Letters From the Labyrinth 163

Hey there. I'm Brian Keene and this is the 163rd issue of Letters From the Labyrinth, a weekly newsletter for fans of my work. Previous issues are archived here.
It's a few minutes after seven in the morning as I write this. Mary and my 11-year old are both still asleep. Normal for her, unusual for him. Like myself, he's usually up by 5:30 or 6. But I let him stay up late reading comic books and watching JAWS 2 (and wow, that movie has not aged well) so he's sleeping in.
There's frost outside, and flocks of seabirds and geese in the river, taking a rest stop on their way toward warmer climes. Winter is coming. I feel it every time I move -- a hybrid mix of arthritis, carpal tunnel, leftover damage from last year's accident, and the ghost of older injuries making themselves known.
I'm sitting here thinking about getting things done.
December has always been a productive month for me. I think part of that is because I always put The Horror Show with Brian Keene on a 4-week hiatus at the end of the year, airing 'Best Of' reruns instead of new content, and that means I have more time to write. My phone and email seem to get a little quieter around the holidays, too, as people tend to focus on their families and loved ones and less on bugging me for stuff/ This, too, means I have more time to write.
But I'm slowing down, as a writer. I can still write all day, but at a much slower pace. In the time it has taken to write this little preamble my fingers have already begun to stiffen, my knuckles are already starting to swell, and my back is letting me know that it doesn't like chairs anymore. I'm used to their complaints. They come with the regularity of the clock, and that's how I know that by the time I finish this newsletter (probably right around 8 o'clock) the rest of my body will have joined the chorus. My wrists will say, "Hey, you really need to start using the voice transcription software all the time" and my throat will laugh at them and remind the wrists that it gets sore if I talk for eight hours straight. The skin on my forehead will turn bright red and chafe and the patterns of a flash burn will appear, and the skin on my left arm will tighten and stretch and remind me that while it's my skin and my hair, it's newer than the rest of me, and is still having trouble fitting in. Old scars like the knife wound in my belly and the barbed wire entanglement on the back of my right leg will wake up, stretch, and grumble like old men. And all of them will form a chorus line and sing and kick until this evening, when I ease into a scalding hot bath filled with Epsom salt, CBD, and lavender -- and it is only then that they will vanish.
And when I wake up tomorrow, it will start all over again.
Recently, I've begun considering whether it is possible to just stay in the bathtub all day, and write and record podcasts from there. Because that would pretty much alleviate all of this.
And then my eyes laugh at me, and remind me that I need new trifocals, and that I've been putting that off because last time I went to the eye doctor he strongly recommended surgery, and we just can't afford that right now, so hopefully there's a big royalty check coming soon.
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This week was mostly about edits -- specifically for the hardcover edition of THE SEVEN: THE LABYRINTH Book 1 and "The Motel At The End Of The World", which is a novella that will appear in a collaboration I'm working on with Bev Vincent called DISSONANT HARMONIES. Both are taking longer than it normally would, and neither is because of the stuff I was whining about before. No, the editing process is longer because both works require a lot of fact-checking. In the case of the former, it needs to match up with the forty-plus other books and two-hundred-plus other short stories I've written. In the case of the latter, it deals with the Mandela Effect, and so the references all need to be factual and double checked.
Both should be done this coming week. Then I'll send them off to Thunderstorm Books, who will be doing the hardcovers for both books. In addition, Bev and I intend to have paperbacks of DISSONANT HARMONIES available in time for next year's 40th anniversary of NECON (which we will both be attending).
I also worked on SUBURBAN GOTHIC (the sequel to URBAN GOTHIC) and a little on the next Levi Stoltzfus book, and a little on THE FALL, and talked with Bryan Smith about a plot point in our collaboration.
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This week, I'll be doing a lot of press interviews for THOR: METAL GODS, as part of Marvel and Serial Box's promotional push. Oh, by the way, the official trailer for that came out this week! Click here to watch it.
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There's also been a flurry of movie activity behind the scenes, but nothing I can talk about yet. Multiple projects. Hopefully at least one of them can be announced early next year.
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RETURN TO THE LOST LEVEL is now available in audiobook via both Audible and Apple.
This means that all three books in the series are now available in that format. (Book 4, BENEATH THE LOST LEVEL, should see publication in late-2020 or early-2021).
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DER KING IN GELB (the German language edition of my short story “The King, in: YELLOW”) is now a German audiobook. Click here to start listening!
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I appreciate everyone who has purchased a copy of LOVE LETTERS FROM A NIHILIST: THE COMPLETE SHORT FICTION OF BRIAN KEENE so far. If you are so inclined, I'd also appreciate some reviews on Amazon. Click here to purchase in paperback or for Kindle.
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As I mentioned above, THE HORROR SHOW WITH BRIAN KEENE is in re-runs until January. But Christopher Golden and I recorded a new episode of DEFENDERS DIALOGUE this past week. It's part 1 of a two-part discussion on Black Goliath, an under-appreciated black superhero from the Seventies.
Listen for free on iTunes – YouTube – Project Entertainment – iHeartRadio – Stitcher
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Okay, that's it for this week. As always:
PATREON - Where I post new short stories, writing advice essays, two serialized ongoing novels, and behind-the-scenes stuff.
TWITTER - The only social media outlet I still use regularly.
YOUTUBE - Where I'm posting free stuff each and every day.
I'll see you back here next week!