Letters From the Labyrinth 358

In Which I Make You Squee

Good morning. I’m Brian Keene and this is Letters From the Labyrinth — a long-running weekly newsletter for fans, friends, and family. How long running? I won a Bram Stoker Award for a newsletter way back in 2001. I have been ahead of the trends since before you were born. Ask your parents about the ending to THE RISING.

Thanks for being here. I know that there are like twelve-thousand other authors with newsletters now. It means a lot to me that you take five minutes to read this one every Sunday, and find enough value or entertainment in my babbling to come back the next week.

And that’s not the only thing I want to thank you for. You all have been so gracious, kind, and supportive with the GoFundMe, and I am grateful to all of you. I wanted to do something to replay that kindness, so I’ve put all twenty of my books published via Manhattan On Mars on sale for 99 cents on Kindle, Nook, and Kobo.

(The only place they’re not on sale for this price is iBooks, because Apple’s interface was designed by a pack of howler monkeys on Xanax and it is an exercise in frustration and futility to change the prices via their system).

I wish I could do this with the rest of my books, as well, but the Manhattan On Mars titles are the only ones I control the price to at the moment. Regardless, I’m sure there’s some stuff you haven’t yet read..

The sale will last a full month — November 26th to December 26th. (Please let me know if you see one that is not 99 cents).

Here is a complete list of all the 99 cent books with direct links:

FICTION

The Seven: The Labyrinth, Book 1: Kindle - Nook - Kobo

Submerged: The Labyrinth, Book 2: Kindle - Nook - Kobo

Alone: Kindle - Nook - Kobo

Scratch: Kindle - Nook - Kobo

Terminal: Kindle - Nook - Kobo

School’s Out: Kindle - Nook - Kobo

Blood On the Page: Kindle - Nook - Kobo

All Dark, All The Time: Kindle - Nook - Kobo

Love Letters From A Nihilist: Kindle - Nook - Kobo

Things Left Behind: Kindle - Nook - Kobo

META-FICTION

The Girl On The Glider: Kindle - Nook - Kobo

Sundancing: Kindle - Nook - Kobo

NONFICTION

The Triangle of Belief: Kindle - Nook - Kobo

Unsafe Spaces: Kindle - Nook - Kobo

Trigger Warnings: Kindle - Nook - Kobo

Other Words: Kindle - Nook - Kobo

Sympathy For the Devil: Kindle - Nook - Kobo

Running With the Devil: Kindle - Nook - Kobo

The New Fear: Kindle - Nook - Kobo

Leader of the Banned: Kindle - Nook - Kobo

Enjoy! And thanks again.

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As my readers and Weston Ochse’s readers know, MONSTERS OF SAIPAN was a collaborative novel the two of us were writing together. We serialized it jointly on our Patreon pages, with the intention of publishing it once the serial was finished.

With Weston’s recent passing, I want to give his fans an update on the status of the novel.

The plot of MONSTERS OF SAIPAN was all Weston’s, and the main characters were based on guys he had served with in various capacities over the years, both in the military and as a private defense contractor. This was a story that he wanted to tell, and I was happy to be along for the ride.

Last year, when his health was such that he couldn’t work on the book, we put it on hold (but did not tell the public why). Because the characters were so near and dear to him, I didn’t want to forge ahead, and figured I’d wait until he got better.

This year, when it slowly became clear that the fight he was engaged in was even more serious than we’d thought, we talked about MONSTERS OF SAIPAN some more. He gave me clear instructions on the remainder of the plot, etc. and I gave him my word that I’d finish the book, should the worst happen. But I also insisted that we wait and see. Weston, like Keith Richards, just seemed like an impossible fore of nature, and even in these last few weeks, I secretly expected that he might actually beat this thing.

With his passing, I will keep my word and finish the novel. I do not, however, have access to his Patreon page. And I don’t think it’s right to ask his fans to pay for access to my Patreon just so they can read the serial’s continuation. So, what I’ve decided is that I will finish the novel off Patreon, and then — with Von’s oversight and permission — we’ll sell it to a publisher, so that all of his readers have access to it.

I will need time to read back over his notes, and email and text message exchanges with me regarding the book. Once I’m in the right headspace, I’ll go back to work on it. The book was roughly halfway complete, so I am confident it will be completed by summer of 2024.

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Currently Playing: Clash of Clans and Civilization III: Conquests

Currently Listening: Brian Keene Radio

Nothing watched or read this past week, because all of my free time was eaten up by work or the Thanksgiving holiday.

Mary and I drove to her family’s home in New Jersey on Wednesday and came back home Friday. We had a lovely time with lovely people, and I came home with an entire tray of sausage and peppers all for myself, which I have had for breakfast, lunch and dinner. My niece, who hasn’t seen me since I grew my hair out, and who — for her entire 11 years on the planet — has always know Uncle Brian to sport the Bruce Willis style shaved head, found great mirth and merriment at the fact that I now have hair.

The rest of the week was focused on getting SPLINTERED: THE LABYRINTH Book 3 ready for paperback and eBook release, working on the final chapters of the first draft of BENEATH THE LOST LEVEL, writing first drafts of several Lost Level stories that were commissioned by readers, and working on the final drafts of LOVE AND HATE IN THE TIME OF COVID and INVISIBLE MONSTERS: A NOVEL (I’ve added “a Novel” to the title after input from David J. Schow and Geoff Cooper. I also did a lot of behind the scenes stuff for Christopher Golden’s House of Last Resort Weekend and Scares That Care’s Authorcons III and IV.

And I also, of course, worked on bookstore prep. With each GoFundMe deposit, I get more and more achieved. I’ve hot a temporary holding pattern with doing anymore paperwork, since I can’t set up accounts with distributors until I get my PA Sales Tax license, and the PA Dept of Whatever seems to be taking their sweet time with sending me that.

Authors Owen King, Ronald Kelly, Kristopher Triana, and Daniel Volpe all sent signed books, which was very kind and appreciated. I took delivery of a price gun, cash register and credit card reader, and lots of used book inventory (we’ll be selling both new and used books). In the evenings, I priced hundreds of used books until I could no longer see straight.

The week ahead looks to be equally busy. I’m thinking about perhaps Mary and I taking a trip to Centralia today, to celebrate being married for six months, but that will be dependent on weather. Either way, there’s a full day ahead so I’m gonna cut this short now and get back to it. I appreciate all of you, and I’ll see you back here next Sunday.

The shirt was a gift from Rachel Autumn Deering and her then-wife Jessica. The photo is by Weston Ochse. The Jeep was mine but went to the big junkard in the sky several years ago.