Loren Rhoads Revealed
About Loren Rhoads
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What is your birthdate?:10/22
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Previous occupations:Word processor, housekeeper, full-time mom
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Favorite job:Writing & being a mom are tied.
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High school and/or college:University of Michigan, both in Flint and Ann Arbor.
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Name of your favorite composer or music artist?:SPK
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Favorite movie:The Fellowship of the Ring
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Favorite television show:The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Revealing Questions
- Q. How would you describe your life in only 8 words?
- A. Morbid curiosity changed my life.
- Q. What is your motto or maxim?
- A. There are no bad questions.
- Q. How would you describe perfect happiness?
- A. Perfect happiness is having the time and resources to pursue every question.
- Q. What’s your greatest fear?
- A. It used to be public speaking. I don't know what's replaced that now.
- Q. If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would you choose to be?
- A. Pere Lachaise Cemetery, Paris
- Q. With whom in history do you most identify?
- A. Mary Shelley
- Q. Which living person do you most admire?
- A. Neil Gaiman
- Q. What are your most overused words or phrases?
- A. I've banned "interesting" from my vocabulary. "No worries" is going to have to follow it shortly.
- Q. What do you regret most?
- A. Letting self-doubt slow me down.
- Q. If you could acquire any talent, what would it be?
- A. I'd like to be a better photographer.
- Q. What is your greatest achievement?
- A. Other than landing a book at Scribner?
- Q. What’s your greatest flaw?
- A. I like to sleep.
- Q. What’s your best quality?
- A. People can tell me anything.
- Q. If you could be any person or thing, who or what would it be?
- A. I'm pretty happy being myself right now. That's new, so I'm reveling in it.
- Q. What trait is most noticeable about you?
- A. I'm older than most people think.
- Q. Who is your favorite fictional hero?
- A. Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
- Q. Who is your favorite fictional villain?
- A. Dracula
- Q. If you could meet any historical character, who would it be and what would you say to him or her?
- A. I'd like to meet Poe and talk to him about his drinking.
- Q. What is your biggest pet peeve?
- A. People who don't read.
- Q. What is your favorite occupation, when you’re not writing?
- A. Working in my daughter's school library.
- Q. What’s your fantasy profession?
- A. Librarian
- Q. What 3 personal qualities are most important to you?
- A. Curiosity, compassion, creativity.
- Q. If you could eat only one thing for the rest of your days, what would it be?
- A. Apples
- Q. What are your 5 favorite songs?
- A. Alice Cooper's Welcome to my Nightmare, Death Cab for Cutie's I Will Follow You into the Dark, The Decemberists' The Hazards of Love (all of it!), The Cars' Dangerous Type, and Samuel Ramey singing Mephistopheles
On Books and Writing
- Q. Who are your favorite authors?
- A. Annie Dillard, Sherwin Nuland, Angela Carter, Ray Bradbury, Neil Gaiman
- Q. What are your 5 favorite books of all time?
- A. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, How We Die, The Bloody Chamber, Something Wicked This Way Comes, American Gods
- Q. Is there a book you love to reread?
- A. Everything by Ray Bradbury. Dracula. Lord of the Rings.
- Q. Do you have one sentence of advice for new writers?
- A. Write what you want to know.
- Q. What comment do you hear most often from your readers?
- A. I thought this would be really grim, but it's life-affirming and funny instead.
- Q. How did you come to write Morbid Curiosity Cures the Blues?
- A. For 10 years, I edited Morbid Curiosity magazine. After I killed it in 2006, there was a huge outpouring of protest. People craved what they'd missed in the earliest out-of-print issues. So I assembled some of my favorites from the whole run of the magazine into this book.
