pIn New Orleans, the dead talk and the living listen. ppGiving ghost tours on the decaying streets of the French Quarter isn't exactly a high-profile career, but the guides at Spirits of Yore Haunted Tours are too strange and troubled to do anything else. They call themselves Quarter Rats, a group of outcasts and dreamers and goths who gather in hole-in-the-wall bars to bicker, spin yarns, and search for belonging in the wee hours of the night after the tourists have staggered home. pp ppThrough the ghost stories they tell, their own haunted lives come into focus. Like the city they call home, these tour guides are messy with contradiction they suffer joyfully, live morbidly, and sin to find salvation. pp ppWeaving together real New Orleans folklore with the lives of eleven unforgettably vibrant characters, emAsh Tuesday emis a love letter to America's last true bohemia and the people, both dead and living, who keep its heart beating. With her debut, Blayde has carved out a deep and ub