[Letters From the Labyrinth] Official Brian Keene Newsletter 8/12/16

Hello. My name is Brian Keene and this is the second issue of Letters From the Labyrinth, a weekly email newsletter in which I babble at you from your inbox. Thank you for inviting me inside your computer.

It probably seemed like a good idea at the time, right?

I'm back on the road this weekend, signing at 4pm in Providence, Rhode Island tomorrow (August 13) at Books on the Square - Wayland Square, 471 Angell Street, and at 3:30pm in Ludlow, Vermont on Sunday (August 14) at The Book Nook, 136 Main Street.

My old friend Jack Haringa will be leading the Q&A in Providence. I met Jack in 1997 or 1998, back during the early days of the Internet. We both used to hang out in an online chat room at a place called Horrornet. Back then, there were four websites dedicated to horror fiction and horror writing -- Horrornet, Masters of Terror, Gothic Net, and Chiaroscuro. That was it. Four. These days, you kids have literally hundreds of thousands of such websites to choose from. We had four.

I remember when the Internet was the the future. No, we weren't getting the flying cars or jet packs that science fiction had promised us, but we had this brand new thing called the Internet. It took fifteen minutes to connect to it, and you had to do so via your landline telephone, but it was still the future. It was all shiny and new. It held so much promise. Now, twenty years later, it's nothing more than another tool of the Globalists, and instead of sparking a revolution, the majority of humans use the internet to look at funny cat pictures and porn.

The future makes me feel very old.

Anyway, Jack Haringa is the second smartest person I know (the first being author and editor Nick Mamatas). Jack is an academic and a teacher and a horror historian who has written wonderful think-pieces on authors like Jack Ketchum and M.R. James. He's also one of the people who oversee the Shirley Jackson Awards. This is a good thing. Twenty years into this career, my detractors often say that the only reason I've been so successful is because of nepotism. But Jack is on record as saying that if I was the last horror author on Earth, I still wouldn't win a Shirley Jackson Award, and they would instead award the honor to a tree.

So suck on that, haters.

Come to Providence tomorrow and you can ask Jack about it for yourself.

Author Asher Ellis will be signing with me on Sunday in Vermont. I don't have any funny anecdotes about him yet. Maybe next week...

This year has seen the releases of PRESSURE, THE COMPLEX, UNEARTHED, and the collector's edition of THE LOST LEVEL. Folks have asked what else I'll have come out before year's end. Here is a tentative list:

KINGDOM OF THE BASTARDS (with Steven Shrewsbury) - A sequel to KING OF THE BASTARDS. The title is tentative.

RETURN TO THE LOST LEVEL - A sequel to THE LOST LEVEL.

THE MOTEL AT THE END OF THE EARTH - A pre-apocalyptic novella that I can't tell you anything about without spoiling it. If you know anything about The Berenstain Bears conspiracy or the Mandela Effect, then you'll know what it's about.

MAELSTROM 2017 - This year's three-book set will include a new post-apocalyptic novella by me called SCHOOL'S OUT (the idea for which was pitched to me by my eight-year-old son) and a full-length novel from Bracken MacLeod (a young writer whom if you're not reading yet, you will be soon, because he's going to be huge). It was also supposed to include the never-before-published original version of TERMINAL, which features a completely different ending, etc. but unfortunately, the lawyers can't agree on whether or not I can publish that (since TERMINAL is the only one of my novels to which I don't own 100% of the rights). So now we're figuring out what to replace it with instead.

Those are what should be out this year. In addition to them, novels HOLE IN THE WORLD and INVISIBLE MONSTERS should be finished by year's end, for release in 2017, and SUBURBAN GOTHIC and DEAD AIR should be completed shortly after those.

And then it will be time for THE RISING V...

In addition to being available in paperback and ebook, THE COMPLEX is also available as an audiobook, read by the legendary golden-tonsiled Chet Williamson. This marks the first release in a multi-book deal with Crossroads Press which will eventually see all of my back-list (including the CLICKERS series) released in audiobook. Click here for more info.

Even though I'm on a massive cross-country signing tour this summer, there will be some cities and some states where I just don't get a chance to stop. Despite that, you can still get signed copies of PRESSURE and THE COMPLEX. The following stores all have signed copies of PRESSURE. Some of them also have signed copies of THE COMPLEX. All of them do mail order. Quantities are limited. Please be polite when calling or emailing them.

Dark Delicacies Burbank, CA
Phone: 1-888-DARKDEL

Mysterious Galaxy San Diego, CA
Phone: 858-268-4747

The Poisoned Pen Scottsdale, AZ
Phone: 480-947-2974

Borderlands Books San Francisco, CA
Phone: 415-824-8203

Star Line Books Chattanooga, TN
Phone: 423-777-5629

Camelot Books Land O’ Lakes, FL
Phone: 813-932-7162

Barnes and Noble Oviedo, FL
Phone: 407-977-5500

The Book Tavern Augusta, GA
Phone: 706-826-1940

Rickert & Beagle Books Pittsburgh, PA
Phone: 412-344-7444

Currently Reading: JEDI SUMMER AND THE MAGNETIC KID by John Boden
Currently Listening: CLEAN YOUR CLOCK by Motorhead
Currently Watching: ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK Season 4.

In my mind, the sexiest women on ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK are Red and Mendoza. Some people look at me strangely when I say that. They aren't beauty queens or pin-up models or pretty young things like some of the other characters. They are older women, late-forties to late-fifties, overweight, scarred physically and emotionally, etc. And therein lies their beauty. They carry themselves with grace. They still care. Still feel. And they have ALL the power. That's way sexier than any twenty-year old prancing around in a jailhouse bikini.

Readers of my work should be familiar with Nick Mamatas (we co-wrote THE DAMNED HIGHWAY together). His latest novel, the incendiary I AM PROVIDENCE, is out this week in paperback and ebook. It's riotously funny and super creepy, and firmly but fairly skewers all sides of the H.P Lovecraft vs. social justice vs. fandom debate that has recently engulfed our genre. No matter which side of that particular fence you sit on, you'll enjoy this book -- provided you can laugh at yourself. Easily one of my favorite reads this year, thus far. Order one for yourself.

If you're still here from last week, thanks for not unsubscribing. Take care of yourself, and I'll see you again next week, universe willing. Also, please note, the best way to reach me is still Twitter, rather than replying to this email. My inbox currently has 2,376 unread messages.