Available now from Automatism Press:
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.
With an introduction by six-time Bram Stoker Award-winner Lisa Morton and a cover by Lynne Hansen, these 15 never-before-collected stories come from the magazines Cemetery Dance, Space & Time, City Slab, and Instant City, the Wily Writers podcast, and from the books Sins of the Sirens, Demon Lovers, The Haunted Mansion Project: Year Two, and Tales for the Camp Fire. One story, “With You By My Side It Should Be Fine,” is original to this collection.
Publication Details:
Stories by Loren Rhoads
Introduction by Lisa Morton
Cover artwork by Lynne Hansen Art
ISBN (paperback): 978-1-7351876-0-0
ISBN (ebook): 978-1-7351876-1-7
Paperback: $9.99
ebooks: $2.99
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55261293-unsafe-words
Purchase links:
Amazon: https://amzn.to/2FjmmuA
Amazon Kindle: https://amzn.to/3h8WAqd
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/unsafe-words-loren-rhoads/1137605973?ean=9781735187600
Indie Bound: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781735187600
Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/books/unsafe-words-stories-by-loren-rhoads/9781735187600
Reviews:
“Rhoads (Angelus Rose) offers a heady blend of otherworldly sex and sin in this collection of 15 speculative shorts. Rhoads’s prose is effervescent, rendering her imagined worlds with nuance and the occasional dose of black humor. This carefully crafted collection makes an excellent showcase of Rhoads’s skill across a multitude of subgenres.” — Publishers Weekly
“Rhoads is amazing at building a complete world for her stories to reside in, especially considering how brief these stories are. Among my favorites are “Here Be Monsters,” a haunting story that pits a girl versus an evil entity that roams more than just a house. I also enjoyed “Valentine,” which had a bit of a Highlander feel about it, and “Never Bargained for You,” about a succubi set in the L.A. rock scene of the early 70s.” — Zengrrl
Advance Praise:
“With Unsafe Words, Loren Rhoads has created a lyrical kaleidoscope of a collection, whose shifting genres reveal ever-evolving visions of shining beauty and immense darkness. I loved it.” — Brian Hodge, author of The Immaculate Void and Skidding Into Oblivion
“Loren Rhoads’s work is at once arresting, haunting, unsettling, and gorgeous. Her stories are all the darker for being deeply human and more profoundly human in their darkness.”—Thomas S. Roche, author of Dark Matter
“Rhoads has a gift. She takes you deep and, when you come out on the other side, you’re just glad you’re still alive.” — J. Scott Coatsworth, Captain Awesome of Queer Sci Fi
“If you’re already familiar with Loren’s work, you know that you’re in for an evocative, rich mélange. If you’re just now discovering her…prepare yourself and dig in. Leave your preconceptions and expectations right here, and step boldly into Loren’s incredible, beautiful world. Just don’t be surprised if your own world looks a little different when you get back.”—Lisa Morton, in her introduction
