Loren Rhoads's Blog, page 51
October 22, 2015
How to Celebrate an Author’s Birthday
Imagine you’re making a piece of art. You labor over it alone in your room (or alone at a table in a cafe, as the case may be). You show it to 2 or 3 people, but mostly it exists in your head.
Then you send it to a publisher. They like it, buy it, publish it. And it goes out into the world.
Then you wait. You’re dying to know what people think, good and bad. Of course you hope everyone will adore your book unconditionally, but you don’t really expect that. You intentionally wrote a book that is challenging, provoking, prickly. You wrote about bad people doing bad things, and bad people doing good things, and how the line shifts, depending on the point of view in the story.
So… Today is my birthday! The only gift I really want is a review of one of my books.
Whether you go to Goodreads or Librarything or Shelfari — or you go to Amazon, Barnesandnoble.com or Audible — or you write something for your blog or Facebook or Twitter: it would mean a lot to me.
I understand that I can do every reading gig I’m offered. I can guest post on every blog I find. All the same, I know what really sells books is when someone tells a friend, “Hey, I read this thing…”
What if you read one of my books and didn’t like it? That’s okay. Tell me what you didn’t like. I’m a big girl. I can handle criticism. Besides, how am I going to make the next book more like the things you like?
Any review — whether you leave stars or you write down your thoughts — is going to mean a lot to me. Just be honest and say what you really think. I’ll be thrilled if you link to the review below.
We’ll still be friends afterward. Pinky swear.
October 21, 2015
Win a copy of No More Heroes!
The third book of my space opera trilogy comes out on November 10, but you can win a copy of No More Heroes now.
Here’s the book description:
The multi-species crew of the Veracity are enjoying some well-deserved R&R after informing the galaxy about spread of the time-bending Messiah drug. Now that the galaxy has been saved again, the crew begin to see each other in a new light.
Unfortunately, in the Veracity’s wake lie a string of crimes – and someone has got to pay. Former assassin Raena Zacari is hauled back to the weapons-free pleasure planet Kai to answer charges of kidnapping, murder, and the theft of an Imperial-era diplomatic transport: the Veracity itself.
At the Barnes & Noble in Flint, Michigan. Photo by Dana Fredsti.
In the meantime, something is moving in the undersea city Raena destroyed on the Thallian homeworld. Has the worst mass-murderer the galaxy has ever known been cloned back from the dead? Can the Veracity’s crew lay the ghosts to rest without Raena’s lethal skills?
No More Heroes mixes courtroom science fiction with sweeping space opera that features aliens, androids, drug dealers, journalists, and free-running media hackers. Following The Dangerous Type and Kill By Numbers, No More Heroes is the final book in Loren Rhoads’s epic trilogy.
At Powell’s Books in Portland, Oregon. Photo by Mason Jones.
You made it to the bottom of the post! You can enter to win a paperback copy of No More Heroes by sending me a photo of either The Dangerous Type or Kill By Numbers in the wild. I’d like to see it on your shelves, in your hands, or at your local bookstore.
I think you can upload photos in the comment field below or you can email to me directly at morbid at charnel dot com.
October 20, 2015
Win an audiobook copy of The Dangerous Type
Set in the wake of a galaxy-wide war and the destruction of a human empire, The Dangerous Type follows the awakening of one of the galaxy’s most dangerous assassins and her quest for vengeance. Entombed for twenty years, Raena Zacari has been found and released.
Thallian has been on the lam for the last fifteen years. He’s a wanted war criminal whose entire family has been hunted down and murdered for their role in the galaxy-wide genocide of the Templars. His name is the first on Raena’s list, as he’s the one that enslaved her, made her his assassin, and ultimate put her in a tomb. But Thallian is willing to risk everything–including his army of cloned sons–to capture her. Now it’s a race to see who kills whom first.
Alternatively, Gavin Sloane has spent the last twenty years trying to forget about Raena, whom he once saved and then lost to Thallian. Raena’s adopted sister, Ariel Shaad, has been running from the truth–about Raena, about herself, about Gavin–and doesn’t know if she’ll be able to face either of them.
The Dangerous Type mixes military science fiction with adventurous space opera that grabs you from the first pages and doesn’t let go. Along with a supporting cast of smugglers, black market doctors, and other ne’er-do-wells sprawled across a galaxy brimming with alien life, The Dangerous Type is a fantastic beginning to Loren Rhoads’s epic trilogy.
Praise for The Dangerous Type:
“Rhoads takes the best elements of Star Wars and makes them dark, gritty, and real; then mates them with Guardians of the Galaxy and Firefly to create a kick-ass and totally original love child. A must-read!” — Dana Fredsti, author of the Ashley Parker: Plague World series
“Rhoads brings the style of grimdark fantasy to space opera.” — Publishers Weekly
“The story really takes off and races towards one of the more satisfying conclusions I’ve come across in years.” — Beauty in Ruins
“I cannot wait to see where this story moves next…Don’t miss this fun ride!” — Geek Dad
Ordering info for the paperback edition:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Indie Bound
Borderlands Books
And anywhere books are sold.
Ordering information for the audiobook:
You made it to the bottom of the post! You can enter to win an audiobook copy of The Dangerous Type by leaving me a comment below. Stumped for a subject? Tell me about the most dangerous friend you have had.
October 19, 2015
Win a copy of Morbid Curiosity Cures the Blues!
Morbid Curiosity Cures the Blues: True Stories of the Unsavory, Unwise, Unorthodox, and Unusual
From Scribner’s Fall 2009 catalog:
“This is a unique and original compendium of completely true stories first published in the cult magazine Morbid Curiosity, “a Reader’s Digest of the dark side” (San Francisco Weekly). For ten years, Morbid Curiosity was a one-of-a-kind underground magazine that gained a devoted following for its celebration of absurd, gross, and unusual tales — all true — submitted from contributors across the country and around the world. Loren Rhoads, creator and editor of the magazine, has compiled stories from all ten issues in this sometimes shocking, occasionally gruesome, but always fascinating anthology. With the same voyeuristic appeal of Mortifiedand Found, this quirky book is filled with stories from ordinary people — who just happened to have eccentric and sometimes peculiar interests. Ranging from the outrageous (attending a Black Mass, fishing bodies out of San Francisco Bay, making snuff films) to the more “mundane” (visiting a torture museum and tracking real vampires through San Francisco), this curiously enjoyable collection of stories, complete with illustrations and informative sidebars, will entertain and haunt readers long after the final page is turned.”
Praise for MCCTB:
“Morbid Curiosity Cures the Blues is a fun if disturbing read for lovers of great nonfiction and the macabre. As promised, the tales will cure your blues.” — Library Journal
“Morbid Curiosity Cures The Blues is a must-read for those who want a glimpse into the dark side of people’s lives. There is something to suit everyone’s tastes. From the cradle to the grave and beyond, these stories tantalize and terrify.” — Dark Scribe Magazine
“Think of Morbid Curiosity Cures the Blues as Penthouse Forum letters for the disturbed crowd — except that these occurrences did happen. What it all boils down to is that this collection will be one of the strangest reads ever to enter the mind, knowing that Loren Rhoads prides herself on getting realistic accounts. Want more details? Pick it up and worry about the therapy bill later.” — Horror World
“Morbid Curiosity Cures the Blues is a collection of the strange, the shocking, and the sinister, but at the same time the stories are all so personal that they are heartfelt and heart-wrenching. These stories go beyond mere voyeurism. Through them, you take a journey to some very dark places. Like the authors, you won’t emerge unscathed, but perhaps you’ll have a deeper understanding of the dark side of the human psyche, including your own.” — Fatally Yours
Ordering info:
October 18, 2015
Win a copy of Wish You Were Here
Almost every tourist destination has a graveyard. You go to Yosemite National Park: there’s a graveyard. You go to Maui: graveyards everywhere you look. The Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor and the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park: both graveyards. The #1 tourist destination in Michigan has three cemeteries. America’s best-preserved Gold Rush ghost town has five. Gettysburg is a National Park because it has a graveyard. Some graveyards are even tourist destinations in themselves: the Old Jewish Cemetery of Prague, the colonial burying grounds of Boston, and Kennedy’s eternal flame in Arlington National Cemetery. Jim Morrison’s grave in Père Lachaise Cemetery ranks in the top five tourist sites of Paris.
Wish You Were Here: Adventures in Cemetery Travel contains 35 graveyard travel essays, which visit more than 50 cemeteries, churchyards, and gravesites across the globe.
The book trailer for Wish You Were Here:
Praise for Wish You Were Here:
“Lovingly researched and lushly described, Loren’s essays transport you to the graveyard, where she is quite a tour guide. Curiosity and compassion burn at the heart of these essays.”—Paula Guran, editor of Dark Echo magazine
“Rhoads is particularly adept at finding deeper meanings in what she sees, and the questions she puts to the reader about the places she visits can gently guide us in our own search for meaning in the places we encounter. If you’ve struggled to explain your love of burial grounds to others, this may be a great way to help them understand.”—LisaMary Wichowski, The Association of Graveyard Rabbits Online Journal
“Loren Rhoads started visiting cemeteries by accident. It was the start of a love affair with cemeteries that continues to this day. In Wish You Were Here, Rhoads blends history with storytelling and her photos accompany each essay.”—American Cemetery magazine
“Wish You Were Here captures well why many of us find cemeteries fascinating: because of the history and stories of so many interesting people buried there!”—Richard Waterhouse, Waterhouse Symbolism Newsletter
“‘It’s good to be a card-carrying member of the Association for Gravestone Studies,’ Loren writes. I agree. After half a lifetime of guided and self-guided tours, Loren observes, ‘What I’ve learned from cemeteries is that limestone melts, marble breaks, slate slivers, and sandstone cracks.’ That is what draws some of us to graveyards.”—Christine Quigley,Quigley’s Cabinet
Ordering information:
Wish You Were Here: Adventures in Cemetery Travel was published by Western Legends Press in May 2013. It is available directly from Amazon or CreateSpace.
Autographed and inscribed copies can be ordered directly from Loren Rhoads via PayPal. For details or to request inscriptions, use the Contact Me form above.
Wish You Were Here guest posts:
Adventures in Cemetery Travel on the Western Legends Publishing’s blog
Island of the Dead on the Western Legends Publishing’s blog
Bela Lugosi’s grave (excerpted by Wish You Were Here) on Cemetery Travel.
Curiosity and the Cat essay from Wish You Were Here on Cemetery Travel.
Permanent Florentines essay from Wish You Were Here on Wicked World
You made it to the bottom of the post! You can enter to win a paperback copy of Wish You Were Here by leaving me a comment below. Stumped for a subject? Tell me about your favorite graveyard.
October 17, 2015
Win a copy of As Above, So Below!
When the succubus Lorelei sees the angel Azaziel from across her master’s dance club, she knows he’s been cast out of Heaven, but is not yet Fallen. She vows to do whatever it takes to bring the angel down. She trails him back to his lair in the warehouses outside of downtown Los Angeles, where they seduce each other, until Azaziel casts her out.
Lorelei can’t let him go. Together on the streets of LA, they encounter Ashleigh Johnson, one of Azaziel’s mortal charges, dying of hepatitis in the street. The angel rescues Ashleigh’s soul from two harpies poised to devour it — then uses it to possess Lorelei. Lorelei flees, taking Ashleigh’s soul along for the ride.
Lorelei’s sister Floria tracks down a defrocked priest willing to exorcise Ashleigh’s mortal soul from Lorelei’s infernal flesh. Before long, the intimate little ritual swells into a virtual Who’s Who of Hell’s presence in LA.
Book trailer for As Above, So Below:
Praise for As Above, So Below:
“I waited for a decade to read the full story of the succubus Lorelei and the angel Aza after discovering a short story about their too-wrong-to-be-right love/lust in a magazine slush pile. Now, at last, that amazing story serves as simply the jump-off point to unveil a richly imagined supernatural battleground in this frighteningly evocative novel. If you loved the dark fantasy of Christopher Walken’s The Prophecy series, you’ll be entranced by this haunting story of forbidden desire that spans both heaven and hell.”
— John Everson, author of Nightwhere, Covenant, and Violet Eyes
“Fans of paranormal romance, urban fantasies, kick-ass fights, and some pretty damn hot sex, check out As Above, So Below, the new book by Loren Rhoads and Brian Thomas!”
— Dana Fredsti, author of Plague Town, Plague Nation, and Plague World
“Aside from framing the war between Heaven and Hell through well-developed characters and a familiarity with theology, Rhoads and Thomas’s depiction of temptation make this book. In literature, sometimes the mix of horror fiction with romance and erotica leans mainly toward horror, or pulls the primary attention of only one gender of reader (both of these scenarios can be great). However, As Above, So Below is not that story. Any fan of erotic horror fiction, male or female, is going to have fun reading this one. As Above, So Below has a creative plot, vivid descriptive imagery, relentless temptation, graphic horror, and fiery, fun sex.”
— Jeremy Price, Up All Night Horror Fiction Review
“As Above, So Below is a complex novel that could be called paranormal romance but it also works as horror and erotica even though the sex scenes aren’t over the top like some erotica books I’ve read. The best part of the book was the characters.”
Ordering information:
The book is available in paperback and ebook from:
Amazon
Kindle
Nook
Black Bed Sheets Books
Loren’s favorite posts about As Above:
Creating Lorelei’s character on HorrorAddicts.net
Talking about all the kissing As Above, So Below
Roving Gangs of Ferals: Tuan Ngyen’s gang and A Clockwork Orange
How Lorelei’s story spawned Sins of the Sirens
About the Authors:
Loren Rhoads is the author of the In the Wake of the Templars trilogy, published by Night Shade Books in 2015. She is the editor of The Haunted Mansion Project: Year Two and Morbid Curiosity Cures the Blues: True Tales of the Unsavory, Unwise, Unorthodox, and Unusual. Her stories about the succubus Lorelei have appeared in the books Sins of the Sirensand Demon Lovers.
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 asThe X-Files, Millennium, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, The Order, 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.
You made it to the bottom of the post! You can enter to win a paperback copy of As Above, So Below by leaving me a comment below. Stumped for a subject? Tell me your favorite story about a devil.
October 14, 2015
Gone, baby, gone
Al & Loren 1980
There are so many things that happened when we were kids that I would love to forget. Instead, I remember the night we drove out into the country roads to sit in the car and drink (Bud for him, cheap wine for me) and talk about our future. I wanted out: out of Flushing, out of Michigan, as far away as I could get. I thought I would go to Manhattan, get a tiny apartment with a bathtub in the kitchen, and find a job writing for some magazine or newspaper.
Allen couldn’t imagine any escape. He was still in high school, waiting to turn 18 so he could move into his first apartment. He’d been in trouble with the law already. My parents considered sending him to military school. They were taking a tough love approach, giving him strict curfews and forbidding him to see his friends. It only made him more desperate to get out on his own.
Once he moved out, Allen lived with a guy who owned pit bulls. They went to dog fights. They started fights in bars. I kept telling my brother that his roommate was an asshole, that things would go too far, that someone was really going to get hurt. But by then I’d abandoned him by moving to Ann Arbor to pursue my journalism degree. Allen was his own man and wouldn’t listen to any voices of reason.
He was an alcoholic for decades, starting before those beers in our parents’ car. I wonder if there is anything I could have done to save him. I wonder if there is anything anyone could have done to get him to stop drinking. He was so used to taking care of himself, standing on his own two feet, never asking anyone for anything…
I believe we all choose our deaths. I know he pursued his single-mindedly. But, god, I miss him. This year he has been gone 13 years.
Today would have been his 51st birthday. I’m not sure he would have lived to see it, even if alcoholism hadn’t killed him. He liked to eat and snowmobile all alone in the depths of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. He liked to camp and fish and run around on jet skis. He didn’t like to exercise or see doctors and he didn’t want to stop smoking. He tried to self-medicate his depression with drugs, legal and not, and lots of fresh air. Sooner or later, though, depression would have dragged him down.
I miss him so much. Usually, when I’m in Michigan and I visit his grave, I leave him a Bud, for old times’ sake. I have a sip or two, then leave the rest for him. After all, the damage is done now. The dead must get powerful thirsty.
October 13, 2015
Lessons from my Literary Weekend
This weekend was packed full of literary goodness and I learned yet more about reading in public.
Saturday I went to Borderlands Cafe to hear Ann Leckie read part of Ancillary Mercy. She chose a scene introducing a new alien character, so it was a lot of dialog. She did three different voices and seemed to take pleasure in the words. The scene sounded fun and fresh, even though she said she’d read it every step of her book tour.
On the other hand, Greg Bear (who was traveling with her) chose to read a scene where a ship is landing on one of the Martian moons. There were a lot of characters, one of whom is possessed by a ghost. Bear had to keep breaking the text to explain things. I had trouble envisioning things. A scene with fewer people talking would have been easier to follow.
In May, I met Joel Eis of Rebound Books at the first Bay Area Book Festival. He invited me to come up and read at the Litquake in San Rafael, so I drop up there on Sunday. I was joined by Sumiko Saulson and Peter Fugazzotto.
Peter went first and read a series of short pieces. The best of them was a segment of a story about a utility customer service rep who gets lured into a creepy basement by an old lady. Peter’s voice made the room vanish. My imagination was taken over by his words.
Loren, Sumiko, and Peter at Gamescape North
Sumiko got caught in traffic, so she came in halfway through. She’d been meant to go second, but Peter suggested I take her place and give her a moment to settle in.
We read in the back of Gamescape North. The setting wasn’t optimal. I knew before I got there that I wouldn’t have a mic. The chairs were a long way back from the podium. The store was open, of course, so people came in to shop and the phone rang. With the door open to the street, voices drifted in from the street. A box fan moved the air around and contributed white noise. And I was fighting something off. My throat was scratchy, despite my requisite hot green tea.
The upshot of all this: people had trouble hearing me. I should’ve moved out from behind the music stand and come closer to them. I should’ve invited them to move their chairs closer to me. Instead, I struggled through, tripping over words, reading too fast, pushing my voice.
I got through my scene, but I wasn’t happy with my performance, frustrated by the limitations and interruptions. I was already anxious about getting up to San Rafael — although, as it turned out, the trip was easy. I worried about the size of the crowd, which turned out fine.
It didn’t help that my family was supposed to come hear me read for the first time, but they didn’t. I didn’t know anyone in the audience, except Joel and Peter, both of whom I’d just met, so I didn’t have a familiar face to perform to. That’s a crutch that I need to wean myself from — but readings really do go better for me when I feel I have a sympathetic ear.
Sumiko read a scene toward the end of Warmth, where the doctor is explaining how the zombie virus works. Sumiko did a great job of gesturing as she read the lecture. I wished, though, that she’d read a scene about her main character. She’d told us that Sera was a ghula who preyed on zombies and had been pregnant for 600 years, 200 of which she’d been suffering morning sickness. She sounded absolutely fascinating.
Still, like me, Sumiko was aware that we were reading in a game store in the middle of a Sunday afternoon — and we had kids in the audience. That affected what we chose to read.
Laura Anne Gilman, Terry Bisson, and Loren Rhoads at SFinSF at the Borderlands Cafe.
Last night I had the honor to join the SFinSF family. I worried about the size of the crowd on the Monday of a three-day weekend, with Litquake going on all over town, and an early starting time. To my surprise, the crowd was a nice size. There were a lot of people I recognized from Convolution and the Borderlands Sponsors parties, so I pretended I wasn’t cripplingly shy and marched over to say hi. That turned out to be fun.
Terry Bisson asked if I would mind reading first, but in this case, I preferred it. I’ve been reading Laura Anne Gilman’s Silver on the Road and was thoroughly intimidated by her writing. I didn’t want to follow her reading of it.
I read the same scene that I’d read in San Rafael: the attack on Mellix’s apartment from Kill By Numbers. I started slowly, with Mellix and Raena talking about the tesseract flaw, then went into her preparations for whatever attack may come, then ended with her fending off the gray soldiers.
And the scene went much better this second time. Partially that was because I’d had some time before the event to compose myself. Also, Borderlands! I counted just now: I’ve read at Borderlands 10 times, from the All-Night Halloween Reading in 2001 through three Litcrawls to the Sponsors’ Open Mic last month. I’ve done 12 Morbid Curiosity events there. I even worked behind the counter, back when the store was still on Laguna Street. Borderlands, more than any other bookstore ever, is home to me.
And the set-up is a dream. We had a table and a mic, so I could concentrate on the text rather than on projecting my voice or what my body was doing. I heard people laugh in the right places.
Laura read the scene where Isobel is waking up and getting ready to take her position as the Devil’s Left Hand. It’s a scene that’s all about anticipation and setting out, but it evokes the character and the world beautifully.
Afterward, Terry Bisson fed us questions. I’m not sure my answers were good or even coherent, but in the course of answering them, I did realize how different Raena is from Alondra. Raena is much older, more comfortable in her skin and with her abilities. Alondra thinks too much and doubts herself. I may have to write more about them later.
Overall, it was an amazing weekend. I learned a lot about performing and my relationship to it, about how to present myself, how to prepare myself right before a reading. The other readers’ selections taught me more about the sorts of things one should read and why and how.
I’ve got a short break from performing, then we’ll see if I can apply what I learned at Writers With Drinks and the Literary Speakeasy at the end of this month.
October 12, 2015
SFinSF tonight
SF in SF presents Laura Anne Gilman and Loren Rhoads
Monday, Oct. 12 – 6:30PM
Each author will read a selection from her work, followed by a Q&A moderated by author Terry Bisson.
Borderlands Books & Cafe 866 Valencia between 19th & 20th Avenue in San Francisco’s Mission District.
Books for sale courtesy of Borderlands Books.
Loren Rhoads is the author of THE DANGEROUS TYPE, KILL BY NUMBERS, and the upcoming NO MORE HEROES. Her science fiction stories have appeared in the books LEND THE EYE A TERRIBLE ASPECT, and in the magazines Blood Rose, Indigenous Fiction, and Not One of Us. Publishers Weekly accused her of bringing grimdark to space opera.
Laura Anne Gilman is the Nebula-nominated author of the brand-new SILVER ON THE ROAD (Book 1 of The Devil’s West), as well as many other pretty-damn-good-according-to-reviewers F/SF novels and short fiction, including The Vineart War trilogy and the Paranormal Scene Investigations Series. I just started to read Silver on the Road and I’m loving it. You can get a sample of it here.
Terry Bisson is best known for his short stories. Several of his works, including “Bears Discover Fire,” have won top awards in the science fiction community, such as the Hugo and the Nebula.
October 11, 2015
Today: New on the Edge!
Just a reminder: I’ll be joining the LitQuake Festival at 3 pm at Gamescape North, 1225 4th St., San Rafael, California.
New On the Edge matches Loren Rhoads with Sumiko Saulson and Peter Fuggazotto. They’ll be reading science fiction and horror.
Loren Rhoads is author of the In the Wake of the Templars trilogy: The Dangerous Type, Kill by Numbers, and No More Heroes. She is co-author with Brian Thomas of As Above, So Below. She is also author of Wish You Were Here: Adventures in Cemetery Travel and editor of The Haunted Mansion Project: Year Two and Morbid Curiosity Cures the Blues: True Tales of the Unsavory, Unwise, Unorthodox, and Unusual.
Peter Fugazzotto is a writer of fantasy and science fiction. His short stories have been published in Heroic Fantasy Quarterlyand Grimdark Magazine. His series The Hounds of North was launched with The Witch of the Sands in 2014. He is a lifelong martial artist and a World Champion in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. You can check out his blog here: http://peterfugazzotto.com/ramblings/.
Sumiko Saulson is author of three science-fiction/horror novels,Solitude, Warmth, and The Moon Cried Blood, and the short story collection Things That Go Bump In My Head. She’s also the author of Happiness and Other Diseases. You can keep up with her at http://sumikosaulson.com/.
