[Letters From the Labyrinth] Official Brian Keene Newsletter 11/13/16

Hello. My name is Brian Keene and this is the fifteenth issue of Letters From the Labyrinth. If you're a new subscriber, you can find previous issues archived here. This is a weekly email newsletter which provides a safe space from the nonsense, assholes, and nitwittery that has engulfed the Internet.

Speaking of which, you're getting this newsletter a day early, because Christopher Golden asked me "How I was doing" and I showed him the piece you are about to read, and then Mary SanGiovanni told me I should just post it early and then walk away. I love them both, so let's do that.

AND I'LL LOOK DOWN AND WHISPER "NO"

I posted something on Facebook the morning after the Presidential Election. I didn't say who I voted for (Johnson). I didn't praise Clinton or Trump (I find them both equally loathsome). I didn't attack people who voted for either of them, because I support those people's right to do so. Basically, I didn't do any of the things that you've no doubt seen my peers doing since the election results came in. ALL I DID was notice a lot of upset Millennial writers in my feed, who were looking to me for advice or wisdom -- and I tried my best to give them some.

Here's what I wrote:

A Message To Young Horror Writers:

Stephen King and Texas Chainsaw happened in the shadow of Watergate/Vietnam.

Splatterpunk happened in the shadow of Reagan.

Vertigo Comics happened in the shadow of Thatcher.

My generation's success happened in the shadow of Bush Junior.

Now, it's your turn. Go write about monsters and truth, because that's our job, and there's folks your age that are going to need it. Horror always does well in times of trouble, because people are seeking to escape from the very real monsters of the world, and curl up with safe, comforting make-believe monsters. Don't let those people down.

End quote.

Now, whether you voted for Trump or didn't vote for Trump, you can't deny there are a lot of scared young people in this country right now. The reasonable thing to do might be to engage them in conversation, and talk through their fears. Unfortunately, we can no longer do that in this country because of the divisions on the Right and the Left. A young person on the Left says, "I'm scared." A person on the Right points and laughs at them. But if a person on the Right did try to engage them in conversation, and said, "Hey, let's talk about your fears. Help me understand what you are afraid of" the person on the Left will immediately point their finger at the person on the right and accuse them of being a racist or misogynist simply because of how they voted. And this vicious circle goes on and on and on. I see folks on the Right castigating those on the Left who are unhappy with the election results, but those same people on the Right seem to forget that they themselves did the exact same fucking thing when Obama was elected.

My name is Brian Keene. I am not on the Left or the Right. I used to be in the Middle. Now...?

Now I am outside the circle.

And I am beginning to hate anyone inside of it.

I wrote that piece, not to support one candidate or another, but to address the fears of the young people I saw in my timeline, without partisanship or anything else. It is a fact that horror fiction and horror films prosper more economically AND creatively under Conservative regimes than they do Progressive regimes. This has been true since the Sixties and it remains true today.

That's not a partisan opinion. It's a fact.

The day after I posted that was the second anniversary of J.F. (Jesus) Gonzalez's death. If you've been reading END OF THE ROAD (my weekly column for Cemetery Dance) then you know I'm still struggling with his absence. And if you've been reading it, then you also know that the tour has come off the rails, with venues cancelling and games of musical chairs being played in editorial and money hemorrhaging and much more. What you don't know (because we haven't got to that point in the narrative) is that by September, this nine-month book tour starts to have a negative impact on both of my sons, and on my own health. And yet, I'm still out here, doing it. I'm in Portland, Oregon next week for BizarroCon. Why? Because I committed to this tour. I committed to my readers and my friends and my peers.

So, that morning, I wake up, and I'm missing Jesus, and I play with my youngest son and pack his lunch and take him to school, and we're talking about how I have to go to Oregon, and he's extra clingy and extra huggy and he tells me point blank he'll be glad when this is over, and next year, he wants me to just stay home and play. And then I drop him off at school and I log online and I see that my little intentionally non-controversial Facebook post has caused some controversy.

Two people say it's racist. Another says it is misogynistic. Three say it's typed "from a place of privilege" and therefore, must be disregarded. Seven see it as an attack on Trump. Two of those seven are incensed enough to make threats over it. Three think it says I didn't support Clinton, and ALL of those three make threats as well. One says it is my fault that Trump won Pennsylvania, and is so incensed by this that he posts it several different times in several different places. Another, piggybacking on that, says people should boycott my books because Pennsylvania lost. And one accuses me of "Artsplaining" and equates me with somebody watching the Jews get shipped off to a concentration camp during Word War Two. When challenged, he eventually backpedals, and says he wasn't referring to my post, even though he quoted from it.

Were these people random Internet weirdos? Were they clones of Nickolaus Pacione?

No. They were readers and friends and fellow authors.

And I'm done. Sooner or later, there was going to be a straw that broke the camel's back. This was it.

For twenty years, I have bent over backwards for this genre, this industry, and the people who both love it and work in it. And I've been spit on and laughed at and stabbed in the back for it over and over and over again.

"But not everyone did that," you shout. "You're taking your anger out on everyone but it was just a few."

Well, see...here's the thing. They say that success breeds contempt, but what success really breeds is distrust. The more successful you get, the more "friends" you have. Sooner or later, you reach a moment of clarity where you figure out which of those friends are really friends and which ones aren't. You ask yourself, who is there because of who you are and who is there because of who you are. That's an important distinction, and I don't know...maybe it's not something you'll understand unless you obtain a certain position, but it's a realization I came to about six years ago, and I began to narrow my social circle accordingly.

Now, I'm gonna narrow it more. If I'm being fully honest here, I started narrowing it this summer, right before the bulk of the tour started. I threw a big party at my house, and I invited a lot of people, and -- unbeknownst to them -- I spent the day watching them. I spent the day watching my "friends". I watched how they interacted with me -- or didn't interact with me. More importantly, I watched how they interacted with each other. How they treated each other. And how they interacted with and treated my girlfriend and my oldest son (who was also at the party). And I learned a lot of things.

And I've continued to learn a lot of things out here on the road. It's called the Farewell (But Not Really) Tour, and part of that was the fact that I'll be fifty next year, and my friends are fucking dying, and, to quote Waylon Jennings, "Living legends are a dying breed, there ain't too many left. To tell the truth I ain't been feeling too hot lately my damn self." So, yes. That's part of why it's called Farewell (But Not Really). But the other reason it's called that is because all year long, I've known I was going to have to sequester myself a little bit more, build more walls, be less public, less accessible.

I'd planned to wait until January 1st. As I said above, sooner or later, there was going to be a straw that broke the camel's back. This was it. This week's events just pushed me to do it a little sooner.

So, what does that mean? Does it mean I'm flouncing from Twitter, like Stephen King did earlier this week? Does it mean I'm going Bentley Little, and disconnecting from the Internet and never appearing in public again?

No. It doesn't mean any of those things. It simply means that if you're not my sons or my girlfriend, then you're no longer a priority for me. You either respect that or you don't. Either way, I don't care.

I write books. You can like or dislike those books. But if you want to engage me in a 20,000 word Facebook discussion of what you didn't like about the book, I'll probably ignore it, because quite simply, I'm not writing books just for you. I'm writing them for the other 75,000 people also reading them. If you want a book specifically written just for you and tailored to your individual tastes then go write it.

If you're an author and you're texting or emailing me and your text or email starts with, "Hey, I know you're busy but can you give me some advice on what to do about this publisher?" my answer will most likely be, "No, I can't." Because that's no longer a priority for me, and because you just acknowledged that I'm busy, and because I've already given you that advice. My advice on contracts and agents and publishers and pay and harassment and all the other things that go on in this business are well-documented. No, I will no longer fight your battles. You need to start fighting them for yourself.

I am well-aware that what I've just written here will itself be just another source of controversy. That people will pick it apart, and divide it, and pull out select quotes to fit their own individual narrative or confirmation bias. I don't care. That's exactly what I'm getting away from. This newsletter is my last refuge. The last place, other than the podcast, where i can speak my mind. And though I love doing the podcast, I've always preferred to write my thoughts down rather than shout them into a microphone. I'll continue to do so here, every week. I don't Blog anymore. I have this.

Maybe you can dig that. Maybe you can't. Either way, see above.

Those who don't react to this in a negative way will no doubt ask, "What can we do?"

You can start being decent to each other. You can stop living in your safe social media bubbles where everybody agrees with you, and you can start having conversations with people who have a different fucking viewpoint. And you can listen to their viewpoint. You don't have to agree with their viewpoint. But would it fucking hurt you to listen? Maybe you'll learn something. You can start treating each other like human beings, rather than opposing teams that must be vanquished and defeated. You can stand up to racism, misogyny, misandry, harassment, bullying, and nitwittery, and a good way to start is by acknowledging that your team is just as guilty of those things as the other team is -- because we're all human, and we're all flawed. BOTH sides are awash in intolerance, bigotry, and harassment.

If what I've said above makes you feel victimized or triggered or offended, I understand if you want to leave. No harm, no foul. If something is toxic to you, remove it from your life.

But if you do dig what I'm saying above, or you don't agree with it but are willing to hear an opposing viewpoint, or you have the self-awareness to no that it's not you, and you didn't inspire this, then thanks for sticking around. Next week, we'll talk about nice things, like THE NAUGHTY LIST movie.

End of rant.

Speaking of THE NAUGHTY LIST, the movie -- which is an adaptation of my short story "The Siqqusim Who Stole Christmas" -- is coming along well. As I said, I'll try to post an update next week. In the meantime, you can support the movie by following the official Twitter account and Liking the official Facebook page.

Posted this on my website earlier this week, but for those who may have missed it:

This week marks the anniversary of J.F Gonzalez’s death (which, if you’ve been reading my weekly End of the Road column, is something you know I still struggle with). To mark the anniversary, I thought perhaps fans of his work might appreciate an update.

February of this year saw the release of RETREAT, his final full-length solo novel. It is currently available in paperback and digital.

This morning, I’ve finished edits on the two planned novella-length prequels to SURVIVOR, which was unarguably his most popular novel. The first of these prequels, MONSTERS, was completed by Jesus just a few weeks before he got ill. The second prequel, ANIMALS, was half completed.

Jesus left behind an outline of what he’d planned for ANIMALS, and the estate enlisted Wrath James White to finish the novella. Wrath and Jesus were dear friends, and had collaborated together before, so it was a natural fit. As this is a prequel to SURVIVOR, fans will expect a certain level of extreme horror, and Wrath is better suited to fill that role than anyone else Jesus ever collaborated with. In short, he was the best person for the job.

And wow, he delivered. This morning, I have signed off on the editorial notes for both MONSTERS and ANIMALS. They will be published early next year by Sinister Grin Press. This is a deal that Jesus already had in place when he died. It was his desire to see the two prequels published together in a single volume. More-so, he’d hoped to see them published in the style and manner of the old Ace Doubles.

So, look forward to those from Sinister Grin. With that project completed, I’ll be turning my attention to CLICKERS FOREVER, a tribute anthology in the spirit of Karl Edward Wagner’s EXORCISMS AND ECSTASIES. Featuring a long-lost Clickers story by Jesus himself, the book will also feature fiction, non-fiction, and remembrances from some of the biggest names in horror. There will be Clickers stories (Gene O’Neill’s Hunter S. Thompson versus Clickers is worth the price of admission alone), non-Clickers stories featuring elements from the rest of his mythos, essays about his work and impact (such as an examination of THE CORPORATION by Nick Mamatas and a remembrance of Jesus’s involvement with the halcyon days of the Splatterpunks by David J. Schow and John Skipp — with additional commentary from Jesus himself), and much more.

After that, there are one or two non-fiction collections, at least one or two more short story collections (possibly more than that), and at least one unfinished novel (RETREAT II, which I am currently finishing based on the outline and notes he left behind). There are a number of other unfinished novels and short stories, including an autobiographical novel that Jesus had worked on for years, code-named EL PASO, which would have been his magnum opus.

Expect word on much of that next year, but for now, know that MONSTERS and ANIMALS are forthcoming, as is CLICKERS FOREVER. And there will definitely be more to follow.

Appearances For November:

Seattle -- I'll be there this week with my oldest son. A father-son trip. I might -- MIGHT -- do a pop-up signing. it will depend on how much free time we have, and what he wants to do. If that happens, it will be Tuesday or Wednesday evening, and I'll announce where via Twitter and Facebook.

November 17 – 20
Bizarro Con
McMenamins Edgefield
2126 SW Halsey St
Troutdale, OR 97060

November 30
Frederick Community College
Frederick, MD
Private Speaking Engagement

The final podcast of 2016 aired earlier this week. Listen for free here. During that episode, we announced plans for our 100th episode, which will take place next January. We'll be doing a live, twenty-four hour telethon. You can be there in person to participate. Details in the podcast itself.

If you're still here from last week -- and from this week's introductory rant -- then thanks for not unsubscribing. Take care of yourself, and I'll see you again next week, universe willing.