Loren Rhoads

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Born
in Flint, Michigan, The United States
Website

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Influences
Ray Bradbury, Brian Hodge, Angela Carter

Member Since
August 2007


Loren Rhoads is author of 222 Cemeteries to See Before You Die, Wish You Were Here: Adventures in Cemetery Travel, and its sequel Still Wish You Were Here: More Adventures in Cemetery Travel.

Loren is also author of This Morbid Life, a morbid memoir, and Unsafe Words, the first full-length collection of her edgy, award-winning stories.

She's the co-author of Lost Angels and its sequel Angelus Rose. She's also author of the space opera In the Wake of the Templars trilogy: The Dangerous Type, Kill By Numbers, and No More Heroes.

Finally, she's editor of Tales for the Camp Fire, which raised money for survivors of 2018's devastating wildfire in Butte County, California.
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Loren Rhoads I carry a notebook in my purse and jot things down every spare moment: on the bus, waiting to pick my kid up from summer camp, at the dentist, every c…moreI carry a notebook in my purse and jot things down every spare moment: on the bus, waiting to pick my kid up from summer camp, at the dentist, every chance I get. I write down snatches of conversation I've overheard, stuff I've seen walking around, lists, thoughts on what I've been reading. For me, the trick is to just keep the words moving through. Then, when I need to focus on a project, I don't have to worry about priming the pump. I just let 'er rip.(less)
Loren Rhoads I started writing As Above, So Below because my soon-to-be cowriter Brian Thomas was showing me around Los Angeles -- and he had a thing for Coop's de…moreI started writing As Above, So Below because my soon-to-be cowriter Brian Thomas was showing me around Los Angeles -- and he had a thing for Coop's devil girl stickers. I only meant to write a short story, but Brian jumped in with a second -- then a third -- chapter and the whole thing snowballed from there.(less)
Average rating: 3.94 · 1,768 ratings · 410 reviews · 54 distinct worksSimilar authors
199 Cemeteries to See Befor...

4.24 avg rating — 466 ratings5 editions
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Morbid Curiosity Cures the ...

3.74 avg rating — 160 ratings — published 2009 — 4 editions
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The Dangerous Type (In the ...

3.07 avg rating — 179 ratings — published 2015 — 7 editions
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Wish You Were Here: Adventu...

4.13 avg rating — 55 ratings — published 2013 — 4 editions
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222 Cemeteries to See Befor...

3.92 avg rating — 53 ratings3 editions
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Kill by Numbers (In the Wak...

3.76 avg rating — 37 ratings — published 2015 — 7 editions
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No More Heroes (In the Wake...

4.12 avg rating — 26 ratings — published 2015 — 5 editions
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Tales of Nightmares: Wily W...

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3.96 avg rating — 24 ratings — published 2022 — 2 editions
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This Morbid Life

4.38 avg rating — 21 ratings — published 2021 — 2 editions
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As Above, So Below

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 20 ratings — published 2014 — 4 editions
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More books by Loren Rhoads…

Morbid Curiosity #11

In the late 90s/early 00s, I published a magazine called Morbid Curiosity. It showcased true confessional stories from writers around the world, telling their deepest, darkest secrets. It was so much fun to assemble! I never knew what I would get in the mail.

Next year will be the 20th anniversary of the final issue. That seems like a good thing to celebrate — and how better to celebrate than to cr

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Published on November 13, 2025 10:18
The Dangerous Type Kill by Numbers No More Heroes
(3 books)
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3.29 avg rating — 241 ratings

As Above, So Below Angelus Rose
(2 books)
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4.08 avg rating — 26 ratings

Alondra's Experiments: The ... Alondra's Investigations Alondra's Adventures: The A...
(3 books)
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4.60 avg rating — 5 ratings

Prima Materia
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Loren’s Recent Updates

Loren Rhoads wrote a new blog post

This week’s spooky events

Next weekend (October 25/26) I’ve got two more spooky events planned.

On October 25, I’m joining members of my local chapter of the Horror Writers Ass Read more of this blog post »
Loren rated a book it was amazing
The Secret Life of a Cemetery by Benoît  Gallot
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Père-Lachaise, the second international cemetery I ever visited, made me fall in love with the cemetery's history, celebrities, and amazing sculpture. All of those things are touched on in this charming little book.

Since I visited last, the cemetery
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We'll Be the Last Ones to Let You Down by Rachael Hanel
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Rachael Hanel's father was a small-town gravedigger and cemetery caretaker. As a child, she helped him by removing silk flowers so he could mow around gravestones. Her mother told her stories about the people buried nearby. Rachael liked the morbid s ...more
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Too Poor to Die by Amy  Shea
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I grew up near a Potter's Field. It was a blank green expanse of lawn where the city of Flint buried people who didn't have the money to purchase a grave plot or pay for their own cremation. For many years, the space wasn't marked at all. Eventually ...more
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Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
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One of my favorite books in the world: I can't imagine how many times I've read this. The older I get, the more I take away from this book. Bradbury published it in 1962, when he was younger than I am now. I wonder if I will ever be so wise.

The Disne
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Around the World in 80 Graves by Tui Snider
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Tui Snider has been traveling lately, around and around the globe. Every chance she gets, she skips the souvenir stands and heads for the cemeteries. Because she's a member of the Association for Gravestone Studies, she can often link up with local t ...more
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Mislaid in Parts Half-Known by Seanan McGuire
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I enjoyed the plot, but the story required a lot of knowledge of the earlier books to appreciate everything that happened. It's just been too long since I read all of those (and I think I missed one along the way). I could follow the events in the cu ...more
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Over My Dead Body by Greg Melville
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I hesitated to read this because I saw the author give a zoom lecture about the book and I felt his irreverent take on the subject wasn't respectful. Now that I've read the book, it's one of the first cemetery books I've read -- of hundreds -- that o ...more
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A Tomb With a View by Peter Ross
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Although Ross's book appears to be a guide to visiting graveyards, its focus often turns toward the people who work in graveyards: gravediggers, tour guides, historians, and even memorial artists. One of my favorite essays in the book introduces an I ...more
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Quotes by Loren Rhoads  (?)
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“Curiosity is the single most important attribute with which humans are born. More than a simple desire to discover or know things, curiosity is a powerful tool, like a scalpel or a searchlight. Curiosity changes us. It is also a way to effect change, perhaps even on a global level.”
Loren Rhoads, Morbid Curiosity Cures the Blues: True Stories of the Unsavory, Unwise, Unorthodox and Unusual from the magazine "Morbid Curiosity"

Topics Mentioning This Author

“For these beings, fall is ever the normal season, the only weather, there be no choice beyond. Where do they come from? The dust. Where do they go? The grave. Does blood stir their veins? No: the night wind. What ticks in their head? The worm. What speaks from their mouth? The toad. What sees from their eye? The snake. What hears with their ear? The abyss between the stars. They sift the human storm for souls, eat flesh of reason, fill tombs with sinners. They frenzy forth....Such are the autumn people.”
Ray Bradbury

“The wolf is carnivore incarnate and he's as cunning as he is ferocious; once he's had a taste of flesh then nothing else will do.”
Angela Carter

“Curiosity is the single most important attribute with which humans are born. More than a simple desire to discover or know things, curiosity is a powerful tool, like a scalpel or a searchlight. Curiosity changes us. It is also a way to effect change, perhaps even on a global level.”
Loren Rhoads, Morbid Curiosity Cures the Blues: True Stories of the Unsavory, Unwise, Unorthodox and Unusual from the magazine "Morbid Curiosity"

“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote

“What does it mean when nightmares dream of peace? When shadows wish for light?”
Melissa Marr, Ink Exchange

6181 Goodreads Sci-Fi/Fantasy Authors — 2103 members — last activity Nov 22, 2025 11:38PM
Either you write it, Read it, But you must LOVE IT! DISCUSS!
130326 Tombs and Tomes — 238 members — last activity Nov 14, 2025 09:00AM
Tombs and Tomes is Congressional Cemetery's book club. We meet every other month in our historic 1903 Chapel and enjoy good discussions and hearty win ...more
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