Brian Keene's Blog, page 110

THE END IS HERE

Announcing THE SEVEN: THE LABYRINTH, BOOK 1, via Patreon.

Readers of my work know that all of my books and stories are part of an interconnecting story they refer to as The Labyrinth Mythos. However, this mythos has been deliberately kept subtle, so that the books are accessible to new readers at any point. Now, for those who are ready to delve deeper, I present THE LABYRINTH, an epic monthly serial that unveils the secrets of my mythos and features characters from various books teaming up in final battle against the Thirteen. Frankie from THE RISING and CITY OF THE DEAD. Teddy from EARTHWORM GODS. Tony from the CLICKERS series and various short stories. DARK HOLLOW’S Nelson LeHorn. The Exit. And many more. Plus Ob and the Siqqusim, Nodens, Meeble, Leviathan, Behemoth, and all the other members of the Thirteen that you’ve come to fear. All in one giant cage match to decide the fate of the universe, the multiverse, and reality itself.

Here’s how it works. You name your own price. You pay whatever amount you are willing to on a monthly basis. $1 a month. $5 a month. $10 a month. Pledge what you think is fair to read this new serialized novel monthly. You are then charged that amount at the end of each month. You can change the amount of your donation or cancel your support at any time. Click here to sign up.

A new chapter will be posted on the Patreon page and via email at least once per month. Sometimes, it might be more than once a month. That will depend on the process, and the process is as such: I write a chapter. I send it to right-hand man Mark “Dezm” Sylva to pre-read. He sends it back to me with corrections. The chapter gets posted here. Frequency will depend on his workload and my workload, but we can comfortably and safely commit to one chapter per month. Also, each chapter will have its own monthly appendix (posted separately) which will link readers back to previous books or stories for reference.

THE SEVEN: THE LABYRINTH, BOOK 1 is projected to be a full-length novel (about 90,000 words). When the last chapter has been posted, the book will be published in hardcover, paperback, and e-book. Meanwhile, the second novel in the series, tentatively titled SUBMERGED: THE LABYRINTH, BOOK 2, will begin as a continuation of the monthly serial.

The first chapter (and its appendix) will be posted later this month. Sign up now so you don’t miss out!

TRIGGER WARNINGS On Sale Now

Available now for $4.99 on Kindle, Nook, and Kobo (paperback and hardcover forthcoming).

This incendiary new non-fiction collection by World Horror Grandmaster Award winning author Brian Keene walks the line between profound and profane, poking and prodding everything from pop culture to politics. Whether it’s the downfall of America’s oldest mass-market publisher, the Second Amendment, advice on writing, marriage equality, crazed Internet trolls, writer’s organizations, the death of the Borders retail chain, misogyny in comic books, the history of the horror genre, or the apathy of a fading political system, Brian Keene shares his thoughts in that blunt, sardonic style readers have come to love.

DOWNLOAD TO KINDLE

DOWNLOAD TO NOOK

DOWNLOAD TO KOBO

Brian Keene’s TRIGGER WARNINGS. Don’t say you weren’t warned.

Update on Future J.F. Gonzalez Titles

This is a post for fans of J.F. Gonzalez, giving you a status update on forthcoming unpublished works. I have finished going through his literary estate and am happy to report the following:

MONSTERS/MABEL:

These two novellas serve as a prequel to SURVIVOR. The first novella, MONSTERS, was completed before Jesus’s death. The second novella, MABEL, was partially completed. Wrath James White will finish MABEL, based on Jesus’s outline and notes. The novellas will be published by Sinister Grin Press.

RETREAT II:

Jesus had three distinct mythoi. The CLICKERS mythos is one. FETISH, SURVIVOR, and BULLY have the common thread of William Grecko, the Eastside Butcher, and the snuff film ring. And THE CORPORATION, PRIMITIVE, BACK FROM THE DEAD, and THEY are tied together by the demon Hanbi/Hanpa. He’d also left loose links in SHAPESHIFTER, CONVERSION, THE BELOVED, and even VOYEUR (the novel he wrote under the pseudonym Angel Garcia). For example, THE CORPORATION is tied to SHAPESHIFTER by way of the insurance company, Free State Insurance.

Before his death, Jesus’s plan had been to tie all of these together into one mythos he called the Dark World Cycle. The first part of this plan involved LIBRA NIGRUM SCIENTIA SECRETA. The second part involved his new novel, RETREAT. The third part involved a sequel to RETREAT that would finalize everything and draw all the strings together.

The first two books were finished before his death, and are forthcoming from Miskatonic Books and Thunderstorm Books, respectively. The third book, RETREAT II, was partially completed at the time of his death. I will be completing the novel, based on his notes and outline, and thus, complete his mythos. The book will be published by Thunderstorm books, most likely in 2016.

UP JUMPED THE DEVIL:

This is a novella collection he had finished compiling before his death. It will be edited and published in 2015.

CONVERSION:

This is a re-write of his out of print first novel. Revisions were completed before his death. It will be published in 2015.

DIARY OF A MADMAN and SHADOWS IN THE ATTIC:

Two-volume compilation of Jesus’s non-fiction.

TWO OR POSSIBLY THREE MORE SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS:

Untitled and un-compiled at this point.

OTHER WORKS:

In addition to the above, there are several other uncompleted novels and novellas. Their status remains indefinite at this time.

THE SEVEN: THE LABYRINTH, BOOK 1

The End begins January 2015

Happy Holidays…

THE LOST LEVEL: Pre-order Paperback – Get Ebook Now!

PRE-ORDER THE PAPERBACK EDITION OF MY NEW NOVEL, THE LOST LEVEL, FOR $15 AND RECEIVE THE EBOOK EDITION IMMEDIATELY, ALONG WITH FREE DOMESTIC SHIPPING!

Click here to pre-order the paperback and receive the ebook for free!

Not interested in the paperback? Click here to pre-order the ebook for your Kindle!

When modern-day occultist Aaron Pace discovers the secrets of inter-dimensional travel via a mystical pathway called The Labyrinth, he wastes no time in exploring a multitude of strange new worlds and alternate realities. But then, Aaron finds himself trapped in the most bizarre dimension of all — a place where dinosaurs coexist with giant robots, where cowboys fight reptilian lizard people, and where even the grass can kill you. This is a world populated by the missing and the disappeared, a world where myth is reality and where the extinct is reborn. Now, side-by-side with his new companions Kasheena and Bloop, Aaron must learn to navigate its dangers and survive long enough to escape… THE LOST LEVEL.

Apex is proud to present the first book in Grand Master Award winner Brian Keene’s long-awaited new series, a loving ode to lost world classics like Burroughs’s PELLUCIDAR, Howard’s ALMURIC, and Lansdale’s THE DRIVE-IN, but with a thoroughly modern twist that only Brian Keene could conceive.

CLICK HERE to pre-order the trade paperback now for $15 and receive the ebook edition immediately with your order! Trade paperbacks will ship January 17 with free Domestic shipping!

So this happened earlier today

If you liked THE MIST, try DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN, by Brian Keene. Excellent short horror novel.

— Stephen King (@StephenKing) December 13, 2014

Which means a whole bunch of new people are coming here right now. Hello to them. DARKNESS OF THE EDGE OF TOWN is available in the following formats:

Paperback

Kindle

Nook

Audiobook

Thanks for checking it out. If you enjoy it, a complete list of all my books can be found here.

LIBRA NIGRUM SCIENTIA SECRETA – 3/4 Sold Out

Time is running out to pre-order your copy of LIBRA NIGRUM SCIENTIA SECRETA, the book examining the back-story behind the mythos of Brian Keene and J.F. Gonzalez. Drawing inspiration from sources as varied as H.P. Lovecraft’s Necronomicon to J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion, this profusely-illustrated work of art is a dream come true for devotees of both author’s works. Part spell-book, part history, and part religious text, Libra Nigrum Scientia Secreta reveals the secrets behind the Labyrinth, Hanpa, the Thirteen, the Dark Ones, and much more. It is a dream come true for devotees of both author’s works.

Through an arrangement with the publisher, there will be no paperback, digital or trade hardcover published, making this edition a true collector’s item. The book will be issued in the following formats: 400-copy limited edition hardcover ($59), 26-copy lettered edition ($275), and a 10-copy Ultra edition ($550 – sold out). (Please note, you are pre-ordering. This book is expected to ship Winter 2014).

CLICK HERE TO PRE-ORDER THE LIMITED EDITION – $59 – Only 100 copies left!

CLICK HERE TO PRE-ORDER THE LETTERED EDITION – $275 – Only 2 copies left!

COMING SOON

IN STORES 1/19/15

(Available for pre-order 12/15/14)

Pre-order THE X-FILES: TRUST NO ONE

We all want to believe. The truth is still out there. The X-Files have been reopened.

IDW Publishing and series creator Chris Carter have authorized new investigations into the weird, the strange, and the mysterious. New York Times Bestseller and multiple Bram Stoker Award-winner Jonathan Maberry brings together some of today’s top storytellers, including Brian Keene, Tim Lebbon, Kevin J. Anderson, Max Allan Collins, and many more for a series of all-new X-Files. Scully and Mulder continue their journey into darkness as they face aliens, monsters, shadow governments, and twisted conspiracies.

In stores March 2015. CLICK HERE TO PRE-ORDER.

GOING DARK

“I had strings, but now I’m free. There are no strings on me.” — Ultron, Avengers 2

This will be my last new communique of 2014. After this message, I’ll be vanishing from all social media (including private accounts) until early next year, which will hopefully be better than 2014. This year I’ve lost a friend to cancer; another friend to an aneurysm; a home due to incessant, pummeling storms; a lot of money in conjunction with that; and another romantic relationship due to the fact that I’m really not the best prospect for such a thing. During a special bonus round, I also found out that I’m going blind.

While dealing with all that, I’m trying to be a father to a 6-year old and a father to a 24-year old (two entirely different skill sets) and stay caught up on already blown writing deadlines, as well as email, manuscript reviews, and Lifetime Subscriber shipments. I’ve succeeded at the first, semi-succeeded at the second, and am still way behind on the latter four. So, I’m going dark to focus on those (as well as continuing to work on J.F. Gonzalez’s literary estate, for which his fans can expect lots of good news in early 2015). If you post something to me via Twitter, Facebook, etc. expect it to go unseen and unanswered.

Look for a few automatic postings here between now and January — the annual Top Ten Books of the Year, some potential movie news, and a few other things. But as I said, those are set to post automatically. I won’t actually be pushing the button. Instead, I’ll be hunkered down in an undisclosed wilderness location, hammering my keyboard in an attempt to wrap things up.

Because that’s what you do when autumn fades and winter approaches and the snow starts to fall. You wrap things up.

It’s snowing right now as I type this, in fact.

In the meantime, please consider purchasing one of the following new books:

THE LAST OF THE ALBATWITCHES

APOCRYPHA

KING OF THE BASTARDS (co-written with Steven Shrewsbury)

LIBRA NIGRUM SCIENTIA SECRETA (co-written with J.F. Gonzalez)

Or, if you prefer, one of the following new t-shirts:

THE RISING

EARTHWORM GODS

Or, if you are so inclined, get your ticket’s for next year’s only official public appearance.

Thanks for your continued support. Have a safe and wonderful holiday season. I’ll see you back here in January with many surprises, like several long-awaited new books (including THE LOST LEVEL and TRIGGER WARNINGS), and concrete release info for the LABYRINTH series.

THE END is coming…

“It’s the end. The end of the path I started us on.” Tony Stark, Avengers 2