Brian Keene's Blog, page 176

CLICKERS VS. ZOMBIES – Pre-Order Now!

In the aftermath of a devastating tsunami, hordes of Clickers swarm onto the California coastline, slaughtering everything in their path. When the creatures begin attacking other parts of the world, humanity fights back, unaware that a second foe is about to emerge—Ob, Lord of a supernatural race of beings known as the Siqqusim, who have the ability to possess and reanimate the dead.

Now, Earth faces an invasion from not one, but two enemies—the mindless, hungry Clickers, and the evil, and equally ravenous zombies. Both groups have only one goal in mind—the total extermination of the human race. But what happens when these two forces meet…

CLICKERS VS. ZOMBIES – No matter who wins, mankind loses.

$50. Signed hardcover limited to 350 copies. CLICK HERE TO ORDER

(Yes, like the rest of the Clickers series, there will eventually be paperback and digital editions, but they are a long time off. This announcement is for people who prefer hardcovers or signed, limited editions or who want to read the book now, rather than wait a year. Respect those customers, and avoid complaining about the price or limitation).

LONG PIG

Many of you might remember Demonstration of the Dead, the short film from Reel Splatter (aka Mike Lombardo) in which I starred as myself. Well, Reel Splatter's latest magnum opus is finally online and available to view for free. I'm a big fan, and he's been working on this one for a long time, so please give it a view, if you're so inclined.

The End Is Here

Later this holiday weekend, the long-awaited signed, limited edition of CLICKERS VS. ZOMBIES will go up for pre-order. Yes, like the rest of the series, there will eventually be paperback and digital editions, but those are a long time off yet. This announcement is for those who prefer the hardcover or for those who can't wait to read it in another format.

Clickers vs. Zombies features the return of Ob and the Siqqusim — the zombies from The Rising and City of the Dead. It also features the return of Jim and Danny Thurmond from those books, as well. It also features much of the cast from the first three Clickers books, as well as cameo appearances by everyone from my occult detective Levi Stoltzfus to various characters from J. F. Gonzalez's Primitive and others. In short, it's a book written for the fans, and packed full of enough sly shit to make you go "Squeeeeee" in delight. What's more, you can still enjoy the book without having read any of those other books.

Of course, even though you don't have to have read the first three Clickers books to enjoy this one, we hope you will anyway. All of them are available in paperback and [image error]digital.

CLICKERS: Paperback, Kindle, Nook

CLICKERS II: Paperback, Kindle, Nook

CLICKERS III: Paperback, Kindle, (Nook forthcoming)

Check back here January 1st for CLICKERS VS. ZOMBIES!

German Kindle Editions

This is spinning out of the comments on yesterday's Blog post regarding piracy. Of note to readers in Germany, the following titles are available for Kindle: Auferstehung (The Rising), Stadt der Toten (City of the Dead), Am Ende der Strasse (Darkness on the Edge of Town), Totes Meer (Dead Sea), Kill Whitey (Kill Whitey), and Die Verschollenen (Castaways).

The only one currently available for the Nook in German is Kill Whitey. I'm told that many more will follow for both Kindle and Nook in 2012.

General Updates

1. The trade paperback, Kindle, and Nook editions of GHOUL should be out any day now.

2. Still need to hear from a few contest winners. Prizes ship next week.

3. Packages shipped this week to the following Lifetimers (last name only to protect your privacy): Kent, Hansen, Haig, Sullivan, James, Milodragovich, Guthrie, Booth, Backie, Dandusevski, Donnelly, Kuhn, and Moreno. If your name is not on that list, your package ships next week.

DEAD AIR: Second Thoughts, or, A Rant About Online Piracy (UPDATED)

You'll be hard pressed to find another horror author who gives as much back to his fans as I do. That's not immodesty or braggadocio. It's a fact. The reason for that is because I genuinely like 99.9% of you. If I didn't like you, I wouldn't have written a free novel for you called Deluge: The Conqueror Worms II, and I wouldn't have offered it here for free, with the understanding that once it was finished, I'd remove it and then sell it in book form (which is how I make my living).

Recently, I announced a second free book. It was to be called Dead Air. It was to feature Black Lodge in all out war against the Siqqusim. It would have also featured spot illustrations by Steve Wands. It would have been cool. And free. But I'm hesitant to do it now, because this morning, I was alerted to a digital pirated edition of Deluge available online. That didn't hurt. I'm used to piracy. What hurt was the pirate's identity. It's someone who has been a long-time reader. Someone who was an active and valued member of the old Keenedom forum, and indeed, who is active and valued as a reader in the genre. This person even joined in the fight against Dorchester when they were ripping many authors off. Except that he was doing the same by pirating the shit out of our books.

After I sent out the DMCA notices and contacted my attorney and did some digging, I was amazed to find that many of this thief's cronies were also fans and readers whose screen names I recognized. Some from the old forum. Some from Facebook and Twitter. Some from elsewhere. All good people, or so I thought.

Now, I know not everyone takes the same view of electronic piracy that I do. So before the comments section here gets filled up with excuses from the online piracy apologists, let me play both roles:

ME: Deluge was pirated, and the print edition comes out six months from now.

APOLOGISTS: Well, you did give Deluge away for free when it was on your site, so that's not a big deal!

ME: Well, they also pirated editions of Dark Hollow, The Rising, City of the Dead, etc.

APOLOGISTS: Well, those aren't available yet for Kindle and Nook. You're fans really want to read them bad. You can't blame them for not being able to wait.

ME: They also pirated Urban Gothic, Shades, the Clickers series, Take The Long Way Home, Castaways, Dead Sea, and everything else that IS currently available for Kindle and Nook.

APOLOGISTS: "Oh… um… well… you're rich! You can afford it! You're part of the one percent! Occupy Brian Keene!"

ME: I make, on average, $35,000 a year. Sometimes it's a little more. Sometimes it's less. I'm able to survive on that because I live in a rural area. I have two sons, one of whom is in college and the other of whom is in daycare. Both of them require money. So when you steal from me, you are stealing from them. I also have no health insurance, which means I'm paying the hospital bills for my heart attack out of pocket. I also have no 401K and occasionally enjoy paying for things like my house, my groceries, etc. I cannot pay for these things when you steal from me.

2010 and 2011 have shown me betrayal from all sides — old friends, new friends, lovers, peers, and publishers. As the Year of the Hermit (see previous Blog post) begins, I thought to myself, "Well, at least I can still count on my readers." But apparently, I can exclude about three dozen screen names I recognize from that list. I'm hard-pressed to understand why I should bother investing the time or energy to do Dead Air as a free, weekly serial here when it will just get fucking pirated by a bunch of people to whom mutual respect and appreciation are foreign concepts. If it's not appreciated, then it seems to me like it would be a lot less strain to just write it and release it the old-fashioned way.

If this upsets you, I'd tell you to take it up with the main offender, but in the last hour, he has apparently deleted both his Facebook and Twitter pages. Make of that what you will. If he's reading this, a simple apology would have been just as good.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna get back to making Play-Doh Cthulhu with my toddler, who has been waiting patiently while Daddy dealt with this bullshit.

UPDATE: I've now heard from several of those involved, both via the comments and via email. In fact, I just heard from the main offender via email and I believe his apology to be sincere. Like many young people, I don't think he quite understood how such a thing impacts the artist. Now he does, and hopefully others do, as well. So, with that, I'm closing the comments discussion, which has sort of gone sideways with the whole rape discussion anyway.

Disclaimers:

*I would like to point out that post-heart attack Brian avoided calling anyone out by name in this entry, or starting a flame war that would have yet-again engulfed the genre.

*That is only being pointed out to a handful of people, and each of them knows who they are, and more importantly, they know why it is being pointed out to them, which is why it's here at the bottom of this post.

*A special "Hi" to those people. And here you thought I wasn't listening to you…

DEAD AIR: Second Thoughts, or, A Rant About Online Piracy

You'll be hard pressed to find another horror author who gives as much back to his fans as I do. That's not immodesty or braggadocio. It's a fact. The reason for that is because I genuinely like 99.9% of you. If I didn't like you, I wouldn't have written a free novel for you called Deluge: The Conqueror Worms II, and I wouldn't have offered it here for free, with the understanding that once it was finished, I'd remove it and then sell it in book form (which is how I make my living).

Recently, I announced a second free book. It was to be called Dead Air. It was to feature Black Lodge in all out war against the Siqqusim. It would have also featured spot illustrations by Steve Wands. It would have been cool. And free. But I'm hesitant to do it now, because this morning, I was alerted to a digital pirated edition of Deluge available online. That didn't hurt. I'm used to piracy. What hurt was the pirate's identity. It's someone who has been a long-time reader. Someone who was an active and valued member of the old Keenedom forum, and indeed, who is active and valued as a reader in the genre. This person even joined in the fight against Dorchester when they were ripping many authors off. Except that he was doing the same by pirating the shit out of our books.

After I sent out the DMCA notices and contacted my attorney and did some digging, I was amazed to find that many of this thief's cronies were also fans and readers whose screen names I recognized. Some from the old forum. Some from Facebook and Twitter. Some from elsewhere. All good people, or so I thought.

Now, I know not everyone takes the same view of electronic piracy that I do. So before the comments section here gets filled up with excuses from the online piracy apologists, let me play both roles:

ME: Deluge was pirated, and the print edition comes out six months from now.

APOLOGISTS: Well, you did give Deluge away for free when it was on your site, so that's not a big deal!

ME: Well, they also pirated editions of Dark Hollow, The Rising, City of the Dead, etc.

APOLOGISTS: Well, those aren't available yet for Kindle and Nook. You're fans really want to read them bad. You can't blame them for not being able to wait.

ME: They also pirated Urban Gothic, Shades, the Clickers series, Take The Long Way Home, Castaways, Dead Sea, and everything else that IS currently available for Kindle and Nook.

APOLOGISTS: "Oh… um… well… you're rich! You can afford it! You're part of the one percent! Occupy Brian Keene!"

ME: I make, on average, $35,000 a year. Sometimes it's a little more. Sometimes it's less. I'm able to survive on that because I live in a rural area. I have two sons, one of whom is in college and the other of whom is in daycare. Both of them require money. So when you steal from me, you are stealing from them. I also have no health insurance, which means I'm paying the hospital bills for my heart attack out of pocket. I also have no 401K and occasionally enjoy paying for things like my house, my groceries, etc. I cannot pay for these things when you steal from me.

2010 and 2011 have shown me betrayal from all sides — old friends, new friends, lovers, peers, and publishers. As the Year of the Hermit (see previous Blog post) begins, I thought to myself, "Well, at least I can still count on my readers." But apparently, I can exclude about three dozen screen names I recognize from that list. I'm hard-pressed to understand why I should bother investing the time or energy to do Dead Air as a free, weekly serial here when it will just get fucking pirated by a bunch of people to whom mutual respect and appreciation are foreign concepts. If it's not appreciated, then it seems to me like it would be a lot less strain to just write it and release it the old-fashioned way.

If this upsets you, I'd tell you to take it up with the main offender, but in the last hour, he has apparently deleted both his Facebook and Twitter pages. Make of that what you will. If he's reading this, a simple apology would have been just as good.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna get back to making Play-Doh Cthulhu with my toddler, who has been waiting patiently while Daddy dealt with this bullshit.

Disclaimers:

*I would like to point out that post-heart attack Brian avoided calling anyone out by name in this entry, or starting a flame war that would have yet-again engulfed the genre.

*That is only being pointed out to a handful of people, and each of them knows who they are, and more importantly, they know why it is being pointed out to them, which is why it's here at the bottom of this post.

*A special "Hi" to those people. And here you thought I wasn't listening to you…

The Quiet Transition

Daddy and Turtle, Christmas Eve Eve 2011

Twas a quiet holiday season here in the remote backwoods of Pennsylvania. Last Wednesday, Drew Williams came for his annual holiday visit. Kelli Owen stopped by as well, and the three of us stayed up late drinking and talking about books, writing and all the other things that writers seem to inevitably talk about when they get together. It was nice and peaceful.

My oldest son, David, was visiting his mother this year, but Turtle and I stayed up Christmas Eve Eve — just the two of us. Santa came to Daddy's house Christmas Eve morning. After that, me, Turtle, and my ex-wife visited with my parents for the day. It was nice and peaceful.

Kelli Owen and Drew Williams

I spent Christmas Day alone in a quiet house filled only with the sounds of my fingers on the laptop's keyboard and the occasional tick from the coffee pot. Got a huge chunk of The Lost Level completed, as well as first drafts of scripts for The Last Zombie: Neverland issues #4 and 5. It was nice and peaceful.

Long-time readers know that I'm a big believer in reinvention. 2012 will be the year of the hermit. According to R.E.M., the Mayans, and a bunch of people online, 2012 is the end of the world as we know it. I don't know about you, but I feel fine. Things are nice and peaceful.

2011 Holiday Contest Winners

Announcing the winners of the 2011 Holiday Prize Giveaway. Winners were chosen at random from all available contestants. To claim your prize, send an email to briankeene@live.com. Put HOLIDAY CONTEST in the subject line. In the email, please identify yourself by your online name (below), as well as your real first and last name and your mailing address. Please indicate if you want me to personalize the autograph to you, or simply sign it. Here are the winners.

1. From my Twitter, David McMaster aka @Masterbug wins a Lettered edition of Take The Long Way Home.

2. From The Last Zombie's Twitter, George aka @geotmac wins a Lettered edition of Take The Long Way Home.

3. From Ghoul Movie's Twitter, Thomas White aka @jellybaby7481 wins a Limited edition of Darkness on the Edge of Town.

4. From Castaways Movie's Twitter, the members of Sick of It All aka @SOIANYC win a Limited edition of Darkness on the Edge of Town (you guys will have to share it when you are out on tour).

5. From my Facebook page, Jennifer Adams wins a Limited Edition of Urban Gothic.

6. From The Last Zombie's Facebook page, J.J. Gonzalez wins a Lettered Edition of The Resurrection and The Life.

7. From the Ghoul Movie's Facebook page, Laurie Lehman wins a Limited Edition of The Resurrection and the Life.

8. From the Castaways Movie's Facebook page, Species Amused wins a Limited Edition of The Resurrection and the Life.

9. From my Google+ page, Jenna Cosgrove wins a Limited Edition of The Resurrection and the Life.

10. From the contest comments, Pat Dreadful wins an audio-book prize pack consisting of The Rising, City of the Dead, and Castaways.

11. From my YouTube page, The YoYo God wins an audio-book prize pack consisting of Urban Gothic, City of the Dead, and Castaways.

12. From The Horror Drive-In, Grymm Tidings wins a German prize pack consisting of Am Ende Der Strasse, Stadt Der Toten, Die Wurmgotter, and Kill Whitey.

Congratulations to them, and Happy Holidays to all of you!

DeYoung Out At Dorchester

Reminder: For a complete accounting of Dorchester Publishing's ongoing malfeasance, as well as a timeline of events and links to other sources, click here.

On Dorchester Publishing's masthead, Tim DeYoung was listed as Senior Vice-President of Sales and Marketing, but anyone with insider knowledge of the company knows that he was much more than that. DeYoung was Dorchester, and that was never more true than in the wake of last summer's events. A summary of DeYoung's job description can be found on his LinkedIn profile, and while that list is considerable in size and scope, it's merely a fraction of what he was responsible for. It cannot be stressed enough that regardless of his title, DeYoung was the key decision maker for the company. About the only thing DeYoung didn't always seem capable of doing was responding to requests from authors and vendors regarding late payments or demands for reversion of rights.

Now comes word that DeYoung's almost seventeen-year relationship with Dorchester is at an end. Today, one of the many writers whom Dorchester has not paid sent an email to DeYoung regarding unpaid royalties and received the following automated response (I have deleted the author's name and email address at their request):

From: Tim DeYoung <tdeyoung@dorchesterpub.com>


Date: December 22, 2011 4:17:34 PM EST


To: Deleted To Protect Author's Privacy


Subject: Automatic reply: Unpaid Royalties




Hello,
This is the e-mail of Tim DeYoung who is no longer at Dorchester Publishing.
For any questions or inquiries, please contact either Chris Keeslar (ckeeslar@dorchesterpub.com) or Kelley Allen (kallen@dorchesterpub.com).
Thank you.

DeYoung's LinkedIn page also confirms his departure from the company, as did two insiders, one of whom told me on condition of anonymity: "Things are worse than ever. Imagine coming to work and not knowing from month to month whether the doors will still be open."

Last summer, Dorchester CEO Bob Anthony told Publisher's Weekly that they were committed to solving the problems, resolving the concerns of the authors involved in the boycott, and treating all authors fairly, including paying them back royalties. Unfortunately, this simply has not happened. While some authors and vendors have indeed received partial or token payments, there are still a vast number who have not received anything. Worse, many authors who have sought legal reversion of their rights report the requests have been ignored or outright refused. And DeYoung's departure indicates to me that this won't change. If anything, it's going to get worse. Tim DeYoung was a man who gave almost seventeen years of his life to Dorchester. He was well respected by his employees and his authors (including myself). He chose to remain at Dorchester and serve the company well after many of those former employees and authors got screwed. The fact that his loyalty to Dorchester now seems to have run out indicates to me that the sinking ship may be about to submerge beneath the waves.

Merry Christmas…