Tag Archives: writing

Would you like to join my newsletter?

I’ve been reading for years about author newsletters, how they are the best way to get information out to readers in a timely fashion. I’ve resisted the notion for a long time, figuring I blogged and I’m easy to find on the web, for anyone who might need to know what I’m up to.  But Facebook algorithms being what they are and spam filters working the way they do, I finally decided to join the bandwagon.  I have a new monthly newsletter — and the first issue is coming in the next couple of days.

This is the email I sent out last week.  You may have already gotten a copy. If so, you’ve probably already made your choice about joining the newsletter.  Let me stress that whatever choice you made, it’s fine.

If you joined the mailing list, welcome.  If you figure you hear plenty about my work elsewhere, lovely.  Either way, I will not email you again unless you clicked the link and joined the newsletter list.

For those of you who didn’t get the email (either your spam filter caught it or you weren’t on my invitation list), this is what I sent out.  People who sign up for the newsletter are welcome to download a token of my appreciation:

4Elements instagram

Just click the link in the letter below and it will walk you through the onboarding system.

Thanks for thinking about joining my newsletter!
Rhoads newsletter banner

Dear friend,

You’re receiving this note because we’ve been in contact in the last several years, whether because of my space opera trilogy, the Alondra stories, 199 Cemeteries to See Before You Die, my travel essays, or through one of my blogs.

I’m finally launching a monthly email newsletter for people who don’t want the commitment of following a blog. Look for quick updates on my speaking & reading schedule, morbid travel destinations (probably a cemetery or two), and book giveaways.

If you’d be interested in receiving the newsletter no more than once a month, please sign up here.

If you’re not interested, you don’t need to do anything. I know you’re busy and I don’t want to clutter up your inbox. This is the one and only time I’ll send you an email about my newsletter.

Thanks for reading!

Loren Rhoads
Author & Editor

Rhoads Camp Fire lo-resPS. Last year, Northern California was struck by the worst wildfire in the area’s history. Paradise, California was scoured from the map. Nearly 100 people died and thousands were left homeless. In order to raise money for the survivors, I’ve edited Tales for the Camp Fire: A Charity Anthology Benefiting Wildfire Relief, a collection of short stories by Northern Californian horror writers. The book came out last month. There will be more details in my newsletter — or you can order it directly from Amazon.

Graveyard Field Trips on Wattpad

WYWHere - CoverWhen I put together my first book of cemetery essays, I had so many essays written that I had to leave some of them out. I tried to be conscious of how many California cemeteries I included, how many times I rambled around graveyards with my mom, how many times I raved about how beautiful any particular burial ground was.  I wanted to include as many historically significant sites as possible, which meant leaving out some of my more personal stories. I wanted Wish You Were Here: Adventures in Cemetery Travel to be complete, but not an omnibus.

In 2014,  the year that the Red Room site went down — taking my blog with it, I switched over to Wattpad. It wasn’t a blogging platform in the same sense, but it allowed writers to publish books in a serial format.  The Wattpad team encouraged me to put together some nonfiction. They even helped by creating a cover for me.

All You Need is Morbid Watty AwardThat first book was All You Need is Morbid. It’s a collection of essays about traveling with my husband. Of course, it includes some cemetery essays, including a trip high into the mountains of the California Gold Country to find the tiny village graveyard of Iowa Hill, visiting the Bone Chapel of Kutna Hora on my birthday, searching out the Capuchin Catacombs on our first day in Rome, and stumbling across casts of people buried in the ruins of Pompeii.

All You Need is Morbid made the Featured Nonfiction list on Wattpad shortly after it was published. Then it won one of the first ever HQ Love Watty Awards.

Wattpad has included the book in a number of promotions since then.  Because they’ve been so generous, it’s been my intention to put together another essay collection for a while. This summer, I finally assembled a new book called Graveyard Field Trips.

Graveyard Field TripsThis time I concentrated on stories about sharing my love of cemeteries with other people:

  • I poked around a tiny farming graveyard in Michigan with my brother, looking for a monument to circus roustabouts killed in a train wreck.
  • I visited artist M. Parfitt at the height of summer so we could explore the cemetery where she eventually became a tour guide.
  • My old friend Brian Thomas took me on a night tour of Westwood Memorial Park, to visit Marilyn Monroe’s grave.
  • My friend Ann Marie and I went on a doomed quest for the burial ground of the Tule Lake Concentration Camp.
  • Forestter Cobalt led me on a ghost hunt in Chicago’s Rosehill Cemetery.
  • I stood beside my great aunt as her own gravesite.
  • Mason and I explored the glories of ancient Rome.
  • My daughter and her friend met a scorpion in a graveyard in Singapore.
  • My family escorted me to see the Kiss of Death in Barcelona.
  • And more, of course!

The whole book is completed now and can be read for free on Wattpad.  It’s spooky, sentimental, star-struck, and deeply curious about life, death, and all the messy, beautiful things that make us human.  Please check it out at https://www.wattpad.com/myworks/151274118-graveyard-field-trips-a-memoir.

At Cypress Lawn this Weekend

IMG_0551This Sunday, September 16, I will show some of my favorite photographs from 199 Cemeteries to See Before You Die at one of my favorite cemeteries in the book, Colma’s Cypress Lawn Memorial Park.

Cypress Lawn was founded in the 1890s as a garden cemetery. To this day, it is full of lovely statuary, an exotic arboretum, carpet flowerbeds, and monuments to the founding fathers of San Francisco. It also has acres of stained glass in its public catacombs. It’s one of the loveliest cemeteries in Northern California.

My talk starts at 2 pm in Cypress Lawn’s Reception Center at 1370 El Camino Real in Colma, California. It’s free and there will be refreshments. You can get more information here: http://www.cypresslawnheritagefoundation.org/events/lectures/ or call 650-550-8812.

I’ll have copies of 199 Cemeteries to See Before You Die and Wish You Were Here: Adventures in Cemeteries Travel available for sale. You’re also welcome to bring your own copy for a signature.

This is the only 199 Cemeteries event I’ve got scheduled so far this far, so don’t miss it. In fact, come early and have a lovely ramble in Cypress Lawn.

Graveyard Field Trips

Graveyard Field Trips

I’ve been working on a collection of my cemetery travel essays and publishing it on Wattpad.  It’s about halfway finished now.  You can read the first eight adventures for free here:  https://www.wattpad.com/story/151274118-graveyard-field-trips-a-memoir

Here’s the description of it:

Every day aboveground is a good day.

From nameless circus workers killed in a train crash to Marilyn Monroe’s grave at night, from the graveyard of a concentration camp in Northern California to the heart of Singapore City: join me and my friends in exploring cemeteries around the world.

This collection of my cemetery essays is drawn from Gothic.Net, Gothic Beauty, Cemetery Travel, Morbid Curiosity magazine, and more.