[Letters From the Labyrinth] Official Brian Keene Newsletter 4/30/17

Hello. My name is Brian Keene and this is Letters From the Labyrinth, a weekly newsletter for fans of my work. If you're a new subscriber, previous issues are archived here.

Around 3 a.m. on Saturday, an explosion woke me and the cat. Mary was in New Jersey, my son was at his mother's for the weekend, and the cat and I were home alone. When it's just the two of us, we usually end up falling asleep on the couch, listening to episodes of Family Guy, rather than dragging our asses to the bedroom, and that was what we had done. He was curled up in the crook of my arm. Both of us were out. And then...

KA-BOOM!

I bolted awake. The cat jumped to the floor and hid under the coffee table. A vibration seemed to run through the house, and it was daylight outside. I glanced at the clock, saw that it was only 3 a.m., and tried to make sense of the daylight, but when I turned to the window again, it was dark once more.

KRAKA-BOOM!

The entire world lit up again. Still not entirely awake, and certainly not-yet-caffeinated, I assumed that the nuclear war I've been told to expect since I was a little kid had finally started. I tumbled off the couch, cinched my bathrobe around me, and calculated what to throw into the Jeep before racing to the bomb shelter at my ex-wife's house, and wondering which city had been hit.

Ten seconds later, as I started to wake up and my synapses started working, I decided that it wasn't a nuclear war. Instead, it was pretty obvious to me that the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, which is just a few dozen miles up-river from me, had blown up.

Then, coming fully awake, I realized that it was just a thunderstorm. So, I made coffee and then -- still in my bathrobe -- I took a cup of coffee out onto the dock and I stood there in the darkness, watching the lightening explode over the river in different shades of electric blue, and listening to the thunder roll across the sky, and feeling the rain and wind on my face.

It was delightful. And at that hour, it felt like I had the world to myself. None of my neighbors stirred. There were no lights or noise from any of the boats anchored out on the river. It was just me and the storm.

I've been living here at the river's edge for two years, now. I really like it.

I previously mentioned how, by the end of the year, almost all of my backlist will be available in audiobook. GHOST WALK was released two weeks ago. Now, THE LOST LEVEL has followed suit.

So, for those keeping score at home, THE COMPLEX, DARK HOLLOW, GHOST WALK, and THE LOST LEVEL are currently available. A GATHERING OF CROWS is in post-production. LAST OF THE ALBATWITCHES and THE RISING are currently in production. And the rest will follow.

Here is a handy link to purchase all of them.

I wrote the Introduction for A WEIRDISH WILD SPACE — Mary SanGiovanni’s first non-fiction collection (which includes some great essays on Charles Grant, J.F. Gonzalez, Women In Horror, and much more).

The limited edition is up for pre-order from Thunderstorm Books right now.

Click here to get your copy.

The final novel in THE RISING series (which I had given the placeholder title of THE RISING V) has an official title now. It is called....

(Drum roll)

(No, you knucklehead. The title isn't DRUM ROLL).

The title is...

THE FALL

Without spoilers, characters include a survivor from CITY OF THE DEAD, several survivors from THE RISING: SELECTED SCENES FROM THE END OF THE WORLD, and the astronauts mentioned in THE RISING.

THE FALL is going to be a very, very long book. Easily the longest thing I've ever written.

If you haven't read THE RISING series, here is a handy link where you can purchase them and learn what order to read them in.

One character who won't be appearing in THE FALL is Frankie.

If you've been reading THE SEVEN: THE LABYRINTH, Book One -- the serialized novel available for just $1 a month on my Patreon -- then you know why. If you haven't been reading that, then, without spoilers, just know that Frankie is currently being held prisoner in Iraq, and interrogated by the U.S. Army. She's not alone. Teddy from EARTHWORM GODS, Tony from the CLICKERS series, The Exit from THE COMPLEX, Bloom from the short story "Babylon Falling", and the fallen angel Lucifer have all been captured, as well, in the aftermath of their battle with Kandara, one of The Thirteen. It's up to Nelson LeHorn from DARK HOLLOW to save them, but is he up to the challenge?

Pay $1 a month and you can find out. All of the previous chapters are archived there, so you don't have to worry about missing anything. Click here to get started.

But anyway, yeah... Frankie may have survived the ending of CITY OF THE DEAD, but she won't be appearing in THE FALL.

Things I Worked On This Past Week:

1. Edits on second half of HOLE IN THE WORLD
2. Finished and submitted comic book script
3. My under-construction office/podcast studio
4. Edits on the collected version of END OF THE ROAD

We also, as we do every week, recorded a podcast episode. Our guest this past week was Kelli Owen. She, Dave and myself bet on the outcome of the Bram Stoker Awards. Dave won, picking four winners correctly. Kelli picked three correctly. I only picked one correctly.

Click here to listen to it for yourself. It's always free. You can listen from our computer, or from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Roku, and many other platforms.

That's it for this week. A few reminders:

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.

Take care.