[Letters From the Labyrinth] Official Brian Keene Newsletter 6/18/17
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.
Happy Father's Day to those who celebrate it. I'm one of those, although celebrations here at Casa Keene take place over a few days.
I celebrated with my youngest son and his mother yesterday. They took me to lunch, bought me a new Hawaiian shirt and two lovely cards. Then we built a shed together. My oldest son works this weekend, so I will see him later this week for our annual father/son game of Magic the Gathering. Mary's son is in New Jersey with her. I'll see him next weekend. My godson and his sister are currently on vacation in Florida, so I'll see them next week, as well. Today, J.F. Gonzalez's wife and daughter -- Cathy and Hannah -- are dropping by.
It's staggering, sitting here typing this, to realize just how much each of these kids have grown.
My oldest son is 26 now. Sometimes, I have trouble remembering that, and still think of him as the little boy who inspired Danny in THE RISING. Yesterday, Cathy posted a video of Hannah's ninth birthday. You can see my youngest son in the background, toddling around with a pacifier in his mouth. Now he is nine, and Hannah is a young woman. Mary's son starts his second year of college this Fall. I still remember Mary asking Geoff Cooper and I to babysit him when the child was four years old. My godson is just a few short years away from being able to drive a car, and yet I remember pushing him around in a stroller at Walmart. And his sister? She's ten now, and on the verge of ruling the world.
I'll turn fifty in September. I'm sitting here in my office, staring at a wall of books I've written, and a shelf full of various awards. And that stuff is cool, I guess. But I think my real legacy will be written by these kids, and I suspect -- and hope -- that it will be a good one.
The big news this week was a series of teaser images I dropped online. There's 19 images in all, and I'm not going to replicate them all here, because I suspect that would make this newsletter crash for many of you. If you'd like to see each of them, Jude Terror at Bleeding Cool broke them down into two news articles. Article One. Article Two.
So, why am I posting teasers, rather than just talking about it outright? Because it's for comic books. Specifically, it's for DC Comics, a division of Time-Warner, who itself is soon to be a division of AT&T. Huge corporations have marketing departments whom they pay a lot of money to announce things. And thus, creatives -- meaning the writers and artists who worked on those things -- are supposed to wait for those marketing people to take the lead.
But this is a comic book (or comic books) involving myself, Edward Lee, Nick Cutter, Mary SanGiovanni, Wrath James White, Bryan Smith, Weston Ochse, and Ronald Malfi. With that line-up, it's a safe bet this project might appeal to OUR readers -- most of which don't read comic books, and most of which won't know that they'll have to pre-order this project from a comic book store three months ahead of time if they want to get a copy because the distribution system for comics in 2017 is as archaic as a Betamax on board a dirigible.
So, yeah. I walked a tightrope -- balancing between not saying anything (which is what I was supposed to do) and letting our readers know "Hey, something is coming, and we'd like you guys to read it, so head's up."
And then word came down from on high that I needed to stop. But I didn't get fired. So I reckon that's progress.
Here's what we know (without saying anything new and merely regurgitating the information from the articles): Brian Keene + Justice League + Mary SanGiovanni + Wonder Woman + Nick Cutter + Batman + Wrath James White + Two-Face + Edward Lee + Superman + Ronald Malfi + Green Arrow + Weston Ochse + Shazam + Bryan Smith + Brian Keene (again) + Harley Quinn = ?
Well, you'll find out what all that equals next month, when it's available for pre-order. It will be in stores this October.
Crossroads Press reports that audiobook versions of THE RISING, A GATHERING OF CROWS, and LAST OF THE ALBATWITCHES will all be released within the next two weeks.
You can listen to a preview of THE RISING here.
Currently Watching: Orange Is The New Black, Twin Peaks, Better Call Saul, and Silicon Valley
Currently Listening: Various Neil Young albums
Currently Reading: Sandman by William W. Johnstone
ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK: Here we are at season five. I find Piper insufferable at this point. It's a bad sign when you're hoping one of the other characters will shank the main protagonist. Red is still my girl, though. I love Red.
TWIN PEAKS: Six episodes in to this third season, and the silliness and soap opera elements are still absent, in favor of a reflective paranormal, occult, metaphysical story line. Yes, there are still quirky moments, but this is much more akin to FIRE WALK WITH ME than it is the "Housewife gets superpowers" nonsense of Season Two. I'm glad to see that the story is finally starting to feature more of the town itself (the first five episodes were centered in New York and Las Vegas and the afterlife and other dimensions and the Lodge, with only short side-trips back to the namesake of the show). With so much ground to cover, the show seems to move slowly at times, but I think that -- for right now at least -- it adds to the dread and the mystery.
BETTER CALL SAUL: Also moving slowly this season, and while it still remains the best character study currently on television, the addition of Gus Fring this season has (for me, at least) removed a lot of the suspense. Although we knew the eventual fates of Mike, Hector, Gus, Tuco, etc., there was still a lot of mystery and wonder in watching that past history unfold. This season feels more like a game of chess where we already know who wins, and we're just watching the pieces be moved into position. Jimmy's transition into Saul seems certain by next season, and it makes me wonder how much longer they can go. Yes, we still want to know what happens to Chuck and Kim, but it's clear their fates will have to be resolved within another season.
SILICON VALLEY: Fantastic, uproarious season. While Gilfoyle remains my personal favorite, TJ Miller's Bachman remains the funniest thing about the show (this season's "Mansplaining" segment, for example) and I fear the series will suffer with his departure in two episodes.
Full speed ahead last week and this week on CLICKERS FOREVER: A TRIBUTE TO J.F. GONZALEZ and HOLE IN THE WORLD. I'm working on the last half of the final draft of the latter. And for the former, I need to edit five more stories, fly to Los Angeles and talk with David Schow and John Skipp, and wait on two more submissions (one of which is being written and the other of which is being revised at my request).
Both books are so close to completion that I'm getting antsy typing up this newsletter and want to work on them instead.
So, that's what I'm going to do.
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.