Loren Rhoads's Blog, page 42

Halloween Haunts

Every year, the Horror Writers Association runs a blog series called Halloween Haunts.  Horror writers at every level share their halloween memories or talk about something spooky.  Often they give away copies of their most-recent books. On October 31 this year, the HWA will treat one lucky winner to a Kindle Fire HD6. 

I’ve participated for the last several years and will again toward the end of this month. I’ll be talking about The Exorcist and its influence on Lost Angels on October 28. If you want to win, you should comment on that day.

Check out the horrors at http://horror.org/category/blog/. I’ll post the whole schedule of writers below.

1-Oct

Four-Color Frights

James Chambers

2-Oct

Satansville–Collecting Ghost Stories

T Fox Dunham

3-Oct

Dirty Ghost

David Ghilardi

4-Oct

Do People Still Bob for Apples?

Peter Sutton

5-Oct

A Scream on Burke’s Circle

Marlena Frank

6-Oct

Hanging on to Halloween

Chad Lutzke

7-Oct

Staying at the Monster House

John Palisano

8-Oct

A Guide to Finding Horror in Star Trek

Kevin David Anderson

8-Oct

A Día de Muertos Primer

Vanta Black

9-Oct

Be A Better Writer With “Jaws”

Tom Leveen

10-Oct

Edinburgh Terror

Denise Agnew

11-Oct

Honoring the Dead

Heddy Johannesen

12-Oct

Never A Night Off

Lincoln Cole

13-Oct

Masks

Micky Neilson

13-Oct

Tricks, Treats, and Terrors

Christopher Clark

14-Oct

Nightmare on My Street

Edward Cardillo

15-Oct

Halloween Costumes

Paul Stansfield

16-Oct

Your Story Idea Is Stupid

David B. Riley

17-Oct

The Power of a Mask

Geroge Wilhite

18-Oct

How to Plan a Hallowedding

Joanna Parypinski

19-Oct

Hallowe’en in a Suburb and in a Library

Kevin Wetmore Jr

20-Oct

The Killer Pumpkins

Naching Kassa

20-Oct

The Last Haunted House I Remember

Kristina Stancil

21-Oct

Halloween, A Becoming

Lou Rera

22-Oct

Mr. Moose

Walter Jarvis

23-Oct

Caught in the Shadow of Love/Cheapers Creepers

Sumiko Saulson

24-Oct

Meet Joe Pipe

Pete Mesling

25-Oct

It Was A Different Time

JG Faherty

26-Oct

It’s Not A Season, It’s A Lifestyle

Greg Chapman

27-Oct

The Real Creeps, or How to Create Horror Non-Fiction Shorts

Lisa Morton

28-Oct

Exorcism for Fun and Profit

Loren Rhoads

29-Oct

Emotional Realism in Extreme Horror Fiction

Nicole Cushing

30-Oct

Halloween Defines Fall

John  F.D. Taff

31-Oct

A Condemned Man, A Halloween Memory

Steve Rasnic Tem

Raena’s Foremothers: Trinity

I’ve written about a lot of the female characters who inspired Raena Zacari in my Wake of the Templars trilogy, but I wanted to talk about the most direct visual parallel.

From the opening of The Matrix, when the police kick open the door to the empty, dark room and find a woman sitting alone over a desktop computer, Trinity is amazing.  The way she steps inside the policeman’s reach, turns her back to him, and uses his gun to shoot his partner directly inspired the way Raena uses the Thallian clone’s stun staff — except that in The Matrix, we are only watching the fight.  I wanted to get inside Raena’s head, to break a fight against multiple opponents down into a series of actions and reactions.

To tell the truth, my favorite part of that beginning sequence of The Matrix is Trinity laying on her back in the stairway, guns upraised, chanting, “Get up, Trinity.  Get up!” After the superhero-style flight from the agent, it humanizes her. I love that she has to audibly command herself to move.

When I first saw The Matrix in the theaters, I was thrilled to have finally discovered an action movie where the star was female. She looked incredible with her slicked-back hair and skintight leathers. She could kick hard enough to floor a man. She could take down a clearly unprepared tactical squad. I felt like I’d found something that I’d been looking for a long time.

So it made sense to me that the Oracle told Neo he was not The One. How could he be? The One was clearly Trinity: overlooked because she was female, undervalued, ready to step up to claim her rightful place and power.

The way the movie played out was a disappointment. No disrespect to Keanu Reeves, but he was way outclassed.

Case in point:

This scene was hugely influential on the Templar books.  I love Trinity’s layout flip off the motorcycle, her three-point landing, the way she uses her helmet as a weapon, even the scorpion kick.  This scene perfectly encapsulates the way I envisioned Raena Zacari.

I waited 15 years for The One who saves the galaxy to be a woman.  In the end, I had to tell the story myself.

The Matrix Trilogy is crazy cheap on Amazon.

My other Raena’s Foremothers essays so far are:

Aeon Flux

Jeri Cale

Pvt. Vasquez

Sarah Connor

Molly Millions

Doctor Cyn Sharpe

Zoe Washburne

Martha Allard

Princess Leia

Alice from Resident Evil

Lara Croft

A True Halloween Tale

It’s time for the annual repost of the true story of my Halloween visit to the Westgate Gallery in New Orleans.  The story originally appeared in Morbid Curiosity magazine, then was reprinted in Morbid Curiosity Cures the Blues.

As this is the 7th anniversary since the book came out, I am selling paperback copies of Morbid Curiosity Cures the Blues for $10 each. If you’re in the US, I’ll pay the postage. Here’s the link to my bookstore: https://lorenrhoads.com/bookshop/

The video below comes from the crossover event that Morbid Curiosity’s contributors did with members of the Thrillpeddlers, San Francisco’s fabulous long-running Grand Guignol cabaret troupe. They are about to open a brand-new Shocktober show. Tickets can be purchased here: http://thrillpeddlers.com/

If you’re amused by the following story, it’s worth going to my MorbidLoren youtube channel and checking out the other readings from that night.

Putting the Morbid in September

This month was nuts.  My daughter started back to school and I was looking forward to settling back to work, but she was sick for a whole week and my plans got derailed. I had hoped to get Angelus Rose finished up and off to my first readers, but I got overwhelmed with finishing all the guest posts I’d promised first.

And then I got contacted by a publisher asking if I would be interested in doing a book for them.  That has absolutely never happened before.  The project is top secret until we have a contract in place, but I am so excited I can’t really concentrate on anything else.

In the meantime, here’s the round-up on this last month:

Flight: Queer Sci Fi’s Third Annual Flash Fiction Contest came out in paperback and ebook.  It contains my very short story “The Rush of Wind” about Ariel and Raena from The Dangerous Type.

My travel memoir All You Need is Morbid has been added to the Featured Non-Fiction list on Wattpad: https://www.wattpad.com/list/314288886-featured-non-fiction-stories

I was interviewed for Horror Addicts about Lost Angels: https://horroraddicts.wordpress.com/2016/09/16/an-interview-with-loren-rhoads/

In addition, the Horror Addicts podcast 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

I saw the table of contents for Best New Horror #27, which will include my story “The Drowning City.”  It’s my first time to be in a book with Neil Gaiman and Gemma Files — honestly, a drew come true. The book isn’t up for preorder yet, but I’ll let you know when it is.

The Kickstarter went life to fund Strange California, the anthology that will include my story “Guardian of the Golden Gate.” You can order your copy now: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jasonbatt/strange-california-a-speculative-fiction-anthology

I wrote about the Highgate Vampire on Cemetery Travel: https://cemeterytravel.com/2016/09/20/a-restless-wind-is-blowing-through-highgate/

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

I took part in the Writing Life panel with SG Browne and Dana Fredsti. And this weekend I’m on my way down to Con-Volution to talk about fanfic, vampires, Star Wars, and succubi.

Rich and full!

Strange California: Exploring the Weird World of the Golden State

I’ve got a new Alondra story in a book being funded on Kickstarter now.  Other contributors include Seanan McGuire, Laura Anne Gilman, Nancy Holder, Nick Mamatas, and Tim Pratt, along with many more. You can score your copy — and a whole lot of other goodies — on Kickstarter now.

Strange California is a new anthology that explores the complex mythologies of the Golden State. The anthology, edited by J. Daniel Batt and Jaym Gates from Falstaff Books, features a diversity of science fiction and fantasy stories that reflect the unique landscape of California. From Hollywood to Santa Cruz to Tahoe, California is a nexus that both attracts and burgeons the strange of our world. Strange California brings to life tales inspired by the complex mythologies of California.

After a year in development, this unique anthology has been launched on Kickstarter and offers over twenty-five original stories from award-winning authors including Chaz Brenchley, Tim Pratt, Laura Anne Gilman, Seanan McGuire, Christie Yant, and more. Strange California also features artwork from celebrated artist Galen Dara.

Strange California’s Kickstarter campaign was launched with the modest sum of $14,000, but relies on stretch goals that will allow the editors to add even more features to Strange California, such as a custom tea designed by the Tea Noir Company and a one-of-a-kind creature makeup based on one of the stories by creature-artist Nicole Chilelli, the winner of SyFy’s FaceOff.

The Kickstarter campaign offers unique rewards to Strange California backers, such as a special edition, unique artwork, a digital sketchbook, your name in the acknowledgements section in the book, as well as the opportunity to have a custom story written by the editors to be printed and personalized to your or the person of your choice.

Author Yonatan Zunger, in the introduction to Strange California, says, “Weirdness exists and is perceptible because it deforms our familiar reality. Strangeness, on the other hand, suggests a more lasting difference: that reality in the strange place has always been like that, and it is you who are out of place. This combination of distance from existing societies and the quest for (often commercial) dreams is far from isolated in California’s history; it could even to be said to be the modern state’s defining story. The history of California after 1849 is thus the story of one migrant group after another, each animated by the belief that this was the one place they could achieve their dreams. The outcome of this process is a society which is tremendously mixed in invisible ways: a place where everyone goes to the same grocery store, but a chance inquiry might reveal that your neighbor is a miniature train fanatic, or an Andean priest, or an ancient god washed up from the oceanic deeps and waiting tables while preparing for either a triumphant return to Olympus or a speaking role in a film, whichever comes first. A place where the polite way to behave is to treat that god just like anybody else; after all, you yourself might be a roboticist, a member of an ancient secret society, or both. Who’s to say you aren’t as fictional as they are?

“This anthology developed out of our love for the complexity and diversity of the state–features reflected in both the landscape and the people that inhabit them,” said Jaym Gates and J. Daniel Batt, the editors of Strange California. “California sprawls across a multitude of landscapes and has amassed a history full of the strange and unusual. There are secrets in the desert. Secrets in the cities. Strange and unusual happenings in the odd, dark places of the coastal state.”

ABOUT THE PUBLISHER

Falstaff Books is a digital and print publishing company based in Charlotte, NC dedicated to bringing to life the best in fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery, and dramatic literature. Falstaff Books exists to discover new voices and nurture them to success.

ABOUT THE EDITORS

Jaym Gates is an editor, author, and public relations specialist. She has edited a number of anthologies, including Eclipse Phase: After the Fall, Genius Loci, War Stories, Broken Time Blues, and more, and is an editor at Falstaff Books. She grew up in the foothills of California, where things get strange indeed.

J. Daniel Batt is an editor, writer, and designer. He serves as the Creative and Editorial Director for the 100 Year Starship and is the founder and organizer of the annual Canopus Award for Excellence in Interstellar Writing. His novels include Young Gods and Dreamside and his short fiction has appeared in Perihelion, Bastion, Bewildering Stories, A Story Goes On, and other periodicals. He’s most recently edited the science fiction anthology Visions of the Future published through Lifeboat Foundation. He lives in California, where he has had firsthand experience with its weirdness.

Con-Volution 2016: The Age of Monsters

This weekend, Con-Volution is returning to the Hyatt Regency at SFO and it’s all about monsters. I can’t wait!

They’ve got me scheduled for an amazing SEVEN panels this year. I’m hoping I can keep my energy up to get through them all.

I won’t be sharing space with anyone in the Dealers Room, but if you would like a pick up one of my books from me, let me know.  I’ll be glad to bring some along.

When does Fanfic become Pro Work?

Friday 15:00 – 16:30, Boardroom IV

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

Not everything is Twilight! Where IS that line, and what do you do when it’s crossed?

Classic Scary Stories: Shelley, Poe, and others

Friday 17:00 – 18:30, SandPebble B (Hyatt Regency SFO)

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.

The Monsters of Star Wars

Friday 21:00 – 22:30, SandPebble B (Hyatt Regency SFO)

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 — with a little prep. Share your enthusiasm for the monstrous element of Star Wars with us here!

Devilishly Daring: Demonic Monsters

Saturday 12:00 – 13:30, SandPebble D (Hyatt Regency SFO)

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 and media SO often- because we adore them!

Authors: Going to That Dark Place

Saturday 15:00 – 16:30, SandPebble C (Hyatt Regency SFO)

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.

Meet HorrorAddicts.net!

Sunday 10:00 – 11:30, SandPebble C (Hyatt Regency SFO)

with Emerian Rich (moderator), J. Malcolm Stewart, Loren Rhoads, Laurel Anne Hill, and Sumiko Saulson

Meet and chat with the authors who comprise HorrorAddicts.net and find out more about their monster favorites!

The Monster is the Hero

Sunday 14:00 – 15:30, SandPebble C (Hyatt Regency SFO)

with Ric Bretschneider (moderator), Jay Hartlove, Chad Peterman, Loren Rhoads, and Jean Batt

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

Here is the link to the overall schedule:

http://www.con-volution.com/2016/convention-details/program/

Flight

The 2016 Queer Sci Fi Flash Fiction anthology Flight is here and I have a story in it!

I wrote a very short, sexy Ariel and Raena story, about the women from The Dangerous Type when they were just getting to know each other back in the day. I think you’ll like it.

Here’s the anthology’s back cover text:

A 300-word story should be easy, right? Many of our entrants say it’s the hardest thing they’ve ever written.

Queer Sci Fi’s Annual Flash Fiction Contest challenges authors to write a complete LGBTQ speculative fiction micro-story on a specific theme. “Flight” left much for the authors to interpret: winged creatures, flight and space vehicles, or fleeing from dire circumstances.

Some astonishing stories were submitted—from horrific, bloodcurdling pieces to sweet, contemplative ones—and all LGBTQ speculative fiction. The stories in this anthology include AIs and angels, winged lions and wayward aliens. Smart, snappy slice of life pieces written for entertainment or for social commentary. Join us for brief and often surprising trips into 110 speculative fiction authors’ minds.

The book us available in eBook form (4.99), and will soon be available in paperback with b/w illustrations inside (12.99) and in a special collector’s edition with color illustrations (24.99).

Buy Links

Amazon eBook | Kobo | All Romance | Goodreads

 

Reading Your Own Work

Loren reading at Borderlands in 2015. Photo by R. Samuel Klatchko.

I love to read from my books in public. I love the silence that descends as the audience grows rapt. More than that, I love to hear the crowd react to my words, noting when they gasp or if they laugh. Best of all, I love to gauge the enthusiasm of the applause at the end.

The chief thing to keep in mind when you are asked or volunteer to do a reading is that – while the audience comes to be entertained – YOU are there to sell your book. Whatever you read, make it the best advertisement for your book that you can.

I try to tailor what I read to its intended audience. If I’m reading in a bar, I choose something sexy. If it’s a bookstore, I read an action scene. If I’m reading to science fiction fans, I pick something that’s undeniably SFnal. If it’s a horror convention, I read something bloody. I don’t try to stretch their tastes because I want them to buy the book.

It’s important to find out in advance how long your reading slot will be. It’s rude to exceed your time limit, because you’re stealing time from the other readers.

I’m a strong believer in reading a complete scene, whenever possible. It’s good to end on a cliffhanger or some other place that will leave your listeners wanting more. In my experience, it’s better to read one long piece, rather than too many short pieces, because it’s much easier than most readers realize to overstay the audience’s good will.

I always practice before I perform, not only to time my selection, but also to see how it feels in my mouth. Are some names tricky to pronounce? Are there words I’m uncertain of? I’d rather make mistakes at home instead of in front of people. Also, as I’m practicing, I sometimes add extra commas, so I remember to breathe or leave space for laughter.

Reading to a live audience can teach you a lot about your own work. Sometimes what looks good on a page doesn’t sound good in performance. Maybe the sentences are too long or convoluted. Scenes full of dialog can be hard for listeners to follow. Long descriptions or info dumps can sound awkward out of context.

Another element that should be considered when you’re preparing for a reading is how you will introduce yourself. Usually you will be expected to provide the host, if there is one, with a short bio. Crafting the perfect bio is a whole ‘nother essay, but briefly, this: Give your name, the title of the book you are selling, and your web address. If there is more information that your audience will find useful, mention it. Highlight your authority as an author and what you have in common with your listeners. Keep it short. You can be funny, if that comes naturally, but don’t bring up your cat or your marital status – or any other personal information, for that matter – unless that’s what you’re reading about. Otherwise, it’s obvious filler that erodes your audience’s patience.

Once you get up in front of the crowd, think about how well you can be heard. If there’s a mic, lean toward it. If there isn’t, pretend you’re talking to someone at the back of the room. My voice tends to be soft, so I begin my readings by asking people to wave at me if I grow hard to hear.

Of course, that means that I have to occasionally glance up from my text. Even after all the readings I’ve done, I’m still self-conscious enough that it’s hard to tear my eyes off the manuscript. To get around that, I mark places in my scene to look up. I try not to meet anyone’s eyes, because that would distract me from what I’m doing, but I want to get a brief glimpse of the audience to see if their eyes are on me, or if they’ve glazed over and I should wrap things up. The glazing-over has yet to happen, but I always worry.

The (almost) final thing to think about is how to end your reading. When I reach the end of my text, I let the words run out, take a breath, and then say thank you. I feel it’s important to thank the audience for their attention. I try to thank the host and the venue too, if there’s time and it’s appropriate. Write what you plan to say on your text, so you don’t forget it.

Lastly, stand still a moment to enjoy the applause. It can be surprisingly difficult to face your audience after you’ve done your bit. It can feel like you’re hogging the attention, especially if you’re reading as part of a lineup. I try to stand still long enough to make some eye contact with the crowd before I rush off the stage. After all, the applause is why we do this. Well, that, and the book sales.

An Interview With Loren Rhoads

I was honored to be interviewed by Horror Addicts this morning.

horroraddicts.net

Our featured author for episode 134 of the Horror Addicts Podcast is Loren Rhoads. Loren had an article in Horror Addicts Guide To Life and has written guest blogs for our blog in the past. Recently we asked Loren a few questions about her writing:

What is your story for episode 134 about?

It comes from my book Lost Angels, which came out earlier this year. The succubus Lorelei sees an angel in her boss’s dance club.  She pursues Azaziel, who inflicts a mortal girl’s soul on her.  Lorelei has to survive Hell’s attacks long enough to find a fallen priest who can exorcise the mortal soul from her infernal body.  The scene I’m reading for the podcast takes place after Lorelei is possessed, when she’s trying to make an alliance with a fiend to protect her until the exorcism.

When did you start writing?

I started writing stories down…

View original post 1,005 more words

Writing an Author Bio

One of the things that always entertained me when I was hosting readings was when I would the writers to send me a bio (short for biography) with which to introduce themselves.

Bios are always written in third person, in order to give the illusion that the emcee (or editor of a book) knows the author well enough to introduce them.  There have been very few (I can think of two) instances in my life where the host of a reading knew my work well enough to introduce me without a script.

A reading bio should do three things:

name you
name the piece you’re going to read
mention where it has or will be published. No one wants to know about stuff you’ve written unrelated to the piece you’re going to read. They want to know why they should pay attention.

Reading bios tend to be short, maybe 25-50 words max. San Francisco’s Litquake bios are limited to 10 words, unless you’re someone famous.

Bios should always be tailored to the audience, too.  When I read my space opera, my bio focuses on those book titles.  When I read my cemetery work, I feature CemeteryTravel.com and my book of cemetery essays.  When I’m reading one of the Alondra stories, I mention where they have been published.

For instance:

Loren Rhoads is the author of The Dangerous Type, Kill By Numbers, and No More Heroes, a space opera trilogy published by Night Shade Books in 2015.

That’s 26 words. It’s so short that I have to mention the title of the piece I’m reading before I begin.

Loren Rhoads is the author of Wish You Were Here: Adventures in Cemetery Travel. She blogs at CemeteryTravel.com.

That’s 18 words. And I get to decide what I’m reading on the fly.

In contrast, that one is almost 50 words:

Loren Rhoads’s Alondra stories have appeared in the books Fright Mare: Women Write Horror, nEvermore!: Tales of Murder, Mystery, and the Macabre, Sins of the Sirens, The Haunted Mansion Project: Year One, and will be in Best New Horror #27. Tonight she’s reading “The Shattered Rose.”

At a certain point, too many credits sound like bragging. I may well have crossed the line with that one. This bio doesn’t list everywhere the Alondra stories have been published and it still sounds too long for a reading introduction to me, although it would work great in the back of a book.

You’ll notice I didn’t mention my website on any of these.  That’s because my name has such a difficult spelling.  Even if people heard the url at a reading — and could remember it later — they wouldn’t get the spelling of my name right. Better that they search on a book title.

A published bio is different.

Author bios that appear in books or magazines are a different creature.  Again the bio should do three things:

name you
name your book or story
demonstrate your credentials to have written that book or story. That means mentioning similar work you’ve done

No one wants to know about your cats or family members.  The only time I tell where I live is when I’m publishing a ghost story and want to mention that I live in a haunted house.

When people check your bio in a book, they want to know why they should read your book/story.

This is Brian’s bio from our succubus book:

Brian Thomas served a decade-long stint as a researcher at 20th Century Fox, specializing in religion, arcana, death, and creative violence.  He contributed his expertise in matters celestial/infernal to such projects as The X Files, Millennium, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and The Omen, to name a few. Brian also contributed to Morbid Curiosity magazine, Jamie Foxx’s Night Tales website, and to far too many uncredited script doctoring assignments. He currently operates Rogue Research, a freelance research and technical advising service for filmmakers, authors, and artists.

Wouldn’t you want to read a book by that guy?  The bio is 85 words.  He tells you exactly why Brian was the person to write this book.

This is Martha Allard’s bio, from her novel Black Light:

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 can find her on her blog at marthajallard.blogspot.com.

Martha’s writing credits add up to tell you how beautiful her writing is.  Her bio is only 75 words.

Your turn.

Your assignment is this:  make yourself a list of your writing credits.  Shape them into bios of 10, 25, 50, and 75 words long.  Read them aloud.  Which ones would work to introduce you at a reading?  Do some of them entice different audiences than others do?