Famous Monsters is extremely honored and happy to have with us today horror author, comic book author, playwright, and aspiring movie mogul Brian Keene.
Mr. Keene has been a fixture in the world of horror literature since his debut novel “The Rising“, and with good reason. He is a phenomenal writer.
I have been reading Mr. Keene’s books since his second novel “City Of The Dead.” When I first received that book from Dorchester Publishing I found out it was a sequel to his Bram Stoker Award winning first novel “The Rising.” So of course I ran to the store to buy it, I have been a great fan ever since.
It has been stated that Mr. Keene single handedly revived the zombie genre with these two seminal pieces, with much joy to those zombie maniacs that love all things zombie and much gnashing of teeth from critics and zombie haters. You can’t please everyone.
FM: Hi Brian and welcome to Famous Monsters of Filmland. I have been a fan of your writing since “The Rising” and have read just about everything since. My favorite book of yours is definitely “Terminal“. Though it is not a horror novel per say it really was a great book.
Brian Keene: Thanks! I’m happy to be here.
FM: Your career kind of reminds me of Bela Lugosi. He was forever pigeonholed as Dracula with his epic performance in Tod Browning’s masterpiece. You seem to be pigeonholed as “The Zombie Guy” since “The Rising” and “City of the Dead“, as your fans continually clamor for more zombies.
Brian Keene: Yeah, it’s weird. If I’d wanted to, I could have a pretty comfortable life writing nothing but zombie novels. But I don’t want to do that, you know? I’ve got other stories to tell—other monsters that I want to play with.
At the time of this interview, I’m finishing up my twenty-fourth book. Only four of those books have been zombie-related: The Rising trilogy and the stand-alone novel, Dead Sea. But a lot of folks seem to forget about those other twenty books, you know? (laughs)
That’s okay, though. I’m a zombie fan, too. I’m glad I was able to contribute something to other fans—something they seem to enjoy. That’s all that really matters. If one of my books kept someone entertained for a while, then I’ve done my job. Doesn’t matter if I did it with zombies or vampires or werewolves or giant, carnivorous worms. If I got you through study hall or your lunch break or your commute home, then that makes me happy.
FM: I follow your website and blogs and find that you tell it like it is and are very opinionated on what you believe in, which I find refreshing in this go along to get along society we live in today. This country would be a much better place if more people stood up for what they believed in and their convictions. How has how you approach things affected your writing career?
Brian Keene: It’s made things difficult, in the past. Not that writing is easy to begin with. I’m sure it seems that way—all a writer does is sit behind a computer and make up things and then get paid for it. But the reality is a lot tougher. Writing is a business. It’s a job, and just like any other job, you have to treat it as such. So these days, writing for a living and supporting my family on it, I find that I’m biting my tongue a lot more. I don’t say as much publicly as I did in the past.
But at the same time, I still have my convictions. These days, I’m just more prone to keep them to myself, and live by them privately.
FM: As you know Famous Monsters has a new owner, and is branching out into other areas besides our beloved movie monsters. Were you a fan of Famous Monsters and Uncle Forry growing up?
Brian Keene: I was indeed. I discovered the mag in the Seventies. My Dad used to take me to the newsstand with him once a week. He’d buy a paper and some chewing tobacco, and he’d buy me three or four comic books—stuff like Kamandi, The Defenders, and Man-Thing. The newsstand sold Famous Monsters of Filmland, too. The first issue I ever picked up was #139 with that great Star Wars cover. I guess that must have been around 1976 or 1977, right? I was hooked after that.
And keep in mind—that was a transition decade. We didn’t yet have VCRs (and DVD players were still science-fiction pipe dreams) and a lot of the films covered in Famous Monsters were movies that had been in theaters long before my time. It wasn’t like I had easy access to them. But what was cool was this—I’d read about, say The Legend of Hill House or Doctor Phibes, and then write them down on a list. Once a week, I’d cross-reference that list with the TV Guide. Usually, sooner or later, I could find them playing late at night on one of the local stations. The magazine was sort of my IMDB, I guess. (laughs)
FM: You have diversified yourself very much over the years. You now do comics, movies, collaborations, novels, short stories, plays, chap books, digital work, and you also have written something with your wife. How do all these different types of writing affect your approach to your craft?
Brian Keene: They keep me from getting burned out. Maybe that sounds silly. I don’t know. I guess it’s that way with any vocation.
Trying new things, different ways of telling a story, keeps me interested and recharges my creative batteries, so to speak. When you reach a certain level of success in this business, it is very easy to get burned out. Writing becomes like any other job. It’s fun, and you can’t beat the commute, but at the end of the day, it’s still a job. There are times where you’d much rather play with your son or spend some time with your wife or read a book or go fishing—but you have to go to work. You have to finish that book because the bills need paid.
Except you can’t pay those bills because your publishers haven’t sent the royalty check yet. And then you have to stop writing and play collections agent. And you can’t commiserate with your friends about this, because the truth is, you don’t have a lot of friends. Writing is a solitary act, and the other writers who understand what you’re going through? They’re busy writing and trying to pay the bills, as well.
And then, at the end of the day, you go online to check your email and that novel you just busted your ass on for six months? Somebody is online bitching about it because it doesn’t have any zombies in it. (laughs)
I’m whining, aren’t I? Sorry about that. My point is, this job, while easy in some ways, takes a lot out of you. The hours are long and your personal relationships tend to suffer as a result. It’s very easy to get burned out. So you have to find ways to make yourself fall in love with it all over again.
FM: When you started writing did you envision it this way?
Brian Keene: Hell, no. Like everyone else in my generation, I grew up on King and Koontz. I figured you wrote a novel and it got published and they handed you a check for a million dollars. I thought it was that way for everyone. When I was a young man, I figured that F. Paul Wilson and Richard Laymon and David Schow and Joe Lansdale and all these guys must be incredibly wealthy—writing one page a day and then sitting on the deck for the rest of the afternoon, drinking margaritas. Obviously, I wasn’t a very smart young man.
FM: When can we expect to see a Brian Keene feature film? I think your books would translate well into film in the right hands.
Brian Keene: Well, Dark Hollow is in development for a feature film right now, and things are looking very positive. Ghoul and Terminal are both optioned, but seem to be stalled, currently. While not a feature film, The Ties That Bind just came out on DVD.
FM: How was it to write something with your wife and how important is she to your success?
Brian Keene: She is the reason for my success. I know that sounds cliché, but it’s the absolute truth. I’ve been very lucky. I’ve had a lot of great mentors—authors whom I grew up reading that were willing to lend me a hand or a bit of advice early on. And I’ve been lucky enough to work with some great editors like Don D’Auria of Leisure Books and Shane Ryan Staley of Delirium Books. But my wife is the glue that holds it all together. I’ve been writing professionally for over a decade now, and she’s put up with a lot—going to bed by herself some nights because I’m staring down a deadline, the constant financial uncertainty, staying at home alone some weekends because I’m off at a book signing or a convention, dealing with the occasional crazy or overzealous fan who shows up at our home—she deals with it all, and not once has she asked me to quit. And she could. She certainly could, and I’d do it. But she doesn’t.
FM: You have a young son now. How does he affect your schedules trying to balance quality family time with what keeps the roof over your head and at what age will you let him read your work?
Brian Keene: Schedules went right out the window the day we brought him home from the hospital. Weekdays, I’m still able to write from 7am until around 5pm, but nights and weekends have become a “write five minutes here and ten minutes there” sort of thing.
I’ll let him read my work when he begins to show a genuine interest in it. It was the same with my oldest son. My parents never censored what I read as a kid. They figured if I was old enough to be genuinely curious about it, then I was old enough to read it. I’ve got the same attitude.
FM: How did it come about that you are involved in the horror field? Any particular moments in your life that shaped your love of the darker things in life?
Brian Keene: Again, I’d trace it back to that newsstand. The comics and magazines I gravitated to were the ones with monsters or dark elements. I was very much like the kid in Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot—the one with all of the monster toys and models and books. In fact, as a kid, I think he was probably the first fictional character I ever truly identified with.
FM: Is there anyone person in your life that was instrumental in your chosen profession?
Brian Keene: There have been many. Above all others, though, were my parents, my wife, my high school English teacher, and Richard Laymon. All offered encouragement or advice at a certain point in my development. If they hadn’t, I’d probably still be working in a foundry or something.
FM: Since you are responsible for scaring millions of readers, what are you most afraid of?
Brian Keene: Snakes. Growing old. Flying. Cancer.
FM: As our economy continues to struggle and bad news keeps pouring out of the publishing industry are you finding it more difficult to sell your work than say 2-3 years ago?
Brian Keene: Personally, I’m not. However, I know that many, many of my peers are indeed finding it difficult to find markets. I do find it interesting that a number of horror authors, including myself, seem to be branching out into other forms and genres—be it crime novels or comic books or writing video games. Some of that is to avoid burnout, as I mentioned earlier. Some of it is financially driven. But I imagine some of it is also a covering of the bases, so to speak. “Okay, if this publisher goes out of business or slashes their budget, then I’ve still got this going over here.” Writing for a living in this economy is sort of like a juggling act. You keep at least three balls in the air at all times, and if one falls, you’ve still got two more going.
FM: How do you think the publishing industry is adapting to; first, the economy and second this internet, video game, information right now society that we now live in. And do you think there is more they should be doing to attract new readers and keep readers happy?
Brian Keene: Well, the economy is impacting everyone—not just the publishing industry. We’ll come out the other side. People will always want to read. I hear that a lot. “Kids today don’t read. In twenty years, nobody will be reading anymore.” Well, that’s ridiculous. People will always read. They just might not be reading what you think they should be reading—and they might be reading it through a different venue.
I think the future is electronic. I don’t think we’ll ever do away with hard copy books, but I do think this next generation will get most of their information and entertainment, including fiction, via the future incarnation of the internet and portable electronic media devices. We’re already seeing that with Twitter, the iPhone, Kindle, etc.
And I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing, either. All it means is that, as writers, we have to adapt. Adapt or die, you know? It will certainly keep things interesting.
FM: You have put out some digital work, the most recent being “Dark Hearts” with your wife I believe. You are also offering the sequel to “The Conqueror Worms” free (which is awesome in my opinion) on your site. How has the internet affected you in how your approach your writing projects?
Brian Keene: See above. (laughs)
FM: Who were/are your biggest influences in your writing career?
Brian Keene: My top six are Stephen King, Richard Laymon, Hunter S. Thompson, Steve Gerber, Joe R. Lansdale and Elmore Leonard.
FM: What are your favorite books?
Brian Keene: Let’s do top six again: The Stand by Stephen King, The Rum Diary by Hunter S. Thompson, Savage by Richard Laymon, The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson, Boy’s Life by Robert R. McCammon and Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.
FM: Since this is Famous Monsters of Filmland, what are your favorite horror movies?
Brian Keene: Top six, one last time, with feeling. Session 9, John Carpenter’s The Thing, Jacob’s Ladder, Exorcist III, Dawn of the Dead, and the Dawn of the Dead remake.
FM: Your fans are a very loyal bunch and are part of the F.U.K.U, how and why did this come about?
Brian Keene: I don’t know why they are so loyal. All I know is that I appreciate their loyalty more than they will ever know. I wish I could buy each of them a beer, but that would be impractical (not to mention expensive) at this point. The F.U.K.U. itself, which stands for Fan Uv Keene United, started as a goof. Authors Joe Nassise and Drew Williams thought it up. But damned if it didn’t stick. It’s like the KISS Army now. I’ve got to admit, it’s pretty cool. They have their own regional get-togethers and gatherings at various conventions and stuff—usually organized via my message board. I think it’s awesome that my books are allowing folks to meet other people, make new friends, and in at least a half dozen cases, get married.
FM: You seem to take to heart what your fans want you to write and really try to keep them happy. Does this tend to be overwhelming at times?
Brian Keene: Not really. They’re my employer. If they suddenly stopped buying books, I’d suddenly be out of a job. You have to give the people what they want. However, at the same time, I’m not beholden to any and all demands. If that were true, I’d be writing nothing but zombie novels. I think I’ve reached a point with my audience where they trust me to tell them a good story and I trust them to give it a chance. And that’s a rewarding and enriching experience for us both.
FM: In my eyes you are a very prolific writer. Has there been any one book that really gave you trouble?
Brian Keene: Urban Gothic was difficult, in that during the six months I wrote it, the first three were the last three months of my wife’s pregnancy and the last three were the first three months that our newborn was home. I don’t remember writing much of it. That whole time is just a daze of sleep deprivation.
Usually, I’m working on more than one project at a time, so if one does start to give me trouble, I just switch to something else until it passes.
I do have an unfinished novel called Love and Worms. It’s long. Over 100,000 words and still uncompleted. I’ve been working on it off and on for over fifteen years. In truth, I doubt I’ll ever finish it. It was started as a young man’s novel. The main character is an eighteen year old dealing with his first love. Problem is, I no longer remember what it feels like to be eighteen and in love for the first time, so the novel doesn’t really ring true anymore.
FM: What was your favorite book to write?
Brian Keene: The ones that were the most auto-biographical: Ghoul, Dark Hollow, Kill Whitey, and Terminal.
FM: Do you think you have written the book that will define your career or is that something we can look forward to?
Brian Keene: Truthfully, I don’t know if that’s for me to say. The Rising is often credited (along with 28 Days Later) as kick-starting the resurgence of zombies in pop culture. I don’t know if that’s true or not. If it is, then as a fan, I’m grateful and humbled. A lot of people have told me how Ghoul and Dark Hollow effected them personally. Those two seem to resonate with a lot of readers. A book that defines my career? I’d rather let someone else answer that after I’m gone.
FM: All your books have an underlying mythos that ties everything together. Are there plans to elaborate on that or maybe dedicate a series of books to it?
Brian Keene: There are indeed. But those plans are still a year or two off, and every time I talk about them, people get impatient, so I’ll say no more at this time. Suffice to say, readers will dig it, and long-time fans will especially enjoy it.
FM: We’ll close this interview with one final question. What doe the future hold for Brian Keene?
Brian Keene: Five minutes into the future, it holds another cup of coffee. Beyond that… I don’t know. I’ve had an interesting and varied life. I’ll be forty-two in a few months, and if there is one thing life has taught me, it’s that you can’t predict the future. As long as my loved ones are happy and healthy, and the majority of my readers are still enjoying themselves, then I’ll be content with whatever the future brings.
Although I would like one of those personal jet packs and maybe a trip to Mars. Weren’t we supposed to have those by now? This is the future, right?
I’d like to personally thank Brian for taking the time out of his busy schedule for this interview and to wish him well tomorrow.
Here is a link to Brian’s bibliography. It is much too long to publish here.
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