Brian Keene 174
Hi. I'm still Brian Keene and this is the 174th issue of Letters From the Labyrinth, a weekly newsletter for fans of my work. Previous issues are archived here.
I'm typing this on Saturday because I won't have time to do it tomorrow morning. Mary is in New Jersey for the weekend and my youngest son is at a scouting event with his mom, and I could spend the day writing, but there's other work to be done. In a few hours I've got to head out for a Board of Directors meeting for the Scares that Care charity organization. We'll be discussing our Racine, WI charity event and our Williamsburg, VA charity event, and our 5K Run charity event, and a few other things. (Details on all of those events can be found here).
Serving in such a capacity is sometimes difficult work. I don't mean in a hard sense. I've had hard jobs. I've worked in foundries and on loading docks and in telemarketing call centers. Those are hard jobs. Serving as one of the directors of a charity isn't hard. It's difficult. It's mentally and emotionally challenging. But every time we help somebody? It is very, very worth it.
After the Board meeting, I'm going to author Kelli Owen's house for a party. The other attendees are mostly all authors, artists, filmmakers, and others from the tribe. Sure, that's an evening spent hanging out with friends rather than writing, but sometimes you need to do that. I'm a big proponent of forced socialization for creatives. We spend most of our waking work hours by ourselves, typing away on laptops or scribbling away on paper, and the only people we interact with are the make believe characters in our heads.
It's important to spend time with non-fictional characters, as well. First of all, your loved ones and non-writer friends are sick of hearing you talk about writing. Trust me on this. Occasionally talking shop with other writers is vital to your self-perception and creative well-being. But even if you're not hanging out with other writers, it's still important to go out among other people on occasion, even if you're just a quiet observer. Fiction, regardless of genre, works best when your characters are realistic. You can't write realistic characters if you've forgotten how other human beings think and act and talk and smell like.
So, go be social today. Go to church, or the bar, or the mall, or the bookstore, or a friend's house. Watch and observe. Listen. Note. Share. And then watch and observe the reactions of others to that.
You might be surprised what it inspires in your muse...
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I don't know if I'll drink at Kelli's party or not. I was talking with authors Bryan Smith and Rachel Autumn Deering yesterday. Bryan hasn't had a drink this year. His goal is to continue with that until October, and then see what's what. Rachel says she's stopped drinking and has moved on to "cocaine and blood". With anyone else, I'd say that second part is a joke, but with Rachel, I just can't be sure...
I haven't had a drink since New Year's Eve. That wasn't a conscious decision on my part, but once it occurred to me yesterday, I debated with myself about whether to continue the streak or to have a drink at Kelli's. In truth, it's the tobacco and nicotine I should be giving up, but there's something appealing to me about the challenge of not drinking socially.
Texas-based death metal masters Church of Disgust have a new EP coming out called CONSUMED BY SLOW PUTREFACTION. The title track is “a frantic crusher inspired by the mythos created by horror writer Brian Keene and a particularly sickening torture method employed by the Etruscan King Mezentius” (per Metal Injection).
I’m always thrilled whenever a band or musician gets inspiration from my work. As a teenager who was delirously happy when Anthrax were singing about Stephen King novels, I’m indebted to bands like Church of Disgust, techno star Xander Harris, and hip-hop artist MJ Withers for the love and support. I hope that you’ll support them, as well.
Dustin from Church of Disgust tells me: "It's our first new release in 4 years. I took a few liberties with the track you heard, using your Thirteen mythos as a basis. I was reading up on Roman/Etruscan history one day, and I read about a king whose favorite method of torture was tying a living person to a dead person, until the corpse decaying eventually killed the living person as well. I thought that this was too heinous to even be real, and it immediately made me think of the Daemonolateria and a brief series of replies on the Brian Keene message board. I hinted that I felt a connection between the events of Jack's Magic Beans and one of the Thirteen described in "The Book of Names", and you said that you believe I was the first person to make that connection. I could be way off base here, but I thought that your description of Apu fit that perfectly, and his "black sickness" that he would spread caused seemingly normal people to become sadistic butchers. So to tie it together, that description of ancient torture listed above sounded like something so vile that it could only have been inspired by one of the Thirteen! I tried to keep it a bit vague to avoid taking too much liberty with your works and mythos, but definitely alluded to it. If you were curious, here's probably the most telling line:
"Lord of Waste
Corrupts your mind...
Spreading his sickness
In filth he'll bind."
The two other songs on the release have some references as well. One just has a brief mention of the Thirteen and their wrath, the other touches on the realm of Behemoth that Levi travels to in A Gathering of Crows."
Listen to the title track from CONSUMED BY SLOW PUTREFACTION here.
Episode 11 of THOR: METAL GODS, written by me, is live today. As thor, Loki, Horangi and the Valkyries make a desperate last stand, Skarra answers the crown’s call! Available exclusively from SerialBox.
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The dust jackets for Stephen King’s CELL, which contain my essay “Ketchum Without A Conscience”, are now shipping from Overlook Connection. I was unable to get a good photo of them, so here is a brief video instead. Click here to watch it.
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Like many other public figures, I occasionally have to make use of block list software on social media. I don't like doing that, but in 2020, it has become a necessity. While block lists can be useful, they can also make mistakes. So, if you wake up one morning and find yourself blocked by me on Twitter or Instagram or YouTube, and we've never interacted, and you weren't a jackass to me or someone I care about, chances are good it was an error. If that happens, I recommend doing what Todd Keisling did. Todd found out he was blocked, sent me a polite email, and I fixed it for him. I'm happy to do that, because as I said, mistakes happen.
One Twitter user this week decided that the better approach would be to spend an evening excoriating me on social media for it. I mean, I guess that works, too, but if you're busy telling the world what a jerk I am for using block lists to curate my social media and make it manageable for work, then I'm probably inclined to think the block list performed correctly, in your case.
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If you're in Atlanta, FEAR AND LOATHING AND LOVECRAFT -- the play based on the novel THE DAMNED HIGHWAY by myself and Nick Mamatas -- is playing next Thursday, February 27 8pm at at Dad's Garage Theater, 569 Ezzard St, Atlanta, GA.
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A reminder that on March 28th, myself, Mary SanGiovanni, Kelli Owen, Matt Wildasin, and Stephen Kozeniewski will be doing a signing and Q&A at Air Studio - West Shore Farmer’s Market 900 Market St, Lemoyne, PA 17043. It starts promptly at noon!
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This Week's Podcasts
SAMANTHA KOLESNIK - The Horror Show with Brian Keene - Ep 253
Author and director Samantha Kolesnik joins Brian, Mary, Matt, Kelli and special guest Mike Lombardo in studio to discuss the buzz for her new novel TRUE CRIME, women writing extreme horror, guerrilla film-making, and much more. Plus the 2020 Summer Scares picks and more ChiZine nonsense.
Listen for free on iTunes – Spotify – Project Entertainment– iHeartRadio – Stitcher - YouTube
DEFENDERS DIALOGUE - Ep 90
It's the War of the Mega-Monsters as Godzilla, Red Ronin and the forces of S.H.I.E.L.D. team up against an alien invasion. Christopher Golden and Brian Keene discuss Marvel Comics Godzilla issues 12 through 14.
Listen for free on iTunes – YouTube – Project Entertainment – iHeartRadio – Stitcher
CURRENTLY READING: Night As A Catalyst by Chad Lutzke
CURRENTLY WATCHING: Narcos: Mexico season 2
CURRENTLY LISTENING: Office Ladies podcast
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.
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!