Letters From the Labyrinth 418
Good morning. I’m Brian Keene and this is Letters From the Labyrinth — a long-running weekly newsletter for friends, fans, and family.
I’m writing this on Saturday night from a hotel room in Kentucky, where I’ve been working on the first few chapters of a new novel (a collaboration) that you’ll hear more about later. Later this week, I’ll head across the border to West Virginia and visit my 99-year old grandmother. Then it’s back home to Pennsylvania. And then at the end of this month, I’ll be back down south again for Scares That Care’s AuthorCon V.
(John Urbancik and I got into a debate at my bookstore earlier this week about whether or not West Virginia and Kentucky are “the South”. John is of the mind that they are not. I told him that folks who live there might be inclined to disagree with him, but I also hold that parts of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia, and Maryland are their own thing separate from the confines of “North” and “South” and Mason-Dixon lines and Manson-Nixon lines).
But I digress.
Scares That Care’s AuthorCon V takes place March 28 through the 30th at DoubleTree by Hilton 50 Kingsmill Road, Williamsburg, VA 23185. This year’s Guests of Honor are (in no particular order) Christopher Golden, Maurice Broaddus, Laurel Hightower, Mary SanGiovanni, Eric LaRocca, Gemma Amor, Jonathan Janz, Philip Fracassi, Todd Keisling, V Castro, Adam Cesare, Shane Hawk, Robert Swartwood, Tim Waggoner, Red Lagoe, Dakota Lawrence, Bitter Karella, Mike Slater, Victoria Price, and Scott Cole.
In addition to these Guests of Honor, there will also be HUNDREDS of other authors in attendance. We know that there are plenty of horror fiction related conventions to attend every year, but none of them are bigger or better than Scares That Care’s AuthorCon. Seriously. If you are a horror fiction fan and you can only attend one show this year, this is the one to attend. And remember that 100% of the proceeds go to charity.
In addition to the convention, we’ve partnered with Spirited Giving for a special Thursday night event — sort of a convention pre-show — featuring live performances by Jamie Flanagan, Rebecca Cuthbert, D.M. Guay, and myself, as well as the very first ever live Midnight Pals performance featuring Midnight Pals creator Bitter Karella, myself, Stephen Kozeniewski, Wile E. Young, Laurel Hightower, Todd Keisling, and many more, all playing the Midnight Pals versions of ourselves.
We will release the full programming schedule next week. In the meantime, go here to purchase tickets for the convention, for Spirited Giving, for our workshops, and everything else.
Uploaded two 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 IN DELIRIUM and RUNNING WITH THE DEVIL.
Currently Watching: Severance Season 2 (Apple+ and Prime), and Survivor season 48 (Paramount)
Currently Reading: Matt Serafini’s next novel in galley form, and The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower by Stephen King (a re-read).
Currently Listening: Went to a bar called The Burl while here in Lexington, and saw three live musical acts -- Justin Wells, Abe Partridge, and WD Miller. Enjoyed all three. Wells leans modern folk, modern country, and roots rock. Miller plays traditional country and folk (with some echoes of Waylon and Cash at their darkest) and Partridge is alt-country or perhaps punk-folk.
Experiencing live music is one of my favorite things to do, particularly in bars and smaller venues, and I don't get a chance to do itt as much as I used to. Last bunch of concerts I've been to (Weezer, Flaming Lips, Dinosaur Jr., Pantera, Lamb of God, etc) were all stadium venues. There's something much more intimate and immediate and special about a smaller venue, experiencing it up close, dancing with a bourbon in one hand to music being played just a few feet away from you.
Been a minute since I recommended a book here, so this week, let me tell you about a very steady seller at my store — Tradwife by T.C. Parker. An absolutely brilliant read. I saw a reviewer sum it up as “In Cold Blood meets The Stepford Wives” and honestly, that’s a really apt summary. T.C. Parker’s a confident writer, with a sure command of her voice. Will appeal to fans of Mehitobel Wilson, Charlee Jacob, or Geoff Cooper.
And that does it for this week. Thanks, as always, for reading. I’ll see you back here again next Sunday.
— Brian Keene
I love an intimate club/bar show. They're the best. Last year my 15 year old son saw a band at a small venue with his friend. The lead singer grabbed his phone while he was recording and sung a verse directly to the camera. My son was jazzed. You don't get that at an arena show!
Kentucky, especially, and also West Virginia, are the south, but they're not the DEEP south, and there's a very real distinction. Basically, the deeper south you go, the more dixie-fried things get. This is why originally I wanted to set the part of the Urban Gothic epilogue involving Scug and family in the deep south of Alabama, rather than West Virginia, to show that they were truly FAR away from where the events of SG transpired. On a similar note, one region where some people there consider themselves part of the south but I really don't is Missouri, regardless of the Mason-Dixon line. Missouri is midwestern, and no one in the real south thinks otherwise.