Never Enough 2023, part 2
This is the second half of this year’s year-end wrap-up.
Short Nonfiction:[image error]
My essay about my collection of cemetery postcards appeared in The Deadlands: Year One anthology, which came out from Psychopomp in October. The book collects short fiction, poetry, and nonfiction from the online magazine’s first year of existence — almost 400 pages of death-focused writing. Contributors include Alix E. Harrow, Vajra Chandrasekera, Arkady Martine, Fran Wilde, Isabel Cañas, Suzan Palumbo, Premee Mohamed, and R.B. Lemberg.
The paperback is only available from the Psychopomp store.
Coincidentally, a shorter essay about my collection of cemetery postcards came out in Collected #1. I originally submitted the essay in July 2011 — and the zine finally came out in November! I’m not sure where it’s available, but there are rumors of a second volume coming sooner.
My essay “How to Be Safe in a Cemetery was republished by the Horror Writers Association for their Halloween Haunts blog series in October. You can check it out here.
Normally, I’d have written a bunch of guest posts for other people’s blogs, but since I was being pulled back and forth to Michigan this year, I didn’t feel like I could promise anything. I did set up a book tour to promote the Spooky Writer’s Planner for this month. I wrote two posts for the tour:
Need some tricks for how to fit writing in around the holidays? Check this post out at Momma Says to Read: https://www.mommasaystoread.com/2023/12/bewitching-book-tours-deck-halls-with.html
I’ve also written about my favorite lentil soup recipe, to warm you up on these chilly days, for Fangtastic Books: https://fang-tasticbooks.blogspot.com/2023/12/spooky-writers-planner-by-loren-rhoads.html
The blog tour runs until the end of the week. You still have time to enter to win a digital copy of the planner.
In July I returned to BayCon, the San Francisco Bay Area’s major science fiction/fantasy/horror/gaming/costuming convention. I only signed up for one event this year, since I didn’t know if I’d get called away suddenly.
The Manor of Frights panel at BayCon 2023.
Saturday, July 1, 2023 HorrorAddicts.net hosted Manor of Frights
Contributors to the newest Horror Addicts anthology read from their stories and we chatted about hauntings, possessions, and out favorite frightening house tropes. Moderated by Emerian Rich, with Jonathan Fortin, Laurel Anne Hill, J. Malcolm Stewart, S.A. Bradley, and that’s me, down on the end!
I also hung out in the Dealers Room at the Liminal Fiction table. They are the nicest group of people. I always enjoy hearing what they’ve been working on.
On October 27, I joined Beth Winegarner, author of San Francisco’s Forgotten Cemeteries, at the San Francisco Columbarium to discuss Why We Love Cemeteries.
Our conversation touched on cemeteries we’ve visited, places we’d still like to go, and why both of us ended up in a city that tore its cemeteries out in the 1940s.
In November, I was invited to contribute to the Memento Mori Market, which raised funds for the Order of the Good Death’s scholarship program.
I contributed three copies of Wish You Were Here: Adventures in Cemetery Travel, my first cemetery memoir. Winners of the auction will join me in January for an intimate Q&A. I’m really looking forward to meeting them and answering their questions.
Podcasts/Radio:I had a great time talking to Angie Orth at the Traveling with AAA podcast. I love the tagline for the conversation: “If you haven’t already been adding cemeteries to your travel itineraries, then you’ve been missing out.”
[image error]The initial portion was broadcast on October 5.
They followed that up with a short “Digging Deeper” session on October 12, where I talked about five of my favorite cemeteries.
I was also a guest on America’s #1 Travel radio show, RMWorldTravel with Robert Carey. We did a lightning-fast interview about four cemeteries that people should visit for the autumn. This broadcast on October 14. I’m in the second hour, which you can skip ahead to: Seg 3 – With Halloween ahead in just over 2 weeks, Loren Rhoads unveils top Cemeteries in the USA to visit and experience some “spooks.” Listen at: https://rmworldtravel.com/podcasts/2023-2/
Horror Addicts featured me and a bunch of the Manor of Frights contributors on their season finale. Airdate: November 4, 2023. You can listen to the playback here: https://www.thebelfry.rip/blog/2023/11/4/halloween-season-finale-horror-addicts
Interviews:Horror Addicts interviewed me about my story in Manor of Frights: https://horroraddicts.wordpress.com/2023/08/02/author-interview-loren-rhoads-manor-of-frights-nightbears/
Last year, Naching T. Kassa interviewed me for the Chilling Chat on HorrorAddicts.Net, but I forgot to add it to my Never Enough post. It was a great conversation! Check it out for yourself.
Miscellaneous Good Things:
The year started with the Publisher’s Weekly announcement of 222 Cemeteries to See Before You Die!
I made a Reader’s Guide for Death’s Garden Revisited. Designed to be used by individual readers or book clubs, Death’s Garden Revisited: A Reader’s Guide peeks behind the covers of the collection of essays to explore why anyone would choose to visit cemeteries. The Reader’s Guide includes an annotated table of contents from Death’s Garden Revisited, a master interview with the editor, discussion/contemplation questions, a soundtrack of cemetery songs, and a game to introduce readers to cemetery symbolism and encourage them to visit. Download your own copy for free from Bookfunnel.
Death’s Garden Revisited was a Finalist for the Next Generation Indie Book Award in the Travel/Travel Guide division. The award came with a shiny medal!
The book also got some amazing reviews:
Chantal Larochelle made the book her first review of the year. Highlight: “This is such an enjoyable read that runs the gamut of emotions. I think there may be a story for everyone in here. This would be a great book for someone interested in learning more about why people are so drawn to cemeteries. It’s also a great read for taphophiles, especially for those who are looking for kinship. You are not alone. There is a whole community of people who love cemeteries, each for their own unique reasons.”
Sarah Elizabeth reviewed it on Unquiet Things and had this to say: “Loren put together a profoundly affecting, powerfully beautiful collection with this book. Who would I recommend read this? Absolutely everyone with a human body and a mortal life span.”
Horror Addicts gave Tales of Nightmares a nice review, too. My favorite bit: “Tales of Nightmares consists of a handful of horror tales, each wildly different from the other. Some modern, some period…they’ve got yokai, killers, werewolves, monsters, and haunted houses in here. There is sure to be something you’ll enjoy in this anthology. There are some real gems here.”
Booklists:Sarah Elizabeth recommended Death’s Garden Revisited on her list of Hexmas reads.
Chantal also added it to her Gift Guide for Taphophiles, which was published last year.
This one was also published last year, but I forgot to add it to my wrap-up. Alexandra Kathryn Mosca added 199 Cemeteries to See Before You Die to the list of her favorite cemetery books.
Blogging/Social Media:I only put up 79 Instagram posts this year, compared to 110 last year. My favorite series was the 31 days of cemeteries I put up in October. You can watch where I go next @morbidloren.
I managed only 25 blog posts here in 2023, but last year I only did 30, so I wasn’t too far off the mark. I’m going to try again to post every Monday next year.
I posted 14 times on Cemetery Travel this year, compared to 17 in 2022. I’m going to work on improving that, now that 222 Cemeteries is coming out.
The biggest change in my social media is that I’m no longer using Twitter. My account is still up, because I don’t want my username to get hijacked, but I’ve switched over to Bluesky, where you can find me @morbidloren.
By the way, I have some Bluesky codes, if you’d like to check out another social medium. Hit me up via the contact form above.
I’ll leave you with my favorite tweet of last year:
RIP Twitter.
