Brian Keene's Blog, page 93

3 Reasons To Be A Patreon

Over on Patreon, I’ve got a serialized novel called THE SEVEN: THE LABYRINTH BOOK ONE. A new chapter gets posted every month. Pledge one dollar a month and you can read it. All of the previous chapters are archived there, as well. Currently in the novel, Teddy from EARTHWORM GODS, Frankie from THE RISING, Tony from CLICKERS, The Exit from THE COMPLEX, Nelson LeHorn from DARK HOLLOW, Bloom from “Babylon Falling”, and Lucifer the Morningstar are in the ISIS-infested badlands between Iraq, Syria, and Libya, facing off against one of the Thirteen.

If that gets you excited, then head on over to my Patreon page, pledge one dollar (or more) per month, and start reading now.

While you are there, you should check out Project iRadio’s Patreon page, as well. Project iRadio is, of course, the network that hosts my weekly podcast, THE HORROR SHOW WITH BRIAN KEENE. If you pledge two dollars per month, you can win autographed show notes from episodes of my podcast. These are one of a kind items.

But wait! There’s more! When Project iRadio’s Patreon page hits $400 a month in pledges, all subscribers will receive a free, brand-new, original short story written by me.

If these things get you excited, then head on over to the Project iRadio Patreon page, bid two dollars (or more) per month, and be the envy of your friends.

Seriously. Think about that. Three bucks per month. Everybody has three bucks per month. And for three bucks per month, you can read my magnum opus novel as it is written, a brand new original shot story by me, and win signed stuff by me, as well.

AMONG THE LIVING

So, despite what you may have read online, I’m still alive.

One of the good parts about being at death’s door for a month and change was the cutting off of communication. For the most part, I avoided Twitter, Facebook, and other social media. I avoided the forum. I avoided email. I avoided the phone (in part because my friends and family knew I was physically incapable of talking for long, so they refrained from calling). I still recorded a podcast every week (and spent much of the next subsequent day coughing up blood and feeling like someone had scraped a razor along the inside of my throat). But the podcast was pretty much my only communication with the outside world at large.

None of this could have happened at a worse time, of course. After all, I had a brand-new full-length novel, THE COMPLEX, to promote. I had a 2016 FAREWELL (BUT NOT REALLY) TOUR to finish setting up. I had manuscripts and Kickstarter stuff to mail to people. I had THE NAUGHTY LIST business to attend to. I had emails to answer and things with deadlines to write. Instead, I spent most of my time on four different antibiotics and being told things like, “It’s strange. You have all the symptoms and signs of H1N1, and yet we can’t find the virus in your system. Also, you shouldn’t be standing up.”

I felt guilty about all of this until the third week, when my eight-year-old commented that it was nice not to have Daddy’s phone dinging all the time (which it does every time I get a new email).

And that — that moment right there — is when I learned to quit feeling guilty and quit giving a shit what people say or think. I’ll promote that new novel and set up that signing tour and mail everything and answer emails and phone calls and respond on social media. Eventually. But it won’t all get done today, and I refuse to feel guilty about that anymore. And the moment I quit feeling guilty, I actually managed to start getting a handle on all of it.

I made some progress over the last week. Here is a picture of my email inbox.

That is 1,032 UNREAD emails. It’s important to stress the unread part. And when I started, that figure was at 2,185. But there are still a lot to get to, and I’m sorry, but I’m just not going to feel guilty about it anymore.

Entertainers — authors, musicians, actors, comedians, etc. — they get to a certain point in their career where they just stop responding to everyone. And then people turn on them and say how they changed, and how they used to take time to respond to each and every person, and now they don’t, and because of that they are an asshole. Well, no, they’re not an asshole. They just don’t have the fucking time. It becomes physically impossible to do, and unless you decide to stop feeling guilty about it, the mental and emotional distress it causes will subsequently stop you from responding to anything, even the stuff you HAVE to respond to. Worse yet, it can cripple your creative process, as well. You get to feeling that you owe everybody everything, and unable to cope with that, you give nothing to nobody. And the folks you really do owe something to suffer as a result.

Anyway… I’m alive. Not dead yet. Still going blind in that left eye, but that’s another medical problem for another day. Today I’m not coughing up blood or baking with fever or showing any of the signs or symptoms of H1N1, regardless of whether they can find the fucking virus or not. I might be dead tomorrow. After all, my friends are dropping like flies. But not today. If I owe you a package or an email or a phone call or a manuscript, I’ll do my best to get it to you. I’m making progress. But one thing the last two years have taught me, is that we all reach the Finish Line sooner or later, regardless of whether we run or walk. And the faster I run the more I seem to stay in place, so now I’m trying a different approach. It won’t stop the requests coming in, but it will allow me to focus on the ones that need to get done today, and the ones that need to be gotten to tomorrow, and the ones that can wait until I get there.

Of course, the beautiful irony of this whole thing is that I’m typing this as a Blog entry, and nobody reads Blogs anymore, so Facebook and Twitter will still be full of requests from people who didn’t read this.

When the apocalypse comes, it won’t be zombies or a virus or Nibiru or the Antichrist or a nuclear war. It will be social media. And it will be us.

***

THE COMPLEX is available in paperback and eBook. A lot of critics and fans are saying it’s the best thing I’ve written in years. Click here to buy a copy and see if you agree.

The 2016 FAREWELL (BUT NOT REALLY) TOUR is shaping up to be a beast. This will absolutely be the last time I do an extended, nationwide promotional tour like this. Click here to see where and when. Plenty of more states and dates to be added yet. Oh, and there’s even going to be tour t-shirts!

Exciting audiobook news coming, but I think we’ll save that for later in the week…

PROJECT iRADIO PATREON

If you enjoy my podcast, please consider donating to the Project iRadio network’s Patreon campaign.

From the Deathbed of…

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This is not Brian posting. Podcast listeners know that Brian has been very sick the last several weeks. He will hopefully return soon. In the meantime, above is the full dust-jacket for this summer’s PRESSURE, which can be pre-ordered here. Brian asked us to share it with you. (He also told us to call this post “From the Deathbed of…” which we cautioned him against but then he angrily coughed phlegm at us and passed out).

He would also like to remind you that THE COMPLEX and ALL DARK, ALL THE TIME are both on sale right now in paperback and eBook. You can order them here and here.

The Lazy Fascist Weird Horror Bundle

Pay what you want for nine full-length horror books from Lazy Fascist Press, including my own WHERE WE LIVE AND DIE, and titles from John Skipp, Molly Tanzer, Jeremy Robert Johnson, Michael Cisco, and many more. CLICK HERE TO NAME YOUR OWN PRICE. Limited time offer.

THE COMPLEX – Now in Paperback and eBook

From World Horror Grandmaster Award winning author, Brian Keene, comes an ultra-violent and action-packed horror thriller.

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.

THE COMPLEX – Available now in paperback and on Kindle and Nook.

Five Minutes of Fame, Five Minutes of Friendliness

There are different kinds of fans. Most fans, you will never meet and never hear from. Other fans may reach out on social media and tell you they enjoyed or hated something. A smaller subset will follow you with fervor. And there’s an even smaller subset that you get to know so well — you find yourself becoming friends with them, or at the very least, familiar acquaintances whom you recognize right away and perhaps exchange holiday cards with. That’s how it started with people like Mark ‘Dezm’ Sylva, Stephen McDornell and Tod Clark. They were in that last subset at one time. Now, I consider all three friends. I trust them enough to let them pre-read everything I write. The same happened with folks like Valerie Botchlet, Paul Synuria, Mark Hickerson, and Deb Kuhn, who moderate the forum. I met them as fans, but over the years we’ve drank together, shared hotel rooms together, gone through divorces and break-ups together, and genuinely become friends.

Mark and Paula Beauchamp fall into that final subset, as well. I’ve known them since around the time THE RISING first came out (so 2003). I’ve talked with them many times, hung out with them many times, and signed many books for them. I haven’t hung out much with their daughter though, until last year.

I’m not going to mention her name or age here, because she’s a little girl and I want to protect her privacy, but Mark and Paula brought her to last year’s Scares That Care charity horror convention and I got to spend a few minutes being nice to her, and being a clown, and making her laugh, and signed a book for her. And the charity’s organizer, Joe Ripple, gave her a Walking Dead photo signed by some of the cast. And this little girl has carried those two moments with her throughout the year, telling classmates that she’s “friends with Brian Keene and Joe Ripple”.

She recently had a birthday. She asked her parents if, instead of presents, she could ask for money for the charity. And as a result, she raised nearly $350 for Scares That Care.

All because of five minutes of kindness from Joe and myself.

The moral of this story for you, the new writers, actors, musicians, artists and other entertainers reading this, is to make those five minutes count for the person on the other side of the signing table. It’s not always easy to do that. If you’re at a convention, and you’re seven hours into signing books and you’d really just like to go up to your hotel room and call home and maybe order some room service and just sit very quietly and not answer any more questions about when you’ll write another zombie novel — it’s not easy to remain on and affable. But do it anyway, because you’ll meet some great people out of it. Make those five minutes count. And the person you do it for? They’ll carry it with them long after those five minutes are over.

***

THE COMPLEX is out now in paperback and Kindle. GET SOME.

THE COMPLEX – Now in Paperback

My new novel, THE COMPLEX, is on sale now in paperback. eBook editions will follow in a few days.

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.

From World Horror Grandmaster Award winning author, Brian Keene, comes an ultra-violent and action-packed horror thriller. CLICK HERE TO ORDER

MISSING IN ACTION BUT NOT DEAD YET

ALL DARK, ALL THE TIME: THE COMPLETE SHORT FICTION OF BRIAN KEENE, VOL. 2 is available now in paperback and for Kindle, Nook, and Kobo. Click the cover image to purchase a copy.

***

Many of you have noticed that I’ve been missing from Twitter and the Forum and other social media for the last two weeks. Part of the reason for that was the Great Strep Throat Invasion of 2016, which laid waste on the denizens here at Casa Keene.

But then, after we beat back the Strep Throat hordes, I remained off social media because I found that I was actually getting some work done for a change. I suspect that very soon, my pre-readers will urge me to get back on social media simply because I keep sending them new things to pre-read. (In the last week alone, they’ve gotten the manuscript for a book called UNSAFE SPACES and a short story — set in the world of THE LOST LEVEL — called “The Chinese Beetle”).

So, yes. I suppose I’ll be back among you soon. But not this week. I’m on a roll and I’m not dead yet.

***

Photo copyright Paul Campion 2016

Filming of THE NAUGHTY LIST (the movie based on my short story “The Siqqusim Who Stole Christmas”) has officially wrapped. Director Paul Campion reports that the film is now in post-production. We can’t wait for you to see it.

Some Kickstarter rewards (signed books, etc.) will begin shipping before the end of the month.

Patience.

***

THE COMPLEX drops this month in paperback and eBook. Advance reviewers seem to love it. You might dig it, as well. I can confidently say it is the bleakest, most nihilistic thing I have ever written. Here’s the cover (this is a mock-up and yes, I know there is a typo or two on it).

***

Okay. Back to work. As will be evident when you listen to this week’s podcast, I still haven’t completely beaten this horrid virus, but as I said above, there is work to be done and I’m not dead yet.

New T-Shirt!

We’re just a week away from the paperback and eBook release of THE COMPLEX (and just a month away from the year long “Sort-Of-Farewell” Signing Tour in support of both THE COMPLEX and PRESSURE). What better way to celebrate than by sporting one of these awesome THE COMPLEX t-shirts from Skurvy Ink? Click on the image below to purchase (and don’t forget about their THE RISING and EARTHWORM GODS t-shirts, as well)!