Depending on when you wake up on Sundays, the newsletter might be a little late this morning. I normally write these on Saturdays, but this week’s Saturday was spent knee-deep in writing the final chapter of FALLING ANGELS: THE LABYRINTH Book 4, answering emails for two anthologies Christopher Golden and I are editing (yes two, not one), and making notes for THE DICK BOOK, which is what Todd Keisling began calling me and Laurel Hightower’s collaborative novel, and then Laurel started calling it that, too, so I guess it’s THE DICK BOOK now…
And then, speaking of Todd, Saturday evening Mary and I met up with him and his wife Erica for dinner, which was lovely, and by the time we got home, it was after 8pm, and the cats just woke me up 26 minutes ago (at 6am on the dot) to let me know that they wanted breakfast and that I never did get around to writing this week’s newsletter.
So, all of this is gonna be on the fly.
Good morning. I’m Brian Keene and this is Letters From the Labyrinth, a long-running weekly newsletter for friends, fans, and family.
Had a planning meeting with Jim Cobb and Dacia Arnold this past week, and we decided to bring our popular 2024 podcast — HOW TO SURVIVE 2025 — back for a limited engagement run of 3 or 4 episodes this year.
HOW TO SURVIVE 2025 was a how-to podcast about prepping, without all of the political BS and other nonsense that often permeates such discussions. Just simple facts and information about things like water and food storage, alternatives to electricity, firearms, bug out bags, and what to do if a tornado, hurricane, blizzard, solar flare, or angry mob descend upon your home, whether you live rurally, in the suburbs, or in a major city. It ran for 24 episodes.
Each of us pictured a different listener in our heads when recording, and tried to present information in such a way that it would help that listener out. (I always pictured a single mom with a kid and pets). We all agreed that, given the current state of the world, those listeners might have some all-new current concerns. so it would be good to come back and speak to those and offer some new tips and tricks and mindset.
Those new episodes should drop in mid-to-late May. In the meantime, you can listen to the entire series for free on Spotify, YouTube, etc. Links to all of them can be found here. (Scroll down past the radio station player and KEENEVERSATIONS to HOW TO SURVIVE 2025).
A reminder that next Saturday, April 25th, a bunch of authors, including Mary and myself, will be signing from 1pm to 4pm at the Ephrata Public Library 550 South Reading Road, Ephrata, PA 17522.
After that, I’m off the road again until the Bram Stoker Awards in June. I’d hoped to also go to the Locus Awards, since THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT: NEW TALES OF STEPHEN KING’S THE STAND is up for one of those, as well, but given that I have to be in Los Angeles in early June, I just can’t swing two flights and two stays in California so close together.
Speaking of the anthology, on this week’s episode of KEENEVERSATIONS, Chris and I talk with Catherynne Valente and Ronald Malfi about the pressure they were under with THE END OF THE WORLD: NEW TALES OF STEPHEN KING’S THE STAND, and what went into writing for it. Listen now via Patreon or Spotify.
Currently Watching: Survivor season 50, The Boys season 5, Daredevil: Born Again season 2, The Five Families, Pig Hill, Nuremberg, and Family Guy season 24.
Currently Reading: The Hive by Ronald Malfi
Currently Listening: Child of the Kindly South by W.D. Miller
These last three episodes of Survivor have been some of the absolute best of the show’s 25 year run. Very hard to talk about them here, however, without giving away big spoilers. Suffice to say, I cheered and whooped and hollered at last week’s Tribal Council the way football fans do during the NFL playoffs.
I’ve had Child of the Kindly South by W.D. Miller on heavy rotation in my office for the last few weeks (indeed, the last few chapters of FALLING ANGELS have been written to pretty much nothing but this album), and while I know it’s only April, this is easily in the running for my favorite album of 2026. A mix of roots and country, the songs on the album drip with sadness and regret, as he sings stories about love, loss, and failure. But there’s also redemption here, if you listen, particularly in one of my favorite tracks off the album, “Little Things”. If you dig roots, old school country, or just songs by storytellers, I highly recommend this one. Available digitally, as well as on CD and vinyl (the latter of which looks and sounds great) right here.
I got the nicest note from author Eric LaRocca this week after he’d finished reading Lucy Taylor’s The Safety of Unknown Cities, which he discovered thanks to this year-long undertaking. He loved the book and thanked me for bringing it to a new generation’s attention. And that pretty much made my entire week right there, folks. That’s what it is all about.
And that does it for this week. Thanks for reading. Hope to see some of you at the signing in Ephrata next Saturday, and see all of you back here next Sunday.
No posts
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.