Brian Keene's Blog, page 178

Looking Forward Is The New Looking Back (in which we talk about Deadite, Ghoul, Stoker Eligibility, Levi, and Facebook)

2011 was a good year for Deadite Press. In the aftermath of their Dorchester coup, they published 24 titles, including books by myself, Bryan Smith, J.F. Gonzalez, Edward Lee, Robert Devereaux, Wrath James White, and Nate Southard. Carlton Mellick posted a retrospective of all 24 titles here. It makes a handy gift-buying guide for this holiday season. To the left is the cover for the Deadite reissue of Dark Hollow, which will be available in just a few short weeks (along with Ghoul and The Cage).

Speaking of Ghoul, things are happening behind the scenes. I am forbidden by my masters at NBC – Universal – Chiller – Moderncine to say anything or post any details online. For example, if the premiere was going to happen at a certain film festival in Park City, Utah on a weekend in January 2012, I wouldn't be able to tell you that. And if it were going to debut on television during the first quarter of 2012, I wouldn't be able to tell you that, either. But things are certainly happening behind the scenes…

Things are happening behind the scenes in the HWA, as well. A friend, who wishes to remain anonymous, writes via email: "There is a discussion on the HWA message board about whether or not Stephen King's 11/22/63 should be eligible for a Bram Stoker Award because it isn't horror. Of course, the subtext is: If King is eligible then *I* (various people represented by "I") don't stand a chance." This is a case of people not knowing their genre's history (something which I spoke about at length last month). A portion of HWA members feel that Stephen King's new novel should be ineligible for the Bram Stoker Award because it's not horror. Well, if that's the case, then what about works which were eligible in the past? What about Douglas E. Winter's Run, Robert R. McCammon's Mine, Bruce Boston's The Guardener's Tale, Paul Tremblay's The Little Sleep, or Thomas Harris's Silence of the Lambs? All of these were in the running for or won a Bram Stoker Award. None of them were horror. Boston's novel was dystopian sci-fi, and the rest were solid crime-thrillers. I could see not nominating a novel such as The Help, but King's new novel features several genre staples and is clearly part of the overall weird fiction canon.

In other news, Kim at Camelot Books reports that Is There A Demon In You? is more than halfway sold out. You can get a copy here. This new anthology features four demonic possession novellas by four different authors. My contribution is The Witching Tree, a novella featuring Levi Stoltzfus (the occult detective from Ghost Walk and A Gathering of Crows). You don't need to have read those books to enjoy this story, but if you have, you should know that The Witching Tree bridges the gap between A Gathering of Crows and the next Levi novel, Bad Ground, which should come out in early 2013. If you order the book from the link above, you also get one of four free chapbooks — one of which is by me and is called Fast Zombies Suck. Makes a nice holiday gift.

Been enjoying a creative windfall over the last week, with energy levels not experienced since the heart attack. The scripts for The Last Zombie: Neverland #1, 2, and 3 are finished, as is a story for an anthology Christopher Golden is putting together (just needs one final polish). This week, I'll be focusing my full attention on The Lost Level.

You may have noticed that I've changed the storefront here, splitting it into two sections: BOOKS and COMICS. Feel free to browse, and certainly feel free to buy something. You may also have noticed that I'm back on Facebook. Previously, I'd deactivated my private profile and left Jeff Heimbuch in charge of the fan page. However, in order for me to make changes to the fan page, Facebook forced me to reactivate my private profile. Please feel free to "Like" the fan page, but please withhold friend requests to my private profile, unless we are somehow related.

LAST ZOMBIE: INFERNO Trade Paperback Pre-Orders

THE LAST ZOMBIE: INFERNO trade paperback is up for pre-order. It ships in late-January. Volume 2 in the series, this collects issues 1 – 5 of The Last Zombie: Inferno. The team are psychologically frayed while trapped between a nuclear power plant meltdown to their north, a state-wide wildfire to their east, and a powerful army composed of former Mexican drug cartels to their south. To their west lies only failure — and failure is not an option. Pre-order from your local store or click here.

Volume 1 in the series, THE LAST ZOMBIE: DEAD NEW WORLD, is also available for purchase. Order it at your local store or click here.

COMING SOON (Click-Click… Click-Click…)

From best-selling writers J. F. Gonzalez and Brian Keene comes the wildest, pulpiest, most over-the-top B-movie installment in the Clickers series yet!

In the aftermath of a devastating tsunami and a series of undersea earthquakes, 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.

PRE-ORDERS COMING SOON… If you haven't yet read the Clickers series, this would be a good time to do so. Click here and scroll down to purchase the first three.

STADT DER TOTEN In Stores Now

On sale now in Germany and Austria is Stadt De Toten – the sequel to Auferstehung*. It is available in both mass market paperback and the Kindle. And don't forget, Auferstehung is available in both paperback and for the Kindle, as well.

*For English speaking readers, that's City of the Dead and The Rising.

Lost & Found (UPDATED)

In late August, during the time that I was moving into my new home here along the Susquehanna River, I received two boxes in the mail. One was full of signature sheets for Cemetery Dance's Smoke and Mirrors. The other contained copies of The Last Zombie: Inferno #1 for Overlook Connection's collector's sets. Both boxes got mixed in with all of the other boxes during the move, and were just found last week when I was going through 'Things That Have Not Yet Been Unpacked Between The Flood, The Heart Attack, And My Recent Break-Up'. That's not an excuse. I take full ownership of the delay for both.

The good news is, the sig sheets and the comics are going back out in the mail today. You can still pre-order Smoke and Mirrors by clicking here, and you can still pre-order The Last Zombie: Inferno signed collector's sets by clicking here.

Brian Keene on WhoSay

UPDATE: Fuck me. I just found a box of signature sheets for the Dueling Minds anthology, as well. Signing them now.

The Wisdom of Cody Goodfellow

"You deserve happiness, but more, you deserve wholeness — not to have to split who you are to satisfy the people in your life."

The words of author Cody Goodfellow, in an email exchange with me earlier this week. Click here to buy one of his books. I especially recommend Perfect Union and Radiant Dawn.

Bizarro Postcards

BizarroCon 2011. Not shown: Carlton Mellick III, who was putting on his Orc cheerleader costume. (Photo copyright Martin Roberts)

Land's Edge (in which we talk about Apocrypha, Ghoul, Maelstrom, The Last Zombie, and more)

Quiet times here at Land's Edge (the nickname I've bestowed upon my fortified cabin here in a remote corner of Central Pennsylvania on the banks of the Susquehanna River). If you read this, this, and this, then you know that I've recently been struggling with some major life decisions and changes, so the quiet times are needed. Thanksgiving was nice. My parents, grandmother, sister, brother-in-law, and both of my sons were here — the first time we've had the entire family together for Thanksgiving in over 17 years. I reckon my grandfather was here in spirit. My ex-wife stopped by, as well, after dinner. Everyone had a good time, and there was none of the drama or angst that seems to come with so many of these family gatherings, for which my heart condition was glad.

Other than that, I've pretty much just been writing. The revised first draft of The Lost Level is nearly completed (I say revised because the publisher decided they'd like it to go from novella length to short novel length). And the first drafts of issues one, two, and three of The Last Zombie: Neverland are finished, as well. I also pitched some stuff by request to DC Comics and Dynamite Entertainment, none of which seems to have stuck to the wall. Which is probably for the best, since I don't know when I'd have time to write it.

Once The Lost Level is finished and off to the pre-readers, I'll be turning my attention back to With Teeth and Hole In The World — two novels which are in various stages of completion. After they are finished, I'll turn to Suburban Gothic and The Seven: The Labyrinth, Book One. Plans are in place for next year's Maelstrom release, as well. I can't say much about it yet, but the novel for Set #3 will indeed be the hardcover edition of Deluge.

I've also been editing Apocrypha — the special book which will be sent free of charge to all subscribers of the former Of Keene Interest newsletter. Click here for more on that. I'd hoped to have it ready to ship by Christmas, but that's not going to happen. I think it will be worth the wait. There's a lot of cool things in it — stuff I'd forgotten all about until I began going through the archives: articles I wrote during my brief tenure as the Associate Editor of a flying saucer zine, some never-before-published Fear of Gravity-era short stories, the Phantasm-Evil Dead crossover I wrote early in my career for a fan-fiction anthology, etc.

Was going to mail the next batch of Lifetimer packages last week, but then I got a shipping notice for The Last Zombie: Inferno #5, so I'm waiting for them to arrive first. No sense paying double the postage.

Over on the reprint front, Deadite should be releasing Ghoul any time now, complete with the new movie cover (as noted, the movie's release date was pushed back to early next year). Ghoul will be followed by The Cage and Dark Hollow. Ghost Walk will be re-released early next year, followed by An Occurrence in Crazy Bear Valley, Earthworm Gods, Earthworm Gods: Selected Scenes From the End of the World, The Rising, City of the Dead, The Rising: Selected Scenes From the End of the World, Scratch, and Entombed. The paperback and digital editions of Entombed will not include the artwork or bonus novella that was included in the hardcover edition.

So, that's what's been going on here. How are things with you?

W.H. Pugmire Hospitalized

Lovecraft eZine and Will Hart are both reporting that Seattle-based horror writer Wilum Pugmire was hospitalized last Thursday with heart problems and that his condition is worsening. Many have described Wilum as the genre's greatest living Lovecraftian writer (a description I steadfastly agree with). If you haven't read him, you should. He's exactly one of the authors I was talking about in my keynote speech a few weeks ago. He got his start corresponding with Robert Bloch and has since gone on to leave his indelible stamp on not just Lovecraftian fiction, but the genre as a whole. Mike at Lovecraft eZine is asking Wilum's fans and peers to leave comments here, and he'll make sure they are passed along.

The Perfect Holiday Gift

IS THERE A DEMON IN YOU

$50. Signed, limited-edition hardcover.

Contains The Witching Tree — a brand-new Levi Stoltzfus novella which bridges the gap between A Gathering of Crows and the forthcoming Bad Ground. Also comes with a free chapbook (while supplies last) and features additional novellas by Nate Southard, Wrath James White, and Mary SanGiovanni.

Click Here To Order