Brian Keene's Blog, page 90

UNSAFE SPACES – Collectors Edition On Sale Now

Thunderstorm Books is proud to present UNSAFE SPACES — 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.

100 signed, numbered copies. $95 CLICK HERE TO ORDER

(Yes, non-collectors. Just like TRIGGER WARNINGS, a cheaper edition will be released at a later date)

MAELSTROM 2016 Line-Up

Maelstrom is my own imprint via Thunderstorm Books. Each year, we release one set consisting of a novel-length work by myself, a novella-length work by myself, and a novel-length work by an author whom I think deserves a wider audience among book collectors. In past years, that has included Livia Llewellyn, Chesya Burke, Amber Fallon, Rachel Autumn Deering, John Urbancik, Geoff Cooper, Kelli Owen, John Goodrich, and more.

Subscribers to my free, weekly email newsletter know that the line-up for this year’s Maelstrom set has been in a state of flux. Today, I am happy to announce the finalized set:

THRONE OF THE BASTARDS by Steven L. Shrewsbury & Brian Keene – A horror/sword & sorcery sequel to KING OF THE BASTARDS.

SCHOOL’S OUT by Brian Keene – A post-apocalyptic novella told from the point-of-view of an eight-year-old (and pitched to me by my own eight-year-old son).

COME TO DUST by Bracken MacLeod – Bracken’s writing has been getting some mainstream notice and there’s a lot of buzz for his forthcoming novel, STRANDED, but readers among the book collecting subset aren’t yet familiar with him. That’s going to change this winter.

As always, we will give the public a minimum of two week’s notice before pre-orders begin, so that you can set money aside. THIS IS NOT THAT NOTICE. This is simply letting you know what this year’s books will be.

UNEARTHED On Sale Now

UNEARTHED by Richard Chizmar, Brian Keene, and Ray Garton is on sale now in paperback and for Kindle. Featuring…

Roses and Raindrops by Richard Chizmar and Brian Keene – A delivery to the old house on the edge of town haunts a man with horror and possibility.

The Sculptor by Richard Chizmar and Ray Garton – An artist in a dry spell awakes to find fresh stone in his home calling to be carved. Inspiration arrives, but at what cost?

Available in paperback for just $14.99 and Kindle for just $2.99

Letters From the Labyrinth and the Changing Face of Social Media

Letters From the Labyrinth is my weekly email newsletter. You can subscribe to it here.

Email newsletters are hot again. Seems like every writer, actor, musician, and stand-up comic I know has started an email newsletter over the past year, or is planning on it. The reasons are simple. Blogging is dead. Readers don’t automatically go to a Blog each day, because instead, they spend their time on Facebook. It is very hard for anyone in the entertainment industry to convince people to click beyond Facebook, let alone get them to invest time in reading a Blog.

The problem for entertainers is that Facebook no longer works unless you spend money. For each thing I post there, approximately 1,000 of my 11,000 followers see it — unless I spend money to boost the post into their feeds. Yes, spending money on advertising is a necessary evil, but the way Facebook’s algorithm works, if you have more than 10,000 followers, you basically have to spend money on each and every post. Which means you eventually end up spending more than you are making.

The other problem is the changing tone of social media. It’s one thing to interact with people and answer questions and have some fun. It’s another to have people shout abuse at you or to deal with that one entitled person who monopolizes all of your online time each and every day just because they follow you on the social media platform of their choice. Writers would get a lot more written if they didn’t have to Google things for people who apparently don’t know about Google, and most of us are really not interested in your thoughts on how your pet hamster, Freddy, has proof that vaccines are a conspiracy concocted by both Trump and Clinton.

As always, most of my peers aren’t talking publicly about the changing face of social media, but it’s ALL they’re talking about in private.

I’ve spent most of my 20+ year career Blogging, but you’ll notice that I don’t do much of it here, anymore. Instead, I have a podcast called THE HORROR SHOW WITH BRIAN KEENE. That’s by design. I reach more people through that podcast than I do here, mostly because while people might not click away from Facebook to read something, they will listen to a podcast while camping on Facebook. I said last year that this website would eventually be used for nothing more than news and announcements, and we’ve pretty much reached that point. I’ve also been warning you for the last year that I anticipate pulling back from social media in the future. This Farewell Tour is leading to that, and again, it’s by design. Knowing that I will eventually be less available, I thought I should visit as many of you as I can.

An email newsletter solves many of these problems. It can get news and announcements out to people who want to see them, without having to rely on Facebook or Twitter to do it (because as we have established, those methods are becoming less and less effective as tools for that). And it allows me a place to Blog every week, and to talk about writing-specific things and personal things I might not have gotten to on the podcast.

I can promise you it will be entertaining. Long before THE RISING or any of my other successes, I won a Bram Stoker Award for my first email newsletter, an archaic Web 1.0 thing called JOBS IN HELL. Most of you are either too young to remember that, or came along after, but those who do remember it will tell you they were always entertained. And so shall you be again.

This announcement turned into a mini-Blog on it’s own, but that’s mostly because I wanted to answer Ron Davis, the young man who runs the Unofficial Brian Keene Fan Page over on Facebook, who asked, “This seems like a strange and surprising turn of events to me. Newsletters are kind of retro. He’s always been very active in social media, now he’s putting it down?”

No, I’m not putting social media down. Just speaking openly about the challenges and thoughts many of us entertainers are discussing behind the scenes, and continuing to try to find some balance in my own life, out here at the end of the road.

LETTERS FROM THE LABYRINTH. Click here and I will stroll into your inbox and talk to you once a week.

Where To Get Signed Copies of PRESSURE and THE COMPLEX

The following stores all have signed copies of PRESSURE. Some of them also have signed copies of THE COMPLEX. All of them do mail order. Quantities are limited. Please be polite when calling or emailing them.

Dark Delicacies Burbank, CA

Phone: 1-888-DARKDEL

Mysterious Galaxy San Diego, CA

Phone: 858-268-4747

The Poisoned Pen Scottsdale, AZ

Phone: 480-947-2974

Borderlands Books San Francisco, CA

Phone: 415-824-8203

Star Line Books Chattanooga, TN

Phone: 423-777-5629

Camelot Books Land O’ Lakes, FL

Phone: 813-932-7162

Barnes and Noble Oviedo, FL

Phone: 407-977-5500

The Book Tavern Augusta, GA

Phone: 706-826-1940

Rickert & Beagle Books Pittsburgh, PA

Phone: 412-344-7444

I’M DREAMING OF A WHITE DOOMSDAY Official Trailer

From Reel Splatter Productions, writer/director Mike Lombardo and Horror Grandmaster Award winning author Brian Keene (executive producer), comes a feature-length nihilistic tale of survival during the most wonderful time of the year. I’M DREAMING OF A WHITE DOOMSDAY is the story of Kelly and her son Riley, weathering the end times in a bomb shelter amidst the ruin that once was the world. With supplies and hope steadily declining, Kelly makes a horrifying decision that will cause her to discover just how far she would go for her child, and what lurks outside.

ALL THE ANNOUNCEMENTS

Here are a veritable ton of announcements, including updates on signings, movies, and books.

An important note for anyone attending my Q&A this Thursday, July 28, at the Monongalia Arts Center in Morgantown, West Virginia. I will have no books for sale at this event, as I am sold out of books. If you bring books from home, I will be happy to sign them, take pictures with you, answer your questions, etc. — but I won’t have books for sale.

An important note for anyone attending my signing this Saturday, July 30, at Rickert & Beagle Books in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Due to concerns from the Fire Chief about overcrowding, this will be a ticketed event. It is VERY EASY for you to get a ticket, simply by following the directions here.

The previously announced August 12 signing at Jabberwocky Bookshop in Newburyport, MA has been cancelled by the store management. It is not my fault, and I am as disappointed as you are.

A new signing at The Book Nook in Ludlow, VT has been added. It will take place August 14th at 3:30pm. Appearing with me will be author Asher Ellis.

The thousands of attendees at this past weekend’s Scares That Care III Charity Horror Event heard many great announcements. Among them was the first news about FUCKED — a new novel by myself and Bryan Smith, coming in 2017 from Thunderstorm Books and Deadite Press.

Also making their debut at Scares That Care were the teaser trailers for THE NAUGHTY LIST (which is based on my short story “The Siqqusim Who Stole Christmas”) and I’M DREAMING OF A WHITE DOOMSDAY (of which I am the Executive Producer). Look for those to hit the Internet soon, I imagine.

I’m home for two days before heading out again. My inbox has 1,782 unread messages. Please stand by…

THE COMPLEX Audiobook – On Sale Now

The audiobook edition of THE COMPLEX is on sale now. Read by the legendary Chet Williamson, this is an uncut, unabridged adaptation. Click here to purchase.

There was no warning. No chance to escape. They came suddenly. Naked. Bloodthirsty. Sadistic. They descended upon the Pine Village Apartment Complex, relentlessly torturing and killing anyone they could find. Fearing for their lives, the residents of the complex must band together. A young trans woman, a suicidal middle-aged writer, a lonely Vietnam vet, a newlywed couple, an elderly widow, a single mother and her son, two on-the-run criminals, and the serial killer known as The Exit. Eleven strangers. The only thing they have in common is the unstoppable horde that wants to kill them. If they are to make it through the night, they must fight back.

FAREWELL (But Not Really) – The Second Wave

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I have two new novels, PRESSURE and THE COMPLEX, on sale right now. Click on the cover images above to purchase one or both.

I’m on the second leg of a cross-country tour to promote these. Here is where I’ll be this month:

July 9

The York Emporium

343 W Market St.

York, PA 17401

Signing 12pm to 4pm

July 14

Star Line Books

1467 Market Street

Chattanooga, TN 37402

Signing 3pm to 7pm

July 16

Tubby & Coo’s Mid-City Book Shop

631 N. Carrollton Ave.

New Orleans, LA 70119

Signing 2pm to 4pm

July 18

Mojo Books and Records

2540 E. Fowler Ave.

Tampa, FL 33612

Signing 8pm to 10pm

July 19

Barnes and Noble

Oviedo Mall

Orlando, FL

Signing 2pm to 5pm

July 20

The Book Tavern

936 Broad Street Suite 101

Augusta, GA 30901

Signing 6pm to 8pm

July 21 – 24

Scares That Care Weekend III

Doubletree by Hilton

50 Kingsmill Road

Williamsburg, VA 23185

July 28

Monongalia Arts Center

107 High St.

Morgantown, WV

Reading, Signing, and Q&A 7pm to 9pm

July 29

Books-A-Million

1264 N Eisenhower Dr.

Beckley, WV 25801

Signing 6pm to 8pm

July 30

Rickert & Beagle Books

3233 W Liberty Ave

Pittsburgh, PA 15216

Signing 2pm to 5pm

In addition to the cities listed, there will be surprise “pop-up” signings at various locations across the country. These will be announced as they happen via Twitter, Facebook and my Forum.

There is also a tour t-shirt available. Click here to purchase.

As I will be focused on all that, this website will be dormant. If you need your weekly fix:

I write a weekly column called BRIAN KEENE’S END OF THE ROAD for Cemetery Dance Online. Click here for a complete archive.

New episodes of my podcast, THE HORROR SHOW WITH BRIAN KEENE, air every Thursday. Click here for a complete archive of all previous episodes, free to listen to.

Farewell… but not really.

THE ZINE – A SCARES THAT CARE EXCLUSIVE

In the long ago, a distant past, fans of the genre cobbled together collections of horrifying tales, assembled them with state-of-the-art (circa 1985) page layout software, and ran off copies on ancient mimeograph machines, and they were called ‘zines. The results, sometimes, were awful: poorly photocopied, badly edited labors of love distributed via the post office for a buck or two an issue – and hardly worth the paper they were printed on.

But sometimes, the results were extraordinary. A great many authors got their starts in the ‘zines. And now, THE ZINE presents six of them: Brian Keene, Yvonne Navarro, Bryan Smith, Kelli Owen, Armand Rosamilia, and John Urbancik. This is, essentially, a callback to the days when ‘zines ruled the underground.

THE ZINE costs $2, and is ONLY AVAILABLE at Scares That Care Weekend! All proceeds will go directly to the charity.