Loren Rhoads's Blog, page 43

All the Morbid to Date

Tomorrow:

Why (And How) Writers Write:

A panel starring Dana Fredsti, Loren Rhoads, and S.G. Browne

Where: Borderlands Books

When: Sunday, September 11 at Noon

Punch and pie. (Not really, but you can buy coffee and pastries in the cafe.)

Coming soon:

I have a very short piece about Ariel and Raena (from The Dangerous Type) in the Flight anthology, which is a fundraiser for QueerSciFi.com.  You can pre-order it for your kindle here: http://amzn.to/2cjMHVK

I think there will be a paperback edition, too.

Coming next month:

I will start a new monthly cemetery column at GothicBeauty.com. I’m not sure when exactly it will go up, but I’m really excited about it.

Coming next year:

Stephen Jones bought my story “The Drowning City” for Best New Horror #27, which should be out in February 2017.  The story was originally published in Nancy Kilpatrick and Caro Soles’s nEvermore!: Tales of Murder, Mystery, and the Macabre.

Recap for the last month:

I have a story about the San Francisco Columbarium and the Chapel of the Chimes in this issue of Search Magazine — and you can read it for free: https://searchmagazinenet.wordpress.com/…/search-magazine-6…

I’m really proud of my essay/booklist that appeared on GirlsinCapes.com: 5 Science Fiction Novels that Center on Bisexuality: http://girlsincapes.com/2016/08/17/diversereads-sffbisexuality/

I read the beginning of Lost Angels on Other Worlds of Romance and we talked about sex and graveyards: http://tobtr.com/9186785

Speaking of succubi, “The Angel’s Lair” is up to read for free at Wattpad: https://www.wattpad.com/myworks/81112719-the-angels-lair

And finally the Death’s Garden essays continue on Cemetery Travel. Here’s the most recent one of mine: https://cemeterytravel.com/2016/09/02/deaths-garden-the-original-catacomb/

Lower Manhattan, April 2002

I stumbled on the crater left by the World Trade Center by accident. It’s hard to believe that was 14 years ago.

Cemetery Travel: Adventures in Graveyards Around the World

This is mirrored from my Red Room blog:

After Mason and I crossed Broadway, we stumbled upon a memorial to the firefighters lost when the World Trade Center collapsed.  Bright chains of origami cranes decorated the fence around an old brown church.  Beside them hung tattered “missing person” flyers.  Amongst the ephemera fluttered faded navy blue T-shirts, each silk-screened with a different fire company badge.  My eyes stung, burned by the eloquence of those empty shirts.

Around the corner, we peered through the big iron fence into the churchyard.  In the afternoon light, the grass glowed intensely green.  Dense trees raised a verdant canopy above the old stones.  I longed for the sense of peace inside, but a big padlock held the fence closed.

I wound my fingers through the bars and gazed at the old headstones.  The graveyard seemed strangely familiar.  Not until we came home and I…

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Why do writers write?

This Sunday (9/11/16), I’ll be joining S.G. Browne and Dana Fredsti at Borderlands Cafe in San Francisco to figure out just why writers write.  The panel discussion will roam from the philosophical to the practical: why, how, and where to find support.  Writers at every level are invited to come and get their questions answered — or vent, as their temperaments desire.

The Borderlands Cafe is located at 870 Valencia Street in San Francisco’s Mission District.

The panel starts at noon.

S.G. Browne is the author of the novels LESS THAN HERO, BIG EGOS, LUCKY BASTARD, FATED, and BREATHERS, as well as the eBook short story collection SHOOTING MONKEYS IN A BARREL and the heartwarming holiday novella I SAW ZOMBIES EATING SANTA CLAUS.

Dana Fredsti is the author of PLAGUE TOWN, PLAGUE NATION, and PLAGUE WORLD as well as MURDER FOR HIRE: THE PERUVIAN PIGEON.

Loren Rhoads is the author of THE DANGEROUS TYPE, KILL BY NUMBERS, and NO MORE HEROES, and co-author of LOST ANGELS.

 

Interview with editor and writer Loren Rhoads

Found an old interview with me…

Black Sunday Magazine

Where did your interest in the macabre come from?

I grew up on a farm outside of Flint, Michigan, so the combination of raising animals to eat and watching a big city die made me a bit morbid — plus my family’s farm is down the road from the graveyard where members of my family are buried.

What is your opinion of the western world’s outlook on death?

I am so immersed in studying cemeteries that I forget sometimes that “normal” people don’t arrange their vacations around the graveyards they want to visit. For instance, I went to Rouen in June pretty much just to see the Aitre Saint Maclou, which is the last surviving medieval ossuary square in Europe. The atrium began as a plague pit in the 14th century and served as a graveyard up until 1781. During that time, people were buried in a mass grave until…

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Bringing the Morbid to WorldCon

I’m off to WorldCon in Kansas City this week!  I will be staffing the SFWA Suite from 9-11 AM on Friday and Saturday, then hanging out at the Broad Universe table in the Dealers Room from 1-3 PM on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

I’m also scheduled for three programming events:

Where’s Rey? Female Characters and Merchandise

Friday 4 – 5 PM, 2503B (Kansas City Convention Center)

with Mr. Leo d’Entremont, Jenifer Boles, Loren Rhoads

Picture the scene: you are super excited about having just seen The Force Awakens and you desperately need a Rey doll to complete your collection. Except there aren’t any, anywhere. You buy the Monopoly set, yet there is no Rey. What is this nonsense? Unfortunately, it is all too common for female characters to be left out of promotional material, just look at Black Widow in the MCU. We discuss the reasons for, the implications of, and possible solutions to this indisputable problem.

Reading: Loren Rhoads

Saturday 7:30 – 8 PM, 2202 (Kansas City Convention Center)

My first reading at WorldCon! It’s a terrible slot, directly before the Hugo Award Ceremony begins, but I’m going to bring the show anyway. My friends on Facebook voted for a fight scene from the Raena Zacari trilogy. There will be carnage.

Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading

Sunday 10:00 – 11:30 AM, 2202 Readings (Kansas City Convention Center)

Loren Rhoads (M), J. Tullos Hennig, Laurel Anne Hill, Roberta Rogow, Kathryn Sullivan, Paula S. Jordan, Katie Li, A C Elias, Tamara Jones, and Wendy Van Camp

Join members of Broad Universe — a nonprofit association dedicated to supporting, encouraging, and promoting female authors of science fiction, fantasy, and horror — as they read tidbits of published works and works in progress.

I’ll probably read a snippet of Lost Angels, just so Lorelei gets her due.

Other than that, my schedule is open. I like coffee.  Do you like coffee? Let’s get some and talk about writing!

Broad Universe at WorldCon

Broad Universe is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting, encouraging, honoring, and celebrating women writers and editors in science fiction, fantasy, horror and other speculative genres. I joined in July 2014.

I’ll be working the Broad Universe table in the Dealers Room in Kansas City next weekend (August 19-21), selling The Dangerous Type, Kill By Numbers, and No More Heroes, along with a few copies of Lost Angels just for fun.  I should be at the table Friday, Saturday, and Sunday afternoons from 1-3 PM.

I’ve also organized a Rapid Fire Reading for Sunday morning from 10-11:30 AM.  10 women will read 6-minute excerpts from their work, both published and in-progress.  Books will be given away. You’ll get just the briefest taste of a wide range of work. Remember, the first taste is free.

I participated at last year’s WorldCon RFR and it was a whole lot of fun.  Last year, it spanned from alternate history to space opera, from portal fantasy to steampunk to erotica. I’m really looking forward to seeing what this year will bring.

Here’s the lineup:

The Morbid Week Ahead

I’m going to be on Other Worlds of Romance tomorrow (Monday) night, reading from The Angel’s Lair and talking about succubi. You can listen in (or check the podcast later) here: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/other_worlds_of_romance/2016/08/16/loren-rhoads-is-my-guest-author-on-august-15th

Sometime in the next week, my list of “Five Science Fiction Novels that Center on Bisexuality” should be going up on GirlsinCapes.com as part of their Diverse Reads week.  Here’s the link: http://girlsincapes.com/

Thursday I’m heading out to WorldCon!  That will be a post or two of its own.

In all the travel last month, I missed telling you about a couple of other things:

I hosted a discussion of language in science fiction world-building at Queer Sci Fi last month.  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/

I chatted with Elizabeth Black on The Women Show about my work on CemeteryTravel.com and the Death’s Garden project I’ve been putting together. You can listen to the podcast here: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/bennetpomerantz2/2016/07/21/the-women-show-with-your-host-elizabeth-black-her-last-show

Ongoing Adentures:

I’ve been putting tastes of Lost Angels up for free on Wattpad.  You can check out what Lorelei’s up to here:  https://www.wattpad.com/user/LorenRhoads

Oh, and if you’re on Instagram, I’ve been fiddling around there. It’s mostly cemetery photos and weird stuff I see on my travels: https://www.instagram.com/morbidloren/

 

Broad Universe Party tomorrow!

Tomorrow, on Thursday August 11, Broad Universe is throwing another Facebook party — and I’ll be taking over as hostess at 3:30 EST (12:30 out here on the West Coast).  I’ll be giving away a copy of one of my space opera novels. My plan is to talk about strong female characters and protagonists who aren’t necessarily heroines.  Come join me tomorrow!  Here’s the link: https://www.facebook.com/events/256421998074726/

Broad Universe is an international, nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting, encouraging, honoring, and celebrating women writers and editors in science fiction, fantasy, horror, and other speculative genres. I’ve been a member for a hair over two years now.

Here’s the whole author guest list for tomorrow’s party (all times EST):

Noon – Kick Off

12:30 – Samantha Bryant

1:00 – Deborah Ann Davis

1:30 – Elizabeth Black

2:00 – Katherine McIntyre

2:30 – Anne E. Johnson

3:00 – Jennifer R. Povey

3:30 – Loren Rhoads

4:00 – Broad Universe

6:00 – John G. Hartness

7:30 – Terri Bruce

8:00 – Broad Universe

9:00 – Valerie Willis

 

Grave Play

I’ve been away again.  This was my third trip since summer began, with one more to come next week.  It’s been hard to keep a working rhythm with all the coming and going, but I’m making some progress.  I wish it could be more.  I always wish it could be more.

Mostly this last trip was about facing my parents’ reality now.  My mom turned 75 in May. My dad is a year older. They get around remarkably well, but the years are catching up to them. I’m obsessed with the passage of time anyway, but now I feel like the hours we spend together are precious. In my dad’s case, since his first catastrophic heart attack at my current age, the hours are stolen. Thank goodness for modern medicine.

Last week my parents treated my daughter and me to two plays at the Shaw Festival at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario.  First we saw Alice in Wonderland, a new adaptation of the familiar story that focused on Dodgson’s fantasy as a metaphor for growing up.  The costumes were amazing. The stagecraft was impressive, what with all the growing smaller and bigger, but the enormous projection of Alice’s face destroyed the illusion of the actress’s youth.  That said, I wouldn’t want my face blown up 20 feet high, either. At least I’m not cast as a 10-year-old.

The following day we saw Our Town.  I’m not sure I’ve ever seen the whole play, but the third act — in the graveyard overlooking town — was breathtaking.  The dead sat motionless in ladderback chairs, their clothing spattered with white as if the color was leaching out of them.

True to form, I cried at the wedding and not at the funeral, but only because the dialog between the bride and her father was too much like what my father said to me when I got cold feet.

The final day in Canada, I got up at the crack of dawn and borrowed my parents’ SUV to drive half an hour into town to see St. Mark’s Churchyard. I’ve visited graveyards at sunset and after dark, in rainstorms and with snow on the ground, but I don’t know if I’ve ever been in one at 7 AM before.  The old trees cast black shadows, so the light was tricky, but I saw a lot of beautiful, thought-provoking things.

After some poking around, I located a grave slab all gouged with chopping marks that bit away at its surface. The guidebook I’d picked up in the Old Niagara Bookshop theorized that it had been used to chop meat during the War of 1812, when the Americans occupied the area and used the church as a barracks.

While I wandered, I was startled to see someone else in the graveyard at this early hour.  She was between my age and my mother’s, dressed in a light blue t-shirt.  I wondered what she was doing up at this hour, why she was alone.  I offered her a smile, then turned away to give her privacy.

Instead, she came toward me.  We exchanged good mornings. “Are you looking for interesting gravestones?” she asked.

I told her I was.

“Did you see the one with all the notches cut out of it?”

I repeated what the guidebook said.

“I was told it had been used for amputations during the War.”

Goosebumps crawled over me.  That theory made more sense, since the stone slab wasn’t knee height off the ground.  It would be low to chop meat on, even it you were sitting on the ground.  But it you were trying to get leverage to remove a limb…

Rubbing my bare arms against the sudden chill, I thanked her and showed her my guidebook.  She said she would look for it and drifted away.

The next time I looked up, she’d vanished.  It seemed that she had come into the churchyard solely to tell me that ghastly story.

By 8 AM, my phone refused to take another photo.  I gave up and drove back out to where my family was staying.  We got on the road before 9, on our 4-1/2-hour drive back to the farm in Michigan where I grew up.

Two days later, my daughter and I waited at the airport to start a two-legged flight home.  She’s nearly 13, oscillating between cuddly little girl and disdainful teenager.  I feel the clock ticking as I try to peel my protective arms from around her and let the world lure her away.

If studying graveyards has taught me anything, it’s how little time we have together: mothers and children, lovers and friends.  All the more reason to love each other while we can, share the wonders we can find, and treasure the moments whipping past.

 

Raena’s Foremothers: Lara Croft

I haven’t done one of these influences essays in a while, but yesterday was the anniversary of turning in the final proofed draft of No More Heroes, so my space opera trilogy is on my mind.

My introduction to Lara Croft: Tomb Raider came from the Angelina Jolie movies in 2001 and 2003.  No defense of the movies, which weren’t good when they came out and haven’t gotten any better, but it was the first time I’d seen a female American action hero.  The movie was all about Lara, not about her son and a terminator fending off the future, not about having to fight off aliens to protect a surrogate daughter.  Lara charged into danger with guns in both hands, saving the world.

And there was this:

My affection for the character comes from the way Jolie played her.  Despite her money and expensive toys, Lara is a street fighter.  She fights with elbows and knees and uses whatever comes to hand as a weapon.  She stalks into the auction house in a black leather jacket and dark black shades, all hips and high-heeled swagger.  She’s a dead shot with a throwing knife.  She’s not a good fighter “for a girl.” She holds her own.

The movie came out early in Jolie’s career, after Cyborg 2 and Hackers (of which I will have more to say later — her performance inspired Lorelei in our succubus novels), but before Salt and Wanted and Mr. & Mrs. Smith.  Lara Croft was amazing because she was the start of something. Jolie did her own stunts, so what the character does is possible in the real world.  She looked strong and lithe and confident, but she still got sweaty and bloody, winded and wounded and worn out.  Lara wasn’t a costumed superhero. She was almost like a regular person.

Raena Zacari’s character in The Dangerous Type was inspired by Lara’s pleasure in action.  When Thallian’s henchmen attack Raena and her friends in the souk on Kai, Raena laughs through the whole attack.  She has been waiting for a test to come along and she’s drinking all the enjoyment from it she can.

You can see what I mean 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