Letters From the Labyrinth 256
Howdy! My name is Brian Keene and this is the 256th issue of Letters From the Labyrinth — a weekly newsletter for fans of my work. Previous issues can be found here on Substack. If you’re reading this via email, and you’d like to leave a comment, just click that link. I’m always happy to hear from you.
Stripe, Dallas and Bubbles had their first vet appointment on Friday. It went well. All three kittens got a clean bill of health. We were given some worming medication, just in case, but otherwise they are all healthy and fine. Which means they can now explore the rest of the house. So far, they are getting along with Mary’s older cat, Spike. Stripe is desperate to be his friend and follows him around like a shadow. Spike is about ten times bigger than Stripe, and it’s very cute watching them. Bubbles, meanwhile, has begun to bond to Mary, and took a nap with her last night. And Dallas, as you can see from the pic above, has decided that he’s mine.
Momma Josey has a new box to sleep in outside. My father built it from a beehive, and even gave it a shingled roof to help keep the rain off. Josey has slept in it the last two nights, but is still disappearing during the day. if she continues to return to the box each night, then I’m confident I can make an appointment to have her spayed and get her all the shots an outdoor barn cat needs. (You’ll remember from previous newsletters that she is too feral to be an indoor, domesticated cat and the last time I made an appointment to get her spayed, she vanished for three days).
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THE SEVEN: THE LABYRINTH, Book 1 is now available in paperback and Kindle. Click here to purchase either.
There will be an audiobook version, but not until the middle of next year (we have to get the rest of my backlist released in audio first).
Also worth noting — given the shipping delays, logistics problems, and paper shortage that have all three combined into the perfect storm across the world, if you are buying this in paperback for someone for the holiday season, I would order it now, rather than wait, just to be sure it arrives in time. There have been increasing delays in both the production and delivery of books and comic books over the last two months, and the situation is getting worse. Obviously, none of that impacts delivery of the Kindle edition, however. I suspect in the near future that eBook sales, which had been dwindling for most authors and publishers, will spike again, just as audiobook sales did during the pandemic.
Anyway, what is THE SEVEN: THE LABYRINTH, Book 1? Well, here’s the back cover copy:
The Labyrinth — an interconnected mythos that binds all of Brian Keene’s works together.
The Labyrinth — an interdimensional construct that binds all of reality together.
Now, the Labyrinth is threatened. A group of malevolent cosmic entities known as The Thirteen have been loosed upon the universe. Ob, Leviathan, Behemoth, Nodens, Meeble, Shtar, Kandara and the rest of their kind have one goal — the complete destruction of all Creation. Seven unlikely warriors from across time and space have been called upon to stop them. If they fail, reality itself will crumble. And the collapse has already begun…
THE SEVEN: THE LABYRINTH Book One is the start of Brian Keene’s magnum opus, featuring characters and situations from THE RISING, EARTHWORM GODS, DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN, THE COMPLEX, CLICKERS, DARK HOLLOW, and many more in an epic, multi-volume final battle that spans Keene’s vast literary universe, and will thrill both new readers and long-time fans.
THE SEVEN: THE LABYRINTH Book One — Everything dies, but not everything has an ending…until now.
Again, you can purchase the paperback or Kindle edition here.
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We announced the Guests of Honor and all of the other awesome authors, artists, editors, and publishers who will be at the first annual Scares That Care AuthorCon, a charity fundraising horror fiction convention taking place April 1st through the 3rd, 2022 at the Doubletree By Hilton in Williamsburg, Virginia. The Guests of Honor are:
Grady Hendrix
F. Paul Wilson
Hailey Piper
S.A. Cosby
Jonathan Janz
Mary SanGiovanni
Wrath James White
Weston Ochse
Yvonne Navarro
C.V. Hunt
Andersen Prunty
There will be a few more Guest announcements forthcoming. You can see the complete list, including all of the other authors, publishers, etc. who will be there by clicking here. That’s also where you can buy your very cheap tickets to attend.
For years, horror fiction fandom has been wishing something like the much-loved and fondly remembered World Horror Convention would make a return. Well, this is it. This is what you wished for. But the only way this convention will be successful (meaning the charity can help one of our 2022 beneficiaries) is if readers attend. So, if you have the means, I hope you’ll join us. Tickets are affordable, and at that time of year, the hotel rooms are affordable, as well.
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I was a guest host on The Ghost Writers podcast last week, and sat in for an interview with Ellen Datlow. it’s available wherever you listen to podcasts, including this link.
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Photo courtesy of longtime reader Steven Hager, via Twitter.
If you’ve read SUBURBAN GOTHIC, then you know why this is funny and awesome. If you haven’t read it, you should fix that.
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I’ve known L. Marie Wood for almost 20 years now, I guess. We first met during a signing together down near Washington D.C. (a signing that also included Mary SanGiovanni, J.F. Gonzalez, and a dozen other great folks). I’ve talked about her books in past newsletters, but today I want to talk about something else she’s doing — The Speculative Fiction Academy — an online genre fiction writing school, film school, critique group, and roundtable. When we talk about paying it forward? This is paying it forward twentyfold, folks. I wish something like this had existed twenty years ago when L. Marie, Jesus, Mary and I were doing that signing. All four of us could have used it.
The academy has five different curriculum tracks, three different ways to learn, and an impressive staff and faculty. If you want to get better at your craft, I encourage you to visit the website and peruse everything they offer. And kudos to L. Marie for doing this. I got excited when she told me about it last year, because this is the type of thing we all need to be doing more of.
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Currently Reading: Unfadeable by Maurice Broaddus, Irish Gothic by Ronald Kelly and The Writing Life by Jeff Strand
Currently Listening: Home Invasion by Ice-T, Amused To Death by Roger Waters, and Wake the Sleeping Dragon by Sick Of It All
Currently Watching: Season 16 of South Park
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Mary and I spent most of yesterday hanging out with two of my old Navy buddies — Blumenthal and Buige — and their wives, Krista and Val. Here’s a pic of us I took in Buige’s garage. Blumenthal is the partial inspiration behind the character of Don Bloom in THE SEVEN and various short stories.
But that means I have to spend today catching up on work, so I’m going to wrap things here. I’ll see you again next Sunday. Be kind to one another and peace.