Letters From the Labyrinth 419
It’s a chilly, fog-enshrouded Saturday morning here along the banks of the Susquehanna River. Spring showed its head earlier in the week, took one look around at the general state of things, and decided to head off somewhere else for a while. Apparently, even Spring is not immune to needing a Spring Break.
I took a short and much-needed vacation for myself last week, but am back in Central PA now, and currently typing this behind the counter at my store, Vortex Books & Comics, which pretty much everyone wants to visit. (And yes, Steve and I have talked privately about it, and should there be any sort of public visit, we’ll let you know).
The store has been slow since January. It’s a mix of weather and the general malaise and economic uncertainty that’s weighing on any intelligent American — the whiplash seesaw of tariffs in particular. Oh, we’re still profitable. No worries there. But I definitely see consumers cutting back and tightening. A person who perhaps purchased 6 comics per month is now maybe purchasing three. A person who came in once week to buy a new trade hardcover is now waiting for the paperback edition.
Some things, however, stay the same. Bob the traffic cop is outside running his mouth like usual, justifying his salary by badgering passerby and waiting for parking meters to click down to zero so he can furiously scribble on his pad before the vehicle’s owner can re-up. If we are especially lucky, his partner — Officer Hop-A-Long — will come dragging himself up the street to join him, and then Officer Hop-A-Long’s leg will join them an hour later. Neither Bob or Hop-A-Long like me very much, but that’s okay. I’m not sure why. I wasn’t the one going around town repeating the rumors of their alleged illicit trysts with various barnyard animals. Maybe they just don’t like horror. Or writers. Or people with more than two braincells. Or merchants and townspeople who aren’t cowed by their small town cop bullying tactics.
Hello Bob. Hello Hop-A-Long. I hope you have a good day, out there in the chill and fog.
And good morning to you, as well. I’m Brian Keene and this is Letters From the Labyrinth — a long-running weekly newsletter for friends, fans, and family.
I have posted the PRELIMINARY Programming Schedule for AuthorCon V (a Scares That Care charity event. If you are an author who filled out Programming Survey because you wished to be included in Programming, CLICK HERE and follow the instructions carefully.
You have until tomorrow (Monday the 17th) at 11:59pm EST to request any changes.
And for more information on the convention, or to purchase tickets, click here.
A new episode of BRIAN KEENE’S SECRET HISTORIES is live on my YouTube page. This time, I take a deep dive into TEQUILA’S SUNRISE, and it’s place in my mythos, and Jack Ketchum’s perhaps surprising influence on it.
In the final episode of our limited series — HOW TO SUVIVE 2025 — Jim Cobb, Dacia M. Arnold, and I refresh your preparedness knowledge and take you step-by-step through the previous 23 lessons, leaving you prepared for 2025 and beyond.
Listen free via: Web Browser ~ Spotify ~ iHeartRadio ~ Apple ~ Amazon/Audible ~ YouTube ~ Podbean ~ Player FM
Thanks to everyone who made this series a hit. We had a lot of fun doing it. The subject matter is something all three of us were knowledgable and passionate about, and in truth, it was nice to talk about something other than Horror or Writing for a change.
With the series now wrapped, I turn my full attention to the forthcoming BRIAN KEENE’S HORROR SHOW. As I said here a few weeks ago, critics used to call my old award-winning podcast, THE HORROR SHOW WITH BRIAN KEENE, a mix of “The Howard Stern Show and Inside The Actors Studio, but for writers”. This new incarnation is going to be more along the lines of Inside The Actors Studio and the BRIAN KEENE’S SECRET HISTORIES videos I’ve been posting.
I hope to record the first episode this coming week. I’ll wait until I have four to six in the can before I begin posting them.
Currently Watching: Severance Season 2 (Apple+ and Prime), Survivor season 48 (Paramount), and Interstellar (Netflix) (a rewatch).
Currently Reading: The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson
Currently Listening: Howlin’ Wolf, Justin Wells, Abe Partridge, Queensryche, The Who, Dream Theater, and Hot Chocolate.
Earlier in the week, I was in the mood for a slowed down, lower key, blues version of The Rolling Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want", and I discovered something. There are no good covers of that song. Oh, there are plenty of cover versions. But all of them suck.
(There are also no good cover versions of The Doobie Brothers' "What A Fool Believes", but that is a rant for another time).
So, ultimately, I opted for Howlin Wolf's "Goin' Down Slow", in which Howlin' Wolf covered his own song (and I think his cover of his original is the better version). This version right here. That is the purest distillation of the Blues that you will ever hear, and -- in my opinion -- one of the greatest American song recordings of all time. And a song that has resonated strongly with me for the last decade or so, and with greater urgency with each passing year.
And that does it for this week. Thanks, as always, for reading. I’ll see you back here again next Sunday.
— Brian Keene
Hey! Various Barnyard Animals need love too.😳😉