As I read the history of Flint, Michigan, much of my life flashed before my eyes. I worked for General Motors for 15 years before taking early retirement. I took some college classes at Mott Community College. I very much remember when Michael Moore’s documentary came out about General Motors, sharing its faults as they left a city, perhaps an entire state, that was build on the automotive industry.
A haunted library
A party shoppe
The Genesee County Jail (I used to go to an A&W right across the street)
Crossroads Village and Huckleberry Railroad
A movie, Fatal Desire, made from a book, Fatal Error, is about a murder in Clio. It was also on Forensic Files, Season 9, Episode 4, and I do remember watching it. It was, possibly, the first murder where the internet played a part.
A salvage yard
Hurley Hospital (I was born there)
Linden Hotel (I lived in Linden after I got married, but that was a looong time ago, so I can’t remember it)
The Game Station in Fenton
Fenton Hotel Tavern & Grille (most haunted bar in Michigan)
White Horse in Metamora
Lapeer State Home (I found the history fascinating)
And more
I traveled many familiar roads, through familiar towns, and never had a paranormal adventure. I hate to think I am missing out on something.
Ghosts and Legends of Genesee & Lapeer Counties is chockfull of sites, with information and photos to lure you in. Lots of research and documented sources.
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Ghosts and Legends of Genesee & Lapeer Counties by Roxanne Rhoads and Joe Schipani.
5 Stars
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Roxanne Rhoads is an author, book publicist, mixed media crafter, and lover of all things spooky. Her books include Haunted Flint and Pumpkins and Party Themes: 50 DIY Designs to Bring Your Halloween Extravaganza to Life. She is the owner of Bewitching Book Tours, a virtual book tour and social media marketing company and she operates a Halloween blog- A Bewitching Guide to Halloween. She sells handcrafted jewelry, art, and home decor through her Etsy store The Bewitching Cauldron. When not reading or writing, Roxanne loves to craft, plan Halloween adventures, and search for unique vintage finds.
Joe Schipani is an integral part of Flint’s art community, with ties to local artists, galleries, bookstores, and the Flint Cultural Center.
As
the executive director of Flint Public Art Project, he has curated an outdoor
mural gallery in the City of Flint, with over 200 murals from artist all around
the world. He also serves as the one of Flint’s Historic District Commissioners
and loves learning about the history of old buildings. In 2019 he co-authored Haunted
Flint with Roxanne Rhoads.
After looking at the cover, I had to have This Morbid Life by Loren Rhoads. I didn’t care what it was about. How about you? Have you ever grabbed a book because of its cover, without checking out anything else about it?
I am sooo excited to have Loren Rhoads visiting today. She is going to share some of her thoughts and an excerpt….are you tempted yet?
1. What’s the most
inspiring part of where you live?
I feel blessed to live in the most diverse neighborhood in
San Francisco. It’s really great to get my coffee at the Filipino-Hawaiian
cafe, pick up a pork bun across the street, and stop off for a Salvadoran
pastry on the way home.
2. Where did the
idea for This Morbid Life come from?
The incredible artist Lynne Hansen was doing a challenge
last October where she created a new book cover every day. One day she made
this beautiful collage of an autopsied body with wildflowers and butterflies
inside its rib cage. I immediately fell in love with the artwork. I knew I had
to put together a book that would do the cover art justice.
3. How long did it
take you to write the book?
Almost everything was already written, but it took a while
to gather up all the essays, polish them up, and put everything together. I
started in January and the book came out in August.
4. Which “character”
has etched its way into your heart and why?
A lot of the essays are about my friend Jeff, so I dedicated
the book to him. We met the summer after I graduated, when I sublet a room in
the house where he lived. We eventually lived together again when my husband
and I moved into a lovely old Victorian in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood
and couldn’t afford the rent without a roommate. Jeff and I have known each
other for more than 30 years now. I remember when he came out, when he tested
positive for HIV, when his first husband died at home of AIDS. I was highly
entertained when his second husband got to This Morbid Life before Jeff had a
chance to read it. Jeff called to ask if there was anything too scandalous in
the book that he should worry about. I had to laugh at that.
5. What are you
working on now?
This Morbid Life is the first in a series called No Rest for the Morbid. The second book, Jet Lag & Other Blessings, will be a collection of my morbid travel essays: drinking all the absinthe I could find in Prague, encountering a rattlesnake in the Mojave, chasing alligators in the Louisiana bayou, flying over an active volcano in a helicopter, trying out Japanese love hotels, and basically stalking my morbid curiosity around the globe. That book will have a Lynne Hansen collage for its cover, too.
So many interesting essays. You kept me entertained, at times smiling and maybe even eliciting chuckle or two. I love the cover and find it as fascinating as the stories inside. No Rest For The Mordid sounds just as fascinating. Thanks so much for visiting and sharing your thoughts.
#1, Loren Rhoads was born in my hometown of Flint, Michigan. Gotta support another Michigander. #2, I couldn’t resist that cover.
Right out of the gate, I felt a kinship to Loren Rhoads. I was born and raised in Flint, Michigan, and this was like going home. I went to Mott Community College. I know Dort Highway very well, because I worked at the AC Plant, after being laid off from the Chevrolet Plant downtown Flint. I do love a walk down memory lane.
Loren Rhoads found inspiration from her personal experiences…you never know where it will come from. We need to be open to all our experiences.
HOLD ON TIGHT!f These essays are dark and gritty, filled with truth. Loren lays herself bare. This Morbid Life is an apt title for the book and is not for the feint of heart. She lets it all hang out and I loved every minute of it.
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of This Morbid Life by Loren Rhoads.
4 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
What others have called an obsession with death is really a desperate romance with life. Guided by curiosity, compassion, and a truly strange sense of humor, this particular morbid life is detailed through a death-positive collection of 45 confessional essays. Along the way, author Loren Rhoads takes prom pictures in a cemetery, spends a couple of days in a cadaver lab, eats bugs, survives the AIDS epidemic, chases ghosts, and publishes a little magazine called Morbid Curiosity.
Originally written for zines from Cyber-Psychos AOD to Zine World and online magazines from Gothic.Net to Scoutie Girl, these emotionally charged essays showcase the morbid curiosity and dark humor that transformed Rhoads into a leading voice of the curious and creepy.
EXCERPT
Burning Desire (an excerpt from the cremation essay)
At the
back of the warehouse stood the cremator itself. The Neptune Society used
British equipment, which was acclaimed as top of the line. A computer
controlled the temperature and length of burning time. The cremator had four doors,
two above and two below, so that bodies could be cremated simultaneously and
their ashes commingled. Before anyone could ask, Steve assured us that
California state law prohibited cremation of more than one body at a time, so
that ashes couldn’t get mixed by accident.
The
“ovens” themselves were built of fire-resistant brick. A metal rack slid out,
onto which the body was placed. Before the operator inserted a body, the
cremator would be preheated to 1800 degrees Fahrenheit. As we toured the
building, the ambient temperature rapidly became torrid. The ovens were
warming. Apparently, at 1800 degrees, the inside of the oven glows red-hot.
Natural
gas was used for the heating process. A human body provides its own fuel and
will burn on its own at a high-enough temperature, so the cremator was
preheated, the body placed inside, and the gas switched off to prevent
overheating. Toward the end of the cremation, the gas was turned on again until
the bones became calcined and brittle.
Someone
asked Steve how they knew when a body was done. He recommended sticking it with
a fork. Sobering up, he added that, on average, it took between one and two
hours for a cremation at the Neptune Society, with an additional half hour for
the oven to cool down enough to remove the cremains. All bodies burned
differently, due to their levels of fat or moisture. Both cancer and AIDS
deplete the body’s fat reserves, so victims of those diseases had less fuel
value. Those bodies required more gas and a higher heat and might take longer
to reduce to ash.
The
different compositions of people also produced a variety of colors as the body
burned. Sometimes the flames turned green or blue, but generally they were
orange or red.
When the
cremation was complete, human remains were white and very brittle. Any other
discoloration implied that the cremation was unfinished. The bones might have
shrunk or twisted, but they were still quite recognizable. The cremains were
scooped out of the retort with a tool like a hoe. They were placed in a machine
with a drum like a clothes dryer that used heavy iron balls to pulverize the
remaining bones. The process was complete when the remains fit through a sieve.
I asked
if I could see real human ashes. With a shrug, Steve found a beige cardboard
box that was maybe five inches on a side. Inside a plastic wrapper, the
cremains looked like Quaker Oats and weighed as much as an old-fashioned
solid-body telephone. No one else in the tour group was interested in holding
the box. In fact, they all took a step back when I held the box out to them.
Continued in This Morbid Life
ABOUT LOREN RHOADS
Loren Rhoads is author of This Morbid Life, a morbid memoir, and Unsafe Words, the first full-length collection of her edgy, award-winning stories.
