Loren Rhoads's Blog, page 95
January 13, 2010
Research Question
Do you have a favorite cemetery?
January 10, 2010
The Encyclopedia of Dead Musicians
The Tombstone Tourist : Musicians by Scott Stanton My rating: 3 of 5 stars I reviewed the first edition of this book in Morbid Curiosity #5. The author, Scott Stanton, went to the trouble of tracking down my phone number to call and discuss the review, especially my list of musicians who should have gotten some attention and my concerns that the lack of an index made the book difficult to use. ...
Beautiful cemetery photo book
Stairway to Heaven: The Final Resting Places of Rock's Legends by J.D. Reed My rating: 4 of 5 stars Yet another beautifully illustrated collection of photos of famous people's graves, this one focuses on predominantly American musicians of the late 20th century. Special attention is paid to the tokens visitors leave on their pilgrimages: guitar picks, empty liquor bottles, unsmoked cigarettes. ...
January 7, 2010
Catching up on Goodreads
The American Resting Place: 400 Years of History Through Our Cemeteries and Burial Grounds by Marilyn Yalom My rating: 5 of 5 stars The definitive text on burial grounds in America, this provides a guidebook for all your cemetery quests. I honestly cannot rave about it enough. Yalom provides solid information, leavened with a touch of personal reflection inspired by the graveyards she visited. ...
December 16, 2009
Xmas wishes
It's time for my annual favorite Christmas carol: Myrrh is mine. Its bitter perfume breathes a life of gathering gloom, sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying, sealed in a stone-cold tomb. My favorite holiday card so far comes from Cypress Lawn Cemetery. Now I've been told that Forest Lawn sends out cards, too. I want to get on that list! Merry Xmas!
Awards!
And here's the listing:
BEST DARK GENRE BOOK OF NON-FICTION:
(Any dark genre non-fiction subject, any publisher; awarded to the author[s] or editor[s])
* Morbid Curiosity Cures the Blues edited by Loren Rhodes (Scribner)
* Stephen King: The Non-Fiction by Rocky Wood and Justin Brooks (Cemetery Dance Publications)
* The Stephen King Illustrated Companion by Bev Vincent (Fall River Press)
* Writer's Workshop of Horror edited by Michael Knost (Woodland Press)
Leaving aside the fact that my name is misspelled, I'm very honored to be named alongside those editors. In the world of nonfiction horror, those are the big boys.
If you're inspired to vote, you must register as a reader of Dark Scribe.
Morbid Curiosity Cures the Blues was also recommended for the Bram Stoker Award in Nonfiction, but it's ineligible, since the book is all reprinted material, except for my introduction. Still, it's immensely flattering to be recognized.
Get more on Loren Rhoads at SimonandSchuster.com
December 14, 2009
Awards and Questions
Morbid Curiosity Cures the Blues has been nominated for a Black Quill Award over at Dark Scribe magazine. Here's the link: http://www.darkscribemagazine.com/3rd-annual-bqa-nominees/And here's the listing:BEST DARK GENRE BOOK OF NON-FICTION: (Any dark genre non-fiction subject, any publisher; awarded to the author[s:] or editor[s:]) * Morbid Curiosity Cures the Blues edited by Loren ...
December 13, 2009
Morbid blog tour: Lee Smith
Lee Smith is the Program Director of Theatre at a university in Kentucky. He served as a writer on the ultra-low-budget movie Creature from the Hillbilly Lagoon (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSHpdp9gnm0), which features enough interspecies sex to satisfy even the most unsavory viewer. Lee was primary researcher for three seasons of The X-Files. He wrote about that job and raining down an ...
December 11, 2009
Morbid blog tour: Favorites
For the last month and a half, I've been interviewing the contributors to Morbid Curiosity Cures the Blues here. I've asked each of them to name their favorite story (that wasn't one of their own) from Morbid Curiosity magazine. The first thing I noticed was that the contributors' favorites came from every issue, which made me very proud of the range of the magazine. Then I was glad ...
December 10, 2009
Morbid blog tour: Cybele Collins
When it came time to illustrate each issue of Morbid Curiosity, I would post a list of topics from its stories. I invited artists to bid on the topics they wanted. I could count on some topics -- like Blondie or ghosts -- to be very popular. Others, like sky burial or Malaysian shamans, I had to assign. I tried to send each artist at least two stories. As I went along, I learned to assign each ...
