Brian Keene's Blog, page 131

Ruderabbit Aid

Long-time readers know Mark Beauchamp, a.k.a. Ruderabbit. He’s a rabid supporter not just of my work, but of the genre. His book collection is legendary. And he’s also one of the founding members of the F.U.K.U.

Mark is undergoing some health issues, and may be looking at an extended hospital stay. As a result, he’s selling some of his books. Have a look at his eBay page. There are some great deals on some rare gems. Help him out, if you’re able.

New Reader Orientation (Fall Edition)

My name is Brian Keene. I am a Father, Writer, Lover, and Fighter (in that order). I write books, comic books, short stories, and the occasional bit of journalism for money.

My latest books are BLOOD ON THE PAGE (available in paperback, Kindle, Nook, and Kobo), THE RISING (in paperback and Kindle), and CITY OF THE DEAD (available in paperback). Those latter two are older novels, re-issued uncut and containing material not included in the previous editions. For a complete list of all the books I’ve written, and links to purchase them, CLICK HERE.

My latest comic book is THE LAST ZOMBIE: BEFORE THE AFTER, which is a trade paperback graphic novel and volume 4 in THE LAST ZOMBIE series, which examines Earth after the zombie apocalypse is over. There is one more volume forthcoming, and then I’ll probably be done with comics for a while. I was supposed to write two ongoing series for DC Comics next year (with the possibility of a third), but when it became clear to me that I would not be a good fit with the current editorial team, I walked away before the series were announced. (Since I was paid a kill fee, professional decorum requires that I say no more, so please don’t ask). For a complete list of all the comics I’ve written, and links to purchase them, CLICK HERE.

Several film adaptations of my work are in queue. GHOUL is available now on DVD. FAST ZOMBIES SUCK has an expected DVD release of January 2014. THE CAGE and DARK HOLLOW are slated to begin production soon. And CASTAWAYS, GHOST WALK, DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN, HALVES, THE GHOSTS OF MONSTERS, and THE SIQQUSIM WHO STOLE CHRISTMAS are all in development. For complete details on all of these films and more, CLICK HERE.

The easiest way to contact me is via Twitter or the comments section of this website. I also maintain a public Facebook page (in addition to a private page — please don’t confuse the two). I am also active on Tumblr, Instagram, YouTube, and Spotify, and to a lesser extent on Pinterest, Goodreads, and Google+. I also have a message board, which I am admittedly woefully behind on, and intend to get caught up on in coming weeks. You can email me at briankeene@live.com, but I am absolutely TERRIBLE at responding to email, so forewarned. Mail can be sent to Brian Keene PO Box 281, Craley PA 17312. I cannot stress enough that out of all these, I prefer Twitter.

WHY I STILL DO THIS SHIT

The following is a speech I delivered to the C3 Writers Conference this past weekend. It is not a transcript, and does not include mid-speech digressions or the Q&A which followed after.

Thank you for that wonderful introduction. I know what many of you are thinking. “He’s not as pretty as Christopher Golden.” Well, you’re right. I’m not. I don’t know anyone who is as pretty as Chris Golden, except for maybe GI Joe with Kung Fu Grip or Bob Villa — both of whom Chris bares a striking resemblance to. 

Regretfully, Chris couldn’t be here tonight because he’s got a case of the gout. I didn’t even know people could get the gout anymore. That’s like an old people’s disease. It’s 2013. We’ve mapped the human genome, Voyager has exited our solar system, and we’ve landed a robot on Mars. How is gout still a thing?

In all seriousness, though, Chris felt terrible about not being here, and I am very honored to speak to you in his stead, and to share this stage with Jeffery Deaver and John Gilstrap.

As you know, I’m a full-time writer, by which I mean that writing is my main source of income and how I provide for myself and my loved ones. I’ve been doing that for about 14 years now. My commute is great—from the bed to the coffee pot to the computer. I get paid to make up stories and people give me money for them. Not a bad gig. Usually. But there’s a lot more to it than that. Writing is a hard way to earn a living, and the costs are high.

I’d like to lay some of those costs out for you.

I have been prolific to the point of nearly 40 books, and have been lucky enough to keep my work in print to the extent that I receive royalty checks for various works each and every month. I’ve also had books turned into film, adapted for comics, and more. I’ve been on CNN, Howard Stern, a documentary on the History Channel, and a trivia question answer on an ABC game show. My readers include rock stars, movie stars, stand-up comedians, professional athletes, a few politicians, a few more porno actresses, and even a daytime soap opera diva. I am one of the most popular horror writers of my generation. I say that not brag or sound arrogant, but to set the stage for what I am about to tell you. Despite all of those achievements, on average, I make between $40,000 and $60,000 per year. Sometimes it’s a little bit more. Sometimes, it’s less. That’s an average. Not exactly big money. Those of you who want to be full-time writers look shocked right now. Those of you who are already full time writers are nodding your heads vigorously in acknowledgement. As a full-time writer, my finances will always be in this state of flux. It can be scary and harrowing and tough, but it’s one of the things that comes with this gig.

As a full-time writer, I have no health insurance, and I can’t afford monthly health insurance premiums on my own because, as a public figure, my lifestyle is well-known and health insurance companies simply laugh at me when I inquire about coverage. I’m not alone in this. Writers have been dying sick and poor since the days of cave painting.

There’s also no 401K. No retirement. Warren Ellis once said, “Writers don’t retire. They just die…” There’s a lot of truth to that.

I won’t retire. I’ll just die. I’d like to think that I’ll die in my sleep, surrounded by loved ones rather than gunned down at a book signing by my very own Annie Wilkes, but the latter is always a possibility. Writing is a solitary act, but publishing is public. We’re part of the entertainment industry, and just like any other entertainer, we attract our share of crazies. My own encounters with stalkers are well-documented. These people exist, and the Internet and social media make it easier for them than ever before to fulfill their unhealthy obsessions with us. As a result, I am mindful of what personal information is out there.

I’m also mindful of the toll full-time writing can have on your relationships. Writing has cost me two marriages. I say writing, but it was really communication. That sounds ironic. Writing is communication, but communicating to your readership and to your partner are two very different skill sets. It’s easy to tell my audience about zombies or giant worms or satyrs. It’s harder to talk to a partner about the pressure of deadlines, the stress of fame (because even a little bit of fame can be a very fucked thing), how it feels to live under a public microscope that examines and often takes issue with everything you write, the paranoia and self-loathing that creeps in when everyone seem to want something from you, or how utterly demoralizing it is to not have a weekly paycheck, health insurance, or a 401K to provide for your family. In my case, I should have tried harder to talk about these things, but I didn’t have it in me, because after 8 hours of writing each day, I was emotionally and mentally exhausted and unable to talk about it.

Writing has also cost me friends—both from before I became a writer and after. Childhood chums, pissed off that I mined so much of our lives for fiction. Friends from High School and old Navy buddies who I no longer had anything in common with, who assumed that just because they saw my books in stores or my movies on television that I must somehow be wealthy and hey, could I lend them a few dollars or help them get published or be the dancing monkey and star attraction to impress all their friends and family members with at their next Christmas party. Fellow writers and peers, people I’d started out with, who perhaps grew resentful as I grew successful.

So, that’s what writing for a living is like. I hope I’ve painted a romantic picture for you all. Thank you, and good night.

What? What’s that? Why do I do it? Why do I still put up with this shit, rather than getting a proper job as an IT professional or an HVAC technician?

Well, there are several reasons.

I continue to do it because the rewards are unlike those of any other profession I know. And I continue to do it because I can’t do anything else. I can’t not write. I’ve always liked my friend Tom Piccirilli’s description of this condition: If you’re stranded alone on a desert island, and you spend your time writing stories in the sand with a stick, then you’re meant to be a writer.

And I do it for the young mother who contacted me on Twitter, and told me that her infant son had a brain tumor, and she was living at the hospital with him, and the only thing that kept her going in those long dark hours were my books. Apparently, she read through my entire backlist during that time.

I do it for the men and women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan and elsewhere who get so excited when a new book comes out. The soldiers who nicknamed everyone in their squad after characters from my books. The marines who started a Brian Keene book club. The airmen of Whiteman Air Force Base’s 509th Logistics who pooled their own money together and had a beautiful award fashioned for me simply because my book donations had boosted their morale.

I do it for the parents who’ve told me that Dark Hollow helped them grieve the loss of their child, and helped them talk to their significant others about that grief.

I do it for the readers who’ve told me how Ghoul helped them come to terms with their abusive childhoods.

And the dozens of single or divorced fathers who told me that The Rising made them rededicate themselves to their kids.

And the dozens of inmates who write me letters saying they never liked to read until they got to prison and discovered my books.

I put up with this shit because somebody has to do it. Putting up with this shit is our job. To quote Faith No More, “It’s a dirty job but someone has to do it.” As writers, we are here to communicate truths that everyone already knows on some instinctual level but are unable to voice for themselves. It is our job to give words to those truths. We’ve been doing that since cave paintings. Our job, regardless of whether we are writing crime or horror or science fiction or westerns or romance or any other genre, is to examine the human condition. To say to the reader, “Hey? What you’re feeling right now? It’s okay. We all feel it.” As writers, we must go beyond Conservative or Liberal, Republican or Democrat, Christian or Muslim, Jew or Hindu, Black or White. We must transcend politics, religion, race, sexual orientation, nationalism, patriotism, and every other fucking ism and communicate the one thing we all have in common — our humanity. What it is to be human.

Can people really remember every contextual detail of their first kiss–how it felt physically and emotionally? Can they really remember the sound of the voice of a long-dead relative? Can they remember what it’s like to be five years old, and your entire world rests in your mother’s arms? They might think they do, but they don’t. The details get blurred. That’s just the way the human mind works. The details are lost — until we bring them back again. This is what we do. This is why we put up with this shit.

99% of the people who read our books are kind, gracious, genuine people just like ourselves. On days when the royalty checks haven’t shown and another publisher has screwed me and another critic has savaged me and I have to go to the free clinic because I don’t have health insurance—it is the readers who keep me going. Fans and readers can be a source of strength and solace. It’s a nice, symbiotic relationship. They get us through the long hours spent writing. We get them through study hall or their lunch hour or their commute or their bad marriage or incarceration or tour of duty or abusive relationship or their loneliness. And that is a noble thing.

I don’t believe we choose to be writers (or musicians, painters or any other form of the arts). I believe we don’t have a choice. But if we can touch one reader, enrich their lives, entertain them, distract them, or help them articulate something they’ve desperately wanted to say for themselves but didn’t know how, then we’ve done our jobs and done them well. And that is so very worth it. It’s worth more than all the costs I mentioned before combined.

So, let’s get to work.

 

CLICKERS III Collector’s Alert

Over the next 30 days, the paperback of CLICKERS III will temporarily go out of print while the rights transfer from Dark Fuse to Deadite Press. The exclusivity period has expired with Dark Fuse, and since Deadite holds the rights to the rest of the Clickers series, it only makes sense to migrate the third book there, too.

Once the transfer is complete, the new edition of the paperback will feature the same as the Kindle and Nook editions (which are already published by Deadite Press). Those two covers are displayed to your left, (the Dark Fuse cover on the top and the new Deadite one on the bottom). That’s how you collectors can tell them apart.

So, if you’re a completist and want one copy of everything, you should snag a copy of the old paperback edition right now.

And if you’ve not yet read the Clickers series, there’s no time like the present, especially since the fourth book, CLICKERS VS. ZOMBIES is a crossover with THE RISING series.

For a complete series list and links to purchase in paperback, Kindle, or Nook, CLICK HERE. (Get it? “Click” here?)

The Hollower Trilogy – Now in Paperback and Kindle

Well, of course I’m going to plug these…

 

THE HOLLOWER (Book 1)

BUY FOR KINDLE

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FOUND YOU (Book 2)

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THE TRIUMVIRATE (Book 3)

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If You’re Near Baltimore

Many of you asked why I wasn’t at the Baltimore Comic Con this past weekend. I was visiting family instead. But next weekend (September 14th and 15th) I will be in Baltimore for the Creatures, Crimes, and Creativity 2013 Conference. Details on the convention can be found here. Why am I only telling you about it now? Because I’m a last-minute addition, stepping in to cover for my good friend Christopher Golden, who is unable to attend. I’ll be giving a keynote address Friday night, and participating in some panels on Saturday. As always, I’m happy to sign any books or comics you bring along.

CITY OF THE DEAD – Now in Paperback

The sequel to one of the most popular zombie novels of all time in a new, uncut, author’s preferred edition!

The cities are overrun with legions of the undead, intent on destroying what’s left of the living. Trapped inside a fortified skyscraper, a handful of survivors prepare to make their last stand against an unstoppable, merciless enemy. With every hour their chances diminish and their numbers dwindle, while the ranks of the dead continue to rise. Because sooner or later, everything dies. And then it comes back, ready to kill.

Deadite Press is proud to present this uncut, Author’s Preferred Edition of Brian Keene’s seminal CITY OF THE DEAD.

CLICK HERE TO BUY IN PAPERBACK

(Kindle and Nook forthcoming)

And don’t forget, the uncut, author’s preferred edition of THE RISING is also available.

CLICK HERE TO BUY IN PAPERBACK

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD FOR KINDLE

Bob Booth R.I.P.

Bob Booth passed away early Saturday morning after an eight-month battle with cancer. A writer, editor, and publisher, he was perhaps best known as the founder of NECON (Northeastern Writer’s Conference) — a favorite convention for several generations of horror and thriller writers (including myself).

There are many great remembrances of Bob on the Internet this weekend. Mine was posted to Twitter (since I received word of his passing while in the mountains and away from a computer). My favorites are this short one by F. Paul Wilson (posted on his Facebook page) and this lengthier one by Mary SanGiovanni (who I might not be in a happy relationship with today were it not for Bob’s legendary annual party). There’s a phrase I hear get tossed around a lot: “the lifeblood of the genre”. It’s an overused phrase — but not in the case of Bob. I’m hard pressed to think of anyone who has constantly done more for our community, and brought more enjoyment, happiness, and a sense of kinship and belonging and family to our field, than Bob Booth. He will be missed, indeed.

He is survived by his wife, Mary; his son, Dan; his daughter, Sara; and his granddaughter, Jillian — as well as an extended family of writers, editors, artists, and readers, all of whom considered annual NECON attendance an absolute must. Condolences can be sent to: Mary Booth, 67 Birchland Ave., Pawtucket, RI 02860. They can also be sent via email to Dan (daniel.booth77@gmail.com) and Sara (saracalia08@gmail.com).

THE RISING: UNCUT – Now on Kindle

THE RISING: Uncut Authors Preferred Edition is now available for Kindle, as well as in paperback. (Nook and collectible hardcover editions forthcoming). This edition includes over 30,000 words of material cut from the original! Brand-new and expanded chapters and scenes! Plus a new Introduction by me discussing the book’s history and creation.

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I’ll Be There. Will You?