Brian Keene's Blog, page 89

MAELSTROM 2016 ON SALE NOW

The 2016 Maelstrom set in on sale now. For new readers, Maelstrom is my imprint via publisher Thunderstorm Books. Each year, I publish a three-book set featuring a novel length work by myself, a novella length work by myself, and a novel length work by a writer I think you will enjoy. These sets are produced for book collectors. Each set consists of three signed, limited edition hardcovers with high-end production values. They are sold together — three books for one price.

We had to bump up the price a bit this year to cover the ever increasing rise in paper costs. As a result, the print run is set a bit lower than previous volumes. This year’s three-book set is limited to 225 copies and costs $150.

This year’s set includes:

THRONE OF THE BASTARDS

by Brian Keene and Steven L. Shrewsbury

Rogan is back in this sequel to Brian Keene and Steven L. Shrewsbury’s award-winning KING OF THE BASTARDS, and this time, he’ll show no mercy. Learning that his family are in danger, Rogan returns to his former kingdom, now under siege from foreign invaders led by his bastard son. Now, the aging barbarian and his trusted companions, Javan and Akibeel, must forge an alliance new friends and old foes, mustering an army to retake the kingdom. Surrounded by savages, soldiers, demons, and dark magic, it will take all their cunning, skill, and courage to survive the war and determine once and for all who shall sit upon the THRONE OF THE BASTARDS.

SCHOOL’S OUT

by Brian Keene

Eight-year-old Alan doesn’t like going to school, but when a global pandemic leaves him orphaned, cold, starving, and lonely, he has no choice but to set out on a dangerous quest to return to his third-grade classroom. SCHOOL’S OUT, an all-new post-apocalyptic novella by Brian Keene, was suggested to him by his son, marking their first official collaboration, and is suitable for all ages.

COME TO DUST

by Bracken MacLeod

Ever since her mother abandoned her, five-year-old Sophie has had to depend on her uncle Mitch for everything. But he’s struggling. Restarting a life interrupted by time in prison is hard enough without having to balance work and single parenthood. Mitch is determined to make it work though, striving to keep their family together despite the obstacles in their way, because no matter how difficult things get, they are good for each other. And life for the two of them seems to be looking up. But when Sophie dies tragically, it all comes crashing down. Mitch descends into a crippling grief, coming to understand how little his freedom means without her to share it with. And though released from the sudden responsibility thrust upon him, all he wants is his niece back, safe and alive.

When he gets his wish and scores of children around the world begin to inexplicably rise from the dead—Sophie among them—everything becomes much harder.

Mitch rescues her from the morgue, determined to carve out a normal life for them no matter what, though it soon becomes clear that may not be possible. While the kids who’ve returned behave like living children, they still look very dead. And they can do something else that normal children cannot. Something terrifying. Beliefs differ whether the children’s return is a mercy or a sign of approaching judgment, and a congregation of religious fanatics determined to usher in the apocalypse has their own plan for salvation.

Now Mitch must find a way to save Sophie from an increasingly hostile world that wants to tear them apart and put her back in the ground for good.

***

MAELSTROM VII – The perfect holiday present for the Brian Keene fan in your life. 225 sets. $150. CLICK HERE TO ORDER

THE NAUGHTY LIST Teaser Trailer

If You’ve Read THE RISING, Please Read This

My novel The Rising was first published in 2003. It went on to become a cult-hit, and then a bonafide bestseller, and served as a major inspiration for the current zombie craze in our pop culture, and was translated into a dozen different languages, and was imitated endlessly, and had its ideas and concepts pop up in other zombie films and books, and was a trivia question on an ABC game show, and was cited by actors, politicians and other public figures as being among their favorite books, an was also cited by a generation of up-and-coming horror writers as their gateway drug into this genre, and was the subject of several cinematic false starts and an ill-fated comic book adaptation.

I never planned for any of that to happen.

I began writing The Rising in the mid-Nineties. Back then, it had a very different plot and a different title — Cabin Fever. The plot then morphed into what you know it as, but the book still had a different title — More Than Infinity (a title I would have liked to have kept, but my editors at Leisure Books and Delirium Books voted The Rising).

When I started The Rising (or Cabin Fever, as it was then known) I was a much younger man, working a series of dead end jobs for very little money — anything I could do to pay my child support on time and have enough left over to eat while I worked on becoming a famous horror writer. Most of my friends were in the same position (meaning they were also working dead end jobs and broke most of the time).

My saving grace at that time was my friend Michelle. We’d worked together at one of those dead end jobs, and she dated and eventually married (and later divorced) one of those friends of mine. Her kids and my first son were the same age, and playmates. At a time in my life when I wasn’t so much living paycheck to paycheck as I was living bounced check to bounced check, Michelle let me live in her home. She had a spare room that I stayed in, and I gave her money towards rent and the bills and watched the kids for her when she was at work. And when I wasn’t watching the kids, or at one of my dead end jobs, I sat in that spare room and I worked on the novel you know as The Rising.

When I go back and re-read the novel now (something I rarely do with any of my work, but did with this one in advance of the preparation for the ten-year anniversary edition that was published a few years ago), I see Michelle’s influence all over that book. Indeed, she and her then-husband are even name checked early on, as friends of Jim’s who didn’t survive the Siqqusim’s initial attack.

Quite simply, without Michelle, without her kindness and grace and charity, there would have never been a novel called The Rising. And there would have never been all the other novels and stories and comic books that have followed. I owe my career to a lot of people. Michelle is definitely one of them.  Without her help, I’d probably still be working a dead end job somewhere, and the zombies y’all love so much…well, who’s to say?

Michelle’s charity and kindness helped me become who I am today. Now, I’m asking you to give her some charity an kindness in return. Michelle suffered a series of debilitating strokes back in October (multiple strokes — the doctors don’t know how many for sure). Although she is now recuperating, the strokes have left her financially devastated. She has been unable to work since October, her savings are wiped out, an she’s not allowed to return to work until January at the earliest. Her medical expenses are in excess of $10,000 already and are still climbing.

Michelle has started a GoFundMe to help get her through this. If you have read The Rising, and you enjoyed the book, or you’ve enjoyed any of the nearly fifty books I’ve written since then, please consider donating if financially possible. Even a dollar or five or ten will help. Again, I can’t stress enough, without Michelle’s charity, I wouldn’t have a career today. If you’ve ever wanted to help me out, or thank me for writing something you enjoyed, then the best way to do that is by helping my friend.

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

And thank you.

AND I’LL LOOK DOWN AND WHISPER “NO”

Reprinted from this week’s newsletter, which you can subscribe to here.

 

I posted something on Facebook the morning after the Presidential Election. I didn’t say who I voted for (Johnson). I didn’t praise Clinton or Trump (I find them both equally loathsome). I didn’t attack people who voted for either of them, because I support those people’s right to do so. Basically, I didn’t do any of the things that you’ve no doubt seen my peers doing since the election results came in. ALL I DID was notice a lot of upset Millennial writers in my feed, who were looking to me for advice or wisdom — and I tried my best to give them some.

Here’s what I wrote:

A Message To Young Horror Writers:

Stephen King and Texas Chainsaw happened in the shadow of Watergate/Vietnam.

Splatterpunk happened in the shadow of Reagan.

Vertigo Comics happened in the shadow of Thatcher.

My generation’s success happened in the shadow of Bush Junior.

Now, it’s your turn. Go write about monsters and truth, because that’s our job, and there’s folks your age that are going to need it. Horror always does well in times of trouble, because people are seeking to escape from the very real monsters of the world, and curl up with safe, comforting make-believe monsters. Don’t let those people down.

End quote.

Now, whether you voted for Trump or didn’t vote for Trump, you can’t deny there are a lot of scared young people in this country right now. The reasonable thing to do might be to engage them in conversation, and talk through their fears. Unfortunately, we can no longer do that in this country because of the divisions on the Right and the Left. A young person on the Left says, “I’m scared.” A person on the Right points and laughs at them. But if a person on the Right did try to engage them in conversation, and said, “Hey, let’s talk about your fears. Help me understand what you are afraid of” the person on the Left will immediately point their finger at the person on the right and accuse them of being a racist or misogynist simply because of how they voted. And this vicious circle goes on and on and on. I see folks on the Right castigating those on the Left who are unhappy with the election results, but those same people on the Right seem to forget that they themselves did the exact same fucking thing when Obama was elected.

My name is Brian Keene. I am not on the Left or the Right. I used to be in the Middle. Now…?

Now I am outside the circle.

And I am beginning to hate anyone inside of it.

I wrote that piece, not to support one candidate or another, but to address the fears of the young people I saw in my timeline, without partisanship or anything else. It is a fact that horror fiction and horror films prosper more economically AND creatively under Conservative regimes than they do Progressive regimes. This has been true since the Sixties and it remains true today.

That’s not a partisan opinion. It’s a fact.

The day after I posted that was the second anniversary of J.F. (Jesus) Gonzalez’s death. If you’ve been reading END OF THE ROAD (my weekly column for Cemetery Dance) then you know I’m still struggling with his absence. And if you’ve been reading it, then you also know that the tour has come off the rails, with venues cancelling and games of musical chairs being played in editorial and money hemorrhaging and much more. What you don’t know (because we haven’t got to that point in the narrative) is that by September, this nine-month book tour starts to have a negative impact on both of my sons, and on my own health. And yet, I’m still out here, doing it. I’m in Portland, Oregon next week for BizarroCon. Why? Because I committed to this tour. I committed to my readers and my friends and my peers.

So, that morning, I wake up, and I’m missing Jesus, and I play with my youngest son and pack his lunch and take him to school, and we’re talking about how I have to go to Oregon, and he’s extra clingy and extra huggy and he tells me point blank he’ll be glad when this is over, and next year, he wants me to just stay home and play. And then I drop him off at school and I log online and I see that my little intentionally non-controversial  Facebook post has caused some controversy.

Two people say it’s racist. Another says it is misogynistic. Three say it’s typed “from a place of privilege” and therefore, must be disregarded. Seven see it as an attack on Trump. Two of those seven are incensed enough to make threats over it. Three think it says I didn’t support Clinton, and ALL of those three make threats as well. One says it is my fault that Trump won Pennsylvania, and is so incensed by this that he posts it several different times in several different places. Another, piggybacking on that, says people should boycott my books because Pennsylvania lost. And one accuses me of “Artsplaining” and equates me with somebody watching the Jews get shipped off to a concentration camp during Word War Two. When challenged, he eventually backpedals, and says he wasn’t referring to my post, even though he quoted from it.

Were these people random Internet weirdos? Were they clones of Nickolaus Pacione?

No. They were readers and friends and fellow authors.

And I’m done. Sooner or later, there was going to be a straw that broke the camel’s back. This was it.

For twenty years, I have bent over backwards for this genre, this industry, and the people who both love it and work in it. And I’ve been spit on and laughed at and stabbed in the back for it over and over and over again.

“But not everyone did that,” you shout. “You’re taking your anger out on everyone but it was just a few.”

Well, see…here’s the thing. They say that success breeds contempt, but what success really breeds is distrust. The more successful you get, the more “friends” you have. Sooner or later, you reach a moment of clarity where you figure out which of those friends are really friends and which ones aren’t. You ask yourself, who is there because of who you are and who is there because of who you are. That’s an important distinction, and I don’t know…maybe it’s not something you’ll understand unless you obtain a certain position, but it’s a realization I came to about six years ago, and I began to narrow my social circle accordingly.

Now, I’m gonna narrow it more. If I’m being fully honest here, I started narrowing it this summer, right before the bulk of the tour started. I threw a big party at my house, and I invited a lot of people, and — unbeknownst to them — I spent the day watching them. I spent the day watching my “friends”. I watched how they interacted with me — or didn’t interact with me. More importantly, I watched how they interacted with each other. How they treated each other. And how they interacted with and treated my girlfriend and my oldest son (who was also at the party). And I learned a lot of things.

And I’ve continued to learn a lot of things out here on the road. It’s called the Farewell (But Not Really) Tour, and part of that was the fact that I’ll be fifty next year, and my friends are fucking dying, and, to quote Waylon Jennings, “Living legends are a dying breed, there ain’t too many left. To tell the truth I ain’t been feeling too hot lately my damn self.” So, yes. That’s part of why it’s called Farewell (But Not Really). But the other reason it’s called that is because all year long, I’ve known I was going to have to sequester myself a little bit more, build more walls, be less public, less accessible.

I’d planned to wait until January 1st. As I said above, sooner or later, there was going to be a straw that broke the camel’s back. This was it. This week’s events just pushed me to do it a little sooner.

So, what does that mean? Does it mean I’m flouncing from Twitter, like Stephen King did earlier this week? Does it mean I’m going Bentley Little, and disconnecting from the Internet and never appearing in public again?

No. It doesn’t mean any of those things. It simply means that if you’re not my sons or my girlfriend, then you’re no longer a priority for me. You either respect that or you don’t. Either way, I don’t care.

I write books. You can like or dislike those books. But if you want to engage me in a 20,000 word Facebook discussion of what you didn’t like about the book, I’ll probably ignore it, because quite simply, I’m not writing books just for you. I’m writing them for the other 75,000 people also reading them. If you want a book specifically written just for you and tailored to your individual tastes then go write it.

If you’re an author and you’re texting or emailing me and your text or email starts with, “Hey, I know you’re busy but can you give me some advice on what to do about this publisher?” my answer will most likely be, “No, I can’t.” Because that’s no longer a priority for me, and because you just acknowledged that I’m busy, and because I’ve already given you that advice. My advice on contracts and agents and publishers and pay and harassment and all the other things that go on in this business are well-documented. No, I will no longer fight your battles. You need to start fighting them for yourself.

I am well-aware that what I’ve just written here will itself be just another source of controversy. That people will pick it apart, and divide it, and pull out select quotes to fit their own individual narrative or confirmation bias. I don’t care. That’s exactly what I’m getting away from. This newsletter is my last refuge. The last place, other than the podcast, where i can speak my mind. And though I love doing the podcast, I’ve always preferred to write my thoughts down rather than shout them into a microphone. I’ll continue to do so here, every week. I don’t Blog anymore. I have this.

Maybe you can dig that. Maybe you can’t. Either way, see above.

Those who don’t react to this in a negative way will no doubt ask, “What can we do?”

You can start being decent to each other. You can stop living in your safe social media bubbles where everybody agrees with you, and you can start having conversations with people who have a different fucking viewpoint. And you can listen to their viewpoint. You don’t have to agree with their viewpoint. But would it fucking hurt you to listen? Maybe you’ll learn something. You can start treating each other like human beings, rather than opposing teams that must be vanquished and defeated. You can stand up to racism, misogyny, misandry, harassment, bullying, and nitwittery, and a good way to start is by acknowledging that your team is just as guilty of those things as the other team is — because we’re all human, and we’re all flawed. BOTH sides are awash in intolerance, bigotry, and harassment.

If what I’ve said above makes you feel victimized or triggered or offended, I understand if you want to leave. No harm, no foul. If something is toxic to you, remove it from your life.

But if you do dig what I’m saying above, or you don’t agree with it but are willing to hear an opposing viewpoint, or you have the self-awareness to know that it’s not you, and you didn’t inspire this, then thanks for sticking around. Next week, we’ll talk about nice things, like THE NAUGHTY LIST movie.

End of rant.

J.F. GONZALEZ ESTATE UPDATE

This week marks the anniversary of J.F Gonzalez’s death (which, if you’ve been reading my weekly End of the Road column, is something you know I still struggle with). To mark the anniversary, I thought perhaps fans of his work might appreciate an update.

February of this year saw the release of RETREAT, his final full-length solo novel. It is currently available in paperback and digital.

This morning, I’ve finished edits on the two planned novella-length prequels to SURVIVOR, which was unarguably his most popular novel. The first of these prequels, MONSTERS, was completed by Jesus just a few weeks before he got ill. The second prequel, ANIMALS, was half completed.

Jesus left behind an outline of what he’d planned for ANIMALS, and the estate enlisted Wrath James White to finish the novella. Wrath and Jesus were dear friends, and had collaborated together before, so it was a natural fit. As this is a prequel to SURVIVOR, fans will expect a certain level of extreme horror, and Wrath is better suited to fill that role than anyone else Jesus ever collaborated with. In short, he was the best person for the job.

And wow, he delivered. This morning, I have signed off on the editorial notes for both MONSTERS and ANIMALS. They will be published early next year by Sinister Grin Press. This is a deal that Jesus already had in place when he died. It was his desire to see the two prequels published together in a single volume. More-so, he’d hoped to see them published in the style and manner of the old Ace Doubles.

So, look forward to those from Sinister Grin. With that project completed, I’ll be turning my attention to CLICKERS FOREVER, a tribute anthology in the spirit of Karl Edward Wagner’s EXORCISMS AND ECSTASIES. Featuring a long-lost Clickers story by Jesus himself, the book will also feature fiction, non-fiction, and remembrances from some of the biggest names in horror. There will be Clickers stories (Gene O’Neill’s Hunter S. Thompson versus Clickers is worth the price of admission alone), non-Clickers stories featuring elements from the rest of his mythos, essays about his work and impact (such as an examination of THE CORPORATION by Nick Mamatas and a remembrance of Jesus’s involvement with the halcyon days of the Splatterpunks by David J. Schow and John Skipp — with additional commentary from Jesus himself), and much more.

After that, there are one or two non-fiction collections, at least one or two more short story collections (possibly more than that), and at least one unfinished novel (RETREAT II, which I am currently finishing based on the outline and notes he left behind). There are a number of other unfinished novels and short stories, including an autobiographical novel that Jesus had worked on for years, code-named EL PASO, which would have been his magnum opus.

Expect word on much of that next year, but for now, know that MONSTERS and ANIMALS are forthcoming, as is CLICKERS FOREVER. And there will definitely be more to follow.

SHINING IN THE DARK

SHINING IN THE DARK: Celebrating Twenty Years of Lilja’s Library

Featuring Stephen King, Clive Barker, Stewart O’Nan, John Ajvide Lindqvist, Jack Ketchum, Ramsey Campbell, Brian Keene, and many others, Hans-Ake Lilja, founder of Lilja’s Library, has compiled a brand new anthology of horror stories to help celebrate twenty years of running the #1 Stephen King news website on the web! An exclusive Cemetery Dance Publications release, there are no other editions planned anywhere in the world for this incredible anthology!

Table of Contents:

“Celebrating 20 Years of Lilja’s Library (An Introduction) by Hans-Åke Lilja

“The Blue Air Compressor” by Stephen King

“The Net” by Jack Ketchum and P. D. Cacek

“The Novel of the Holocaust” by Stewart O’Nan

“Aeliana” by Bev Vincent

“Pidgin and Theresa” by Clive Barker

“An End To All Things ” by Brian Keene

“Cemetery Dance” by Richard Chizmar

“Drawn to the Flame” by Kevin Quigley

“The Companion” by Ramsey Campbell

“A Tell Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe

“A Mother’s Love” by Brian James Freeman

“The Keeper’s Companion” by John Ajvide Lindqvist

“Celebrating 20 Years of Lilja’s Library (An Afterword)” by Hans-Åke Lilja

Published as a Hardcover Limited Edition:

• Limited to just 750 signed and numbered copies

• Personally signed by the editor and the artist on a unique signature page

• Printed on 60# acid-free paper

• Bound in full-cloth with colored head and tail bands

• Featuring hot foil stamping on the front boards and spine

• Printed and bound with full-color endpapers

• Smyth sewn to create a more durable binding

• Wrapped in a full-color dust jacket

• Limited ONE TIME printing of this special edition

• Retail price just $60!

CLICK HERE TO PRE-ORDER

MAELSTROM EARLY WARNING SYSTEM

This is an activation of the Maelstrom Early Warning System. As we do every year, this is your advance warning that pre-orders for the next Maelstrom set will begin in a few weeks. If you are planning on purchasing a set, put aside your money now.

The 2016 Maelstrom set will include:

THRONE OF THE BASTARDS by Brian Keene and Steven L. Shrewsbury

Rogan is back in this sequel to Brian Keene and Steven L. Shrewsbury’s award-winning KING OF THE BASTARDS, and this time, he’ll show no mercy. Learning that his family are in danger, Rogan returns to his former kingdom, now under siege from foreign invaders led by his bastard son. Now, the aging barbarian and his trusted companions, Javan and Akibeel, must forge an alliance new friends and old foes, mustering an army to retake the kingdom. Surrounded by savages, soldiers, demons, and dark magic, it will take all their cunning, skill, and courage to survive the war and determine once and for all who shall sit upon the THRONE OF THE BASTARDS.

SCHOOL’S OUT by Brian Keene

Eight-year-old Alan doesn’t like going to school, but when a global pandemic leaves him orphaned, cold, starving, and lonely, he has no choice but to set out on a dangerous quest to return to his third-grade classroom. SCHOOL’S OUT, an all-new post-apocalyptic novella by Brian Keene, was suggested to him by his son, marking their first official collaboration, and is suitable for all ages.

COME TO DUST by Bracken MacLeod

Ever since her mother abandoned her, five-year-old Sophie has had to depend on her uncle Mitch for everything. But he’s struggling. Restarting a life interrupted by time in prison is hard enough without having to balance work and single parenthood. Mitch is determined to make it work though, striving to keep their family together despite the obstacles in their way, because no matter how difficult things get, they are good for each other. And life for the two of them seems to be looking up. But when Sophie dies tragically, it all comes crashing down. Mitch descends into a crippling grief, coming to understand how little his freedom means without her to share it with. And though released from the sudden responsibility thrust upon him, all he wants is his niece back, safe and alive.

When he gets his wish and scores of children around the world begin to inexplicably rise from the dead—Sophie among them—everything becomes much harder.

Mitch rescues her from the morgue, determined to carve out a normal life for them no matter what, though it soon becomes clear that may not be possible. While the kids who’ve returned behave like living children, they still look very dead. And they can do something else that normal children cannot. Something terrifying. Beliefs differ whether the children’s return is a mercy or a sign of approaching judgment, and a congregation of religious fanatics determined to usher in the apocalypse has their own plan for salvation.

Now Mitch must find a way to save Sophie from an increasingly hostile world that wants to tear them apart and put her back in the ground for good.

—

PRE-ORDERS COMING SOON. Readers interested in purchasing a signed, limited-edition set are advised to put aside the money now.

This concludes this broadcast of the Maelstrom Early Warning System.

KING OF THE BASTARDS Wins 2016 Imadjinn Award

I am very pleased and honored to announce that KING OF THE BASTARDS by myself and Steven L. Shrewsbury was the recipient of the 2016 Imadjinn Award for Best Fantasy Novel.

Hosted by the Imaginarium convention in Louisville, KY, the Imadjinn Awards are awarded to small press and independently published authors across multiple genres, including romance, horror, fantasy, and science fiction. I accepted on behalf of Steven and myself (although I was at the banquet, I had no clue we were up for the award, because I’ve been traveling all year and not paying attention).

KING OF THE BASTARDS is available in paperback and ebook. Click here to purchase. A sequel, THRONE OF THE BASTARDS, was completed earlier this month and will be available later this year.

October Appearances – KY, MA, NY

October 7 – 9

Imaginarium

Crowne Plaza Hotel

830 Phillips Ln.

Louisville, KY 40209

October 22

Merrimack Valley Halloween Book Festival

Haverhill Public Library

99 Main Street

Haverhill, MA

October 26

KGB Bar

85th East 4th Street

New York, NY 10003

Reading 7pm to 9pm with Christoph Paul and Mary SanGiovanni

Some answers to common questions concerning these three appearances:

1. I’ll be signing books all weekend long at Imaginarium in Kentucky. Books available for sale will include PRESSURE, THE COMPLEX, THE LOST LEVEL, and KING OF THE BASTARDS. You may also bring books from home to be signed. I’ll also be on a number of panels.

2. I’ll be signing books all day long at the Merrimack Valley Halloween Book Festival in Massachusetts. Books available for sale from me will include PRESSURE and THE COMPLEX. You may also bring books from home to be signed.

3. I will not have books for sale at the KGB Bar reading in New York City, but if you bring books from home, I will be happy to sign those. I ask that for this particular appearance, you limit it to two books from home, as the KGB will be very, very crowded.

October Offline

Sarah Pinborough is a bad influence on me. There was the time we stole a baby koala from a petting zoo. The time we were engaged for twenty-four hours. The time were arrested in Florida for doing something not easily described with words. (At least one of these examples is 100% true).

Now, Sarah has convinced me to go offline for the entire month of October — although, truth be told, it didn’t take much convincing. You’ve no doubt noticed, this website is now just news items — book releases and such, as they happen. Any in-depth Blogging, essays, rants, etc. have been taking place in my weekly email newsletter. That is by design. If you’ve been reading the newsletter, then you know that I have plans for next year, after this Farewell (But Not Really) Tour ends. I intend to reduce my availability and access, limiting myself to the weekly newsletter, my weekly podcast, and an occasional convention appearance or bookstore signing. This is also by design. I intend to let social media such as Twitter and Facebook act as mirrors and signal boosters for this website, the newsletter, and the podcast. A lengthy explanation as to why can be found in a past issue of the newsletter. Here is a snippet:

‘Yesterday, I interviewed filmmaker/author Kevin Strange and author/editor John Bruni for my podcast. Kevin said something I found very true — social networking was about making friends and connections. Social media is about Facebook and Twitter selling advertisements.

In between those advertisements, there’s a lot of ugliness — and that ugliness seems to be spreading like cancer.

Online conversation is being replaced by online proselytizing — sort of dovetailing into what I wrote here last week. And you know what the best part of what I wrote last week was? How a certain segment of the Internet immediately proved my point by reacting with intolerance, venom, hate, and threats simply because they disagreed with an opinion I’d politely expressed.

Now, if you’re reading the above and saying, “You sound like a grumpy old man, Brian,” well, guess what cupcake? I am a grumpy old man. All I know is that I was there when the Internet began. You’ve grown up with it in your life and don’t remember a time when you didn’t have it. But I’ve been here since the start, and I’ve seen it change and grow and transform into what it is now. Yes, there have always been trolls. Yes, there have always been assholes. But the tenor of things these days is something far, far different, and it’s not a conversation I wish to participate in. I’m 49. Next year, I’ll be 50. I’d much rather talk to my children and my girlfriend and write books and be left the fuck alone and say “Hello” twice a week from my podcast and this newsletter.’

Which brings me back to Sarah Pinborough and #OfflineOctober. The way Sarah explained it to me is this — for the entire month of October, a bunch of writers go offline, temporarily suspending their Facebook and Twitter accounts, and limiting their email usage and other online activities to one hour per day. In theory, this will give us more time to write. More time to write is something I desperately need right now, so I decided to join the cause, along with Sarah, James Barclay, J Scott Marryat, and several others. But I also intend to use this as a test run for 2017, when I reduce my online interaction permanently.

Here’s how Offline October will work for me — Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. will be set to autopost, meaning if something gets posted on this website, it will automatically appear on my social media, as well. If I post a picture from October’s various signings and appearances, they will show up on social media, too. But as far as interaction — as far as commenting on things and responding to requests and such — I will be missing in action. I’ve disappeared from social media before, usually a week here or there when I was under a deadline, but this will be the longest stretch and I’m curious about the impact. As I said, this is a test run. I’ll be checking algorithms and watching click-through rates and such, because I’m curious about these things. And while my fellow authors will be limiting their email and such to one hour per day, I’ll actually be using this offline time to get caught up on replying to email. (As of this morning, there are currently 1,329 unread emails in my inbox. Newsletter subscribers know this number fluctuates every week). And I’ll be using it to get caught up on missed deadlines.

What I’ll be most curious about is to see how many people miss this announcement, miss the fact that a link to it is pinned at the top of both Twitter and Facebook, and will wonder if I’ve died.

Not yet, kids. Not yet…