Brian Keene's Blog, page 87

NEW FEARS

I’ve got a brand-new short story called “Sheltered In Place” that will be appearing later this year in NEW FEARS — the first volume of an annual, non-themed horror anthology, to be published by Titan Books in September, and edited by Mark Morris. You can pre-order the book in paperback or for your Kindle by clicking here. Below is the complete table of contents:

THE BOGGLE HOLE – Alison Littlewood

SHEPHERDS’ BUSINESS – Stephen Gallagher

NO GOOD DEED – Angela Slatter

THE FAMILY CAR – Brady Golden

FOUR ABSTRACTS – Nina Allan

SHELTERED IN PLACE – Brian Keene

THE FOLD IN THE HEART – Chaz Brenchley

DEPARTURES – AK Benedict

THE SALTER COLLECTION – Brian Lillie

SPEAKING STILL – Ramsey Campbell

THE EYES ARE WHITE AND QUIET – Carole Johnstone

THE EMBARRASSMENT OF DEAD GRANDMOTHERS – Sarah Lotz

EUMENIDES (THE BENEVOLENT LADIES) – Adam Nevill

ROUNDABOUT – Muriel Gray

THE HOUSE OF THE HEAD – Josh Malerman

SUCCULENTS – Conrad Williams

DOLLIES – Kathryn Ptacek

THE ABDUCTION DOOR – Christopher Golden

THE SWAN DIVE – Stephen Laws

Baltimore Appearance – March 18

I’ll be attending the Scares That Care Crab Feast Fundraiser on Saturday, March 18 from 8pm to midnight, at Jimmy’s Famous Seafood 6526 Holabird Ave, Baltimore, Maryland 21224. So will Mary SanGiovanni and The Horror Show’s Dave and Phoebe. Understand, we won’t have books for sale at the event. We’re just hanging out and not doing an official “signing”. BUT…if you buy a ticket to the event and bring books from home, we’ll be happy to sign them for you. Again, let me stress, you have to buy a ticket to the event. No sneaking in just to get your books signed.

Tickets are $55 per person and include all you can eat crabs, pit ham and beef, beer, soda, and an array of other foods and goodies. There will be door prizes and other fun raffles. Click here to buy your tickets!

The End of the END OF THE ROAD

For the last nine months (plus change), I’ve been writing a weekly column for Cemetery Dance called END OF THE ROAD. Ostensibly based around chronicling last year’s Farewell (But Not Really) Tour (in support of the novels PRESSURE and THE COMPLEX), the weekly column became something much more — a long goodbye to departed friends J.F. Gonzalez and Tom Piccirilli, a meditation on the horror genre post Stephen King’s DANSE MACABRE until now, an examination of the changes the last twenty years have brought to bookselling and publishing, and a postcard from me at the edge of fifty. Last Friday saw the publication of the final chapter. This week and next week will see the publication of two epilogues.

Many readers have asked if the columns will be collected into a book. The answer is yes. Yes, they will. It will be published later this year by Cemetery Dance. It will contain all of the columns. It will also contain some unpublished columns, as well as additional material from people who were out there on the road with me (such as John Urbancik and The Horror Show co-host Dave Thomas). Look for it later this year.

Transcript of Open Letter to Bizarro Genre

On this week’s episode of my podcast, we discuss allegations of sexual assault involving Bizarro writer G Arthur Brown, and how the fallout from that, and other controversies, are impacting the Bizarro genre. Near the end of the show, I offered an “open letter” to all Bizarro writers and publishers. Some have asked for a transcript of THAT PORTION of the show, so I’m posting it below. To listen to the entire show, with context, click here.

***

BRIAN: “So… this is my two cents. This is my open letter to the Bizarro genre. And when I say the Bizarro genre, I mean everybody. I mean the folks in Portland. I mean John Edward Lawson and the Raw Dog community down in Maryland. I mean Kevin Strange, and our detractors. I mean… you know, everybody, okay? My two cents.

The Bizarro community is very divided right now. You’ve got one camp — folks like Kevin Strange for example — who say this entire G Arthur Brown case is proof of double standards and favoritism among the mostly Portland-centric Bizarro community, composed of Eraserhead Press, Lazy Fascist, Deadite Press, etc. So that’s one camp.

You’ve got another camp, who don’t necessarily believe Kevin’s… I’m going to call them conspiracy theories, because that’s what this second camp views them as. But… the second camp do feel he’s raising a good point. They feel concerned and they don’t feel like their concerns are being heard by those at the top in Bizarro.

You’ve got a third camp that believe G Arthur Brown and are rallying to his defense — but some people in that third camp are rallying to his defense by attacking anyone who doesn’t believe him, or who questions his narrative.

And then you’ve got a fourth camp. And that fourth camp is the biggest camp. That camp are sitting, quietly watching all this transpire and feeling very dejected and demoralized about the whole thing. Okay?

Many people in all four camps are asking privately and sometimes in public, if this is the end of the Bizarro community. In fact I saw one quote… quote unquote, “Is this the end of the Bizarro community?” Well, here’s the thing, folks. Bizarro isn’t a community. Okay, Bizarro is not a community. It’s a genre label. Bizarro fiction is a category created for READERS. It’s a way to label things so that readers can locate them. It’s a marketing category. The Bizarro genre is no more a community than the horror genre is a community. Do you think that everyone in the horror genre likes everyone else, and that everyone agrees on what is best for the horror genre, and that everyone goes to World Horror Con or StokerCon and holds hands and sings Kumbaya? Well, they don’t. If that’s what you think, then you’re a fucking idiot, okay? They don’t.

Genres are not communities. Genres are marketing labels. Genres cannot be communities.

But writers can.

And that’s what what we’ve got now. As a natural output of Bizarro’s growth — and Bizarro has grown. I mean, think about when it started until now. As a natural output of that, you have a number of different communities, each of whom seem to be, from my perspective as an outsider, claiming to speak for Bizarro — not just in this matter, not just in the case of G Arthur Brown, but in EVERY matter. Anything that concerns Bizarro, you’ve got different communities claiming they’re in charge and they know what’s best for Bizarro, and it should be this way. Okay?

Now, in this matter, regardless of which camp you fall into – whether you believe G Arthur Brown is innocent of the charges and has just had incredibly bad luck, or whether you believe he is guilty of the charges and has just had incredibly good luck, or whether you don’t know what to believe – here’s what you need to know.

One person is not Bizarro and one person is not a community. Okay? G Arthur Brown is not Bizarro — he’s not the be-all, end-all. It doesn’t start and end with him. The Bizarro “Community” is not the Eraserhead group in Portland or the Raw Dog group in Maryland. You know? It’s not just Michael Allen Rose sitting in Chicago. It’s not Frank Edler recording Bizzong up in New Jersey. Hello, Frank! The Bizarro community isn’t a singular thing because there is no Bizarro community. Not at this stage. Now, there are Bizarro communities. PLURAL. And regardless of whether you like each other or agree with each other, you need to recognize that you’re ALL Bizarro.

Kevin Strange is Bizarro. Now, right now, we just lost half our listeners, Dave.”

DAVE: “Well, what else is new?”

BRIAN: “But fuck them. Kevin Strange is Bizarro. Jeremy Robert Johnson is Bizarro. Jordan Krall is Bizarro. There. We just lost some more, but guess what? Jordan Krall is Bizarro. Jeff Burk is Bizarro. Well, now the people that cheer for Kevin Strange and Jordan are tuning us out. We’re losing all our listeners, Dave, but Kevin Strange, Jeremy Robert Johnson, Jordan Krall, Jeff Burk — they’re all Bizarro. Laura Lee Bahr is Bizarro. John Edward Lawson is Bizarro. Carlton Mellick is Bizarro. Alex S. Johnson is Bizarro. Lisa LeStrange is Bizarro. Danger Slater is Bizarro. Kevin Donihe, Randy Cunningham, Cameron Pierce, Christine Morgan, Chuck Tingle, and Leza Cantoral are all Bizarro. If you are writing for that genre, or you are publishing for that genre, then YOU are Bizarro, regardless of who you consider your community to be. Everybody with me so far?”

DAVE: “I’m following you totally.”

BRIAN: “Okay. If the Portland Bizarro “community” — and I’m making air quotes — and the Kevin Strange Bizarro “community” — air quotes again — don’t like each other or agree with each other regarding the direction of Bizarro, that’s okay. Neither group — neither group — should have the power to lord it over the other group, because at this point, Bizarro is too fucking big for that. Okay? If Bizarro publishers aren’t publishing the books you want to see, then publish your own. If you don’t like a certain Bizarro event, then start your own. If you don’t feel represented in the quote unquote community, then build your own community. Be a community of many or be a community of one. But don’t let your own egos and agendas and politics and personal vendettas get in the way of remembering what writing is all about. Okay?

And I’m here to tell you this folks. I know this from twenty years of experience. Learn from my mistakes. Writing isn’t about your social media platform. It’s not about going out on tour and meeting fans. It’s not about sitting here and doing a fucking podcast in your home every week. Writing is about sitting your ass down in the chair and putting words on the screen or the paper. Okay?

Can G Arthur Brown bring about the downfall of Bizarro? No. No single person can bring about the downfall of Bizarro. Kevin Strange and Jordan Krall aren’t going to bring it down. Jeff Burk and Cameron Pierce aren’t going to bring it down. No one entity can do that. However, take note, Bizarros. All of you can bring it down together if you don’t wake the fuck up and realize that this genre ain’t no little thing anymore. It’s not that little crazy literary offshoot that nobody else in publishing knows about, okay? It’s not taking place in a hotel conference room anymore. Bizarro is all grown up, and you’re never ever, ever, ever going to get the genie back in the box. There is room FOR ALL within its confines and boundaries, just as there is in horror or any other genre.”

DAVE: “Exactly.”

BRIAN: “Now, I want to make it clear. I’m not coming down on anybody. I’m not saying Jeff Burk and Kevin Strange need to shake hands and make up. I’m not saying Cameron Pierce and Jordan Krall should go fishing together and work their shit out. You don’t have to like the other communities within the genre. But you do need to recognize their right to be a part of it, as well. And that goes for both sides in this argument. There’s no love lost between me and the current Horror Writers Association. We talk about HWA all the time. But you know what you’ll never hear me say? You will never hear me say they don’t deserve to be horror writers or they’re not part of horror, because that’s bullshit. Nobody gets to decide that. Genres don’t need gatekeepers. Now, if your individual community wants to have gatekeepers, then that’s on you. But a genre doesn’t need gatekeepers, and a genre with gatekeeprs will, in fact, collapse and fold. Okay? So, yeah. If you want Bizarro to come crashing down, keep on gatekeeping, motherfuckers.

I’ve got no horse in this race. I’m not a Bizarro writer. But I am a fan of the genre, and I’m a fan of many of the writers in each of the communities. For example, I’m a huge fan of Carlton Mellick and Jeremy Robert Johnson and Kevin Donihe. Have been for years. And, you know, some of the new guys, like David Barbee, I really enjoy. Bradley Sands. But, I’m also on record as saying that I enjoyed Kevin Strange’s writing, despite what he’s said about Dave and myself. And I got a lot of shit for that, privately. ‘Oh, how can you say that you like Kevin Strange’s writing?’ Well, I don’t know? Because I like it? I don’t care which camp the writing came from or which community or which side, or what the politics were. And here’s the thing Bizarro writers — most of your readers don’t give a fuck about that either. The only people who care about that shit is you — the writers and publishers and editors who are doubling down and making this all about sides. Okay? My advice to you — and again, it’s advice based on watching the horror genre go through this same thing years and years ago — is to forget about what the other side is up to. Forget about the other Bizarro communities. Focus on your Bizarro community. Focus on YOUR Bizarro.

That’s my two cents. I’m sure that pretty much everyone in Bizarro will be offended by what I’ve just said, Dave. That’s okay.”

DAVE: “Well. you know…”

BRIAN: “Two weeks ago we were heroes for raising ten grand for charity. Tomorrow morning we’ll be villains for saying Bizarro isn’t a single community. Story of both of our careers.”

DAVE: “What else is new?”

BRIAN: “I’m okay with it.”

DAVE: “Yeah, I am, too.”

DARK HOLLOW Audiobook On Sale

As previously announced, Crossroads Press are bringing most of my backlist out in audiobook. The first release was the audiobook adaptation of THE COMPLEX, read by Chet Williamson. The second release, DARK HOLLOW, is available now via Audible, and is also read by Chet Williamson. Click here to order.

Building Your Brand

I was recently a guest on Jeff Burk’s JEFF ATTACKS podcast, along with my peers Laura Lee Bahr, John Skipp, Nick Mamatas, and J. David Osborne, in which we talked about how writers can build their brand. Click here to listen for free.

BUILDING YOUR BRAND – JEFF ATTACKS

I was recently a guest on Jeff Burk’s JEFF ATTACKS podcast, along with my peers Laura Lee Bahr, John Skipp, Nick Mamatas, and J. David Osborne, in which we talked about how writers can build their brand. Click here to listen for free.

UNSAFE SPACES

Thunderstorm Books still has about a dozen copies of the limited collector’s edition of UNSAFE SPACES left in stock. Click here to purchase one.

“Thunderstorm Books is proud to present Brian Keene’s brand-new non-fiction collection, in which nothing is sacred…or safe. Be it loving tributes to authors J.F. Gonzalez and Tom Piccirilli (and a heartfelt account of how their deaths impacted him), ruminations on middle-age, a rueful look at how publishing and writing have changed, sarcastic barbs at pop culture’s obsession with superhero movies, a hard look at both sides of the social justice war, or thoughtful examinations of the works of writers like Jack Ketchum and Mary SanGiovanni, Brian Keene once again offers an honest, no-holds-barred critique our lives, our culture, and our world, and proves that we are all inhabiting … UNSAFE SPACES.”

THANK YOU

At noon today, we wrapped The Horror Show with Brian Keene’s 24-hour live telethon to benefit the Scares That Care charity. Our goal was to raise $10,000 for Scares That Care, to benefit these three families. I am happy to report we achieved our goal.

I woke at 6:00am Thursday and went to bed at 1:00pm Friday. I spent 24 hours of that time talking. The rest was spent either preparing to talk or recovering from talking. All in all, both Dave and myself were awake 31 hours or so. If you were listening, you know what the physical toll was. Dave’s delirium (“I sang? I don’t remember that…”) and the blood in my throat and heart issues were not fake or played up for the air.

My sincere thanks to each and every single person that donated to this very worthy cause.

Thanks to my co-hosts Dave Thomas and Geoff Cooper. And to Phoebe.

Thanks to our guests Ronald Malfi, Wrath James White, Mary SanGiovanni, Scott Edelman, Christopher Golden, Damien Angelica Walters, Stephen Kozeniewski, Jonathan Janz, John Urbancik, Nate Southard, Bracken MacLeod, Armand Rosamilia, Chuck Buda, Frank Edler, Michael Bailey, Robert Ford, Jeff Burk, Amber Fallon, Kristopher Rufty, Christian Jensen, Mike Lombardo, Steve Boliek, Ralph Bieber, Kyle Lybeck, Wile E. Young, Patrick J. Kennedy, and Somer Canon.

Thanks to Maurice Broaddus and Jeff Strand for being good sports with the crank phone calls.

Thanks to Robert Swartwood, Sinister Grin Press, Written Backwards, Survival Weekly, Steve Wands, and many others for their generous push goals.

Thanks to Scares That Care’s Brian Smith, Alfred Guy, and Joe Ripple.

My sincere thanks to the diehards like Jim and Ed-Die and so many others who stayed awake the full 24 hours with us and kept the hashtag active, engaging, and trending.

Again, thanks to all of you who donated, and my sincere apologies to anyone I may have forgotten above.

In the coming days, people will ask what my favorite parts were. To be honest, right now everything is a blur. But perhaps I’d choose:

1. That impromptu rendition of Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Sounds of Silence” by myself, Coop, and Dave (with the made-up-on-the-spot alternate lyrics).

2. Playing disc jockey at 4am (and thanks to Witch Mountain, Xander Harris, Sick of it All, Kasey Lansdale, Charred Walls of the Damned, Lace Weeper, The Slow Poisoners, BJ Pruitt and the Barnstormers and all the other musicians). I haven’t done that in a long, long time, and it felt good.

3. The energy that both Ronald Malfi and Damien Angelica Walters brought with them (and understand, all of guests did this, but those two came at moments when Dave and I were truly flagging, and elevated the room again).

4. Somer Canon and Mary SanGiovanni’s discussion of Women in Horror, Then and Now.

5. Freebird.

6. Getting hit in the head with the spatula.

Again, thank you to our listeners, our fans, our peers, and their fans, for making this a success.

Much love and respect,

–Brian Keene

#HORRORSHOW100 TELETHON IS LIVE

The Horror Show with Brian Keene is a weekly podcast featuring interviews with horror authors, filmmakers, artists, actors, musicians, and more. We are celebrating the show’s 100th episode with a live 24-hour telethon to benefit Scares That Care. Our goal is to raise $10,000 for the charity over the next twenty-four hours. The event is being live-streamed via YouTube from noon 1/26/17 to noon 1/27/17. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN FOR FREE.

If you have a question or comment for the hosts or their guests during the show, post it via Twitter using the #HorrorShow100 hashtag. This is the best way for us to see it.

Scares That Care is an approved 501(c)(3) charity. We fight the REAL MONSTERS of childhood illness, burns and breast cancer by helping families cope with the financial burden of these extraordinary hardships. Our non-profit organization provides money, toys and other items to help sick children. We also have the “Scares For Pairs,” program, which helps women fighting breast cancer. And we are partnered with horror icon Kane Hodder for the “I Helped Kane” program, where we provide assistance to those children who have suffered serious burn injuries. We are a 100% VOLUNTEER organization in order to maximize our supporters donations to those who need it! CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE THREE FAMILIES THE CHARITY IS HELPING THIS YEAR.

There are FOUR ways you can donate while listening to the telethon:

Via Text Message:

o Text SCARES to 91999

o Click the response link

o Complete the donation form

o Click “SUBMIT”

Via The Website:

o Click this link to visit the Scares That Care website

o Complete the donation form

o Click “SUBMIT”

Via Facebook:

o Visit ‘Scares That Care’ on Facebook

o Click the blue Donate button on the top right

o From the pop-up box, Click “CONTINUE”

o Complete the donation form

o Click “SUBMIT”

The donation forms are 100% secure.

* Offline Donations:

o Make donation checks out to Scares That Care

o Mail checks to:

Scares That Care

ATTN: Donations

P.O. Box 220

Newport, PA 17074