[Letters From the Labyrinth] Official Brian Keene Newsletter 3/5/17

Hi. My name is Brian Keene and this is Letters From the Labyrinth. If you're a new subscriber, previous issues are archived here.

This was a weird week. I busted my ass all week long, working on writing stuff, and yet, I didn't manage to write anything major.

I spent all of last Monday recovering from last week's Death Flu and prepping for Richard Chizmar's appearance on my podcast. Rich was on to talk about GWENDY'S BUTTON BOX, a brand-new Castle Rock novella he co-wrote with Stephen King. My day was spent crafting interview questions about the collaboration, their friendship and professional relationship and how that's grown over the years, etc. If you've ever listened to my podcast, then you know it's a conversation -- not an interview. I don't just ask questions independently of each other. I listen to answers and follow-up accordingly. It's a give-and-take -- a conversation that flows toward a predetermined destination. To get to that destination, I have to prepare the questions accordingly, to serve as signposts for me, Dave, and our guest. In the case of Rich and Steve, this was doubly important. To respect their privacy, there were all kinds of things that -- while I know them -- they wouldn't want the general public knowing. So questions have to be crafted to dance around those areas while still giving the general public solid information that they just won't get anywhere else. So, that was Monday.

On Tuesday, Dave come up to the house and we sat in the studio and recorded half of the podcast -- everything but Rich's segment. Both of us were still recovering from being sick, and still had sore throats, and after recording, I decided not to talk much for the rest of the day, and save my voice. I then wrote the final epilogue -- the final installment -- of END OF THE ROAD. I also wrote two quick things for a Hollywood studio looking to option some of my books.

On Wednesday, I dropped my youngest son off at school, like I do every morning, and then drove down to the Cemetery Dance Publishing office in Maryland. Dave and I recorded the second half of the show -- Rich's interview -- in Rich's office. It went great. As we were finishing up, my son's mother texted me. The school nurse had called. He had a fever of 101.2 and they were sending him home. He'd been fine earlier that morning. So, I drove back to Pennsylvania and took care of him for the rest of the day.

By Thursday, this second round of Death Flu had re-infected his mother and I, as well. I stayed at their house, and we took turns caring for him. She worked from her office (which is attached to the home). I worked from her dining room table. But neither of us really got any work done. If you have children, you know how that is. Knowing in advance that doing actual writing would be a lost cause, I instead opted to spend the day working on compiling and formatting and editing the CLICKERS FOREVER: A TRIBUTE TO J.F. GONZALEZ anthology. Thursday night, the podcast went live. It has already become one of our most popular episodes, ranking up there with Jack Ketchum, Edward Lee, and F. Paul Wilson and Thomas Monteleone. You can listen to it for free right here.

On Friday, that final END OF THE ROAD piece went live. Judging by my Twitter feed, it made a lot of people cry. Then, seeing as how he wasn't getting better, we made a doctor's appointment for our son. We recently changed pediatricians, and this was our first visit to the new doctor. He looked at my son's chart, saw my name, looked up at me, and said, "Oh!" Then he asked me if I was ever going to write anymore comic books.

Saturday was spent hauling lumber from Home Depot, and working on the new office/recording studio I'm building here at home on weekends.

Today is Sunday. And yes, I've got a great podcast episode to show for it, and yes, the CLICKERS FOREVER anthology is shaping up nicely, and yes, everyone is starting to recuperate from the Death Flu, but a full week has passed since I wrote anything other than that final END OF THE ROAD piece and the movie stuff.

Soon as I finish this newsletter, I'm going to get down to it.

This is a pic of Dave, Rich, and myself, taken in Rich's office at Cemetery Dance, after recording the interview.

Speaking of Richard Chizmar, this seems like a good opportunity to remind you that in addition to writing a book with Stephen King, he wrote a book with Ray Garton and I, as well. It's called UNEARTHED, and it's available in paperback and on Kindle. Click here to order.

THE NAUGHTY LIST -- the short film directed by Paul Campion and based on my short story "The Siqqusim Who Stole Christmas" -- is showing at the Midwest Weirdfest today (March 5). Details here.

I hope to announce a date here next week for that showing and Q&A Paul and I want to host in Central PA. Stay tuned...

Artist Alex McVey is selling the original oil painting which served as the cover art to the limited edition of my novel URBAN GOTHIC. Click here to see it. If interested, you can contact Alex via Twitter or the Instagram I just linked to. Artists, just like writers, live from check to check, so if you'd like some cool art to hang on your wall, let him know.

“Had it not been for Scott Edelman and the other comic book storytellers of that time, I would have never wanted to become a writer, I would have never persisted until I actually became a writer, and I would certainly have never written The Rising, which means that zombie literature might not have enjoyed this new heyday.”

That’s a brief excerpt from the Introduction I wrote for Scott Edelman’s new zombie collection LIARS, FAKERS AND THE DEAD WHO EAT THEM — which features two brand-new zombie novellas and is on sale right now in paperback for just $8.95. CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE

That's it for this week. I really, really, really want to write, and this newsletter doesn't count.

Next week, I hope to announce the date for that Q&A with Paul Campion and I. And, if things go well, I might announce the Table of Contents for CLICKERS FOREVER here, as well.

PATREON - Where I post new short stories, a serialized ongoing novel, and behind-the-scenes stuff.

TWITTER - The only social media outlet I still use regularly.