Death’s Garden Revisited: Personal Relationships with Cemeteries was a finalist in the Travel/Travel Guide category of this year’s Next Generation Indie Book Awards!
The book Death’s Garden Revisited collects 40 powerful personal essays — accompanied by full-color photographs — to illustrate why people visit cemeteries. Spanning the globe from Iceland to Argentina and from Portland to Prague, Death’s Garden Revisited explores the complex web of relationships between the living and those who have passed before.
Last September, Death’s Garden Revisited came out from Blurb.com in a glorious hardcover edition full of huge, lovely cemetery photos. The colors are exquisite. The edition was everything I’d dreamed of. There’s a preview of it available on Blurb.
I’ve been wanting to create an ebook edition for people who couldn’t afford an expensive art book. I shouldn’t have been surprised that a book crammed with full-color photos would make an enormous ebook. Finally, after many hours of effort and several family crises, Death’s Garden Revisited is now available for preorder on Amazon for the kindle. Check it out here: https://amzn.to/3EzIqws.
The first edition will go out of print sometime next year, in preparation for the updated new edition. If you prefer the black & gold cover, get yours soon! Click on the cover.
Things are coming along nicely on 222 Cemeteries to See Before You Die. Since my last update, my editor went over the text, but didn’t make many changes except to rein me in when I went on too long. I loved the photos she chose for illustrations. There were a few cemeteries where we couldn’t find good images — but I had pictures of the Canadian churchyard and some of the Facebook cemetery groups submitted photos of the other two. I am really pleased with how lovely the update is going to be.
Last week, the copy editor sent me her notes. She’s the person on the editorial team who doublechecks all the names, dates, and statistics. She was really thorough and I am completely relieved. There’s nothing better than an editorial team who’s got your back.
I think the next time I see the book will be after the designer finishes with it. I’ve already seen a draft of the beautiful new cover. I can’t wait to be able to share it.
I think we’re ahead of schedule for 222 Cemeteries to See Before You Die to come out in Autumn 2024.
I got yet another draft of the Death’s Garden Revisited ebook back from that book’s designer. We’ve had a huge struggle with those ebooks because all the photos made the book too large to upload to a Kindle.
I think we’ve gotten the problem sorted finally. I want to go over everything one last time before I release it into the world. Fingers crossed that it will be out in September 2023.
The hardcover and paperback are already for sale on Blurb.com. You can get 20% off with the code AUGBSTORE20 until August 16!
In and around everything else, I’ve been chiseling away at the essays for Still Wish You Were Here. This is the sequel to Wish You Were Here, my cemetery travel memoir from a couple of years ago. The first book started with me discovering Highgate Cemetery in 1991 and stretched almost to my daughter’s birth in 2003. The new book overlaps the first one some, then will carry me all the way to buying my dad’s headstone earlier this year.
As you can guess, there’s some deeply emotional stories in it, so the book has been a challenge to work on this year. I feel like I’m finally in a better place to get the work done.
The scope of the book is still shifting, but it looks like the book will include 35 essays, visiting cemeteries from San Francisco’s Mission Dolores to the gate of Hell in Kyoto. I’m not sure how many cemeteries in all I will be able to squeeze into the book — that depends on how many I can cram into the introduction! At this moment, I have plans to write about visiting eight countries and eight American states: roughly 45 cemeteries so far.
I had really hoped to get Still Wish You Were Here out in October, but that’s not going to happen. I’d rather have it perfect than timely. I think the new publication date will be in the spring next year.
I’m so excited to announce that my next cemetery book is available now.
Death’s Garden Revisited collects 40 powerful personal essays that explore 60 cemeteries — accompanied by 80 full-color photographs — to illustrate why people visit cemeteries. Spanning the globe from Iceland to Argentina and from Portland to Prague, Death’s Garden Revisited explores the complex web of relationships between the living and those who have passed before.
Genealogists and geocachers, travelers and tour guides, anthropologists, historians, pagan priestesses, and ghost hunters all venture into cemeteries in these essays. Along the way, they discover that cemeteries don’t only provide a rewarding end to a pilgrimage, they can be the perfect location for a first date or a wedding, the highlight of a family vacation, a cure for depression, and the best possible place to grasp history. Not to mention that cemetery-grown fruit is the sweetest.
You can see a preview below:
You can order your copy of the book in paperback or in hardcover directly from Blurb. The ebook is coming soon.
Contributors and Kickstarter backers: The books arrived earlier than expected. I’m getting those into the mail as soon as I can!
Coming up next month will be the Books & Travel podcast with Joanna Penn. I’m not sure of the date yet, but here’s the homepage: https://www.booksandtravel.page/listen/
Things have been slow on the cemetery book front this year. While I’ve been waiting to sign another contract, I’ve gotten two fiction books out:
What if Romeo had wings and Juliet a barbed tail?
Angelus Rose is the second novel in the succubus/angel series I was writing with Brian Thomas. Of interest to cemetery folk is that the book visits three cemeteries in LA. It’s available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, Indie Bound, and Smashwords.
Finally, my brand-new collection of short stories, Unsafe Words, came out on Sunday.
From the back cover:
In the first full-length collection of her edgy, award-winning short stories, Loren Rhoads punctures the boundaries between horror, dark fantasy, and science fiction in a maelstrom of sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll. Ghosts, succubi, naiads, vampires, the Wild Hunt, and the worst predator in the woods stalk these pages, alongside human monsters who follow their cravings past sanity or sense.
Unsafe Words is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Indie Bound. It should be up at Bookshop.org and Smashwords soon.
I hope to get back to work on the cemetery updates soon. In the meantime, tell me…have you had a cemetery adventure lately?
It’s time to clear out some of my extra cemetery books. There will be more, but for now, here’s the list of what I have for sale. Let me know (either in the comments below or through the Contact Me form above) if you are interested in any of these and give me your mailing address, so I can check the postage for you. PRICES DO NOT INCLUDE POSTAGE.
I take paypal.
NOW AVAILABLE:
The Green-Wood Cemetery Walk #1: Battle Hill and Back Walk #2: Valley & Sylvan Waters
by Jeffrey I. Richman
Published by The Green-Wood Cemetery, 2001. Spiral bound. Two walking tours of this lovely garden cemetery. I bought the books from the cemetery, but they’ve never been used.
$20 for both.
Guide to Abney Park Cemetery
by Paul Joyce
Essay, listing of interesting graves, some b/w photographs of one of London’s Magnificent Seven cemeteries.
Rare, out-of-print. In good shape.
Second edition from 1994.
$30
Igualada Cemetery
by Enric Miralles and Carme Pinos
Very rare architectural study of a new modern cemetery in Barcelona. These start at $100 on Amazon.
The edges have discolored very slightly over time. Published in 1996.
$20
Tomb Sculpture: Its Changing Aspects from Ancient Egypt to Bernini
by Erwin Panofsy
Henry N. Abrams, 1970. Paperback reading copy with some shelfwear. This collects 4 lectures given by a scholar who was considered the “greatest interpreter of the meaning of art.” It contains 471 crisp black & white photos of tomb sculpture. A really lovely book, but showing its age.
$20
R.I.P. Memorial Wall Art
by Martha Cooper and Joseph Sciorra
1994, Henry Holt. Paperback with some slight edgewear, but still very tightly bound. This is a study of memorial murals painted when someone in the neighborhood died, often by violence. The photos are full color throughout. If you’re interested in urban memorialization or graffiti, this is for you.
$10
Milltown Cemetery: A Brief History
by Raymond J. Quinn and Joe Baker
Undated 1st edition signed by Joe Baker. An oversized saddlestitched paperback focuses on a Nationalist cemetery in Belfast, examining the history of the Troubles as recorded in the gravestones and news stories of the day. This is not available on Amazon.
$15
Two Acres of Irish History: A Study through Time of Friar’s Bush and Belfast 1570-1918
by Eamon Phoenix
2001, Ulster Historical Foundation. An oversized saddlestitched paperback focuses on Friar’s Bush, the oldest Christian site in Belfast, with ties to St. Patrick. The cemetery contains a cholera pit and memorials to historic citizens of Belfast. It contains a map, walking tour, and some b/w photos.
$10
Here Rests in Honored Glory: The Story of Arlington National Cemetery
By R. Conrad Stein
Weekly Reader Books, 1979. Hardcover, in great shape. A kids’ book on the cemetery’s history. Great for introducing a kid to the appeal of cemeteries.
$5
The Grave
by Robert Blair
Spiral bound, letterpress printed by Cary G. Birdwell.
Just an unillustrated copy of this lovely, morbid poem. The poem was first published in 1747.
$5
Remember Me: A Lively Tour of the New American Way of Death
by Lisa Takeuchi Cullen
Collins, 2006. Mary Roach says this is “A must-read for anyone who plans on dying.” No photos, but the text is inclusive. Trade paperback reading copy with dog-eared pages.
$5
The story behind “The Mystery of Life” plus a Pictorial Map and Guide to the Famous Art Treasures of Forest Lawn and another Forest Lawn brochure
Saddlestitched. Discoloration on cover from a price sticker.
Rare advertising booklet from the original Forest Lawn about one of their over-the-top fountain sculptures.
$10
Tombstone Tourist: Musicians
by Scott Stanton
First edition from 1998. This is a very comprehensive encyclopedia of musicians’ graves around the world, with a particular focus on the graves of bluesmen. Autographed but cover is not in great shape. Tightly bound. One dog-eared page.
$5
I ALSO HAVE NEW COPIES OF:
Wish You Were Here: Adventures in Cemetery Travel
by Loren Rhoads 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. More info here.
2nd edition. New trade paperback.
$15
Cemetery Travels Notebook
by Loren Rhoads The Cemetery Travels Notebook is the place to keep field notes from your own cemetery adventures. It features 80 lined pages, interspersed with 20 lush full-page color photographs of cemeteries from Paris to Tokyo, with stops at Sleepy Hollow, San Francisco, and all points between, to inspire your wanderlust.
New trade paperback.
$20
ON HOLD:
Sacred: New Orleans Funerary Grounds
by Elizabeth Huston
Photomoinium Press, first edition paperback. Lovely black & white — and some colorized — photos document the cemeteries of New Orleans before Katrina struck. A nice companion with Consecrated Ground.
$10
The Victorian Celebration of Death
by James Stevens Curl
First edition, hardcover. Sutton, 2000. This book covers everything from cemeteries to mourning jewelry, exploring the history and the philosophical change in the way the dead were regarded in Victorian England. Full of pretty black and white images, from photos to etchings.
$25
The Mexican Day of the Dead
by Chloe Sayer
Shambala, 1990. Small paperback. Some dog-ears. Lots of color and b/w photographs. This book helped bring Dia de los Muertos in an English-reading audience.
$5
The Last Laugh: A Completely New Collection of Funny Old Epitaphs
by Gail Peterson
Published by Hallmark Editions.
Small hardcover with dust jacket. Jacket has small rips. A collection of very silly epitaphs, perfect for a gift for just the right person.
$2
Consecrated Ground: Funerary Art of New Orleans
by Lisa L. Cook
Pixieco Press, 1998. This HUGE (15” x 12”) beautiful hardcover collection is absolutely stuffed with black and white photographs. It’s signed by the photographer. This will cost extra to mail.
$25
Graven Images: New England Stonecarving and its Symbols 1650-1815
by Allan I. Ludwig
1966, Wesleyan University Press. First edition, paperback. Still tightly bound, but the bottom edge has foxed and there’s some slight shelfwear. This is the masterwork that expanded the study of stonecarving in New England. It is packed full of black & white photos of skulls, skeletons, and deaths heads.
$25
Click here to sign up for my monthly mailing list, which will keep you up to date on my speaking schedule and upcoming projects. As a thank you, you'll receive "4Elements," a short ebook that showcases one of my favorite cemetery essays, a travel essay, and two short stories, spanning from urban fantasy to science fiction.
Death’s Garden Revisited: Personal Relationships with Cemeteries was a finalist in the Travel/Travel Guide category of this year’s Next Generation Indie Book Awards!
I got yet another draft of the Death’s Garden Revisited ebook back from that book’s designer. We’ve had a huge struggle with those ebooks because all the photos made the book too large to upload to a Kindle.
In and around everything else, I’ve been chiseling away at the essays for Still Wish You Were Here. This is the sequel to 
Death’s Garden Revisited collects 40 powerful personal essays that explore 60 cemeteries — accompanied by 80 full-color photographs — to illustrate why people visit cemeteries. Spanning the globe from Iceland to Argentina and from Portland to Prague, Death’s Garden Revisited explores the complex web of relationships between the living and those who have passed before.
Igualada Cemetery
Tomb Sculpture: Its Changing Aspects from Ancient Egypt to Bernini
R.I.P. Memorial Wall Art
Milltown Cemetery: A Brief History
Two Acres of Irish History: A Study through Time of Friar’s Bush and Belfast 1570-1918
Wish You Were Here: Adventures in Cemetery Travel
Sacred: New Orleans Funerary Grounds
The Victorian Celebration of Death
Graven Images: New England Stonecarving and its Symbols 1650-1815