Letters From the Labyrinth 230 - Brian Keene
Hey there. I'm Brian Keene and this is the 230th issue of Letters From the Labyrinth, a weekly newsletter for fans of my work. Previous issues are archived here.
Was talking to the guys from Valancourt Books this week, about how -- when this pandemic is over -- they need to come up here and hang out for weekend. Maybe it's a year spent in quarantine, or the fact that spring is here, but I'm missing socialization more than ever.
On Thursday, I had the honor of speaking to the students of Dickinson College about storytelling in various media. That might have contributed to my desire for to be over, as well. It was a great time, but Zoom is a poor substitute for personal interaction.
Last week was a productive one. I worked on PROJECT CASTLE and THE DRIVE-IN: MULTIPLEX. Some more movie stuff happened behind the scenes.
I also officially got the right back to TERMINAL.
For new readers, TERMINAL was my second novel. It was a marked departure from THE RISING, in that it was a crime novel with supernatural elements. The plot involves a blue collar guy who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, and has n life insurance, so he decides to rob a bank to provide for his family (and yes, this book was written and published many years before Breaking Bad came along). It started as a novella. Then I decided to expand the story into a full length novel, which was published by Random House/Bantam.
The problem was that Random House/Bantam had me strip a major supernatural plot point out of the novel. That plot point involved Jesus Christ, and Random House had legitimate editorial concerns, given that the book would be in Walmart and elsewhere. Seriously. Try selling something that could be considered blasphemous at WalMart and see how you do. So, I complied. And all these years later, that uncut version has remained in my archives, unseen by anyone but my pre-readers.
TERMINAL was a sales bomb, akin to Richard Laymon's novel, The Woods Are Dark. (For those unaware, both of our first novels -- The Cellar and THE RISING -- were big sellers, and both of our follow-up novels, The Woods Are Dark and TERMINAL, were sales bombs). It wasn't anybody's fault. Random House promoted it. So did I. But the sales weren't there. Luckily, I'd written TERMINAL and CITY OF THE DEAD at the same time (one in the morning and one in the afternoon, and then going to work on the loading docks at night), and CITY OF THE DEAD saved my career.
For years, I've inwardly cringed whenever a reader mentions TERMINAL to me. Partly because of the poor sales, but also because it was one of the few parts of my intellectual property that I didn't control the rights to. As I get older, that becomes more important to me, because of literary estate concerns. It's also weird when a reader tells me TERMINAL is their favorite. I mean, it's nice to hear, and it means a lot to me, but I also always think about that uncut version.
The good news is that soon you'll be able to read it. And I won't have to silently suffer that weird little author anxiety anytime someone brings it up again. And if you want to thank somebody, you should thank Matt Schwartz for helping me secure the reversion. Big props to him. I'm very grateful.
As to when? Well, it will be some time yet. I've got to track down all of the excised parts which are on a drive somewhere in my archives, and then put them back into the manuscript and then make sure everything matches up. I would suspect there will be a signed limited edition in time for Christmas of this year, and then paperback, ebook and audiobook early next year.
* * *
Editor, publisher, and author John Pelan died of a heart attack last week. He was a cheerleader and mentor to so many of us when we were first starting out, and his knowledge of the genre perhaps surpassed even Karl Edward Wagner and J.F. Gonzalez. Huge blow to horror. I was asked by Locus to write a remembrance of him, which should appear in this week's issue.
* * *
Dave Thomas, who co-hosted THE HORROR SHOW WITH BRIAN KEENE alongside me fr six years (along with -- at times -- Mary SanGiovanni, Matt Wildasin, Geoff Cooper, John Urbancik, Michael Bailey, and even Stephen Kozeniewski), started round four of chemotherapy this week. As you can imagine, this long battle with cancer has been financially devastating for him. If you have the means, please consider donating five or ten bucks to his GoFundMe.
* * *
In last Sunday's newsletter, I unveiled the cover to the forthcoming THE SEVEN: The Labyrinth, Book 1. Since then, I've gotten some questions, so let me try to answer all of those.
THE LABYRINTH series is the culmination of all my works. Over the course of the fifty plus books I’ve written and the over two hundred plus short stories I’ve written, there has been an underlying mythos that connects them together. My fans call this “The Labyrinth Mythos” which is as good a name as any, and apt.
Now, as I head into the autumn of my career, I’ve begun drawing all of those connections together in a series called The Labyrinth. It is admittedly my own Dark Tower, my own Crisis On Infinite Earths, and my own Secret Wars. Indeed, those three things were the initial inspiration for me to decide — when I wrote my very first story — that all of my stuff would be taking place in a shared universe, and would all be connected. These days, of course, with the prevalence of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and other franchises, that idea isn’t so strange to consumers.
Here is where the series currently stands:
THE SEVEN: The Labyrinth, Book 1
The author’s first draft is currently available to read in its entirety on my Patreon. The cost is five bucks. As this is the first draft, there are some changes between what is published on Patreon and what will be published in book form (typos, grammar, etc but also the fixing of continuity errors, the fleshing out of certain scenes, and the alteration of other scenes.
A signed, limited edition hardcover version will be available from Thunderstorm Books later this year. The amazing cover by Ben Baldwin is below. That cover features Frankie (from THE RISING series), The Exit (from THE COMPLEX and various short stories), Teddy (from EARTHWORM GODS), Bloom (from various short stories), Tony (from the CLICKERS series and various short stories), LeHorn (from DARK HOLLOW), and Lucifer, last of the angels. Other characters from my mythos who appear in THE SEVEN but are not on the cover include Ob, Nodens, Kandara, Colonel Livingston (CLICKERS), Ochse (PRESSURE), The Sleepwalker, the Grim Reaper, and the Hellertown RHIC (location of the climactic final battle in THE RISING).
Paperback, e-book and audiobook editions will be published in either late-2021 or early-2022.
SUBMERGED: The Labyrinth. Book 2
The author’s first draft is currently being serialized on my Patreon, and is available to read in its entirety for five bucks. We are almost to the end (the characters are currently fighting Leviathan, aka Cthulhu, aka Dagon). I expect it to be concluded next month.
A signed, limited edition hardcover version will be available from Thunderstorm Books next year (2022). Paperback, e-book and audiobook editions will be available in late-2022 or early-2023.
FRACTURED: The Labyrinth, Book 3
That’s a tentative title. I will probably change it, but I’m not going to do so yet, because it would possibly spoil the end of SUBMERGED. Like the first two books, the first draft will be serialized on my Patreon. However, I don’t intend to start it until September or October of this year (as I want to finish PROJECT CASTLE, INVISIBLE MONSTERS, and DEAD AIR in between. All of those are nearing completion. I need about a month for each to wrap them up). So, what will be serialized on Patreon in the meantime? BENEATH THE LOST LEVEL and possibly a western novel called THE LAST STAND. Once those are put to bed, I’ll start on FRACTURED.
The Labyrinth Books 4 through 7
I have it in my head that this is a seven book series. It may end up being five or six. It depends on where my muse goes and how my health goes. Regardless, there will at the very least be a Book 4 and a Book 5.
RECOMMENDED READING LIST
New readers often ask me where to start, and I always answer “Wherever you like”. Yes, all of my work takes place in a shared universe, but — much like Marvel and DC Comics of old — I have always endeavored to make sure that not having knowledge of one book doesn’t negatively impact your enjoyment of a different book.
However, for something like THE LABYRINTH series, I can understand why folks want to come in armed. So, here is a list of the core things you should read. Understand, you don’t have to read any of these first, but it is my belief that having knowledge of them will enhance your enjoyment of THE LABYRINTH series. Those core books are:
THE RISING
CITY OF THE DEAD
THE RISING: SELECTED SCENES FROM THE END OF THE WORLD
EARTHWORM GODS
EARTHWORM GODS II: DELUGE
EARTHWORM GODS: SELECTED SCENES FROM THE END OF THE WORLD
CLICKERS II
CLICKERS III
CLICKERS VS. ZOMBIES
DARK HOLLOW
GHOST WALK
THE COMPLEX
DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN
BLOOD ON THE PAGE: THE COMPLETE SHORT FICTION OF BRIAN KEENE 1
ALL DARK, ALL THE TIME: THE COMPLETE SHORT FICTION OF BRIAN KEENE 2
LOVE LETTERS FROM A NIHILIST: THE COMPLETE SHORT FICTION OF BRIAN KEENE 3
All of those books are available here.
As I said, those are what I consider the core. Other books tie in — THE CAGE, for example, features a villain who will appear in a future volume, and TAKE THE LONG WAY HOME and WHITE FIRE both give some back story on the angels — but I don’t consider them core.
So, I think and hope that answers the most frequently asked questions I’ve been getting about this. Thanks for the support.
* * *
A reminder that the new From Beyond Weird Fiction Storybundle is now live! Ten books for fifteen bucks, including THE DAMNED HIGHWAY by myself and Nick Mamatas, THRALL by Mary SanGiovanni, and many more!
Weird fiction spent much of the twentieth century as an acquired taste for people with peculiar taste. Not quite horror, only a quasi-science fiction, fantasies without consolation—it was a hard sell. But as the world got weirder, the weird made its move to reclaim its territory from the genres it inspired.
This bundle goes far beyond the classic modes of Weird Fiction. Sure, there's Lovecraftian and Cthulhoid stuff, but it's remixed and detourned, injected into the modes of thriller, of slice-of-life realism, of New Journalism and the avant-garde. Other aspects of the weird, from European decadence to punk rock outsider art, are also well represented, and expanded upon until every genre boundary gives way and every brain cell bursts.
Read more about the TEN books in the bundle here.
* * *
And that's it for this week. I'm cutting it short because last week's newsletter was extra long and also because my 13-year old is waiting patiently for me to finish this so we can go on a five mile hike.
Take care of yourselves, and be good to the other people in your life, and also to the strangers you meet. I'll see you back here next Sunday!