Brian Keene's Blog, page 161

THE LAST ZOMBIE: NEVERLAND #5 – On Sale Now

On sale today is The Last Zombie: Neverland #5. Planters and Fulton struggle to escape the Mexican drug cartel army and make it back to Neverland alive, while Ananti, Diaz, and the rest of the team struggle with the knowledge that they’ll have to leave the children of Neverland behind to fend for themselves. Warner makes a shocking decision. And things come to a head between Ian and Federman, who suspects that Ian is hiding a terrible secret. The finale leads into Before the After!

If your local store doesn’t carry The Last Zombie, CLICK HERE to buy it direct from the publisher.

21st CENTURY DEAD

Today, on sale in bookstores and on Kindle and Nook is 21st Century Dead, a new zombie fiction anthology, edited by Christopher Golden. It features a brand-new zombie story by me called “Couch Potato”, which takes place in the same world as Dead Sea and Entombed.

CLICK HERE TO ORDER

The book also features brand-new zombie stories by John Skipp, Ken Bruen, Rio Youers, Sons of Anarchy’s Kurt Sutter, Jonathan Maberry, Chelsea Cain, Duane Swiercyznski, Amber Benson, Stephen Susco, Dan Chaon and many more.

BUY IT!

ProgPower USA Must Not Die! – Guest Blog by Dave Thomas

Hi, I’m Dave Thomas. I’m not the guy that makes burgers or the actor, just Brian’s long-time assistant and troublemaker that’s likely more known as Meteornotes. If you follow me on Twitter or elsewhere on the internet, you’re used to seeing me rant about shark movies, the glory of Ice Bat, quality food, and why I should be legally allowed to taser pretty much everyone on Earth. But I am not here today to talk about any of those things. I’m actually going to talk about something that’s very important to me, something that I’d like to make more of you aware of…

We need to sell out ProgPower USA this year.

For those that have zero idea of what I’m talking about, ProgPower USA is a music festival that features power and progressive metal bands. The first one was held in a small club outside of Chicago in early 2001, then the second was held later that year in Atlanta, where the show has remained. Cutting back to a once a year schedule, ProgPower USA has brought an incredible number of bands to the US, with eighty-two of them making their US debuts at the festival. We’re talking about bands like Nightwish, Blind Guardian, Edguy, Gamma Ray, Sabaton, Pain Of Salvation, Vanden Plas and Stratovarius, among others. ProgPower USA has also debuted up and coming bands like Voyager, Seventh Wonder, Freak Kitchen, Diablo Swing Orchestra and Riverside. If you go back over the rosters of the shows of the last twelve years, it’s an amazing list of quality power and progressive metal bands from the last decade. No other festival in the US has come close to bringing the variety and quality of bands to their stage.

In addition to all the amazing bands, the festival is held in a great venue (Center Stage) that has seats and a standing area, has air conditioning (you’d be surprised how many places to see shows don’t have this feature), and allows in-and-out privileges (again, this is VERY unusual for venues in the US). There’s a room set aside for a dealer’s area, where you can buy CDs, DVDs, and band merchandise that you’ll likely never see at any retailer in your neighborhood. Most of the bands do autograph sessions, and it’s not unusual for many bands to just hang out in the lobby area and/or at one of the hotels after the show. It’s really more of a convention/party than just a show. And for a lot of us who have been going from the very beginning, it’s also like a family reunion. The audience that comes to this show is genuinely one of the most fun of any festival I’ve been to. Pretty much everyone that goes to the show loves to talk about music and it’s so easy to meet all sorts of cool people between bands. In short, this festival is very special, both in the way it’s operated and in the loyalty it generates. My ex-wife and I have sponsored a band together at every show since 2004. This is the one event every year that I will not skip, the one thing I block out on my schedule the second I know the dates for the following year. I love music, and ProgPower USA is my favorite and pretty much only way to experience the music I enjoy live.

Sadly, as we all know, the economy in this country has sucked the last couple of years. And unlike our wages, everything else is more and more expensive. Earlier this summer, the promoter of the show announced that unless they get a sell out this year, there will be no further ProgPower USA festivals. I (and a whole lot of other people) would love to see this festival continue, so I’m asking you to help. How? Well, if any of this sounds even remotely interesting to you, buy a ticket. You like metal? Buy a ticket. Want to see a bunch of bands that you won’t see anywhere else in the US (ten of the fourteen bands playing this year are US exclusives)? Buy a ticket. Want to spend two days around people that are among the most passionate music fans on Earth? Buy a ticket.

Seriously, ticket sales are the only way to ensure this festival continues. I’m guessing that a lot of you that are reading this have never heard of ProgPower USA. And I’m guessing a decent number of you are at least intrigued by this idea. I really encourage you to get a ticket and make the trip to Atlanta and enjoy two days of music that you’re not going to experience anywhere else. Yes, I know, it’s not cheap to travel and stuff, but there are ways to save money (in fact, the festival’s Facebook has many posts on ways to do the festival on a low budget). Maybe you’re like “eh, I’ll go next year”. But don’t think that. Without tickets sales, there will not be a next year. Don’t let one of the most unique and special music festivals in the US go away. A bunch of quality festivals have already ended in the last few years (NEARFest just did their last ever festival this summer). Don’t let ProgPower USA join that list. Buy a ticket. Thanks for reading. And special thanks to Brian for posting this. You should all totally also buy a bunch of his books.

Official ProgPower USA site

ProgPower USA Facebook page

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Blowing Your Brains Out At 110psi

While I signed books at The York Emporium this past weekend, the rest of the Drunken Tentacle Crew tested the “Blood Cannon” in preparation for Fast Zombies Suck, which begins shooting next month. We can now make brains fly out of heads at 110psi. Details here.

Thanks to everyone who came out for yesterday’s signing. Some folks drove from as far away as Boston, Michigan, and North Carolina, which is mind-bogglingly awesome. Sorry I was so out of it there at the end. My fever had spiked and that second head growing out of my neck had swollen to the size of a golf ball. I would have stayed, but others made a command decision to get me out of there and seek medical treatment. I’m happy to report no fever this morning, and the swelling has gone down considerably.

Signing Tomorrow – Central PA

Tomorrow (Saturday, July 14th) join me, Mary SanGiovanni, Kelli Owen, Robert Ford, and the legendary Chet Williamson from 11am to 4pm at The York Emporium 343 W. Market Street, York, PA. We’ll sign books, answer questions, and maybe play a game. And although he won’t be in attendance (as he’s currently in Hollywood on business) signed copies of J.F. Gonzalez’s books will be on hand, as well. Bring money. And questions. And good humor. And whiskey if you like…

On Ideas and Making Them Yours (for Patrick Power)

WARNING: the following Blog entry, contains what I think is some good advice for new writers, but it also contains spoilers for The Damned Highway, Darkness On the Edge of Town, A Gathering of Crows, Stephen King’s Under the Dome, and Brad Anderson’s Vanishing on 7th Street. Personally, if you’re a new writer, I’d like you to brave the spoilers and read on, because (as I said above) I think there’s some good advice here for you.  Just don’t say I didn’t warn you in advance about the spoilers.

Earlier today, my dear friend and occasional co-writer, Nick Mamatas, linked to this Blog entry from an apparent writer and artist named Patrick Power (I say “apparent” not derogatorily, but simply because until today, I’d never heard of Patrick, and I’m unsure as to what various talents he utilizes. Judging by his Blog, I’m guessing writing and illustration). To summarize, Patrick has been working on a graphic novel that I surmise involved Lovecraft’s mythos and Hunter S. Thompson. He’s upset that Nick and I wrote a novel with similar themes — The Damned Highway.

Nick does a very good job here on his Blog of addressing Patrick’s assumption that we must have gotten our inspiration from his artwork, as well as recounting The Damned Highway’s history from inception to publication, and even pointing out some examples of Hunter S. Thompson’s legend overlapping with other parts of our genre. The only two things I’d add to what Nick has already said are:

1. I remember writing the first chapter in early summer 2007. I remember this because in the Summer of 2007 I was feeling all of the things that Uncle Lono is feeling in that first chapter.

2. In addition to the examples Nick mentioned, I’d point out Duane Swierczynski’s Hunter S. Thompson versus zombies story (the title of which escapes me at the moment because I’ve been chasing after my four-year old all evening), the partial Hunter S. Thompson influence on Transmetropolitan’s Spider Jerusalem, and of course, Duke in Doonesbury (the latter is even referenced in The Damned Highway).

What I’d like to comment on in detail is the frustration that Patrick feels, because it’s a frustration that many new writers feel at some point in their career.

I’m a firm believer that, when it comes to genre, there’s no such thing as an original idea. Zombies. Werewolves. Colonizing Mars. Ghosts. Yeti Space Pirates fighting Talking Cats. They’ve all been done before. What matters — what’s original — is your take on these old tropes and old ideas. It’s your unique voice — a voice that only you possess — that makes these old ideas seem fresh and new and exciting again.

The Rising was the book that kick-started my career, but it certainly wasn’t the first zombie book or zombie movie ever written. And obviously, it wasn’t the last. Let’s examine The Rising’s parts. Zombies: done before. Demonically possessed corpses: done before. End of the World: done before. Military going nuts on civilians: done before. Parent looking for their child and facing incredible odds: done before. None of those things were original ideas. What attracted people to The Rising (as near as I can figure) is they liked my take on those old ideas and plot points. And given the plethora of zombie novels that have followed since then, I have to assume they like other authors’ unique perspectives and takes on those old ideas, as well.

28 Days Later, The Walking Dead, and The Rising all came out within a few months of each other. Does that mean that Danny Boyle, Robert Kirkman, and myself were ripping each other off? No. It means we all had ideas for zombie sagas at around the same time. Similar ideas, but different writers with different voices make for different stories.

There are going to be times in your career when you’ll see a movie or read a book and you’ll say something like, “Fuck! This is what I’m working on right now. A group of rebels fighting a galactic empire, and the bad guy is the good guy’s father. Damn you, George Lucas.”

I’ll give you some examples. In A Gathering of Crows, I wrote a scene in which the Revenants construct a soul cage around Brinkley Springs. When a carload of surplus teenagers hit this invisible barrier while traveling at a high rate of speed, the result is a lot of surplus teenagers splattered all over the road. In the time between when I turned this book in to my publisher and the time it came out in paperback, Stephen King’s Under the Dome was released. When I read Under the Dome, I got to a part where an airplane hits an invisible shield over a small town. The results are the same for the people in the plane, but the two books are vastly different. Similar ideas, but different writers with different voices make for different stories.

About a year after Darkness On the Edge of Town’s release, many fans started asking me if I’d seen the film Vanishing on 7th Street. They claimed it was a direct ripoff of my novel. They claimed I should sue. They posted angry things on the internet. I’d planned on seeing the film anyway, because I enjoy Brad Anderson’s work, but when I heard this, I added it to my Netflix queue with some trepidation. Turns out, it’s not a ripoff of my book at all. He had the same idea as me — a post-apocalyptic setting, a possibly supernatural darkness, people going ape-shit, etc. but he took it in a completely different direction. Similar ideas, but different writers with different voices makes for different stories.

My sincere advice to you, Patrick (and to anyone else reading this who might be struggling with a situation similar to his) is to complete your story. You don’t mention too many details on your Blog, other than that it involves Hunter S. Thompson and Cthulhu, but unless your plot is “A broken, beaten, and burned-out Hunter S. Thompson decides to reinvent himself as Uncle Lono and go in search of the American Nightmare by traveling across the country on a Greyhound bus. Along the way, he discovers that the Democratic Party are worshiping Moloch, that the Republicans are trying to summon Cthulhu, that Fungi from Yuggoth is the latest in psychedelic mushrooms, hijacks a tractor trailer, spreads hate and discontent on the Miskatonic University campus, plays both the Democrats and the Republicans against each other, and almost gets his brain transferred into a Mi-Go container by J. Edgar Hoover” then I wouldn’t worry. Your graphic novel sounds like something different than this. It also sounds like something that, as a fan of both Lovecraft and Thompson, I’d dearly love to read. You’ve got a sale right here. So finish it! Similar ideas, but different writers with different voices make for different stories. Tell the story that you want to tell. Make it yours, even if it’s been done before. Make those tropes yours. Put your unique spin and your unique voice into it and write the story you want to read. Chances are others will want to read it, too. I know I would.

MAELSTROM SET III – Early Warning System

If you’re new to me (or to Maelstrom) PLEASE read this first. It details Maelstrom’s history and mission statement. I give readers notice a month or two before the books go up for pre-order, so that folks have time to save money ($150). Which brings me to:

This is a test of the Maelstrom Early Warning System… If you wish to pre-order Maelstrom Set III when it goes on sale later this summer, you should set aside the money now…  This is only a test. If this had been the actual pre-ordering period, you would have been given a link to click so you could buy the books…

MAELSTROM PUBLICATION HISTORY

Set I (2010)

A Gathering of Crows by Brian Keene

The Rising: Deliverance by Brian Keene (no reprint for 5 years)

Six Days by Kelli Owen

Set II (2011)

A Conspiracy of One by Brian Keene (never to be reprinted)

Alone by Brian Keene

Once Upon A Time In Midnight by John Urbancik

Set III (forthcoming Fall of 2012)

Earthworm Gods II: Deluge by Brian Keene

Sundancing by Brian Keene (never to be reprinted)

Answers of Silence by Geoff Cooper

How To Write 80,000 Words In A Weekend

This past weekend was designated as a writing marathon, meaning all I did during my waking hours was write. This is not a normal mode of operation for me, but after a month-long and much-needed vacation, I’m behind on deadlines and had to get caught up on things.

On Friday, I wrote 40,000 words. Unfortunately, I posted about it on Twitter, and in doing so, caused a minor stir. Many people were happy for me (and I thank them). A few were skeptical. And still others were unsure of what that actually meant — “40,000 words in one day”. So, for this week’s writing journal installment, here’s a lengthier explanation (not confined to Twitter’s 140 character limit) of exactly what it means and how I did it and why you may or may not want to try it yourself sometime.

The first thing you need to understand is that this doesn’t work for everybody. Writing 40,000 words in one day is really only practical for three things — pulp, porn, and first drafts. In my case, the first and last apply. I am a pulp writer. If I were of a more literary bent or a wordsmith like Peter Straub, Thomas Ligotti, Livia Llewellyn, or John Langan, we probably wouldn’t be having this discussion. These are authors who labor over each and every word, and their fiction (and our enjoyment of their fiction) are richer for their efforts. But that is not one of my strengths.

It was common for the pulp writers of old to write 40,000 a day. This is because they had no choice. They wanted to eat. To earn their pay, they were required to crank out journeyman novels and stories to beat ridiculous deadlines and for a low rate. (In truth, not much has changed since then… and I see a whole bunch of mid-listers, ghost writers, and media tie-in scribes nodding silently). Michael Moorcock infamously wrote several weekend novels. And there are authors who still write like that these days. Carlton Mellick locks himself in a hotel room and writes a complete novel in three or four days. Nick Mamatas can also crank it out when he needs to. In both of their cases, the quality doesn’t suffer. But it should also be noted that what they crank out is, in most cases, revised and edited later on.

And that’s the case here. On Friday, Twitter went splodey with the news that I’d written 40,000 words in a day. What I didn’t tell you was that over the space of three and a half days (Thursday night, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) I wrote just a smidgen over 85,000 words — the length of a complete novel. Is that how I normally work? Of course not. If I worked regularly at that pace, we wouldn’t be having this conversation because I’d be dead. Before I became a parent again, and had all day to work, I averaged between 8,000 and 10,000 words in an 8 to 9 hour day. These days, I average between 3,000 and 4,000 words per evening (I write 4 or 5 hours per night).

But when I need to (meaning I’ve been on vacation and now I’m fucked because everything is due) I can do more than that. Here is how.

1. NO DISTRACTIONS: My youngest son was with his mother for the weekend. My oldest son was at work and on dates. Mary and my future step-son were in New Jersey. That meant I had the house to myself (except for my cat) from Thursday night until Sunday evening. All I did for the entire weekend was write and sleep. The only times I wasn’t writing or sleeping were to check Twitter a few times a day, to call Mary once per night, and to attend my youngest son’s karate class (which lasted an hour). Other than those few things, all I did was write. I didn’t mow the lawn. I didn’t clean the house. I ignored all incoming phone calls (sorry about that Wrath, Eryn, and all the drunks at CONvergence). I skipped out on attending events (my apologies Qwee, Michele, and Dirk), and I declined invitations to hang out with friends (next weekend Kelli and Coop). All I did was write. And when I got tired, I slept. And when I woke up, I wrote some more. Did my wrists hurt? Sure. Did I give myself carpal tunnel? It certainly seems like it. Do I feel bad that I missed out on things? Of course. But did I accomplish what I set out to do? Absolutely.

2. KNOWING WHERE I WAS GOING AHEAD OF TIME: The 40,000 words in one day constituted a complete novella (Sundancing) and part of a novel (The Lost Level). If you’re curious, Sundancing was 20,000 words long. The other 20,000 applied to The Lost Level. A few of you asked me on Twitter if this writing was based on an outline. It was not. I rarely work from an outline, because I prefer a more organic, loose-knit approach to writing (that’s not to say that there’s anything wrong with outlining. There’s not). But in both of these cases, I knew exactly where the story was going before I started the weekend’s writing. Sundancing is a meta-fictional account of my trip to Sundance this past January (and serves as a sort of bookend to my previous meta-fictional novella The Girl on the Glider). The Lost Level is a pulp fiction homage to John Carter, Land of the Lost, Joe Lansdale’s The Drive-In series, The Warlord, and other lost world stories.

Writing 20,000 words about my experiences at Sundance, and what going there taught me about myself and our industry, was as easy as telling a friend about it over the phone or over drinks (or both). And adding 20,000 words to The Lost Level, while not as easy as the former, was still a breeze because a) I knew that my characters needed to find a crashed Nazi flying saucer and then fight a giant slug, and b) it was fun as hell to write.

Had these been novels I was starting from scratch, or had the subject matter been something I didn’t feel as intimate or close to (Sundancing), or simply frivolous and fun to write (The Lost Level) there’s no way I would have written that many words in a day. Indeed, there have been times (Dark Hollow, Ghoul, and Take the Long Way Home come to mind) when the subject matter was heavy enough that I was lucky if I wrote 1,000 words a day. And you’ll have novels and stories like that. But you’ll also have ones that you absolutely can’t wait to get down on paper (or onto a laptop screen), and it is my personal experience that those types of tales seem to write themselves a lot faster. Which brings me to…

3. QUANTITY OVER QUALITY: As I said on Twitter (but which a lot of people apparently missed) these were both first drafts. I can not stress that enough. These are first drafts. The 80,000 words I wrote this weekend are not meant to be turned in to a publisher, nor are they ready for you to read. They are the basic foundations of the books to come. I always do at least two (but usually three) drafts of before I turn something in. Sundancing and The Lost Level are no exception. Consider the words I wrote this weekend to be a just-built house. Now, I’ll go back and start the second draft, which is when I’ll run the electrical wires and the plumbing, and hang the drywall and the vinyl siding. Then I’ll do a third draft, which is when we pick out carpet and furniture, and make it ready to show to buyers. But what I did this weekend is just unpainted lumber. It’s raw materials. It looks like a house, but you wouldn’t want to live there… yet.

So, that’s what I did and how I did it. Do I recommend doing this all the time? Absolutely not. Will it work for every writer? No. But is it something I recommend trying at least once in your career? Sure. At the very least, you might have some fun. Perhaps you will learn something about yourself as a writer. And who knows? You may even get a serviceable first draft out of it.

The important thing to remember is this — writers get too hung up on word counts. It doesn’t matter if you produce 1,000 words per day or 10,000 words per day. What matters is that you produce words. Novels and stories don’t write themselves. Ass in chair, fingers on keyboard, repeat as necessary is the best method I know. If you’ve written 1,000 words today and someone else has written twice that amount, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that you’ve written. Be proud of what you’ve produced.

And now I’m off to dip my hands and wrists in a big vat of Ben Gay…

PS: And yes, I’m counting this Blog entry as part of those 85,000 words.

GHOUL Collector’s Edition Screenplay & Storyboard

Moderncine have produced a new book collecting the Ghoul screenplay and storyboards. This collector’s item is limited to 52 copies and retails for $59.95. The copies will ship to you signed by me. Click here to order via Paypal, credit, or debit card.

The paperback, Kindle, and Nook editions of Ghoul, as well as the movie soundtrack, are available here.

Upcoming Signing

Just a reminder that I’ll be doing an all-day signing, reading, and Q&A with Chet Williamson, Mary SanGiovanni, Kelli Owen, and Robert Ford on July 14 at The York Emporium 343 W. Market Street York, PA. For a complete list of my 2012 appearances, click here.