Letters From the Labyrinth 451

Horror's Amazon

Greetings from along the banks of the Susquehanna River in Central Pennsylvania, where I have been getting up at 4am every day this past week to make the trek to our new warehouse and process/pack orders for Vortex’s expanded online store.

I am pretty pleased with what we’ve built there. Hundreds of books, comics, audiobooks, and more already in stock — many of them signed. And literally thousands more on the way.

And given that the online store outsold the physical store every day last week, that tells me this transition is the right one.

Can we go toe-to-toe with a retailer like Amazon? Well, of course not. But our prices are comparable to Amazon, and Amazon isn’t selling signed copies for cover price like we are.

Think of us as Amazon for horror (with a little bit of sci-fi, fantasy, and crime thrown in, too).

If you want to buy your loved one a gift for the holidays — be it a personalized book by Mary or myself; or a signed book by David J. Schow, Cassandra Celia, Jeff Strand, or Maurice Broaddus; or a rare out of print book by F. Paul Wilson or Joe Lansdale, or Alan Moore’s Watchmen for someone who’s never read it before — this Tuesday (December 16th) is the last day we can guarantee before Christmas Day shipping, so get your orders in now.

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Lexie, the limited edition of F. Paul Wilson’s final book, is now shipping from the publisher.

I’ve been reading Paul’s work for most of my life. As I’ve written elsewhere, when I was a kid and graduating from comic books to adult books, my first three were Stephen King’s Night Shift and Salem’s Lot, followed by Paul’s The Keep. The impact Paul made on me as a kid, and the continuing influence he had on me as an adult, as both a writer and a man, cannot be overstated.

I was honored to write the afterword for both Lexie and its precursor, The Upwelling. And for this second afterword, I invited Jonathan Maberry, David J. Schow, Douglas E. Winter, Meghan Arcuri, Tim Lebbon, Joe R. Lansdale, Matthew Dow Smith, Mary SanGiovanni and many more of our friends and peers to write it with me. I hope that it is a fitting send off.

As i said above, Lexie is shipping now and is available via the publisher’s website. There are still a few copies of The Upwelling available here as well.

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I read an article this week about how nobody reads books anymore, and audio and video are dominating. If that’s true, then for your listening and viewing pleasure, I present…

A new episode of KEENEVERSATIONS on Spotify, Apple, and Patreon.

Two new episodes of SECRET HISTORIES on YouTube.

As always, new versions of both these programs are exclusive to Patreon first. In the case of KEENEVERSATIONS, they will not be made available to the public until 6 to 12 months after their original air date. For SECRET HISTORIES, they will not be made available to the public until 2 to 3 months after their original air date.

Thanks to everyone who watched last night’s LIVING THE SCREAM benefit for the ACLU, or donated to the cause. Here is the link to watch the livestream. Here is the link to donate to the campaign. And we have merch available here. All proceeds will be donated to the ACLU.

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Currently Watching: Survivor season 49, South Park season 28, Plur1bus season 1, Mayor of Kingstown season 4, and Vicious.

Currently Reading: Dead Folk and Undead Folk both by Katherine Silva, and The Great Shark Hunt by Hunter S. Thompson (a reread)

Currently Listening: ‘Bryan Smith’s new Guns N’ Roses album’ which is a playlist Bryan put together of all the new Guns N’ Roses singles that have been released post-Chinese Democracy, and lo and behold, there’s enough of them for an album.

I know it’s more profitable these days for artists to release singles than it is full albums (digital and streaming economics being what they are) but I dearly wish someone in the GnR camp (some of whom I know for a fact are reading this) would follow Bryan’s lead and just drop an album collecting all of these songs already.

That goes for the folks in David Lee Roth’s camp, as well (although, to the best of my knowledge, I don’t have any readers there).

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My youngest son got accepted to his dream college on Friday. There were many cheers and tears of joy, and we are all as proud of him as can possibly be. I know he is eager to see beyond Central PA. He has his father’s wanderlust — something he got a taste of on his trip to Europe with his classmates two summers ago, and his summer internship at UCLA earlier this year.

The news is happy and wonderful, but if I’m being truthful brings some anxiety for both me and his mom, as well. It’s strange to think that this time next year, he’ll be out in the world on his own — not in a temporary way, but as an adult.

And for me, there’s also the added component of “How the hell am I gonna help pay for a Little Ivy for four years on a cult writer’s salary?”

Note to my friends in Hollywood — there’s never been a better time to make me an offer on the rights to THE RISING series. Lol…

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And that does it for this week. Thanks for reading. I’m Brian Keene, and this has been Letters From the Labyrinth — a long-running weekly newsletter for friends, fans, and family. If you enjoyed this, you might also enjoy my free daily Blog, called Algorithm Zero, which can be found here.

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See you back here next Sunday.