Blog Posts for Loren Rhoads

Checking in

Loren Rhoads — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 05:55:54 -0800

Wow, I had no idea it had been so long since I updated this journal. I'm been working hard on the book of cemetery essays. Today I hope to revise the introduction and proofread the last handful of essays (Pere Lachaise, Green-Wood, and St. Louis #1). Tomorrow I hope to put the whole monstrous thing into manuscript format and send it off to my agent.Then I'm going to take some time off. Visit a ...

The Black Mass

Loren Rhoads — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 08:29:33 -0800

One of my favorite parts of the Morbid Curiosity reading at the Hypnodrome was to see what the performers chose to wear. Russell Blackwood sported an exquisite black on black smoking jacket, which imparted a nice sense of decadence to the evening. Dana Fredsti went with courtesan chic to read about being an exotic dancer. Jill Tracy was sleek and self-contained in black to convey her sense ...

Not His Real Name

Loren Rhoads — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 06:57:12 -0800

Frank Burch, not his real name, remains a man of mystery. He came to Morbid Curiosity through a colleague who'd contributed to the first issue. Both of them were academics with a morbid bent. She published her story under her own name. His, no less true, required a pseudonym. He wanted to tell the experience, needed confess it to an understanding audience, but he couldn't take the ...

The Morbid Things We Do For Money

Loren Rhoads — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 09:17:46 -0800

When I started putting the Morbid book together, I had to make a lot of hard choices about what essays would go in. Some contributors gave me pieces for multiple issues, compounding the dilemma. Dana Fredsti was one of those.Dana wrote about working with big cats, especially a tiger named Jasmine, at a feline rescue facility in Southern California. She wrote about learning to surf, which I ...

The Preliminary Stoker Ballot

Loren Rhoads — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 06:22:51 -0800

To my amazement and pleasure, Morbid Curiosity Cures the Blues made the preliminary ballot for the Bram Stoker Award in Nonfiction. The next round of voting will determine whether it makes the actual ballot of nominees, then it goes to a vote for the award.I'm startled to get to this point. I've been assuming the book wasn't eligible for the award because all its essays are reprints. (Last ...

The Roadkill Story

Loren Rhoads — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 06:10:57 -0800

One of the best things about publishing the magazine was having people come up and tell me their experiences. Every now and then, someone had had something happen to them that was so immense, so unbelievable, that they had been looking all their lives for a way to share the tale.Bill Selby's story was like that. Jill Tracy told me about it before she introduced us at the first SpookyCon. Bill and ...

A Ghost Story

Loren Rhoads — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 05:47:41 -0800

I'd seen Jill Tracy play her soundtrack for Nosferatu at the Red Vic, so I was thrilled when she contacted me about Morbid Curiosity. She had so many stories in her life that could qualify as morbid that she struggled to settle on one. When she sent me "The Keeper of the Shop," I knew I had gold.It's a ghost story set in the early days that I lived in San Francisco. I didn't know ...

Why

Loren Rhoads — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 05:58:23 -0800

My favorite essay from Morbid Curiosity (both book and magazine) is M. Parfitt's story "Why." In it, she spells out the inspiration for all the artwork she's made. Along the way, she sums up the genesis and philosophy behind Morbid Curiosity.She couldn't come down to the city to read the piece in person at the Hypnodrome, so Russell Blackwood, director of the Thrillpeddlers, ...

Another cemetery book review

Loren Rhoads — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 06:50:45 -0800

Colma, CA by Michael Smookler My rating: 4 of 5 stars The only thing that keeps this book from getting 5 stars is that it isn't longer. I have several books on the cemeteries of Colma, California, so it's nice to have one about the city's history prior to its 17 graveyards. Smookler does a good job of giving a sense of what life was like there, before the living were replaced by the dead. ...

So many cemeteries, so little time...

Loren Rhoads — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 05:29:18 -0800

Famous and Curious Cemeteries: A Pictorial, Historical, and Anecdotal View of American and European Cemeteries and the Famous and Infamous People Who by John Francis Marion My rating: 5 of 5 stars This encyclopedia from 1977 explores 51 international cemeteries in depth, followed by visits to 22 American Military graveyards from Mexico City to North Africa, which speccial emphasis on the battle ...