Bec: Welcome to my blog! Please start by telling everyone about yourself –
Rhonda: Oh, man. Way to start out with a super tough questions. LoL I’m totally going to cop out and just post a 1st person version of the standard bio I’ve been using lately. 😉
I am driven by a desire to do All The Things. I have been the publisher and editor-in-chief of Niteblade Magazine for over five years now (which is like 25 years in internet time) and am the editor of several anthologies including (most recently) Fae and A is for Apocalypse.
In addition, I am a writer whose work has been included or is forthcoming in dozens of publications including Tesseracts 17: Speculating Canada from Coast to Coast, Imaginarium: The Best Canadian Speculative Writing (2012) and Mythic Delirium.
Bec: What is your most recent release(s)?
Rhonda: I’ve had some poems and short stories published in various places in the past few weeks, but my most recent publication where mine is the only name on the cover would be White Noise. White Noise is a collection of a whack of poems I wrote about the zombie apocalypse. They are mostly reprints (meaning they’ve been published elsewhere first), but this is the first time they’ve been gathered together in the same place.
Bec: What genres do you most like to read?
Rhonda: Everything. I’m not kidding. I read everything. For Niteblade and anthologies I read a lot of short speculative fiction and novel-length spec fic fills a lot of my leisure reading as well, but I don’t ONLY read that genre. I also love nonfiction, literary fiction, classics. P.G. Wodehouse and Charles Dickens are very near the top of my list of favourite authors, for example. Though that love of classics isn’t very well represented in it, here’s the list of books I’ve read so far this year according to Goodreads. Quite a variety, but no more than I’d expect on anyone’s bookshelfs. J
Bec: What genres do you most like to write?
Rhonda: I think I prefer fantasy and horror because while there are definitely rules, they feel far more bendy than when I’m writing something which is more strictly “mainstream” (for lack of a better word choice).
Bec: I know you’ve recently been to a couple conferences… Would you like to share a little bit about those with us?
Rhonda: This year I attended three conventions: When Words Collide, World Fantasy, and Pure Spec. All three had awesome and totally different things going for them. When Words Collide is where we launched (and sold out of) FAE, an anthology I edited for World Weaver Press. It was also the first time I was ever on a panel at a convention so that was frightening in the best possible ways.
At World Fantasy not only did I get to meet up with people I’d only seen before online (which is what happens at every convention, amirite?), but also both anthologies I edited this year, FAE and A IS FOR APOCALYPSE were represented in the readings. And I got to talk to people about them, and sign copies. At one point, I even had a line of people who wanted me to sign their books. Okay, okay, it was of three people, but dudes – it was a line!
Pure Spec takes place right here in Edmonton, within walking distance of my house even. That alone makes it pretty awesome, but it’s also fantastic to get a chance to hang out with local friends and talk about work and everything else. J What’s more, this year at Pure Spec was the first time I read any of my work out loud in public. I was taking part in the Character Death Match (which is as awesome as it sounds) and I was eliminated in the first round BUT I read my whole excerpt without fainting or throwing up so I still count it as a win. LoL
Bec: Which holiday do you like better: Thanksgiving or Christmas? Why?
Rhonda: Christmas, most definitely. I kind of feel like Thanksgiving isn’t as big a thing in general up here in Canada than it is in the US and I could be wrong about that, but it’s definitely not as big a deal in my family. Christmas, or as I prefer to call it, Giftmas (because we celebrate a secular version of the holiday), is something I look forward to all year long. My extended family is very large and when I was younger Christmas was a raucous affair with loads of relatives, tons of presents and far, far too much food. Now my immediate family (husband, daughter, and myself) tend to make Giftmas a much more low-key affair, but we still have tons of presents and far too much to eat and drink.
Bec: What is your favorite Christmas themed book?
Rhonda: I’m a huge fan of Dickens’ Christmas stories. Not just A Christmas Carol, but also The Cricket on the Hearth and The Chimes (I haven’t read his others yet). I also love The Grinch Who Stole Christmas and, though I haven’t re-read it recently, I loved The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.
Bec: Is there anything you would like to share that I haven’t asked you about?
Rhonda: I’ll add in the obligatory promo part. LoL
If you like zombies please check out my books, Waste Not (And Other Funny Zombie Stories) and, if you like highly accessible poetry, White Noise: Poems of the Zombie Apocalypse. Both come in electronic and paperback versions and the paperbacks are priced perfectly to be just the right thing to add to your shopping cart to qualify for free shipping while you’re shopping for Christmas/Giftmas presents.
Bec: Thank you for stopping by and sharing yourself with us. Have a great holiday season!
Find out how to stalk Rhonda Parrish below:
“Rhonda Parrish is a shapeshifter with talents to match her every incarnation- magpie tenacity for picking the shiniest submissions, nightingale notes for crafting tales, and bright, feline eyes for seeking out her photographic subjects. She balances on the knife-edge of darkness and light, a sorceress of both realms.” – Sara Cleto
Website: http://www.rhondaparrish.com
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©Rebecca Besser & Rhonda Parrish, 2014. All rights reserved.
Life With Words 
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