Letters From the Labyrinth 104

Hey. I'm Brian Keene and this is Letters From the Labyrinth -- a weekly newsletter for fans of my work. Previous issues are archived here.

Another rainy morning here in rural Pennsylvania. Mary's cat, Spike, is sitting in the window, staring balefully at the sky. My cat, Max, is sprawled on the couch next to me, giving zero fucks. I'm sitting here between the two, feeling somewhere in the middle about the weather.

It was a weird summer. Four months ago, on the first day of my 10-year old's summer vacation, I nearly died while cleaning up flood debris on my ex-wife's property. She'd had two flash floods roll through in the days before, leaving her yard a wasteland of junk and wood and garbage and mud. While burning that stuff, I caught on fire, suffering catastrophic injuries that landed me first in an emergency room, and then in a burn ward two hours away.

In the four months since, I have recuperated and rehabilitated. Yesterday, I was showing hip-hop recording artist MJ Withers my arm, and he marveled at how the synthetic skin they used on me really made scarring a non-issue. And he's right about that. Although I am in near constant pain, and although I have to wear UV-protectant clothing out in the sun, when I pull those sleeves up and show off my arm, or when I take off my hat and show you my scalp? You can't tell I was burned. You can't tell that four months ago, my elbow was a crater and my wrist was absolutely blackened.

The same cannot be said of my ex-wife's property -- or of the county we live in.

Since those two initial flash floods, we've had five more. If you've read THE GIRL ON THE GLIDER or SCRATCH or my short story "Halves" then you know that property. It's where I set those stories. And flooding has always been an issue here among the valleys and hills here in the Susquehanna River bottoms. But it was usually one flood every three years or so -- not seven in one fucking summer.

I'm healed. The skin on my arm, while sensitive and pale and a little waxen-looking, is healed. I don't look like a burn victim. But my ex-wife's property, a place that I have deep connections to still, does not look healed. It looks worse now than it did four months ago. And while those initial floods and the fire that followed might have had a psychological impact on me (I don't think they did, but Mary and my ex-wife and writer Kelli Owen -- the three women who know me best -- suggest that maybe I have just a twinge of post-fire PTSD) -- I don't like the long term effects these repeated floods are having on my ex-wife and my son.

And it's not just them, either. My friend Matt Wildasin (who recently joined THE HORROR SHOW WITH BRIAN KEENE as one of our rotating co-hosts, and who hosts his own popular podcast -- GRINDCAST) was hit in this last round of flooding, leaving him without power and without access to the rest of the county for a few days. Roads here have been damaged. School has been delayed -- not for a snowstorm, but for flood damage.

And the forecast for this week calls for more rain. And apparently there's a hurricane that might come churning up the East Coast and head inland.

An actor friend who lives somewhere between San Francisco and Los Angeles keeps asking me, "Why don't you people move away from there?" And my answer is "Why don't you people move away from the wildfires and the earthquakes?"

Home is home.

But yeah, I feel like the fall is now here, and summer is over, and the only time the sun was shining was while I was laid up in the burn ward. Except for a brief flash of flame, summer was non-stop rain.

Maybe I could write a fourth book in the EARTHWORM GODS series after all...

If you came here this week looking for Internet drama, I'm afraid you'll find nothing new. if you don't know what I'm talking about, a quick recap:

Over the last year, myself and many other writers have questioned some of the private statements and behaviors of another author. Not the sort of thing that impacts the public or readers. Just the same type of kerfluffle that occasionally pops up privately among any social group in the real world.

Ultimately, I decided that I didn't trust this person and preferred for them to leave me alone. Some other writers felt the same way about this author. Some didn't. So, I unfriended the individual on social media and went on with my day.

But that author has a new book coming out. And at some point last week, that author's publisher decided to make "Brian Keene Unfriends Author And Privately Commiserates About Some Things With Other Writer Friends In Private" a public issue in order to sell some books.

So I responded to him -- the publisher -- on my Blog. You can read that here.

And I have nothing else to say publicly in this matter.

Had a wonderful time signing at Protean Books & Records in Baltimore yesterday. Mary, myself, Stephen kozeniewski and Wesley Southard signed a LOT of books. This was Wesley's very first book store signing, and he did well. I suspect it has now spoiled him for future bookstore signings.

It was great to see long-time readers like J.C. and Andrew and Alex and meet new readers like Anne and James and Jim (whose 3-month old son cried at the mention of Laird Barron as one of Jim's other favorite authors).

But I was especially happy to catch up with MJ Withers. I've known this man since he was a teenager sending me fan letters about THE RISING. Years later, he's an up and coming rap god. One of his previous albums inculdes a track based on my novel CITY OF THE DEAD. Yesterday, he stopped by the signing while on his way to the recording studio, where he is putting the post-production touches on his newest work -- a concept album that, when he told us the story of, Mary declared "a hip-hop THE HANGOVER".

I'm proud as hell of all he's accomplished, nd proud as hell to count him among my readers.

MJ Withers and me.

Also from yesterday... here is a picture of me riding atop a giant saddled wooden penis. Because how could I not?

I’M DREAMING OF A WHITE DOOMSDAY — the nihilistic holiday horror film written and directed by Mike Lombardo, executive produced by Brian keene, and starring Hope Bikle, Reeve Blazi, Damien Maffei, Shannon Moyer, and Holly Andrew — has been dominating the film festival circuit for the last year.

We are happy to announce that it will see distribution on Blu-Ray and DVD in time for this holiday season, via the folks at Scream Team. We will, of course, let you know when they become available.

Here is director Mike Lombardo displaying his glee over this announcement.

This Week's Podcasts:

JOHN URBANCIK 2018 - The Horror Show with Brian Keene - Episode 184

Mary gets a wake up call from Brian, Dave, and a catnip-filled banana. Then, Phoebe talks with John Urbancik about his move to Spain, his transition fron small press to mainstream, Neil Gaiman’s SANDMAN, and more. Plus, how CreateSpace’s move to KDP will impact self-published authors, Dave guest stints on Three Guys With Beards, and Brian’s guest stint on Inkstains.

Listen for free on iTunes – Spotify – Project Entertainment – iHeartRadio – Stitcher


DEFENDERS DIALOGUE 40

The Beast joins The Defenders as the Son of Satan and Devil-Slayer both face a crisis of soul. Mr. Fantastic and Wonder Man guest star as Satan’s true face is revealed! Plus, Christopher and Brian discuss Donny Cates’s Defenders-esque Guardians of the Galaxy relaunch, and have another plot device for Cullen Bunn to use.

Listen for free on iTunes – Spotify – Project Entertainment – iHeartRadio – Stitcher

CURRENTLY LISTENING: Brian Keene Radio

Ultron (the A.I. that runs the station) is now fully functional and has passed all of his tests. Music-wise, my radio station is the only thing I listen to now. It plays music during the day, when I'm writing, so if you tune and and hear a song, that is exactly what I'm writing to at that moment. When I'm not writing, Ultron plays a mix of music and podcasts and archival material from my files. Listen for free here.

CURRENTLY READING: Small Victories: The True Story of Faith No More by Adrian Harte

A fantastic rock bio. Even if you're not a Faith No More fan, it might appeal to you since everyone from Metallica to Los Lobos make an appearance at some point in the book. For my money, this ranks up there with Stephen Davis's Guns n Roses bio WATCH YOU BLEED and Lemmy's autobiography WHITE LINE FEVER.

CURRENTLY WATCHING: Hereditary

Mary and I finally watched this last night. It's tied with THE ENDLESS as my favorite horror movie (so far) of 2018. It legit made me uncomfortable. And hey, how cool was it to see mention of a mythological entity who I used myself in THE LAST OF THE ALBATWITCHES? (No spoilers).

That's it for this week. As always:

PATREON - Where I post new short stories, writing advice essays, a serialized ongoing novel, and behind-the-scenes stuff.

TWITTER - The only social media outlet I still use regularly.

BRIAN KEENE RADIO - Broadcasting for free 24/7

I'll see you back here next week!