Brian Keene's Blog, page 165

More Free Stuff

The economy doesn’t look like it’s getting any better (despite what you may have heard on CNN, FOX, or MSNBC), so I’ve added a Freebies page. You’ll see it over there in the sidebar on the right. Look for more free stuff to be added over the next few months. Also look for the release of Dark Hollow and The Last Zombie: Neverland #4, and the Nook release of The Cage very soon.

The Ballad of Anthony Giangregorio (UPDATED)

Several years ago, Anthony Giangregorio wrote and self-published (via his Undead Press imprint) at least one novel* set in the world of George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, featuring the same trademarked cast of characters, without the permission of George Romero or the other rights-holders. And it stopped qualifying as fan fiction the moment Giangregorio sold the book via Amazon and other retail outlets.

Giangregorio resurfaced a year or so ago, attending conventions such as NECON, World Horror, and AnthoCon, where he worked hard convincing everyone that he’d turned over a new leaf. And now he’s managed to screw a bunch of new authors. Kelli Owen has all of the details here** and if you are a new writer, her Blog entry on the matter is required reading for you. It’s an ugly, frustrating situation for the authors involved.

*Many news sources, Blog posts, message board comments, and cached comments from Giangregorio himself indicate there were several novels in this series.

**I’m thrilled to see Kelli tackling stories like this. I’ve done it for over 15 years (Jobs In Hell, Hail Saten, and this website), and I’m tired. I’m happy Kelli and others from her generation are taking over, so old guys like me can sleep occasionally and catch up on our writing deadlines. Bookmark her Blog.

The Ballad of Anthony Giangregorio

Several years ago, Anthony Giangregorio wrote and self-published (via his Undead Press imprint) several novels set in the world of George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead. These were novels featuring the same trademarked cast of characters, without the permission of George Romero or the other rights-holders. And it stopped qualifying as fan fiction the moment Giangregorio sold them via Amazon and other retail outlets.

Giangregorio resurfaced a year or so ago, attending conventions such as NECON, World Horror, and AnthoCon, where he worked hard convincing everyone that he’d turned over a new leaf. And now he’s managed to screw a bunch of new authors. Kelli Owen has all of the details here* and if you are a new writer, her Blog entry on the matter is required reading for you. It’s an ugly, frustrating situation for the authors involved.

*I’m thrilled to see Kelli tackling stories like this. I’ve done it for over 15 years (Jobs In Hell, Hail Saten, and this website), and I’m tired. I’m happy Kelli and others from her generation are taking over, so old guys like me can sleep occasionally and catch up on our writing deadlines. Bookmark her Blog.

Writing, Relationships, and Dark Hollow

[image error]Two seemingly unrelated bits of news which are more in sync than you think.

Brian Hodge asked me for one brief paragraph on writing and it’s impact on relationships. I wrote six long paragraphs instead. You can read it here (my comments are about halfway down but read the entire piece). Why did I write six admittedly raw and brutally honest paragraphs? Because I think it’s important advice that I wish someone had given me twenty years ago — the kind of thing you don’t find in the How-To Write books.

Which brings me to Dark Hollow, which is all about writing and relationships. Due to return in paperback and digital any day now from Deadite Press, and in development for a major motion picture. I’m happy to report that the film has been announced as part of Fantasia’s first ever film market. Bloody Disgusting offers the public the first details on the film here. And if you’ve been following the Dark Hollow Facebook page, then you’ve been seeing the eye-popping shots from Director Paul Campion’s UK location scouting this week (like the one above).

GUEST BLOG: Their Failure is Not Mine by Mari Mancusi

For a complete accounting and timeline of Dorchester Publishing’s malfeasance, as well as links to other sources, click here.

NOTE FROM BRIAN: I first met Mari Mancusi back in 2008 at BEA – a publishing industry trade show held each year in New York City. Mari and several other romance writers were there for the launch of Dorchester’s Shomi line, and Deborah LeBlanc and I were there to promote the horror line. After a long day of signing books for and shaking hands with librarians, booksellers, and salespeople, we went out drinking, and Mari started a knife fight with some drunken Teamsters… okay, that last bit didn’t happen, but my point is this. I respect and admire Mari, so when she asked me if she could write a guest blog about life after Dorchester, I said I’d be honored. And here she is.

I still remember the day my dot.com company dragged us all into the conference room on Friday afternoon — pay day — and announced there would be no pay checks distributed at the end of the day. Not today — and not ever again. We were summarily dismissed and suddenly found ourselves unemployed — with no way to make up the money that was owed to us. It was devastating, to say the least. I felt powerless and weak and alone.

Fast forward 10 years and bring on the déjà vu when I opened my mailbox to find a royalty statement from my long time, traditional publisher, Dorchester. While the statement clearly stated I was owed money, there was no check inside. Dorchester was having financial difficulties, just like my dot.com and chose not to pay what it owed.

But this time, I wasn’t going to just lay down and die. Maybe I’d never see a dime from Dorchester, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t make a dollar on my own. And so, as my agent, Kristin Nelson, worked tirelessly to get the rights to my books reverted (as the company was now in breach of contract), I started researching how to publish these backlist titles on my own. Together we began the process of working with cover artists, copyeditors, and converters to breathe new life into these old books. I even did some rewriting! One of the advantages to digital publishing—you can always update and tweak your product. (Though my husband likes to tease me and say I’m like George Lucas in that regard…)

On March 9th we launched Tomorrow Land, a dystopian YA novel previously published as Razor Girl in Dorchester’s crossover Shomi line. Best described as a post-apocalyptic pilgrimage to Disney World in a zombie infested wasteland, the story follows two teens who had fallen in love before the apocalypse and then separated, Casablanca style, only to be reunited four years later and forced to find a way to trust one another again. All the while trying to deal with those pesky, flesh eating zombies!

I can’t tell you how awesome a feeling it is to log onto Amazon and see Tomorrow Land up for sale and know — without a shadow of a doubt — that I’ll be properly paid for each and every download — with a 70 percent royalty rate instead of the six percent my publisher couldn’t even cough up in the end. Even better, the new book will never go out of print and I can charge half the cover price of the original. (So not only do I benefit — but readers do, too.)

I know that I will never get that last check from my dot.com company. And there will never be a royalty check in the mail from Dorchester. But you know what? Their failure is not mine. I have taken back the reins of my career and now have the freedom to seek out my own pathway to success.

About Tomorrow Land

Can true love survive the end of the world?

Imagine finding your first love, only to be ripped apart by the apocalypse. Peyton Anderson will never forget the day she was forced to make a choice–between her family–and Chris Parker, the boy she’d given her heart. And now, four years later, as she steps from the fallout shelter and into a dead and broken world, he’s the only thing on her mind.

All Chris “Chase” Parker wanted was to take Peyton away and keep her safe from harm. But he waited for hours in the rain on judgment day and she never showed–breaking his heart without ever telling him why.

Now the two of them have been thrown together once again, reluctant chaperones of a group of orphan children in a post-apocalyptic world where the dead still walk…and feed. As they begin their pilgrimage to the last human outpost on Earth, can they find a way to let go of old hurts and find the love they lost–all the while attempting to save what’s left of the human race?

Tomorrow Land is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and iBooks

You can contact Mari via her website, Twitter, or Facebook.

Undercover Signing: New Jersey

For those of you interested in having me sign books, here is the complete list of where I’ll be doing that this year. As I’ve stated before, it’s a shortened schedule from previous years due to family obligations. No matter how many times I say this, I still get people asking me “Are you coming to _____ this year?” Which makes me feel bad, because I would indeed like to come to each and every one of your towns and cities and sign books, but that just isn’t possible… unless I just happen to be unofficially in town, that is.

This Saturday, May 12, Mary is the guest speaker at the monthly Garden State Horror Writers meeting. I’m going along with her because:

a) We’re leaving from there to go to New Hampshire for a few days.

b) The GSHW is a great org composed of great folks and I like to support them whenever I can.

c) The GSHW meetings are where we first met, way back in 2000, and it will be nice to revisit that for a day.

So, if you live in New Jersey and you’d like me to sign your books, be at the East Brunswick Library, 12 Jean Walling Civic Center, East Brunswick at Noon. Sit in the audience (I’ll be sitting out there with you, and if you misbehave I may just smack you in the back of the head). When the question and answer session is over and the meeting is adjourned, I’ll be happy to sign your books. My motives are two-fold:

1. It gives me an opportunity to sign books for people I otherwise wouldn’t have been able to sign for this year.

2. It gives me an opportunity to increase awareness of the GSHW.

Keep in mind, I am not the guest. I’m just along for the ride. But if you are there, and just happen to have some books, I’ll sign them undercover.

Writing Journal

Image courtesy of SteamSaint, who writes: “The Brian Keene exhibit at the Seattle zoo.”

Today marks the launch of a new feature here at Brian Keene dot com – my Writing Journal. It will most likely only appeal to other writers or to readers who are curious about my progress on upcoming works. But that’s good enough for me.

For many years, I wrote ten or twelve hours a day, six or seven days a week. These days, I’ve got my toddler Monday through Thursday, so my writing time is as such: Thursday night through Sunday night, typing until I pass out from exhaustion. Here’s what I did this past weekend:

1. Completed all three drafts of the 26-page script for The Last Zombie: Before the After #1 and turned it in to Antarctic Press.

2. Completed two chapters of The Lost Level.

3. Completed editing Geoff Cooper’s Answers of Silence, which will be included in the third Maelstrom set.

4. Completed half of “Musings” – a story for Cemetery Dance’s Four Killers.

5. Signed signature sheets for Cemetery Dance’s Four Killers.

6. Conferred with J.F. Gonzalez on re-tooling the plot for our political thriller.

7. Wrote first draft of a brief something for Brian Hodge’s Blog. Decided I hated it. Began re-write. Realized that nothing I write will ever be good enough for Brian Hodge’s Blog. Drank whiskey and played Fallout 3: Broken Steel instead.

FAST ZOMBIES SUCK – The Movie

In September 2009, I announced the formation of Drunken Tentacle Productions – a small, low-budget indie film company. We set up a Twitter page, offered a glimpse at our first production meeting, and engaged in this sort of nonsense, but otherwise, things have been quiet.

The truth (as hinted here) was that I couldn’t produce a movie while fighting Dorchester. But now that’s over, and I can focus on other things again.

Our first project is a short film adaptation of FAST ZOMBIES SUCK, starring Matt Blazi (Survival of the Dead). I’m an Executive Producer, as is Jeff Heimbuch, who is also directing. Mike Antonio is Assistant Director. Mike Lombardo will be handling special effects. And Associate Producer Dave Thomas will be handling digital effects. Filming begins later this year, and we will indeed be putting out a casting call for zombie extras. To stay up to date on the project, Like our new Facebook page or follow us on Twitter.

Meanwhile: David Boyer is still a Bag of Fuck, Greg Ruth vs. The Huntsman, Mamatas Family Recipes, & Neil Gaiman has tea with the King

With a headline like that, I’m pretty sure you’ll keep reading after the cut.

***

You might remember David ‘Bag-of-Fuck’ Boyer. If not, I wrote about him here and here. Despite the support of the UAW Local 1981 AFL-CIO and thousands of writers, the Indiana Attorney General has refused author Rick Moore’s request to take consumer fraud action against Boyer. As a result, Rick has started an online petition, which I encourage you to sign. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. It seems that Mr. Boyer is not only up to his old tricks again, but has a few new tricks (all of which are just as ill-conceived as his old ones) — everything from making public the private information of his critics’ in a self-published piece of dreck, to joining writers groups in a new effort to steal material. As always, B-Thoughtful does a commendable job of delivering the facts. Spend some time and read through her most recent entries. And The Rusty Nail offers some updates, as well.

***

But hey, if a two-bit amateur con artist like David Boyer can get away with it, then why not Hollywood? If you’re on Twitter, you no doubt saw the conversation this week between myself, Greg Ruth, Russell Dickerson, Steve Niles, Joe Lansdale, George Pratt, and some other fine folks. Greg’s cover for Supernatural Noir was apparently the inspiration for the Snow White & The Huntsman poster. Details here. And follow Greg on Twitter to stay updated on this.

***

Meanwhile, my dear friend and The Damned Highway co-writer Nick Mamatas continues to corrupt impressionable youth and piss off readers, this time by simply sharing a family recipe. I’m sure this won’t present any problems the next time they update my security clearance for my semi-annual speaking engagements at CIA Headquarters in Langley.

***

And finally, Neil Gaiman’s always excellent Blog features an interview he conducted with Stephen King that is required reading for fans of both authors, and for writers in general. Check it out.

THE LAST ZOMBIE: NEVERLAND – Trade Paperback Pre-Orders

The trade paperback of The Last Zombie: Neverland, which collects The Last Zombie: Neverland #1 through #5, is now up for pre-order. You can reserve it at your local comic shop or pre-order one online here.

Love blooms between Johnson and Russo, Federman grows suspicious of Ian’s secret, and the team battle a horde of carnivorous rats and the Mexican Cartel army.

If you’re new to the series, the previous two volumes – The Last Zombie: Dead New World and The Last Zombie: Inferno – are also available in trade paperback.