Letters From the Labyrinth 383

Beans...

A little after ten in the morning on Saturday as I write this, and the temperature outside is already at either 91 degrees Fahrenheit or 102 degrees Fahrenheit, depending on which weather service you use. Regardless of the thermometer ranking, it is ridiculously hot, and only gonna get hotter as the day progresses. I watered my garden last night when I got home from the store and again this morning before I left for the store, and the poor buggers will still be drooping by the time I get home. The celery in particular needs lots of water. I think it will be fine, though, as will the tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers.

The beans, however? It’s probably over for the beans, mostly because I went and rescued all of the feral cats that were hanging around, and found them new homes, and without their presence, Starbuck has made himself at home.

Starbuck (which is the name he and I settled on after trying out a few others) is a bunny rabbit. He started out as a baby just a few short months ago, small enough that had I been able to catch him, he’d have probably fit in one palm of my hand. Not now, though. Starbuck has grown big on my bean plants. He helped himself to all of the green bean plants, nibbling off their leaves one by one. Then he moved on to the wax beans and then the purple beans. Now I’m left with rows and rows of leafless bean plants, and he’s grown too overweight to run from the bald eagles and foxes, so he spends his days beating the heat in a burrow he made beneath my laundry room.

Good morning. I’m Brian Keene and this is Letters From the Labyrinth — a weekly newsletter for fans, friends, and family. And bunnies.

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Speaking of beans…

JACK’S MAGIC BEANS is back in print with a brand-new afterword by Brian and a brand-new cover by Lynne Hansen!

It happens in a split-second. One moment, customers are happily shopping in the Save-A-Lot supermarket. The next instant, they are transformed into bloodthirsty psychotics, interested only in slaughtering one another and gleefully committing unimaginable atrocities and frenzied acts of violent depravity.

Only Jack, Sammi, Angie, and Marcel seem immune to the madness that has infected the rest of the town. But can they stay alive long enough -- and trust each other long enough -- to unravel the secret of Jack's Magic Beans?

Manhattan On Mars Press presents a new edition of one of Brian Keene's most popular early novellas, sure to appeal to fans of The Complex and The Rising.

Paperbacks are available from Amazon. You can also preorder signed paperbacks from Vortex. if you prefer eBooks, it’s available on Kindle, Nook, Kobo, and Apple.
An audiobook version is forthcoming.

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As you read this, there is probably an hour or two left in the campaign for DEAD FORMAT — a brand-new feature film written and directed by Mike Lombardo and produced by myself, Samantha Kolesnik, and Nathan Ludwig.

Thanks to you, we are 100% fully funded! Anything extra will go toward making things even better for our cast and crew, whom we will now begin the process of assembling together into a team.

If you were one of the folks who purchased a Brian Keene Walking Tour, Mike and Samantha will be providing me with your email address next week, at which point I’ll begin reaching out to you. We’ll schedule based on your availability.

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FRAGILE is a new anthology edited by Wonderland Award winner Michael Allen Rose and featuring (among others) my brand-new monster short story “Head”. The book comes out October 1st, but you can preorder it here.

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I was honored to be asked to write a Foreword for a brand new edition of Night of the Crabs by Guy N. Smith, which will come out September 1st. The Crabs series was very influential on both J.F. Gonzalez and myself. New editions of the first three books in the series make their debut at the annual Guy N. Smith celebration later this year. Full details can be found here.

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Currently Watching: The Boys season 4 (Prime) and Mayor of Kingstown season 3 (Paramount+)

Currently Reading: The Beyonders by Manly Wade Wellman, The Once Yellow House by Gemma Amor, and N by Stephen King (a reread)

Currently Listening: Sometimes Y by Yelawolf and Shooter Jennings

If you’re a fan of Yelawolf or Shooter, and that album in particular, (which I argue is the single best rock album of the past decade), Shooter let something slip in an exchange between me and him on Twitter this week, but I’m not supposed to tell anyone, so pretend you didn’t see this...

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Work Updates:

I’m almost finished edits on BENEATH THE LOST LEVEL. I expect to have it off to prereaders Tod, mark, and Jamie within days.

After that’s done, I’ll turn my attention to similar edits on INVISIBLE MONSTERS: A NOVEL (the next Levi novel, in fact, and I’m using the subtitle of ‘A Novel’ because David J. Schow threatened me with bodily harm if I didn’t. Not really, but he did convincingly persuade me to use a subtitle).

F. Paul Wilson conscripted me for a job this past week that I am very much honored to do, and very much looking forward to doing. Can’t say anything else about it for the time being, but I’m sure you’ll learn more down the road. Paul’s The Keep was the second adult horror novel I ever read as a kid (the first being Salem’s Lot). He’s been very good to me over the years, and if you’ve never read him, I encourage you to try him out. The Keep is a good place to start, honestly. Midnight Mass is also spectacular. (He’s written an enviable number of novels, but many are interconnected, so I’ m trying to steer you toward standalones).

Vortex Books & Comics continues to be a successful venture. Next Wednesday, we have a release party for John Urbancik’s new novel, and next Saturday we have Ronald Malfi, Rebecca Rowland, L. Marie Wood, Jessica McHugh, Vaughn A. Jackson, Stephanie Pearre, Jessica L. Sparrow, and Ichabod Cassius Kilroy all signing. Full details here.

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And that does it for this week. Thanks, as always, for reading. I’ll see you back here again next Sunday. Stay cool! And hydrated, too.

— Brian Keene