[Letters From the Labyrinth] Brian Keene 12/25/16

Hi. My name is Brian Keene and this is the 21st issue of Letters From the Labyrinth, a weekly email newsletter. If you're a new subscriber, previous issues are archived here.

Happy Holidays to those of you who celebrate them.

THE NAUGHTY LIST is now available to watch for free on YouTube (age restrictions apply). Directed by Paul Campion (THE DEVIL'S ROCK) and based on my short story, "The Siqqusim Who Stole Christmas", this marks the first film appearances of two of my most popular characters -- hapless gangsters Tony Genova and Vince Napoli.

Rather than embedding the video here, I'll link to it. HERE IS THE LINK. Watch it, share it, comment on it, and help it go viral. If it goes viral, then Paul will have an easier time getting the studio to cough up several million dollars for us to make a film adaptation of DARK HOLLOW.

My sons and I traditionally celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve morning. We had a good time. My 25-year old got some gear to help him become Dave Grohl and my 8-year old got a robot and a GoPro camera and a Hot Wheels garage. They are now both with their mothers. Mary and I are with her family.

I enjoy visiting her family, and love them as I love my own, but it's always a bit of an adjustment for me, around the holidays. There are usually a good thirty or forty people in the house (or so it seems to me). I don't do well with large crowds. They make me twitchy and tense. Which is funny, since I've spent the past year on tour, talking to crowd after crowd after crowd. My favorite parts of the tour? Those little oases in between the crowds -- quiet moments spent at the homes of friends like David Schow, James Moore, John Urbancik, John Skipp, and Camelot Books, or quiet moments spent on the road with co-pilots Tod Clark, Kasey Lansdale, and John Urbancik.

That's not to say I hate crowds or that you folks made me uncomfortable. I don't and you didn't. Indeed, as I look back on the tour, I continue to be incredibly humbled and grateful to everyone who showed up. But it takes a lot out of a person -- having to be on. I enjoy being on, but I also enjoy the moments in-between when I can be off, as well.

Thanks to all of you -- the folks who showed up to get books signed, pictures taken, questions answered, and exchange fellowship and good words, and the folks who provided a little bit of quiet and food and a bed to sleep on in-between those moments.

In a way, it's been Christmas all year. I love you guys. Thanks for making it one hell of a ride.

And there's still one more. New Years Party Con in Allentown, PA next weekend. If you can make it, please do. We'll bid 2016 goodbye together.

Next month is the 100th episode of my podcast, THE HORROR SHOW WITH BRIAN KEENE. To celebrate, we're going to be doing a live 24-hour telethon to raise money for the Scares That Care 501C charity.

Our network, Project Entertainment, have partnered with TeeSpring to produce this limited edition commemorative t-shirt. All of the proceeds from shirt sales will also go to Scares That Care. Thanks to the network and TeeSpring for making that happen!

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE

The 2016 Maelstrom set will begin shipping very soon. For new readers, Maelstrom is my imprint via publisher Thunderstorm Books. Each year, I publish a three-book set featuring a novel length work by myself, a novella length work by myself, and a novel length work by a writer I think you will enjoy. These sets are produced for book collectors. Each set consists of three signed, limited edition hardcovers with high-end production values. They are sold together — three books for one price.

This year’s three-book set is limited to 225 copies and costs $150. It is seventy-five percent sold out, so if you want one, act soon!

This year’s set includes:

THRONE OF THE BASTARDS
by Brian Keene and Steven L. Shrewsbury

Rogan is back in this sequel to Brian Keene and Steven L. Shrewsbury’s award-winning KING OF THE BASTARDS, and this time, he’ll show no mercy. Learning that his family are in danger, Rogan returns to his former kingdom, now under siege from foreign invaders led by his bastard son. Now, the aging barbarian and his trusted companions, Javan and Akibeel, must forge an alliance new friends and old foes, mustering an army to retake the kingdom. Surrounded by savages, soldiers, demons, and dark magic, it will take all their cunning, skill, and courage to survive the war and determine once and for all who shall sit upon the THRONE OF THE BASTARDS.

SCHOOL’S OUT
by Brian Keene

Eight-year-old Alan doesn’t like going to school, but when a global pandemic leaves him orphaned, cold, starving, and lonely, he has no choice but to set out on a dangerous quest to return to his third-grade classroom. SCHOOL’S OUT, an all-new post-apocalyptic novella by Brian Keene, was suggested to him by his son, marking their first official collaboration, and is suitable for all ages.

COME TO DUST
by Bracken MacLeod

Ever since her mother abandoned her, five-year-old Sophie has had to depend on her uncle Mitch for everything. But he’s struggling. Restarting a life interrupted by time in prison is hard enough without having to balance work and single parenthood. Mitch is determined to make it work though, striving to keep their family together despite the obstacles in their way, because no matter how difficult things get, they are good for each other. And life for the two of them seems to be looking up. But when Sophie dies tragically, it all comes crashing down. Mitch descends into a crippling grief, coming to understand how little his freedom means without her to share it with. And though released from the sudden responsibility thrust upon him, all he wants is his niece back, safe and alive.

When he gets his wish and scores of children around the world begin to inexplicably rise from the dead—Sophie among them—everything becomes much harder.

Mitch rescues her from the morgue, determined to carve out a normal life for them no matter what, though it soon becomes clear that may not be possible. While the kids who’ve returned behave like living children, they still look very dead. And they can do something else that normal children cannot. Something terrifying. Beliefs differ whether the children’s return is a mercy or a sign of approaching judgment, and a congregation of religious fanatics determined to usher in the apocalypse has their own plan for salvation.

Now Mitch must find a way to save Sophie from an increasingly hostile world that wants to tear them apart and put her back in the ground for good.

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MAELSTROM VII – The perfect holiday present for the Brian Keene fan in your life. 225 sets. $150. CLICK HERE TO ORDER

CURRENTLY READING: The Dark Tower saga by Stephen King
CURRENTLY LISTENING: So Alone by Johnny Thunders
CURRENTLY WATCHING: South Park Season 19

I agree with Entertainment Weekly. South Park's best season in over a decade. Possibly their best season ever.

That's it for this week. 2017 is almost upon us. As John Lennon said, "Let's hope it's a good one, without any fear..."