I want to talk to you about a Kickstarter that is near and dear to my heart. One that funded almost immediately and has blown past several funding goals. No, not Brandon Sanderson’s. I’m talking about my friend Loren Rhode’s Kickstarter for her book Death’s Garden Revisited.
Death’s Garden Revisited will explore the relationships people from all walks of life have with cemeteries. It will feature forty essays with photographs delving into our motivations for visiting them.
Of course, Loren’s book caught my attention when I heard about it. My grandfather, grandmother, and father, as well as a lot of my family, are buried in a country cemetery in Missouri, with other family members scattered around the state. During a vacation to visit my living family, my mother took some time to do genealogy research. We visited three different cemeteries over the course of one day. That was a lot of walking and squinting at century-old grave markers and gave me a better sense of what branch I stood on in the family tree. I have found them a place of quiet and peace, a place to reconnect with my scattered family and touch my roots.
And of course, they have a reputation for being haunted. I will admit, I feel a thrill reading the tale of Resurrection Mary or hearing stories about the strange lights that can be seen at the Boot Hil Cemetery. For me, the thought of the unquiet dead is just as much of a draw as the history of my family.
Loren’s Kickstarter will be running through April 16th. As I said, several stretch goals such as color photos and additional essays have been already been met. I cannot wait to dive into this book.
A quick reminder – Chaos Wolf, which does have a few cemetery scenes, is on sale as part of the Too Good To Miss Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance Book Fair. The sale runs through March 30th.
