Brian Keene's Blog, page 192
June 19, 2011
2010 Bram Stoker Award Winners
The 2010 Bram Stoker Awards banquet was held last night. The Keenedom's own Jeff Strand was the host. The best coverage and commentary came from the tongue-in-cheek Stroker Awards. The winners:
NOVEL: A Dark Matter by Peter Straub
FIRST NOVEL: (tie) Black and Orange by Benjamin Kane Ethridge and The Castle of Los Angeles by Lisa Morton
LONG FICTION: Invisible Fences by Norman Prentiss
SHORT FICTION: "The Folding Man" by Joe R. Lansdale
ANTHOLOGY: Haunted Legends by Ellen Datlow and Nick Mamatas
COLLECTION: Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King
NONFICTION: To Each Their Darkness by Gary Braunbeck
POETRY: Dark Matters by Bruce Boston
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT: Ellen Datlow and Al Feldstein
June 18, 2011
Maelstrom with Music: The Week in Review
A reminder that Maelstrom set 2 (composed of A Conspiracy of One and Alone by me and Once Upon A Time In Midnight by John Urbancik) go on sale tomorrow (Sunday) at 3pm (Arizona time). Customers who purchased the first set can pre-order theirs today. In other news, Deluge continued. To Fight With Monsters, the new comic book I wrote with Mike Oliveri, arrived in stores. I posted an important announcement for the newsletter subscribers, and mused about life and the Ghoul movie. Cue Rufus Wainwright. There was a lot of music as I celebrated one year on Blip and found out I'm getting old. Two funds have been set up for author LA Banks, who is fighting cancer.
June 17, 2011
Maelstrom II Pre-Orders Begin
Pre-ordering for Maelstrom Set 2 (Brian Keene's A Conspiracy of One and Alone, and John Urbancik's Once Upon A Time In Midnight) has begun for customers who purchased the previous set. Those customers received an email earlier this week with ordering details. Pre-ordering will open to the general public at approximately 3pm (Arizona Time) on Sunday. Watch this space for the general public link.
DELUGE (Part 76)
"Can't believe we went through all of that just to come away empty-handed," Novak said as they rowed toward the ship. "Such a waste."
Henry wanted to take issue with the comment, and point out that they had managed to save him and Sarah, not to mention the backpack of meager supplies he had strapped over his shoulders, but he was too terrified to speak. The water was silent, save for the raindrops pelting its surface and the small waves lapping at the sides of the boat. The black depths below were thick with an almost palpable menace. He sat still, muscles tensed, jaw clenched, remembering his escape from the grain silo to land and waiting for one of the shark men to attack.
Instead, he just got wet. Henry shivered as the rain managed to creep beneath his makeshift armor. When he glanced around the boat, he saw that the others were equally miserable.
"How you holding up?" he asked Sarah.
She shrugged. "We're still alive. I didn't think we would be. I guess that counts for something."
"I reckon so, given what we were thinking about doing."
"What was that?" Gail asked, slipping an oar through the water.
Henry blushed. "We… we were thinking about… killing ourselves. Maybe it sounds stupid, but we really thought…"
"Don't sweat it, Kid," Novak said. "We'd been discussing the same thing not too long ago."
"Really? What made you change your minds?"
Novak turned away. "A mutiny."
The ship loomed out of the mist and they pulled alongside. Henry noticed four other shadowy figures looming around the rail, but the fog concealed their features. Once he and Sarah were safely aboard, the rest of the crew stepped forward, and Novak made introductions.
"Henry and Sarah, meet Simon, Caterina, Mylon and Tatiana."
"Howdy." Henry stuck out his hand, but the others recoiled.
"No offense, Mr. Garrett," Simon said, smiling, "but you'll need to be detoxified before we shake. We can't risk the chance of infection. I'm sure you both understand."
"How do you know my last name?" Henry asked.
"Simon does parlor tricks," Novak said. "You think that's something, ask him to light your cigarette."
Mylon cleared his throat. "Speaking of which, where's the flamethrower?"
"We had to leave it behind," Novak said. "It was contaminated."
"Was that the explosion we heard?"
"You guys didn't see the flash?" Gail asked.
"Nope," Mylon said. "Too foggy."
"We had to leave the supplies, too," Novak said. "Except for the few things Henry has in his pack."
Mylon shook his head. "Well, this whole thing has been one big cluster-fuck."
"That's no way to talk to our guests," Simon scolded. "I suggest we get out of the rain, raise anchor, get underway, and allow Mylon and Caterina to continue their shift at watch. I'm sure our new arrivals would like some dry clothes and something to eat."
Nodding, Henry said, "That would be great. Me and Sarah—"
A loud splash echoed off the portside. Whatever had caused the disturbance, it was enough to increase the size of the waves. The ship rocked beneath their feet.
Simon tensed. "How soon can we be underway, Mr. Novak?"
"Ten minutes."
"Make it five. It's no longer safe to stay here."
"Not for nothing, Simon, but the same could be said of the rest of the world."
"That's what I meant, Mr. Novak," Simon replied. "That's exactly what I meant…"
June 16, 2011
Marathon Man (Updated)
I recently talked about my new work schedule – single dad Monday thru Thursday, and writer Thursday night thru Sunday. This new schedule doesn't leave a lot of time for things like a personal life, but I do manage to get some work done in that Thursday to Sunday stretch. Usually, that is accomplished in 12 to 24 hour marathons, followed by 5 to 8 hours of sleep, followed by another marathon. I listen to music while this is going on.
Tomorrow marks the one-year anniversary of my Blip.fm account. I love Blip. It's my second favorite social network (after Twitter). Facebook is a vile but necessary evil. Tumblr is a pointless exercise in futility. But I loves me some Blip. It's like having my own personal radio station, which appeals to me since I spent a large part of my early twenties working as a disc jockey. One of the things I enjoy on Blip are the badges. One of the few badges I've yet to earn is the Marathon, which is awarded to DJs who Blip once per hour for 24 hours.
So that's what we're doing. Think of it as a glimpse into my creative process. I've just stepped out of the shower, pulled on a pair of black pajama pants, made a pot of coffee, downed ginseng, gingko biloba, a can of Red Bull and a shot of Basil Hayden's, lit a Diesel cigar, and turned on the computer. I'm going to write for 24 hours, with my iTunes on shuffle, just like I always do. Once an hour, I will Blip whatever song is currently providing my background music while I work on Clickers vs. Zombies, Binky, and this novella for Apex. The writing and music will cease this time tomorrow, when I finally fall asleep for a few hours. Click here to listen.
Brian Keene, creating new ways for you to stalk me online since 1997…
UPDATED: Well, guess who fell asleep face down at his desk around 4:30am? Getting old sucks.
Marathon Man
I recently talked about my new work schedule – single dad Monday thru Thursday, and writer Thursday night thru Sunday. This new schedule doesn't leave a lot of time for things like a personal life, but I do manage to get some work done in that Thursday to Sunday stretch. Usually, that is accomplished in 12 to 24 hour marathons, followed by 5 to 8 hours of sleep, followed by another marathon. I listen to music while this is going on.
Tomorrow marks the one-year anniversary of my Blip.fm account. I love Blip. It's my second favorite social network (after Twitter). Facebook is a vile but necessary evil. Tumblr is a pointless exercise in futility. But I loves me some Blip. It's like having my own personal radio station, which appeals to me since I spent a large part of my early twenties working as a disc jockey. One of the things I enjoy on Blip are the badges. One of the few badges I've yet to earn is the Marathon, which is awarded to DJs who Blip once per hour for 24 hours.
So that's what we're doing. Think of it as a glimpse into my creative process. I've just stepped out of the shower, pulled on a pair of black pajama pants, made a pot of coffee, downed ginseng, gingko biloba, a can of Red Bull and a shot of Basil Hayden's, lit a Diesel cigar, and turned on the computer. I'm going to write for 24 hours, with my iTunes on shuffle, just like I always do. Once an hour, I will Blip whatever song is currently providing my background music while I work on Clickers vs. Zombies, Binky, and this novella for Apex. The writing and music will cease this time tomorrow, when I finally fall asleep for a few hours. Click here to listen.
Brian Keene, creating new ways for you to stalk me online since 1997…
3000 MPH In Every Direction At Once*
*3000 MPH In Every Direction At Once is the name of a book by my The Damned Highway collaborator Nick Mamatas. It is also how I feel this week, as life changes all around me once again. Perhaps the last two years of my life have been nothing but a three-layered dream, like in the movie Inception. Except that in Inception, the architect was a real cutie who created useful things. Judging by my life, my architects are probably Jeff Heimbuch and Mike Lombardo coming off a three-day brake fluid drinking binge.
Ever have one of those lives where you wish the Mayans or that crazy evangelist were right, and the world really was going to end? [image error]Yeah? Me too. Hell, I've made an entire career out of that single wish fulfillment, ending the world with zombies and worms and floods and darkness and assorted other things.
Anyway, a reminder that Maelstrom Set 2 goes on sale to the general public this Sunday. If you purchased the first set, you should have received an email with instructions on how to reserve your set early, before they go on sale Sunday. If you did not get that email, you should email info @ thunderstormbooks.com immediately. Here are full details on Set 2.
Meanwhile, Keenedom Mod Val and former Keenedom Mod Deb both tell me that Chiller has 
begun showing commercials for Ghoul. The marketing folks at NBC/Universal just showed me some potential designs for the movie poster and such. I like what they are going for. Once the final image is approved, it will be sent off to Deadite Press and Dark Realms so they can use the same image on the new editions of the book and audio-book (both of which will come out around the same time as the movie). If you don't have Chiller, click here to get it. A lot of you keep asking me for more details on the movie, but I am limited in what I can say. Suffice to say, you'll see it soon.
June 15, 2011
IN STORES NOW
Available today wherever comic books are sold is To Fight With Monsters. This post apocalyptic one-shot is written by me and Mike Oliveri (based on our short story from 4X4), illustrated by Ben Dunn, and published by Antarctic Press.
Don't have a comic shop near you, or worse, have one of those comic shops that only order 5,000 copies of the latest crossover event? No problem. Click here to order directly from the publisher.
June 13, 2011
LA Banks Ill (Updated)
(L to R): NPR producer, Joe Lansdale, Edward Lee, LA Banks, Me, Heather Graham, and Wrath James White
I'm sad to report that our friend, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author LA Banks, has been diagnosed with late stage adrenal cancer. She is gravely ill. A fund has been started to help her and her daughter with the medical bills. Please click here to donate. I know times are tough, but any amount will help. The Romance & Women's Fiction Community are raising funds, as well.
