Greetings from Hell, where it is suspected that I most likely will not have a quick recovery from Bells Palsy. I’m typing this on Saturday morning, coming off two and a half hours of sleep. That’s a half hour less of sleep than I’ve gotten in an entire week. It doesn’t matter what time I go to bed or how tired I am or where I sleep — a combination of absolute agony and steroids wakes me up within a few hours. As I told several friends last week, and I mean it — I’d vastly prefer catching on fire and being back in the burn ward again as opposed to this. The burn pain from the fire was fresh and vibrant and alive, and it ran in cycles thanks to morphine and oxy. The nerve pain from Bells Palsy, particularly in my ear and jaw, is a dull, abhorrent, gnawing little beetle who has burrowed deep inside and can’t be touched by drugs, and can’t be escaped by sleep or distractions. It is always there, and it does not abate. I have my next follow-up on Monday and one of the things we’ll be looking at is how to combat the pain. It has made me incredibly grumpy, and I have found myself apologizing to people all week long, particularly Mary and both my sons.
And now I’ll apologize to you, as well. I’m Brian Keene and I am sorry. This is the 274th issue of Letters From the Labyrinth — a weekly newsletter for fans of my work. Previous issues can be found here.
Tons of people reached out to me this week. I’ll be honest — between the sleep deprivation and the pain, I only remember bits and pieces of it. But I want to thank Josh Malerman who graciously allowed me to have a mini-breakdown and half tearful confessional. (Aren’t you glad you asked, brother?)
I would also like to give special thanks to publisher Jason Sizemore and author Brooke Brannon, both of whom have struggled with long term Bells Palsy, and both of whom understand exactly what’s happening to me right now. Jason has known me for years, and he knows how I deal and cope with things, so the first thing he did was send me a list of gear and supplies to buy — a Bells Palsy Prepper list, so to speak. They eye gel alone made all the difference the second half of this week. And Brooke… well, I just met Brooke this week, after she sent a kind note, but I can already tell she’s my people, and approaches things with the same sense of humor I approach things with. Seriously, in addition to my family, if anybody saved my butt this week, it was Jason and Brooke.
Jason runs Apex Publications, of course, and has published my own THE LOST LEVEL, RETURN TO THE LOST LEVEL, and HOLE IN THE WORLD, as well as the books I wrote with Steven L. Shrewsbury — KING OF THE BASTARDS, THRONE OF THE BASTARDS, and the forthcoming CURSE OF THE BASTARDS.
Brooke’s work can be found here on her website, including several free stories like the Pushcart Prize nominated “Why I’m Angry”.
Check them out, if you’d be so kind. They were the duct tape that held me together this week.
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Mary and I surprised the internet Friday by dropping a new book that we’d managed to keep secret. Keeping it secret was easy, because we hadn’t planned on releasing it until later in the year. But given this new round of hospital and doctor visits, testing, and physical therapy, we decided to release it now so we wouldn’t have to worry about that stuff.
THINGS LEFT BEHIND by Brian Keene and Mary SanGiovanni
Signed Paperback Edition - $18.95 + S&H
In their first book-length collaboration, Grandmaster Award winner Brian Keene and Bram Stoker Award nominee Mary SanGiovanni take readers on a road trip across horror fiction’s vast landscape, incorporating the quiet, the cosmic, the supernatural, the surreal, and the splatter. From a basement in Baltimore where a writer uncovers a gruesome secret that threatens to rip his world apart, to the golden shores of San Francisco where a young widow discovers she still has more to lose, stretches a trail of THINGS LEFT BEHIND.
Specifics:
This is a signed limited edition paperback.
This book will only be available for sale until April 15th, 2022.
The number of pre-orders during this time will be the print run for this edition.
This is a pre-order. The expected ship date for this edition is June 2022.
CLICK HERE TO PRE-ORDER YOUR COPY
The cover art and design are by Lynne Hansen, and yes, you’re right. It is absolutely gorgeous.
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Bev Vincent and I were guests on the latest episode of Writers On Wax. We talked music, music, music, and our new book DISSONANT HARMONIES. Listen free via Apple Podcasts or YouTube.
Obviously, this was recorded before half my face got paralyzed. It will be a while before I can do interviews again, so enjoy it!
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Here is a really good write up on the recent melding of Splatterpunk and Weird Westerns.
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Mysterious things still happening over at Havenbrook Labs. Seems to be leading up to something…
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My Czech publisher reports that their online store has been impacted by Russian and Belarusian cyber attacks on hosting. It is currently back up and running.
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Despite everything that’s going on, I will absolutely be at Scares That Care AuthorCon in three weeks. You know how you can help me with that? If you’re a Guest of Honor who will be appearing at the convention, or an author, artist or publisher with a vendor table at the convention, you can promote the convention to your followers. Seriously. Just give them this link and encourage them to attend.
And if you are a reader or a fan, you can help me by attending the convention. Tickets are still available, and will be available at the door, as well. And there are still hotel rooms available, too.
Seriously. This one is important to me. I hope you will consider attending. It’s worth the trip.
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I had planned on doing a cross-country library tour this year. Becky Spratford put me in touch with some folks last year when I began planning it, and I’d been mapping out a route. Obviously, that’s not going to happen now. There’s simply no way I can drive from state to state and speak at a different library every night. Not until I have a better idea what my full recovery time is going to be. So I’ll table that for 2023.
But I will still be doing the conventions I’d already committed to, because they won’t require as much travel or talking or stamina. So, if you want to get your books signed this summer, here is where I’ll be.
April 1 to April 3 — Scares That Care AuthorCon
Doubletree By Hilton
50 Kingsmill Road
Williamsburg, Virginia 23185
May 12 to May 15 — StokerCon 2022
The Curtis
1405 Curtis Street
Denver, CO 80202
June 17 to June 19 — Tremendicon
Oasis Hotel and Convention Center
2546 N Glenstone Ave
Springfield, MO 65803
July 29 to July 31 — Scares That Care Weekend 8
Doubletree By Hilton
50 Kingsmill Road
Williamsburg, Virginia 23185
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Every week, I usually post my current listens, watches, and reads. Many of you say it’s your favorite part of the newsletter. Sadly, I haven’t been able to watch much this week, because the glare from the screen is like a knife in my eye, and reading with one eye gives me a headache. So, I’m afraid it’s just audio this week.
Currently Listening: Burnin’ by John Lee Hooker, The Blurred Crusade by The Church, Live In New York City by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Everything’s Different Now by Til Tuesday, Dread Ritual by Church of Disgust, Mobile of Angels by Witch Mountain, Murder 4 Hire by Body Count, and The Four Horsemen by Ultramagnetic MCs.
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Not as productive a work week as I would have liked, but I chipped steadily away at revisions on PROJECT CASTLE, worked on edits for SUBMERGED, stuff for THINGS LEFT BEHIND and THE DRIVE-IN: MULTIPLEX, approved some stuff on the Italian edition of KING OF THE BASTARDS, attended the monthly Board Meeting for Scares That Care, and helped John Scoleri and David J. Schow with something. Hopefully I’ll have a bit more recovery in the coming week and get back to something resembling fuller power.
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Okay, it’s now 8:02pm on Saturday evening. I just got home from Dave’s memorial service. It was really special. A banger of a winter storm impacted the final attendance, but there were still probably 40 to 45 people there, by my count (original RSVPs had been around 80). I’m too tired to write about it much, and there were many, many fine speakers, but I found the speeches of Geoff Cooper, Mary, Christian Jensen, and Victoria Timpanaro to be particularly moving, on a personal level. Coop and Mary spoke as Dave’s friends — sort of the yin and yang of his friends, in many ways. Christian spoke as a writer whose career was absolutely and indelibly impacted by Dave’s grace and kindness. And Victoria spoke as a fan who was moved by not only the Dave on the podcast, but by the Dave she met in real life. All of them were beautiful.
So, that’s it. I’m exhausted, my face and eye hurt, and I want to sit and quietly listen to music tonight. I’ll put on some Rush, Genesis, Porcupine Tree, Savatage, and Hawkwind in honor of my friend. When Hawkwind comes on, I will yell “Powder the bees”. It’s a private joke Dave and I had, stemming from a Hawkwind concert he once attended. It will make me laugh.
And then hopefully I will sleep for more than three hours tonight.
I’ll see you back here next week. Hold close to those you care about, and bar the door. The wolves are getting louder, and the snow is still falling. But it’s okay. We still have light and warmth. And I still have a knife and a gun and a plan. I may be making that plan up as we go along, but it’s still a plan, and I ain’t dead yet.
— Brian
Rest in peace, brother. Tell Jesus, Pic, Gak, Little Dave, and the rest of the boys that I’ll be along eventually. Keep Dallas and Dick out of trouble till I get there.
I’m sorry you’re going through all this. I had to go on steroids when I went through a brief rejection episode after kidney transplant. Until they finally lowered my dosage, I spent a lot of time apologizing to the people closest to me.
A speedy recovery, Sir.