft while I was fretting daily about writing without a contract, while I sweated the contract’s terms and negotiated on my own behalf.  Nanowrimo gave me a purpose, a goal, a place to be every day. It gave me a target to hit, something I could control in the face of everything I could not.

Nanowrimo really is the best thing since sliced bread.

Come Write With Me

Tonight is the last Write-In at the Borderlands Cafe.  Please come join me, if you’d like to have a couple hours of peace to yourself or if you have something to get out of your system or if, by any chance, you are finishing your Nanowrimo novel.  All are welcome, as long as you’re willing to put your head down and bang out some words. If you like, I will give you a gold star just for showing up.

Last year, on the Friday after Thanksgiving, only two of us showed up to write.  That was okay:  we got some work done and felt virtuous.

It would be more fun with more people. I’m just saying.

The details: Borderlands Cafe, 870 Valencia Street, San Francisco from 6-8 PM.  Parking was really easy last year.

In the meantime, here’s a photo of me at the write-in I did on Wednesday afternoon.  Paul’s Hat Works (6128 Geary Boulevard) has invited Nanowrimo writers to come sit in their front windows and work this month. I meant to go a week ago, before I got stranded at home with a sick kid.  I managed to get over there Wednesday because her grandfather took her to a movie. I am so glad I did.

Paul’s is almost 100 years old.  I wish I’d taken more photos inside the shop, which is full of old wooden hat forms and sewing machines and ribbons, hat boxes and lots of wonderful hats.  These aren’t your cheap felt hipster hats; these hats are made to measure, one at a time, specifically to fit individual heads.  I got to pet a rabbit top hat and a beaver hat. They had the loveliest straw boaters I have ever seen, with complex swirling patterns to their weaves. They even had a pirate hat.

The women who run the shop were the perfect hosts.  They offered me tea or coffee.  I could write in either of the two front windows or in the backyard.  They even had a beautiful old (and very heavy) typewriter — and a stack of paper — if I chose.  They saw me settled, then they went about their business, welcoming people into the shop and discussing the finer points of hat making, while I hacked away at my book.

It was completely enchanting.

If you’re more of a daytime writer, they are offering writing shifts today and tomorrow starting at noon.  Give them a call at 415.221.5332 and see if you can come by.

Whether you have finished your Nano novel (in which case, start the editing process) or you have a long way to go (any work you get done is better than no work at all), give yourself a quiet hour or two and do the work.  You deserve it.