Letters From the Labyrinth 417
It’s been a busy past week here at Casa Keenegiovanni, and there’s a busy week ahead. This is best evidenced by the fact that this newsletter usually goes out automatically at 5am on Sunday, and it is now 5am on Sunday and I’ve only now begun typing this. (Although, Cat Winedark, you might like to hear that I am not tired. And hello, and yes, I’m serious about walking you down the aisle one day. You just let me know when and where).
Mary and I had dinner with Owen King, Saga Press editor Joe Monti, and Joe's wife (whom I’m not naming here to protect her privacy) on Friday night, at me and Mary’s favorite local place. We had a great time. Owen is always a delight, and I love hanging with Joe because we love a lot of the same stuff (Elric, Frank Miller’s Daredevil, etc), and because he’s as passionate about the health of this genre as I am.
While at dinner, Joe and I debated the state of horror -- my belief that the market is beginning to contract (particularly for the indies and small presses) versus his belief that I am wrong this time and everything is healthy. While we were in the midst of that debate, Off Limits Press announced that they were closing, which is unfortunate. I never worked with them but I'm told by those who did that they were reliable and paid well and on time. The books they produced were beautiful, and they provided a good home for a number of great authors, including Samantha Kolesnik, Hailey Piper, Laurel Hightower, Tim McGregor, and J.A.W. McCarthy. As far as shutting down operations goes, from what I’ve heard, Waylon is doing everything correctly, and is a continued model of professionalism. Which sort of just magnifies what a bummer this is. When a publisher folds and lashes out at everyone in a series of spastic death throes like some brain-damaged howler monkey, you’re not sorry to see their back. When they fold like Off Limits is, with care and respct for their stable, and reverting rights, and removing titles from sale as their authors re-home them elsewhere, and continuing to pay royalties — well, that’s a publisher that you’re sorry to see go.
Yesterday, Owen and Clay McLeod Chapman signed at Vortex. It was Owen’s first time and Clay’s second appearance. The signing was supposed to run from 1pm to 3pm but we started an hour earlier due to the fact that the line had already wrapped around the corner of the building and it was windy as hell outside.
Thanks to everyone who came out to support them and to support the store.
Good morning. I’m Brian Keene and this is Letters From the Labyrinth — a long-running weekly newsletter for friends, fans, and family.
The Gauntlet Press edition of F Paul Wilson's The Upwelling, which includes an Introduction by me, went to press last week! This is the first of F. Paul’s final two novels. In addition to the Introduction to this volume, I will provide an Afterword for the second book (which I’m working on right now, in fact).
Purchase your signed copy of The Upwelling here.
I uploaded several new episodes of BRIAN KEENE’S SECRET HISTORIES to my YouTube page this past week. In this series, I’ve been going through my books in chronological order, and talking about their origins — where I got the idea, how it was written, what was going on in my life at the time, how the public responded to the book, what positive or negative impact it had on my career (if any), and other factors. This week, I focus on DARK HOLLOW and THE RISING: SELECTED SCENES FROM THE END OF THE WORLD.
Currently Watching: Severance Season 2 (Apple+ and Prime), Survivor season 48 (Paramount), Nosferatu (Prime), Killers of the Flower Moon (Prime) and Knox Goes Away (Max).
Currently Reading: Matt Serafini’s next novel in galley form, Tand The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower by Stephen King (a re-read).
Currently Listening: This past week was heavy on Sick Of It All, Church of Disgust, Soundgarden, Whodini, Run-DMC, and The Misfits.
Knox Goes Away is incredible — a drama-crime-thriller starring Michael Keaton in one of the best performances of his career, and a very subdued Al Pacino. To talk about it much is to spoil the film. In a nutshell, a freelance hitman is trying to reconcile with his estranged son and make peace with his ex-wife and stay one step ahead of the the cops and some other criminals, all while battling the onset of a rapidly accelerating form of dementia. It is gritty, heartbreaking, devastating, and pulls zero punches. Highly recommended.
I know I am firmly in the minority, but I didn’t care for Nosferatu, and found it about as exciting as watching flies have sex. (Mary enjoyed it, though). And we only made it about an hour into Killers of the Flower Moon, and it was still about as riveting as watching wallpaper dry, so we stopped. Maybe we’ll go back to it later. (We were both pretty exhausted from the signing).
And that does it for this week. Thanks, as always, for reading. I’ll see you back here again next Sunday.
— Brian Keene
I agree about Nosferatu. I heard many good things about the movie but was pretty disappointed. I prefer Bram Stoker's Dracula from 1992.
My wife and I agree with you about Nosferatu. The acting was good, the cinematography, but it felt like there wasn’t much otherwise.