Letters From the Labyrinth 267
Bubbles did not enjoy her check-up at the vet this past week. It’s sort of like Where’s Waldo, but with a kitten. The good news is that she and her two brothers were pronounced happy and healthy.
Howdy. My name is Brian Keene and this is the 267th issue of Letters From the Labyrinth — a weekly newsletter for fans of my work. Previous issues can be found here.
It’s Saturday morning as I write this. We had our monthly Scares That Care board meeting last night — the first with new members Sonora and Angel — and I’m still jazzed about the new level of energy and excitement they’ve brought to the team. We talked, of course, about the various fundraisers the charity will be doing this year, including upcoming donations days, and of course, Authorcon, which is now just four months away.
Speaking of Authorcon, we just added Josh Malerman and Maurice Broaddus as guests of honor. They’ll be joining our other guests of honor F. Paul Wilson, Grady Hendrix, S.A. Cosby, Hailey Piper, Jonathan Janz, Mary SanGiovanni, C.V. Hunt, Wrath James White, Weston Ochse, Yvonne Navarro, and Andersen Prunty, as well as the dozens and dozens of other authors, artists and publishers who will be appearing. For complete details on the convention, the hotel, and to buy your tickets, go here.
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Speaking of conventions, a reminder that I am a Guest of Honor at Stokercon this year, taking place May 12 through the 15th in Denver, Colorado. I’ll be available to talk, hang out, and sign your books all weekend. I’ll also be doing a number of panel discussions and hopefully a reading. For complete details and to register for the convention, click here.
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Yes, as you can tell by the cover image above, the audiobook edition of THE SEVEN: THE LABYRINTH Book 1 came out this week, narrated by Joshua Saxon! Find out why critics call this one “a masterpiece” and “Keene’s magnum opus”.
Nook and Kobo editions are still forthcoming.
Edits on the second draft of SUBMERGED: THE LABYRINTH Book 2 are almost finished. It will go out to my pre-readers late next week. Once they get their edits back to me, I’ll incorporate those into the final draft, and then the book will be ready to be published. The goal is to publish one Labyrinth book per year, until the series is completed. I anticipate the series itself will be six, possibly seven, books long.
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The Author’s Preferred Edition of TERMINAL should be on sale next week! This will be the paperback and Kindle editions. Chet Williamson is currently narrating the audiobook edition, so that will follow quickly.
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Much like Kit Power’s ongoing Exploring the Labyrinth column, author and critic Jay Wilburn has launched Brian Keene Revisited, which as the title indicates, is a reread of all my works, in order. The introductory essay, “A Gathering of Books”, can be read for free here.
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Currently Reading: The Second Shooter by Nick Mamatas and DC Universe: The Stories of Alan Moore by Alan Moore and various artists.
Currently Listening: The Astonishing by Dream Theater
Currently Watching: Mayor of Kingstown — and wow — I disagree with the critics who are panning this one. Mary and I watched the entire first season, and we both loved it. It’s some gritty modern noir that hits hard and absolutely pulls no punches. My only problem with it is Dianne Weist’s character. She’s a very capable actress, and she does well with the role they’ve given her, but the character herself? The show slows to a crawl for me every time she’s on. Luckily, that wasn’t enough to impact my overall enjoyment. I recommend this one. Think of a cross between The Shield and either Oz or Orange Is The New Black. Really good show, streaming now on Paramount Plus.
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If you’re a fan of my work, then you’ve no doubt read the Bastard Series written by myself and Steven L. Shrewsbury, which feature the tales of Rogan, an aged barbarian. Book 3 in that trilogy will be out later this year. But there’s also another Rogan book coming this year, written by Steven, and taking place decades before the Bastard series, recounting a tale from when Rogan was younger. It’s called Killer of Giants and here is a look at the cover.
So that’s two Rogan books you have to look forward to this year!
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And that’s it for this week! I hope you are doing okay. Here at Casa Keengiovanni, we’re getting ready for the snowstorm that’s supposed to hit later today. Stay safe, and warm, and I’ll see you back here next week.
totally agree with you regarding Mayor Of Kingstown, its a great noir story with wonderful performances that sadly has Diane Wiest character come on and give a history lesson or yell at Jeremy Renner. She's still good in this role. I =f another season comes I hope they give her more to do,
Chet has always done a great job narrating your novels that he has worked on. Appreciate that choice. I think that the narrator's performance is as integral to an audio book as the quality and content of the writing.