Brian Keene's Blog, page 180

"A Head Cold In My Heart"

Camelot Books has begun shipping copies of Is There A Demon In You? There are still copies available. You can order one here.

It occurred to me last night that, had the heart attack killed me, my Lifetime Subscribers would be justifiably pissed off. It didn't kill me, but it has slowed me down. Over the last two weeks, I've been working on The Lost Level, Hole In The World, my keynote speech for Anthocon, and editing Apocrypha. That, combined with some familial stress, has left me feeling like I did in early September. I described it to my ex-wife this morning as "a head cold on the left side of my chest". I had a much needed and welcome respite last Saturday night. Went out with Geoff Cooper, Kelli Owen, Bob Ford, Meteornotes, Matt and Pam Blazi, and Qweequeg, and spent an evening not thinking about deadlines or family stuff. Thanks to them for the break. And thanks to Apex Book Company for being patient above and beyond reason regarding this Lost Level deadline.

KHP won't be publishing Binky. That was another one I blew the deadline on, and they elected to exercise the contractual clause that cancels the book. I don't blame them a bit. The fault lies entirely with me. I mailed back the advance this morning, and I wish Jerrod, S.D., and Karen all the best in the world. They're good folks, and business is just business. So, for now, Binky is on the back-burner. I'll finish it after I finish some of these other late books.

Lifetime Subscribers can expect their next shipment in coming weeks. Shipments start next Monday and will be staggered, so please be patient. This shipment will include the following: The Damned Highway, Dead Sea, The Last Zombie: Dead New World, and The Last Zombie: Inferno issues #2, 3, and 4 (and copies of Clickers II for those who were shorted). January's shipment will include Kill Whitey, Castaways, Ghoul, The Cage, Dark Hollow, and The Last Zombie: Inferno #5.

I'll be at AnthoCon in Portsmouth, New Hampshire this weekend. My schedule is here. And next weekend, I'll be in Portland, Oregon for Bizarrocon. Hope to see some of you there. As announced previously, this will be my last two appearances for quite a while.

Devilish Deals (UPDATED)

TFAW has Dead of Night: Devil Slayer, a graphic novel I wrote for Marvel Comics (illustrated by Chris Samnee), on sale for $7.49. The original retail price was $14.99. Despite the fact that copies of this sold consistently every month, Marvel has taken the book out of print, along with a host of other graphic novels, so if you missed out on it before, you might want to snag it. Copies won't last long at that price. Click here to order. (UPDATE: It is now sold out)

Speaking of copies not lasting long, Camelot reports that there are only about 25 copies of the free chapbooks left. To recap: if you buy a copy of Is There A Demon In You? (a new novella collection by me, Wrath James White, Mary SanGiovanni, and Nate Southard) you get one of four free chapbooks, including my own Fast Zombies Suck. Click here for more information about this book. Offer good while supplies last, and as I said, supplies are running low. Click here to order.

Heading to New Hampshire end of this week for AnthoCon. Here is my schedule. Looking forward to seeing some of you there, and signing your books.

As always, if you have a question, ask it here in the comments or hit me up on Twitter.

Devilish Deals

TFAW has Dead of Night: Devil Slayer, a graphic novel I wrote for Marvel Comics (illustrated by Chris Samnee), on sale for $7.49. The original retail price was $14.99. Despite the fact that copies of this sold consistently every month, Marvel has taken the book out of print, along with a host of other graphic novels, so if you missed out on it before, you might want to snag it. Copies won't last long at that price. Click here to order.

Speaking of copies not lasting long, Camelot reports that there are only about 25 copies of the free chapbooks left. To recap: if you buy a copy of Is There A Demon In You? (a new novella collection by me, Wrath James White, Mary SanGiovanni, and Nate Southard) you get one of four free chapbooks, including my own Fast Zombies Suck. Click here for more information about this book. Offer good while supplies last, and as I said, supplies are running low. Click here to order.

Heading to New Hampshire end of this week for AnthoCon. Here is my schedule. Looking forward to seeing some of you there, and signing your books.

As always, if you have a question, ask it here in the comments or hit me up on Twitter.

Les Daniels R.I.P.

The Comics Reporter, AFNews and Bob Booth are reporting that author, editor, and NECON regular Les Daniels has passed away. The author of over 15 books and numerous short stories, Daniels was perhaps best known for Comix: A History of the Comic Book in America (which, in the Seventies, was one of the most influential books on comics, along with Jules Feiffer's The Great Comic Book Heroes, and is still very important today), Living in Fear: A History of Horror in the Mass Media, and the five-volume Don Sebastian de Villanueva vampire series, which included The Black Castle, Yellow Fog, and No Blood Spilled. In addition to writing, editing, and being an absolute encyclopedia of genre facts and lore, Daniels was also a journalist and accomplished musician (even recording a 1974 folk music album with television's Martin Mull called In the Soop).

The Good Years

My oldest son turns 21 today. He's going out with friends tonight, to do what many young men do when they turn twenty-one in this country — discover drinking.

It's hard for me to believe he is 21. I close my eyes and I can easily see white-trash cracker me, living in a trailer, rocking a mullet, working in a foundry, dreaming of one day becoming a writer, and loving that little boy with all of my heart. Fast-forward a few years. He's moved out of state with his mother, I no longer work in a foundry, and the first few strands of mullet are circling the bathtub drain, a harbinger of hair loss to come. I'm on my way to see him for the weekend when a story idea presents itself. That idea will become a book called The Rising.

He's a young man now, rather than the little boy who used to snuggle up in my lap and read Teeny-Tiny Tale and The Lorax and Hulk comic books. He no longer needs my advice on how to ride a bike, or catch a fish, or what to do if he likes a girl. He doesn't need me to explain what happened to Simba's Daddy in The Lion King or why nobody ever stays dead in the Marvel universe. These days, his concerns and questions are a young man's concerns: how to deal with the stress of college and things like that. Today, he wanted advice on drinking. I told him stick with beer or liquor and don't mix the two, make sure he has a designated driver, don't get into a car with anyone who has been drinking (no matter how hot she is), and maybe stop after four beers and see how he feels before proceeding.

Those are the things I tell him these days. I don't tell him how a parent, looking back over the great barrier reef that is time, sees nothing but the mistakes that they made — decisions that impacted the child, even if the child is unaware of it into adulthood. I don't tell him that there's no instruction manual handed out when you're a father, and that you do the best you can, and hope you don't fuck it up too badly. I don't tell him that I'm facing similar decisions with his little brother, and that I'm trying to make better choices this time, and that 21 years later, those choices don't get any fucking easier, but I'll ultimately make them with the same criteria that I used for him — that my boys are the most important thing in my life, and I have to watch out for them above all others. I don't tell him these things because he doesn't need to know them yet. These are the good years for him, and I want him to enjoy them. He doesn't need me to tell him these things yet, and he wouldn't understand them if I did. He'll find them out for himself, eventually. When he becomes a father, he'll learn those lessons just as I learned them.

And that breaks my heart.

So, while he's out tonight discovering beer and puking in some nasty college bar restroom, I'm sitting here by myself with a glass of Woodford Reserve (It's okay. F. Paul Wilson says as long as I lay off the cigars, I can still enjoy a glass of whiskey once in a while. And I have lain off the cigars, because F. Paul Wilson is a doctor, and also because he created Repairman Jack, and Repairman Jack could whoop my ass, and also because I promised Joe Lansdale and Nick Kaufmann that I'd quit cigars too, because they could also both kick my ass, as well. But I digress…)

I'm sitting here alone, enjoying a rare moment of quiet contemplation, and as the last rays of the setting sun filter through the trees outside and reflect off the whiskey in my glass, I know that I am a good father, and that being a good father is never easy, and sometimes it will cost you everything else, but there's still nothing else I'd rather be, because it is so very worth it at the end of the day. Being a father… they are all good years.

DELUGE (Finale)

Something brushed against Sarah's leg. She opened her mouth to scream, forgetting that she was below the surface. Cold, black water rushed down her throat. Gagging, Sarah reflexively tried to breathe, and more water flooded into her. She glanced around, frantic, but couldn't see anything. She might as well have been swimming in ink. She shuddered, choking, as the unseen form pressed against her leg again. Then, something else seized her hair and jerked her upward.

Sarah broke the surface, coughing and gagging. Waves crashed over her head, threatening to plunge her below again, but the grip on her hair remained. She lashed out blindly, raking her fingernails across her attacker's face.

"Stop it," Novak yelled. "Sarah, it's me. It's okay. I've got you."

She blinked water from her eyes and saw Henry and Gail struggling to swim toward them. Both were caught in the whirlpool's current, and their efforts proved useless.

"Help!" Henry reached for her.

"Don't fight…" Sarah coughed, hacking up more filthy water. Then she took a deep breath and tried again. "Don't fight it, Henry. Simon says to go with the whirlpool!"

Nodding, the boy surrendered to the swift current, fighting to stay afloat. His eyes were wide and panicked. Gail dog-paddled next to him, her horrified expression illuminated by the light pouring from the center of the vortex.

A telephone pole floated by, spinning clockwise and trailing wires and cables like tendrils. Sarah reached for it, but Novak tugged her hair, pulling her back.

"Don't," he grunted. "It's infected. There's white fuzz all over the side. We can't take that shit through the doorway with us."

The pole zipped past them. Henry and Gail did their best to avoid it.

"You can let go of my hair now," Sarah gasped. "I'm fine."

"Okay," Novak said. "I'm sorry. Just wanted to make sure you—"

His grip tightened and his muscles tensed. Sarah was about to ask him what was wrong when Novak screamed. Suddenly, he was jerked up out of the water. Sarah went with him, dangling by her hair, until the fistful Novak had been clutching ripped free at the roots. She plummeted back into the water and surfaced again in time to hear Henry and Gail shrieking.

Novak thrashed hundreds of feet above them, punching and kicking, caught in the grip of one of Leviathan's tentacles. Even as she began to swim toward him, Sarah knew it was pointless. Already his struggles grew weaker as the teeth-lined suckers sliced through his clothing and feasted on his flesh. She paddled in place and watched, transfixed, as droplets of his blood fell with the rain. Novak gave one last strangled cry, and then went limp.

Three more tentacles snaked toward her, parting the water like eels. Leviathan loomed over the ship, dwarfing it with his towering mass. When the creature roared again, Sarah's ears popped. She turned and kicked as the tentacles raced across the surface. Behind her, she heard the sirens screech. Henry and Gail's expressions grew even more terrified.

"Don't turn around," Henry yelled. "Holy shit, just swim! Swim toward us!"

Even as he said it, Henry began paddling away. When Gail did the same, Sarah glanced over her shoulder. A dozen dorsal fins cleaved the water, pursuing her, as were a host of sirens, starfish creatures, and other denizens of the Great Deep. In their midst were Leviathan's tentacles, leading the chase. But then, where Novak's blood had spilled just seconds before, something strange began to happen. A red line appeared in the water, quickly growing in size and length until it encompassed the whirlpool. The first of Leviathan's tendrils crossed the line and exploded. Seconds later, one of the shark-men and something that looked like a cross between a seahorse and a centipede both leaped from the water, intent on overtaking Sarah. Both disintegrated in a shower of gore as they crossed the line.

It's Simon, Sarah thought. He's doing this.

Indeed, his voice echoed in her head. It sounded strained and weak. But the barrier won't hold long. Hurry, Sarah. And good luck…

Weeping, Sarah turned back to Gail and Henry, and swam toward them. When she'd reached them, the three held on to one another, arms around their shoulders, and kicked to stay afloat. The churning current grew stronger, sweeping them toward the center of the vortex.

"My God," Gail sobbed, staring at the ship. "I just… my God."

Leviathan had focused all of his rage on the vessel. As they watched, his tentacles encircled it, lifting the ship from the water. He flung it as a child might toss a bath toy, and the ship crashed back into the water, lying on its port side. Unable to cross the mystical barrier, the other creatures swarmed toward it.

"Look!" Henry pointed at the whirlpool.

Sarah and Gail turned back to the vortex. There, in the center of the light, they saw a beautiful blue sky with white, cotton-ball clouds. Below the clouds was a line of green treetops. It was then that Sarah realized what the source of the light was.

"It's the sun," she said, squeezing Gail and Henry's shoulders. "That light… it's been so long since we've seen it. I'd forgotten…"

"Know what else?" Henry flipped his wet bangs. "It's not raining there. Look close. You see?"

"I can't remember how it feels to be dry," Sarah said.

Gail smiled. "You will soon."

The current swept them forward faster and faster, making them dizzy. Sarah considered closing her eyes to ward off the vertigo, but instead, she continued staring into the sun. Behind them, Leviathan raised both massive fists and brought them down, smashing the ship into splinters. Leviathan roared again, and Sarah felt the pressure not only in her ears, but on her eyeballs and against her lungs, as well. Lightning split the sky, striking the ocean's roiling surface in a dozen locations. The whirlpool increased.

"Hang on," Gail yelled. "Oh God… the current!"

"We're going to be okay." Sarah did her best to reassure them. "Just stick together and don't let go."

The vortex swept them toward its center. Leviathan, the creatures, and even the rain seemed to fade into the background. Henry stared, blinking as the sun grew nearer.

"What happens next?" he asked.

"We start over," Sarah said. "We get to start over in a world that's still alive—a world where our loved ones are still alive."

She smiled, thinking of Kevin and Teddy and Carl and all of the others she'd lost along the way. When she looked up at Henry, the teen was smiling. So was Gail, as the sun in the center of the ocean dried the tears on her face.

Together, they sailed over the edge of the world.

THE END

IS THERE A DEMON IN YOU? – The Return of Levi Stoltzfus (+ Fast Zombies Suck)

Ex-Amish occult detective Levi Stolzfus, the star of Ghost Walk and A Gathering of Crows, returns in a brand-new novella called The Witching Tree! The Witching Tree takes place just a few weeks after the events of A Gathering of Crows. Levi returns home to encounter a case of demonic possession that will rock his faith to its core and challenge everything he believes in and has fought for.

The Witching Tree appears in Is There A Demon In You? – a new 303-page limited edition hardcover anthology from Camelot Books that also features all-new demonic possession novellas by Nate Southard (Mr. Gray), Mary SanGiovanni (Possessing Amy), and Wrath James White (Amber Alert). Cover art by Chad Savage. End papers and interior art by Glenn Chadbourne. Limited to 500 signed and numbered hardcover copies. Price: $50. CLICK HERE TO ORDER. Books begin shipping next week.

An important note: It will be at least two years before The Witching Tree (or any of the other novellas) appear in digital, paperback, or any other format. So if you don't want to miss this next crucial chapter in Levi's career, buy your copy now.

Customers who purchase the book directly from Camelot Books will also receive one of four free chapbooks featuring original stories. They are: Fast Zombies Suck by Brian Keene, Baby Teeth by Mary SanGiovanni, The Devil Crashed In by Nate Southard, and Tamara's Last Exorcism by Wrath James White. The chapbooks are limited to 125 signed and numbered softcover copies. Customers will receive one chapbook per one copy of Is There A Demon In You? Please don't ask for a particular chapbook as they will be included one after the other as books are shipped, while supplies last. What that means is, when they ship out a book, they'll include "Fast Zombies Suck", with the next book, they'll include "Baby Teeth", then "The Devil Crashed In" with the next book and "Tamara's Last Exorcism" with the next, and then start the sequence over. This was the only way to be fair with the allocation of the chapbooks. Don't bitch about it, as this is a free "thank you" from Camelot Books for your support.

So, to recap: The Witching Tree. New Levi novella. Part of Is There A Demon In You?, which also includes novellas by Nate Southard, Mary SanGiovanni, and Wrath James White. Won't be reprinted in any other format for at least 2 years. $50. Limited to 500 signed and numbered hardcovers. Ships next week. Buy it from Camelot Books and you'll get a free chapbook, too, while supplies last. WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

ANTHOCON, New Hampshire

From November 11th – 13th, I'll be in Portsmouth, New Hampshire as a guest of AnthoCon, which takes place at the Best Western Wynwood Hotel. For those attending, here's my schedule:

Saturday, Nov. 12, from 9:00am to 9:45am – Keynote Speech: I'll be focusing on some of the themes I've been discussing in my Seminal Screams column for Shroud Magazine, as well as some of the nonsense that's taken place in our genre over the last few years. Regardless of whether you're a reader or a writer, I think you'll enjoy it. There may be cursing. And whiskey. At nine o'clock in the morning.

Saturday, Nov. 12, from 5:00pm to 5:45pm – Panel: "Iʼve made it this far, now what?" The AnthoCon Special Guest Panel discusses their respective paths to literary success and answer questions from the audience. This is a rare opportunity to see many of our special guests in one room and experience a candid discussion about their lives, careers, and future plans and projects. Moderator: Tim Deal Panelists: Brian Keene, Rick Hautala, Cat Valente, Jonathan Maberry, Joseph Nassise, Jennifer Pelland, Christopher Golden, Jeremy Wagner, Jackie Gamber, Michael

Boatman, Gord Rollo, and Stephen Susco

Sunday, Nov. 13, from 10:00am to 10:45am – Panel: "From Pen to Screen and Back Again" How stories are developed for the screen, and how movies become novelized. Hollywood and literary insiders will discuss the intimate relationship between the written word and film. Moderator: Scott C. Carr Panelists: Eric Red, Stephen Susco, Jonathan Maberry, Brian Keene, Michael Boatman

Big Bad Wolves

Like free stuff? Of course you do. Otherwise, you wouldn't come back here every week to read Deluge for free.

Mike Oliveri has a new 12-page comic you can read for free thanks to Indie Pulp. Big Bad Wolves is a prequel to Mike's werewolf novel Winter Kill. You do not have to have read Winter Kill to enjoy this free comic.

However, if after reading the comic you want to check out Winter Kill (which does for werewolves what The Rising did for zombies) it's available for Kindle, Nook, and in Trade Paperback.

Snowtober

This is what it looked like at my house yesterday. Before Halloween. When I consider that in the last two months I've dealt with hurricanes, tropical storms, floods, earthquakes, heart attacks, mudslides, and now a freak snowstorm, I almost wonder…

Anyway, the power is supposed to be out until at least next Wednesday. I'm sequestered elsewhere, with limited internet access, so look for things to be slow this week. I promise that Friday's Deluge conclusion will go live as scheduled. It just might not be proofread in time.