Letters From the Labyrinth 463
Eighteen
Good morning. I’m Brian Keene and this is Letters From the Labyrinth, a long-running weekly newsletter for friends, fans, and family. As you read this, it’s the final day of Creature Feature Weekend in Gettysburg. I’ll be there this morning and afternoon, although I will warn you, as of last night, I am almost sold out of books, so pickings are slim. Thanks to everyone who stopped by my table this weekend. I didn’t get many pics, other than one Cynthia Manion wanted of the two of us, and one with Michael Berryman.
It was good to catch up with Michael before the show started and we got busy. We talked of conventions past (including that ill-fated Horrorfind Phoenix), and about Reggie Bannister, and about the trials and tribulations he went through writing and publishing his memoir, which is really good, and contains a beautiful story about his father. Check it out here.
Other than that, I pretty much spent the weekend goofing around back and forth with Matt Blazi, and digging through the inventory of the comic book vendors.
My next two appearances are as follows:
April 11
Ashland Public Library
Ashland, MA
Admission is free but reserve a seat here.
April 25
Ephrata Public Library
Ephrata, PA
My youngest son turned 18 this past week. Listeners of THE HORROR SHOW WITH BRIAN KEENE will remember him as “DungeonMaster 77.1” -- a pseudonym he chose for himself when he was on the air with us, which was frequently. His interactions with guest Christian Jensen, the D&D game he moderated on the air, and his interviewing me for a special episode are among the many fan-favorites.
Today, he writes crime fiction, horror fiction, and nonfiction under another pseudonym. Later this year, he will head off to a university for educational opportunities no one in our family has ever had before. Sure, we’ve had people go to college, including his mother and his older brother. But a university like the one he’s going to? That’s a first, and it is enabled in part by his gifts as a writer.
He asked me earlier this week if it was weird having three kids who are all now grown. (His step-sister is in her mid-twenties, and both his older brother and adoptive brother Lombardo are in their mid-thirties). I told him the truth that it wasn’t weird. What’s weird to me are his grandparents. Whenever I picture my folks, they are frozen in time like this.
When I picture my parents in my mind, they are as I knew them as a kid in the 1970s. I sometimes have to remind myself that they are heading into their eighties, because I still think of them like this. And who knows? If time is really just perception, then maybe they still are.
I don’t know. Time is weird.
Last Friday, I sat on an outside bench at Creature Feature Weekend and remembered a different convention in a different decade that also took place at that hotel, and myself, J.F. Gonzalez, Weston Ochse, Dave Thomas, Dave Barnett, and Jim Moore were on and around that bench, discussing the bibliography of James Herbert. Now all of those guys are gone, and I’m still here, but again, who knows? Maybe they didn’t go that far. Or maybe I’;m the one who left.
The older I get, the more I realize that we really don’t know anything about time at all.
Anyway, kiddo. I know you read this. And to answer your question again, no, it’s not weird to me that you and your siblings are all adults now. But when I think of you in my mind, you are always going to be this size, no matter how much time passes.
Currently Watching: Survivor season 50, Family Guy season 24, and Apocalypse Now: Redux.
Currently Reading: Muscle Shoals Sound Studio by Carla Jean Whitley, and The Stand by Stephen King (annual reread).
Currently Listening: “Somebody’s Knockin’” by Terri Gibbs, and Sirius/XM’s Howard 100, Howard 101, Outlaw Country, Ozzy’s Boneyard, E Street Radio, Yacht Rock Radio, Willie’s Roadhouse, and Rock The Bells.
I was in a Tractor Supply earlier this week and “Somebody’s Knockin’” was playing over the store’s intercom, and I’d forgotten what a great little country single that song was. Terri Gibbs had a great voice, and a few other hits before moving to Gospel and Christian Contemporary, but that song is her most well-known, I suppose.
Got the first issue of the new zine printed. It cost me $1,044.00 to do so — that’s enough issues to fulfill each of you who subscribed, plus 50 extra copies to replace lost or damaged ones, and still have a few for my archives. That $1,044 price tag does not include the envelopes or the postage, which will come this week. And since the zine is free, this has already become an expensive prospect. So… my guess is this will be a twice-yearly thing. But the first issue has all kinds of cool stuff — articles, essays, a story, and even a crossword puzzle that I designed myself. It was fun to put together and I think you’ll have fun reading it.
Gonna look around for a cheaper printer for the second issue, though.
Work this past week was focused on the final chapters of FALLING ANGELS: THE LABYRINTH Book 4 and commissioned LOST LEVEL stories (of which we are down to the final five). Laurel sent our collaboration back my way, so I intend to get back to that this coming week (working on it in the afternoons and FALLING ANGELS in the mornings). I also was a guest on John Skipp’s newish podcast, which I imagine will be posted to his Substack at some point this coming week. (He’s also serializing a new novel there right now!)
And that does it for this week. Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed this, you might also enjoy my free daily journal, Algorithm Zero.
Haven't read the book, but we live not too far from Muscle Shoals Sound Studio and took a tour recently. Such an amazing place with a boatload of history, and artists still record there!
I can’t wait for Labyrinth 4. I’ve read a lot of your books and without a doubt The Labyrinth series is the best, most over the top, batshit crazy and wildly fun books you’ve written. I know it’s a series, not a book, but to me it’s just one long book broken into multiple parts.