Letters From the Labyrinth - Brian Keene 205
Hey. I'm Brian Keene and this is the 205th issue of Letters From the Labyrinth, a weekly newsletter for fans of my work. The previous issues are archived here.
It is Saturday night as I write this, and Mary just stopped me from committing what could have been anything from a misdemeanor to a felony. The yacht club down the road from us is hosting a wedding reception. There are abut 300 unmasked guests practicing no social distancing. And that's okay. It is their right not to wear a mask as much as it is my right to wear one. If they want to be dumbasses, i will defend their right to do so.
What I won't tolerate is their disc jockey. This guy is one of the worst wedding deejays I have ever heard, and I have some experience in this matter. In the late-Eighties, I was one of Central Pennsylvania's top-rated wedding deejays.
Not only is this guy terrible -- he is also terrible at a ridiculously loud volume. We can hear him fucking up half a mile away. And so, at 7:23pm, under the cover of darkness, I crept out of the house with two dozen bottle rockets, four packs of pennysticks, two M80s, and a long lighter.
Mary caught up to me when I was about 250 yards from the gathering. She scared the shit out of me, jumping out of the darkness with a loud stage whisper. She explained that I wasn't allowed to blow up the wedding reception. I explained that I wasn't going to blow it up. I was just going to create enough of a disturbance from a distance of 100 yards that the disc jockey would stop. She explained that I wasn't allowed to do that either, and then made me come back to the house.
And now I'm sitting here writing this.
A good partner is one who knows your limits better than you do, and can gently enforce them when you won't.
Except now I'm sitting here in my office, with the windows open to let in the cool breeze off the river, and listening to that buffoon try to mix Eric Clapton's "Wonderful Tonight" with Sugar Hill Gang's "Apache" and breathing so hard into his microphone that he's no doubt about to have a stroke. And how old are these people who are getting married? Are those two songs popular with the Millennial and Generation Z crowds?
I don't think there would have been any harm in just setting off one lone bottle rocket.
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This past week was a very productive work week. I focused on INVISIBLE MONSTERS and PROJECT: CASTLE. (You'll remember that PROJECT: CASTLE is the codename for something I'm not allowed to talk about). Had a good Zoom conference for the latter, and found out what I was allowed to do, what I wasn't allowed to do, and which toys I could play with. I was pleased and surprised with everything I heard. This coming week will be spent plotting things out -- and figuring out how to tell this story I have been entrusted with.
I also worked on the new reprint of SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL and a new reprint of J.F. Gonzalez's OLD GHOSTS AND THER REVENANTS.
Speaking of which...
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J. F. Gonzalez’s WHEN THE DARKNESS FALLS is back in print and available in paperback and for Kindle. Click here to purchase.
In other Gonzalez news:
New trade paperback and e-book editions of OLD GHOSTS AND OTHER REVENANTS will be released next month (November 2020).
New trade paperback and e-book editions of SHAPESHIFTER are forthcoming from Deadite Press.
Manuscripts of DIARY OF A MADMAN and SHADOWS IN THE ATTIC (two non-fiction collections) are in the final stages of prep, and will be submitted to the publisher for release next year.
THE CROSSROADS (with Gabino Iglesias) is in progress.
FINAL RETREAT (with myself) in in progress.
CLICKERS REBOOTED — tentative title — (by Stephen Kozeniewski and Wile E. Young) is in progress.
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Air Studio has a few Horror Show-themed balloon packs left, but quantities are extremely limited. First come, first serve. Each one includes an assortment of balloons and podcast keepsakes like official The Horror Show with Brian Keene postcards. $10 each. Click here to order.
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For those of you who are subscribed to my Patreon, a reminder that there is a very handy Patreon Index on my website. it links to each individual short story, serialized novel chapter, etc. making them much easier to find and read.
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That's it for this week. As always, a few reminders:
PATREON - Where I post new short stories, writing advice essays, three serialized ongoing novels, and behind-the-scenes stuff EVERY SINGLE DAY.
TWITTER - The only social media outlet I still use regularly.
YOUTUBE - Where I'm posting free stuff each week.
I'll see you back here next week!