Letters From the Labyrinth 235 - Brian Keene

Hey there. I'm Brian Keene and this is the 235th issue of Letters From the Labyrinth, a weekly newsletter for fans of my work. Previous issues are archived here.
Usually, this is in your inbox when you wake up on Sunday morning (well, for most of you it is. Some of you are in strange time zones where it arrives later Sunday night). That's because I type it up on Saturdays. Sadly, I didn't get a chance to do that yesterday, because it has been a blisteringly busy week here at Casa Keene.
Most of the week was spent focused on INVISIBLE MONSTERS (the new Levi novel) and the galleys for THE SEVEN: THE LABYRINTH Book 1. For you non-writer folks, a galley is a proof of your book. It incorporates all of the changes that have been made to your manuscript -- all of the edits and corrections and things like that. It is a mirror image of what the actual, physical book will look like when printed.
Normally, during the galley stage, the fewer edits an author submits, the better. After all, by the time things get to that stage, most of the mistakes should have been caught. And in truth, for several years now, I have barely glanced at my galleys, because I trust my pre-readers, copyeditors, editors, and publishers. Sometimes, though, if a book is really important to me, I will go over them with a fine toothed comb. I did so for END OF THE ROAD, because that thing is pretty much a memoir for not just me, but for everyone who's been working in this business the last 20 years, and I wanted to make sure I had every little single thing correct.
And I did it for THE SEVEN, too. I spent all of Thursday and Friday going through the galley with a fine toothed comb, and I ended up making a ridiculous amount of changes. It wasn't errors or mistakes I was fixing. It was things I wanted to clarify. Reader questions that I hopefully anticipated. Expansion of certain plot points and character conversations and observations. Some of my friends think I'm clinging to this one, and I should just let it go and get it off to the printer already, but look...this series is the closest thing I'll ever get to a magnum opus. It's my Dark Tower and Secret Wars and Crisis on Infinite Earths. It's been in development for over 25 years. More than any other thing I've ever written, I want to make sure it's right.
And now it is. I approved the changes to the galleys this morning, and I am happy to say that THE SEVEN will be heading off to the printer soon. Hardcover from Thunderstorm Books, followed by paperback and e-book about six months later, and then audiobook about six months after that.
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Mary and I watched the Bram Stoker Awards last night. END OF THE ROAD lost to Tim Waggoner's Writing In The Dark, something which I was pretty sure would happen, and something which I am 100% okay with. Tim's a dear friend, and a great guy, and that book is required reading for anybody who wants to work in this field. If you want to be a horror writer, do yourself a favor and check it out.
My personal favorite moments of the ceremony were:
* Meghan Arcuri's power going out. At first, Mary and I thought it was going to be a bit -- perhaps a spoof on Jed Shepherd's Host (particularly when that door opened up behind her and her camera cut off) but no, it was real!
* Josh Malerman's hat-tip to Scott Edelman during his acceptance speech. I adore Josh, I adore Scott, and I adored that acknowledgement.
* Angela Yuriko Smith's dog, Yogi.
* Stephen Graham Jones two acceptance speeches. It has been a delight seeing SGJ finally get the respect and credit and audience he deserves these last couple of years. Like it was for our friend Paul Tremblay, I think it's long overdue, and it makes me happy to watch it happen, because it's further proof that the universe isn't completely screwed up yet.
Of course, at the end of the show, they announced the guests for next year's StokerCon (2022), of which I am one of them. I hope I will see many of you there!
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I'm happy to report that both the paperback and Kindle editions of WITH TEETH have been released early, ahead of the original June 1 on sale date. Both are live on Amazon right now. That includes international markets.
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Author Matt Wildasin joined Christopher Golden and me on DEFENDERS DIALOGUE last week for a discussion of the third issues of both Marvel Team-Up and Marvel Two-In-One, featuring Spider-Man, Human Torch, The Thing, Morbius the Living Vampire, Shanna the She-Devil and more. Free wherever you listen to podcasts, or via this link.
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As I type this, I've got my office windows open. I can hear a ton of birds outside. The lime tree to my left and the kumquat tree to my right are soaking up the sun coming through the screens. There's a mommy deer and two fawns sunning themselves beneath our pine trees out back. Later today, the river will fill up with jet skis and fishing boats, and the sound of the birds will be drowned out by the sound of motors. But in these quiet morning moments, there is no place I would rather be than right here.
I haven't been able to use my office much this past week, because we have workers remodeling the bathroom on the second floor (which sits halfway down the hall between my office and Mary's office, and directly across from our library and gaming room). Because of that, I've been set up in our kitchen and Mary has been set up on the couch. But I was very happy to be back in my office for the weekend. Tomorrow morning, I'll be displaced again.
Author and photographer John Urbancik will be here for a bit at some point next month, but I'm not sure when. Hopefully the workers are done by then.
Anyway, I'm rambling. A friend teasingly told me a few weeks ago that my newsletter has turned into the ramblings of a content old man. And you know what? I'm okay with that because I am content these days. And if you prefer the fevered laser-precise musings of younger me, you'll be happy to know that the reprint of RUNNING WITH THE DEVIL: THE BEST OF SAIL SATEN Volume 2 is in production. Here's a preview of the cover, by Kealan Patrick Burke, below. (I'm putting it at the end because it's a heavy image, and may increase load times).
I hope all is well in your part of the world. I'll see you back here next week!
Brian
