Loren Rhoads's Blog, page 54

My First Worldcon

Photograph by Ken Jordan.

I’m having trouble readjusting to the real world after a long weekend of soaking in science fiction. I got back last night from spending a long weekend in Spokane for the World Science Fiction Convention.

The personal highlight for me was joining the Broad Universe RFR (Rapid Fire Reading) on Friday night.  19 members of Broad Universe read fantasy, alternate history, comic horror, paranormal romance, and more.  I discovered two writers whose work I really enjoyed, Paula S. Jordan and Wendy Van Camp.

I read the scene from The Dangerous Type where Raena booby-trapped the mountainside.  It was the only space opera of the night.

I joined Broad Universe a little more than a year ago and it is turning out to be a great resource. I wish there had been more socializing with them in Spokane, but when I was asked to organize it, I was struggling with pneumonia and dropped the ball.  I look forward to meeting up with everyone again sometime soon.

I explored a little of what SFWA (the Science Fiction Writers of America) has to offer, too.  I was accepted as an active member in March, so this convention was the first time I’ve gotten to meet other members.  The SFWA suite was kind of dead the two times I dropped by (although I did get dinner there Saturday night), but I met some nice people.  I also volunteered at the SFWA table in the Dealers’ Room, which was entertaining. It seemed like everyone stopped by to say hi.

I spent most of my social time with members of the Sci-Fi Binder Club, a division of the Binders Full of Women Writers on Facebook.  Our conversations were wide-ranging and fascinating and I am very much looking forward to exploring the work of Jilly Dreadful, K. Tempest Bradford, and Jessie Kwak. It was great to meet them in person.

In and around meeting writers, I caught a couple of panels.  The Space Opera panel with Ann Leckie and Charles Stross gave me a better perspective on my heritage, while the Self-Promotion and Marketing panel with Kameron Hurley and Annie Bellet had some useful suggestions.  Wesley Chu’s reading was fun, too.

4 PM Friday in Spokane

Of course, the big controversy of the weekend was the Hugo Awards on Saturday night.  Unlike nearly everyone I asked about it, I both read all the nominees and voted.  Things at the ceremony went pretty much as I expected, based on the literary quality of the works nominated, but I was disappointed (if not surprised) that Sex Criminals: One Weird Trick didn’t win Best Graphic Story.  It was amazing.

There may have been parties over the course of the weekend, but I didn’t get invited to any.  Just as well.  The entire state of Washington seemed to be on fire and the air quality in Spokane was apocalyptic, so I fled back to my air-conditioned hotel room to clear my lungs every so often. Even so, my suitcase smelled like an ashtray inside.

It’s good to be home and sorting through all the bits I brought back with me.  I’m glad to have survived my first Worldcon. I’m even starting to think about going to another next year.  There are so many people I have yet to meet…

My Worldcon Schedule

Click on the flyer to expand it.

I’m excited to be attending my first World Science Fiction Convention since 1988, when I joined my Clarion-mates in New Orleans.  This year the party is in Spokane, Washington. It begins tomorrow, but I arrive Thursday.

My two scheduled events are:

Friday, 5-6 pm: I’ll be signing copies of The Dangerous Type at the SFWA table in the Dealers’ Room. That’s in Hall A of the Riverside Exhibition Hall, tables E16 and E17.

Friday, 7-9 pm: I’m participating in the Broad Universe Really Fast Reading at CC-300C. More info is here.

Oh, and I’m excited to announce that Edge Publishing will have the paperback copies of nEvermore! Tales of Murder, Mystery, and the Macabre in the Dealers’ Room.  That’s the Poe-inspired anthology that contains my story, “The Drowning City.” I haven’t seen the book yet, so I’m looking forward to that.

My schedule is light, so I’m trying to arrange as much networking as possible.  If you’re around, ping me. I’d love to meet you for coffee.

Highlights of the convention that I’m looking forward to:

On Beyond Ripley: Woman and Warriorship

Thursday August 20, 08:00 PM to 08:45 PM (45 minutes)

CC – Conference Theater 110

The “Strong Female Lead” trope and surrounding controversy (we need more of them! vs. Sophia McDougal’s call for a wider variety). Dissection of gender, and our perception of warriors. Analysis of historical and SF/F figures that meet our expectations, those who break them, and the impact this archetype has on our culture.

New – PG-13

Saturday August 22   02:40 PM to 02:56 PM (16 minutes)

CC – 205

Director: John Harden

NEW tells the story of an elderly couple who choose to be cryonically preserved (chilled to sub-zero temperature) at the time of their deaths. They are revived, centuries later, their health and youth totally restored. Together they face the joys and challenges of a second life in a strange, distant future.

The New Space Opera

Saturday August 22, 03:00 PM to 03:45 PM (45 minutes)

CC – 302AB

We’ve come a long way since the days when “space opera” was a derogatory term.  Many of SFs best writers over the last 20 years have written space opera.  What’s made the difference?

Broad Universe reading at Worldcon Friday night

Ready to explore new worlds and find your new favorite authors?

You’re invited to the Broad Universe Sasquan Rapid Fire Reading from 7-9 p.m. Friday, August 21 in CC – 300C. Twenty BU members will each read for 5 minutes from their latest novels or stories.

The reading will feature the work of award-winning writers and talented newcomers. They write science fiction, fantasy, paranormal romance, horror, historical fantasy, steampunk, slipstream, magical realism, urban fantasy, and futuristic romances for all genders. Their works explore amazing worlds, technology, and social issues and their characters’ hearts and minds.

The writers are: Rachael Acks, Carol Berg, S. A. Bolich, A.C. Ellas, Valerie Estelle Frankel, Jude-Marie Green Elektra Hammond, J Tullos Hennig, Laurel Anne Hill, Belinda McBride, Deirdre M. Murphy, Marta Murvosh, Trudy V. Myers, Lizzie Newell, E.M. Prazeman, Loren Rhoads, Roberta Rogow, Kathryn Sullivan, Chrysoula Tzavelas, and Wendy Van Camp.

This year’s Worldcon Rapid Fire Reading participants have won or were finalists for the Aurora Award, Compton Crook/Stephen Tall Award, Dream Realm Award, EPIC Award for Fantasy, EPPIE, ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year, Mythopoeic Fantasy, National Indie Excellence Award, Origin Awards, Phelan Award, Prism Award, Rainbow Book Awards, RWA’s Passionate Plume, the Stoker Award and the USA Book News National Best Book.

Their work has been published by Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Cemetery Dance, Changeling Press, City Slab, Devine Destinies, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, Loose Id, Manlove Romance, Night Shade, On Spec, Totally Bound, Writers of the Future, eXtasy Books and other publications. They’ve received honorable mentions in Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror and Writers of the Future, and been included in several award-winning anthologies.

Like all Rapid Fire Readings, there will be chocolate and drawings for books, and best of all, you’ll spend the evening enjoying explorations in speculative fiction.

Broad Universe is a nonprofit organization that has supported women writing, editing, and publishing in speculative fiction since 2000.

The Writer Comes Home

Photo by Karen Colonna. I’m going to treasure this, so I remember what happy looks like.

Yesterday was my signing at the Barnes & Noble in my hometown.  Before it began, I was so nervous. What if no one came?  What if I spent three hours smiling at everyone who came in the door, but didn’t sell a single book? What if, what if, what if?

Instead, the afternoon was nothing but lovely.  My friend Martha Allard, to whom The Dangerous Type is dedicated, took the afternoon off so she could sit with me at the table.  She didn’t want me to be uncomfortable.  I said if she was going to sit there, she should sell the anthology of faerie stories she edited. (Spoiler alert: I also have a story in Out of the Green.)  Then she brought me flowers — white daisies, my favorite!

So…friends from high school became to arrive almost at once.  They drove in from Ann Arbor and Lansing (both an hour away).  They took time off from work to drop by.  They hung out to chat with me and each other.  They brought their kids.

Loren Rhoads and Martha Allard at the Barnes & Noble in Genesee Valley Mall. Photo by Kathleen Rhoads.

It was so amazing that I’m kind of stumped for words.  I didn’t know anyone remembered me from high school.  It was a long time ago and I lived so much in my head.  I was really, really touched.

We reminisced about the books we read in high school, the days when we would carry around two novels at a time in case we finished one.  We talked about the sunny summer weeks we played D&D.  I remembered sitting in classes with two notebooks open in front of me:  one for taking notes, one for the story I was working on at the time.

My high school creative writing teacher came by.  She was the first person to tell me that I could be a writer for real, that I could really do this thing instead of just dreaming about it.  She mentored me for a semester of one-on-one fiction writing and forced me to get into the habit of writing seriously every day.  She let me student teach in her creative writing class.  She changed my life.  That she still remembers me…priceless.

People from the Flint Area Writers — people who talk me to polish my work, who taught me to write on a sentence-by-sentence, word-by-word level — bought the book.

The founder of Ladies of Horror, a Facebook group I’ve enthused about here before, came out of her way to buy our books.  Jaime is my role model for how to behave on the internet — and in person, too.  I am so inspired by her.

Greg buying the first copy of the book in July. Photo by Mart Allard.

To top it all off, a whole bunch of the store’s employees bought copies of the book.  Greg bought a second copy because he’d forgotten to bring the first in to be signed.  I mean, these are people swimming in books.  They work with books all day long.  That they would choose my book amongst all the possibilities…

It was an incredible day.  It stands in complete contrast to all those days I sat alone in my office, under pressure to meet my deadlines, missing out on chaperoning field trips, getting up early at my parents’ house over Christmas so I could write for an hour because I couldn’t afford to miss a day,working through school vacations, sending my family out on adventures on the weekends so I could squeeze out a few more hours of writing time… I worked so long and so hard and in such a fever of terror that the book wouldn’t sell — and then there was yesterday.  I hope each person understood how much I appreciated their support.

Mart and I got down to having one book left each.  We agreed that we would sit at the table until the last books sold, then we’d go get an early dinner.

Our friend Brian was hanging out with us.  Brian’s my co-writer on As Above, So Below.  He’s been reading my work for 30 years.  He’s the one to whom I dedicated the second book in this series, Kill By Numbers.  Brian swept up the last copy of The Dangerous Type and Out of the Green and charged off into the store, telling us to pack up. Then he bought the last copies of both books. I truly have the best friends.

A heartfelt thank you to everyone who came by the store yesterday, everyone who bought books, and everyone else who shared the announcement and passed the invitations along.  You are the best.

Win a Copy of Kill By Numbers & The Dangerous Type

Win both a copy of the first and second book in a sexy military science fiction and adventure space opera that follows one of the galaxy’s most dangerous assassins and her quest for vengeance!

Enter the giveaway on Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/148993-kill-by-numbers

Kill by Numbers:

Former assassin Raena Zacari thinks she’s left the past behind. The Imperial torturer who trained her is dead, the human empire is disbanded, and she is finally free.

But Raena is troubled by a series of nightmares that always seem to end with her shooting an ex-lover in the head. She needs to get her mind clear because there’s a flaw in the most commonly used starship drive—and the band of media-obsessed pirates she’s fallen in with is right at the heart of the controversy.

With humanity scattered across the galaxy, she’s going to have to rely on the alien crew members of the Veracity to help her put the pieces together. It doesn’t help that the Templars—wiped out in a genetic plague while Raena was imprisoned—have left booby-trapped biotechnology scattered across the galaxy.

Kill by Numbers mixes military science fiction with sweeping space opera that features aliens, androids, drug dealers, journalists, and free-running media hackers. Kill by Numbers is the second book in Loren Rhoads’s epic In the Wake of the Templars trilogy.

The Dangerous Type:

Entombed for twenty years, Raena, one of the galaxy’s most dangerous assassins, has been freed, and the first thing on her mind is revenge. At the top of her list is Thallian, the insane war criminal who enslaved Raena, turned her into a killing machine, and then ultimately left her for dead. When Thallian discovers that she has not only survived but also has escaped, he’s willing to risk everything—including his army of cloned sons—to bring her back under his control.

Gavin saved Raena once . . . only to lose her again to the clutches of Thallian. Since then he’s been alternately trying to forget her and desperately searching for her. Now that she’s free, he must come to terms with the fact that she might not be his, and perhaps never was.

Raena’s adopted sister, Ariel, is a child of wealth and privilege, as well as a gun runner who chose the right side of a galaxy-wide war that destroyed a human empire. She sent Gavin on his mad quest to find Raena in the first place, and now that she’s been found, Ariel doesn’t know if she can face either of them, or the truths she’s been running from since Raena was left for dead.

The Dangerous Type is the explosive opening to Loren Rhoads’s action-SF-meets-space-opera trilogy.

Signing at Barnes & Noble on Friday

This coming Friday afternoon — August 7 from 1 pm to 4 — I’ll be signing my new novel, The Dangerous Type, in Flint, Michigan. Even if you’re not into space opera, come support my favorite Barnes & Noble and say hi. I would love to see you.

If you can’t make it during the signing, you can call Barnes & Noble and ask them to reserve a book for you. I can sign it on Friday while I’m there. Their phone number is (810) 732-0704.

Barnes & Noble listed The Dangerous Type on their Bookseller’s Picks for July. They called it “a propulsive, action-heavy revenge tale constructed from a web of complex, strained relationships.”

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. The Dangerous Type is an adventurous space opera with a supporting cast of smugglers, black market doctors, and other ne’er-do-wells sprawled across a galaxy brimming with alien life.

“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



When: Friday, August 7 at 1 pm
Where:  Barnes & Noble Flint, Genesee Valley Mall, 4370 Miller Rd, Flint, Michigan 48507

Guest Post: Grimdark and the Dangerous Type by Loren Rhoads

Loren Rhoads:

All about the grimdark!

Originally posted on Exquisite Corpse:

Today’s guest post comes from Loren Rhoads, the author of the In the Wake of the Templars trilogy, published by Night Shade Books. The Dangerous Type is out now, followed by Kill By Numbers on September 1 and the conclusion, No More Heroes, on November 3.

* * * * *

When Publishers Weekly reviewed my novel The Dangerous Type, they accused me of trying to bring the style of grimdark fantasy to space opera. I wasn’t familiar with the term grimdark — and even though I liked the sound of it, I wasn’t sure it was meant as a compliment — so I emailed my gaming friend Seth. He wrote, “Grimdark can mean different things to different people, but for me at least, if I saw a review like that, I’d immediately be interested in reading the book.” He equated grimdark fantasy with betrayals, hopelessness, and, often, social commentary…

View original 577 more words

Raena’s Foremothers: Jeri Cale

Those Annoying Post Bros. #7: The Moray Caper

When I first started thinking about the Raena stories, I’d just seen Star Wars.  The only main female character was a princess. She was a kickass gun-waving princess who withstood torture, but she wasn’t the hero of the story. Her only solo adventure ended with her wearing a brass bikini.

When I started to think about Ariel, Raena’s best friend, I thought she should be a pilot: because in the Star Wars universe, there weren’t any female pilots — and that was just stupid. But as the Raena stories developed, I decided a pilot named Ariel wasn’t as clever as I’d originally thought. She needed another job, something equally important to overthrowing an evil galactic empire.

At the time I was coming to this realization, I was absorbed by Matt Howarth’s Those Annoying Post Bros. comix.  My love for the madmen of Bugtown went back to their first appearance in Heavy Metal in 1980, when it was just Russ and Ron sliding from one dimension to the next. Once the brothers had their own monthly book, they developed a cast of supporting characters, including a bunch of clones all named Caroline, the nuclear goddess Hiroshima, and Jeri Cale, who takes over Scabby John’s arms-dealing business.

Jeri’s first appearance in Those Annoying Post Bros. #3

In my imagination, Ariel was already tall and blond, but Jeri inspired Ariel’s change in occupation.  While Jeri dates Ron Post because he’s the worst man in Bugtown — and the most in need of the wares she can supply — Jeri lacks the heart of gold I wanted Ariel to have. Jeri’s in it for pure love of commerce. Ariel steals guns from the bad guys to arm the good guys for the fight.

One of the things I liked best about the character of Jeri Cale was her level of competence. The other characters (all male) call her a skinny bitch, but they can’t fault her business acumen.  Jeri knows the right tool for the mayhem at hand; she can sell it in the middle of a meltdown while making it sound like a bargain. Eventually Jeri grows bored with Ron’s incessant chaos and hooks up with Russ, the slightly older and much more calculating brother.

A decade after I read the Post Bros.’ adventures, Ariel started dating Sano Tocneppil in the stories we wrote for Anthology and Tales of the New Republic.  Sano was a rebel fighter pilot who fancies himself a bad man.  Back then I didn’t see the echo of Jeri’s relationship with Ron, but now, rereading the comix, it’s there.  In my defense, my co-writer Brian Thomas (who wrote As Above, So Below with me) was the one to add the Sano/Ariel subplot to our stories. I just went along with it. I’m amused at how the subconscious works, at the fluid line between inspiration and homage and original works that have similarities.

Those Annoying Post Bros. #3: the fateful meeting between Jeri and Ron Post, about to culminate in a memorable night out. You have to read this.

It’s funny now to read The Post Bros. in light of some of the comments that have been made about The Dangerous Type.  My book has been called brutal — although it isn’t especially.  (Another reader complained that the death in the book that I would consider is the most brutal — although it is entirely deserved —  wasn’t described in enough detail.)  There’s a high body count among the point-of-view characters in The Dangerous Type, but there are a lot of point-of-view characters.  The Post Bros.’ death toll is exponential in comparison.

In fact, the world the Post Bros. inhabit has similarities to that of Aeon Flux. I’m not sure what it says about the person I was in that era (late 80s/early 90s) that I found comfort in those things. I guess it was just so uncommon for me to see a girl holding her own in worlds that were as chaotic and dangerous as our own that I wanted to cheer her on.

*

Back issues of Those Annoying Post Bros., the issues of Heavy Metal with “Changes,” and other collectibles are available from Matt Howarth at the Bugtown Mall: http://www.bugtownmall.com/

This Week in Guest Posts

The Dangerous Type at West Portal Books, San Francisco: between Reynolds and Robinson.

A whole bunch more of my guest posts have gone live since my last update, so I’ve collected up the links.

My hope with the guest posts is to reach audiences who might not ever hear of my books otherwise. I know there’s a lot of posturing these days about respecting yourself as a writer and not giving your work away for free, but I see guest posting as advertising.  With ads, you either pay for the space with your cash or with your time.  I don’t have a lot of cash, but I do have a lot to say.

Anyway, I’m still punk at heart enough to believe we all lift each other up.  I’m honored to be allowed to talk to these other bloggers’ friends and followers.

This morning I’m over at Tracie McBride’s Exquisite Corpse answering Publishers Weekly’s charge that I’m trying to bring grimdark to space opera: https://traciemcbridewriter.wordpress.com/2015/07/24/guest-post-grimdark-and-the-dangerous-type-by-loren-rhoads/

Eden Royce hosted me at Dark Geisha to talk about the connection between fighting women and dance in an essay I called Crafting a Character: https://darkgeisha.wordpress.com/2015/07/20/guest-post-crafting-a-character/

Emerian Rich (in her secret identity as Emmy Z. Madrigal) let me invade her romance blog to answer the reviewer who said The Dangerous Type was a good gateway to get your romance-reading friends to read space opera:  Counting Kisses https://sweetdreamsnovel.wordpress.com/tag/the-dangerous-type/

And Fiona McVie interviewed me for her long-running series of Author Interviews:  https://authorsinterviews.wordpress.com/2015/07/21/here-is-my-interview-with-loren-rhoads/

I wrote a couple of pieces that weren’t directly related to The Dangerous Type, too.

Sherry Peters invited me to contribute to her Stories of Perseverance to Inspire Struggling Writers, so I wrote about how Luck Favors the Prepared: https://sherrypeters.wordpress.com/2015/06/23/luck-favors-the-prepared/

On Decluttering for Writers and Other Packrats, Morven Westfield allowed me to rave about hiring a professional organizer to sort through the Morbid Curiosity detritus:  Paperwork, Be Gone! http://declutteringforwriters.blogspot.com/2015/06/paperwork-be-gone.html

Pamela Kinney invited me to her Supernatural Friday blog to talk about moving into my house: Of course I live in a Haunted House: http://pamelakkinney.blogspot.com/2015/07/supernatural-friday-of-course-i-live-in.html

I’ve got 5 more essays promised, then I’m going to take a break on the guest posting until Kill By Numbers comes out in September.  Plenty of other things to look forward to, though.  I’ve got at least two live events coming in August. I hope to have the details of those soon.

The Dangerous Type live

Loren reading at Borderlands Books. Photo by R. Samuel Klatchko.

It was amazing to see so many of my friends at Borderlands on Sunday, including people I haven’t seen in a long while.  Better yet was seeing all the people I didn’t recognize.  I wish I’d taken a photo of the crowd, because I could look back at it whenever I needed to feel supported.  I’m not sure I have the words to tell you how much it means to an author to have a crowd when she reads — but this Sunday was the highlight in a month that has been pretty damn good (well, except for that pneumonia ordeal).

It was great to hear that people remember — and continue to miss — Morbid Curiosity magazine. It was such an honor to publish that bad boy and Borderlands will always be Morbid Curiosity‘s home.  We did so many release parties there over the magazine’s run.  I’m amused (and amazed) that if I ever decide to start the magazine up again, there are people eager to snap it up.

In the window, taken by Mason Jones

I got the chance to meet Robert Brockway just before the reading started.  He’s a senior editor at Cracked.com, which completely intimidated me, but he’s a super nice guy and did a great job warming up the crowd.  I loved the bit he read about the punk scene in NYC in 1977. I can’t wait to dive into his book, The Unnoticeables.

Alan Beatts introduced me by reminiscing about the misty past when I worked at Borderlands and the store was still on Laguna Street. My stint as a bookseller, brief as it was, taught me so much about standing on the other side of the counter and putting books into people’s hands. It’s hard to believe Alan and I have known each other for almost 20 years.

A couple of hours before the reading began, I was practically sick with excitement, but once I got up in front of the mic, it was wonderful. There were some technical complications with the sound bouncing around and ambient noise in the cafe (as well as the usual Sunday-on-Valencia-Street ice cream carts and street drama), but once I slowed down to savor the moment, I think the reading went really well.

My friends in the audience fed me some great questions about my earlier novel (As Above, co-written with Brian Thomas) and the writing schedule to get all three Templar books finished, but the best was Jim’s question about the relationship between Raena and Ariel. To me, that relationship is the heart of the books, proof that love can save even the most broken people.  I was really touched that my characters spoke to someone else as much as they do to me.

Jeremy Lassen and me at Borderlands. Photo by Mason Jones.

After the reading, people thrilled me by bringing me books to sign.  I’m just so excited to autograph books that it’s hard for me not to write paragraph after paragraph as inscriptions.

Then Dana Fredsti & David Fitzgerald (who really are the best friends ever) opened a couple of really good bottles of wine to toast the book.

Jeremy Lassen, my editor and taskmaster, gave an extremely sweet toast in my honor. I managed not to cry, but it was touch and go.

It was one of the best days of my life.

Oh, and Borderlands has a big stack of autographed copies of The Dangerous Type.  If you’d like one, contact them at info@borderlands-books.com.