Morbid Curiosity Cures the Blues by Loren Rhoads

$14.99

Paperback

Morbid Curiosity Cures the Blues has been nominated for a Black Quill Award over at Dark Scribe magazine.  Here's the link:  http://www.darkscribemagazine.com/3rd-annual-bqa-nominees/

And here's the listing:

BEST DARK GENRE BOOK OF NON-FICTION:

 (Any dark genre non-fiction subject, any publisher; awarded to the author[s] or editor[s])

    * Morbid Curiosity Cures the Blues edited by Loren Rhodes (Scribner)
    * Stephen King: The Non-Fiction by Rocky Wood and Justin Brooks (Cemetery Dance Publications)
    * The Stephen King Illustrated Companion by Bev Vincent (Fall River Press)
    * Writer's Workshop of Horror edited by Michael Knost (Woodland Press)

Leaving aside the fact that my name is misspelled again, I'm very honored to be named alongside those editors.  In the world of nonfiction horror, those are the big boys.

If you're inspired to vote, you must register as a reader of Dark Scribe.

Morbid Curiosity Cures the Blues was also recommended for the Bram Stoker Award in Nonfiction, but it's not actually eligible, since the book is all reprinted material, except for my introduction.  Still, it's immensely flattering to be recognized.

Last week I was interviewed by an academic who's writing about the cultural aspects of morbid curiosity.  He asked me a question that no one has ever asked:  WHY did seeing the pictures in  RE/Search's Modern Primitives affect me so much?  Why did they lead to the magazine?  I got completely incoherent.  Seeing the genital modifications affected me on a level too deep for words.  I've never had any desire to put metal in my own body, other than in my ears.  But seeing those photos made me hunger to understand why anyone would do such a thing.  I needed to make my magazine in order to understand human behavior.

The funny thing?  I never received a story about getting body piercings.  By the time the magazine was well underway, most of the people I knew who had gotten piercings had taken them out.  The upkeep was more trouble than the pleasure they gave.  Probably there's a Morbid Curiosity story in that, as well.

So I'm wondering:  what's the most morbid thing that's ever happened to you?  I started a discussion over on Amazon, but no one's spoken up yet.  Got something to confess?  http://www.amazon.com/gp/forum/cd/discussion.html/ref=ntt_mus_ep_cd_tft_...