Letters From the Labyrinth 368

Phase 2 Complete

Good morning. I’m Brian Keene and this is Letters From the Labyrinth, a weekly newsletter for fans, friends, and family. I’m typing this from my office at Vortex Books & Comics (not to be confused with my office at home) while Mary minds the store. It has been an exhausting but fantastic week. In the first four days of being open, sales were enough that next month’s rent, next month’s accounting bill, and next month’s electricity bill are all covered. So anything from today onward is profit. I know that it won’t always be this banging, but it’s a very good start and any anxiety I had has dissipated. Thanks to all the fans and readers who stopped by, and to peers and friends such as Samantha Kolesnik, Chet Williamson, and Vaughn A. Jackson who also stopped in.

I won’t talk about Vortex here every week, but I will talk about it in the Vortex newsletter, which you can subscribe to here.

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For those of you who want to purchase signed paperbacks by myself or Mary, the storefront is open again! Check it out here. You’ll find a bunch of our titles, in stock and ready to go. We’ll be adding more in the weeks ahead, as well.

And you can also pre-order signed books by Sarah Langan, Cynthia Pelayo, Todd Keisling, Stephen Kozeniewski, Somer Canon, Wesley Southard, and Wile E. Young (all of whom will be signing at Vortex in the next two months).

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Thanks for a great first week of sales on the new Manhattan on Mars edition of AN OCCURRENCE IN CRAZY BEAR VALLEY! In case you missed last week’s newsletter:

Strap on your six-guns and saddle up for a shoot-out against a horde of angry Sasquatch!

The Old West has never been weirder or wilder than it has in the hands of master horror writer Brian Keene.

Morgan and his gang are on the run--from their pasts and from the posse riding hot on their heels, intent on seeing them hang. But when they take refuge in Crazy Bear Valley, their flight becomes a siege as they find themselves battling a legendary race of monstrous, bloodthirsty beings. Now, Morgan and his gang aren't worried about hanging. They just want to live to see the dawn.

This new edition of Brian Keene's An Occurrence in Crazy Bear Valley includes a brand-new Afterword written by the author.

On sale now in paperback and for Kindle, Nook, Kobo, and Apple.

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After five years, I returned to This Is Horror for a sprawling two-part interview! Part 1 is available now. Listen here or watch here.

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In 2017, Wrath James White and I founded the Splatterpunk Awards to honor superior achievement in the literary sub-genres of Splatterpunk and Extreme Horror fiction for novel, novella, short story, collection, and anthology categories. In addition, we also created the J. F. Gonzalez Lifetime Achievement Award, to honor individuals who, like Gonzalez, have made a significant impact on the Splatterpunk and Extreme Horror field.

We are pleased to announce the 2024 Splatterpunk Award nominees, as follows.

BEST NOVEL

-- The Night Mother by John Everson (Dark Arts Books)

-- Maeve Fly by C. J. Leede (Tor Nightfire)

-- Pedo Island Bloodbath by Duncan Ralston (Shadow Work Publishing)

-- Dead End House by Bryan Smith (Grindhouse Press)

-- Along the River of Flesh by Kristopher Triana (Bad Dream Books)

BEST NOVELLA

-- The Bighead’s Junk by Edward Lee (Evil Cookie Publishing)

-- Smokey Elvis and Danzick Battle Swamp Ass by Lance Loot (Independently Published)

-- Snow Angels by Lucas Mangum (D&T Publishing)

-- Sirens and Seaweed by Candace Nola (Uncomfortably Dark Horror)

-- Bowery by Matthew Vaughn (Independently Published)

BEST SHORT STORY

-- “My Octopus Master” by Stephen Kozeniewski (from Dead and Bloated, Evil Cookie Publishing)

-- “Unfound Footage” by Patrick Lacey (from Splatterpunk’s Basement of Horror, Splatterpunk Zine)

-- “Hide/Invert: A Saga In Ten Reels” by David J. Schow (from The Drive-In: Multiplex, Pandi Press)

-- “The Night People” by Bryan Smith (from The Gauntlet, Grindhouse Press)

-- “Blood Harmony” by Chet Williamson (from The Drive-In: Multiplex, Pandi Press)

BEST COLLECTION

-- Something Very Wrong, Jonathan Butcher (Independently Published)

-- Transcendental Mutilation by Ryan Harding (Death’s Head Press)

-- Woe To Those Who Dwell On Earth John Lynch (High Explosive Horror)

-- Gush: Tales of Vaginal Horror by Gina Ranalli (Madness Heart Press)

-- Beautiful Darkness by Jay Wilburn (Madness Heart Press)

BEST ANTHOLOGY

-- Splatterpunk’s Basement of Horror edited by Jack Bantry (Splatterpunk Zine)

-- Blood and Blasphemy edited by Gerri R. Gray (Hellbound Books)

-- We're Here: An Anthology of LGBTQ+ Horror edited by Angelique Jordonna and James G. Carlson (Gloom House Publishing)

-- Dark Disasters edited by Candace Nola (Uncomfortably Dark)

-- Dead and Bloated edited by K Trap Jones (Evil Cookie Publishing)

J. F. GONZALEZ LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

-- Craig Spector

-- Ray Garton

The previous J. F. Gonzalez Lifetime Achievement Award recipients are (in order) David J. Schow, David G. Barnett, Edward Lee, John Skipp, Clive Barker, Monica J. O’Rourke, and Brian Keene.

HALL OF LEGENDS

-- Weston Ochse

The previous Hall of Legends inductees are John Pelan, Gak, Jack Ketchum, Charlee Jacob, Richard Laymon, Jay Wilburn, and J. F. Gonzalez.

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Currently Watching: Curb Your Enthusiasm (Max)

Currently Reading: The Great Shark Hunt by Hunter S. Thompson and Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay

Currently Listening: Brian Keene Radio

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A reminder that I don’t do social media much anymore (other than for promotion). This newsletter and my Patreon my primary outlets for any real communication of substance. I Blog each morning on Patreon — just a few brief paragraphs that serve as a mini-version of this newsletter. You don’t need to be a paid Patreon subscriber to read them. They are accessible to everyone who subscribes to my Patreon, paid or not.

And that does it for this week. Thanks, as always, for spending some time with me this morning. I’ll see you every morning this coming week on Patreon, and see you back here again next Sunday.

— Brian Keene