Letters From the Labyrinth 166
Hi. I'm Brian Keene and this is the 166th issue of Letters From the Labyrinth, a weekly newsletter for fans of my work. Previous issues are archived here.
I hope you all had an enjoyable holiday season so far. As I said in last weekend's newsletter, my sons and I celebrated Christmas on the 21st and 22nd. Then my oldest son flew out to Kansas to spend actual Christmas with his mom, my youngest son went back to his mom's, and Mary and I drove to New Jersey... where I spent Christmas Day sick in bed with a fever and coughing up the most disgusting looking phlegm I've ever seen. It was like something out of an Edward Lee novel.
I've written here in previous years about Mary's huge Italian family Christmas gatherings. This year was no different. Because I was sick in bed, I was pretty much left to my own devices for the day, while a small army partied one floor below me. Having no books to read, and Mary having lost the remote control to the television in her old room at her parent's house, I had to find a way to occupy myself, so I chugged a bunch of NyQuil and then held a day-long Christmas Day Q&A on Twitter. Lots of people asked lots of great questions (and you can scroll back through my Twitter feed and read all my answers).
One question in particular -- asked by author Lamar Giles (whose new book NOT SO PURE AND SIMPLE comes out next month) -- caused quite a stir and led to a real Christmas Day miracle. Lamar asked me if there was any intellectual property other than my own or the others I've already written for (like Marvel, Doctor Who, Alien, X-Files, etc) that I'd love to write for. I answered that I'd love to do something with Phantasm, Carpenter's They Live, or Joe R. Lansdale's The Drive-In. Joe then Tweeted that we should do an anthology of new stories set in The Drive-In universe. And the Internet went nuts.
As a funny aside, Christopher Golden and I had been planning on pitching something to Joe after the holidays. We wanted to write a new novel together set in the world of The Drive-In. So when Joe suggested this book, I messaged him and Chris and the three of us put our heads together and that is why I can now tell you that THE DRIVE-IN: INTERMISSION edited by Joe R. Lansdale, Brian Keene and Christopher Golden is a thing that will be happening next year, and that we're already talking to publishers. Writers reading this should know that it's invite only, so please please please don't send us stories unless we ask you to (trust me, if we know you're a fan of The Drive-In, then we'll probably ask you. Just be patient).
So, yeah, if you're a fan of The Drive-In, you really should thank Lamar Giles for bringing it up. And you should thank him by pre-ordering that new book, or one of his other books (I recommend Fresh Ink or Overturned).
I felt better the next day, so I was a little more sociable. And by the time Mary and I came back to Pennsylvania, I was right as rain. On the way home, we stopped in to see our dear friend Keith Giffen for an afternoon. The world knows Keith for Rocket Raccoon, Justice League, Lobo, and a billion other comic books, of course. What most don't know is that he's a huge horror fiction fan. We dropped off some new books by authors he likes (Bryan Smith, Ronald Malfi, Edward Lee) and some by authors we suspect he'll like (Wesley Southard) and I got to play with his new dog and we had a delightful time.
Here's a pic.
Mary and I are back home now. Today will be spent catching up on email and cleaning the house and my office. Tonight we are heading over to authors Kelli Owen and Robert Ford's new house. Tomorrow, author Kristopher Triana will be in town, and will join us here in the studio to record the first episode of The Horror Show with Brian Keene for 2020 -- our sixth year on the air.
We'll be heading over to author Wesley Southard's house for New Year's Eve. I'm the DJ. I'm going to share the mix with you, but first, a few caveats. This mix is specifically designed for the people I know are attending this particular party. The genres and artists are specifically tailored to them. We've got Gen Xers like myself all the way down to Millennials like Wes and his wife Katie. Some like metal. Some like hip-hop. Some only like new stuff. Others like only old stuff. So this playlist is curated specifically toward that. Everyone at the party should hear things they like at some point. The other caveat is that if you hit Play at exactly 7pm, then Mariah Carey will sing "Auld Lang Syne" to you at exactly midnight. Which means you shouldn't have to touch your computer or phone all evening. (But just in case I messed up the timing, at about 5 minutes to midnight, stick your head up and listen to what's playing. If Prince is almost done partying like it's 1999, then you should be okay. If not, you may need to fill a minute or so).
Here is my New Year's Eve Party playlist, via Spotify.
Speaking of listening to things, the audiobook for THRONE OF THE BASTARDS -- the second book in me and Steven L. Shrewsbury's Bastards sword and sorcery trilogy -- came out this week. it's available on Apple and Audible.
And remember that the new audiobook edition of CASTAWAYS just came out last week on those venues, as well.
Okay, that's it for this week. As always, a few reminders:
PATREON - Where I post new short stories, writing advice essays, two serialized ongoing novels, and behind-the-scenes stuff. I'll be posting a bunch of stuff there today and tomorrow, in fact.
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!