Rumors of my death were not exaggerated, and it’s all Nick Kaufmann and Paul G. Tremblay’s fault. That’s right! From the folks who brought you Jack Haringa Must Die, it’s KILL BRIAN KEENE ON YOUR BLOG DAY. For the next 24 hours, an all-star line-up of authors and peers will kill me in various ways. I’ll post the links at the bottom of this entry as I receive them, so come back often and hit refresh.
My death, as Jack Haringa’s death before me, benefits the Shirley Jackson Awards. Sometime today, while you’re reading of my various demises, please consider purchasing a copy of Jack Haringa Must Die. All proceeds benefit the SJA. If you already own a copy, please consider making a donation instead.
THE STORIES
John Urbancik (based on a true story)
Daughter of Tomoview
Hannah Gonzalez, daughter of J. F. Gonzalez


the horror!
the barbecue sauce!
Just woke up and I actually panicked for a second. Never die Brian ok?
Haha! Some classic stuff there.
Man, I’d looooooove to kill ya. Stupid me has no blog. Maybe I’ll poison your beer next time I see ya.
Either way, have fun dying. And there’s some good ones too.
one more zombie to add to the list!
Seriously, all i saw was the headline and my heart sank for a second
OMG, I literally thought you had died and somebody posted a memorial message. Don’t do that!
Looking forward to the gore-fest though
I TOTALLY misread that post for a second and nearly had a heart attack.
I apologize. Blame Tremblay for emailing me. You would’ve been fine if it weren’t for his infernal instructions.
http://www.readingthedark.livejournal.com
Hey Brian
When you get a chance just fix the heading for the HFNN addition to the Brian Keene Dies. HFNN is defunct it’s just me now.
Thanks
LOL Briane Keene can’t die! He will come back as a zombie, bite everyone, turn everyone into zombies, and write storys about them turning into the UN-Undead! LOL
I panicked for about a split second. I read about half a dozen or so of the stories. The J.F Gonzalez story had me cracking up and the Horror Network story was really unique. If I had known earlier I would have thought of a horribly painful way for you to die…Mr Keene MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Already own the book so I made a donation and look forward to buying the book based on the KILL BRIAN KEENE DAY BLOGS when it becomes available.
chest pounding
These have been awesome. I especially liked the stories by Livia Llewellyn, Nick Mamatas, Bev Vincent, Nate Southard and Mike Oliveri.
I feel verklempt. Talk amongst yourselves.
I’m only half-kidding. That’s quite a line up. It’s very impressive.
You’re a dead man, Keene! Just posted one on my blog.
Will these be collected and put out as a book? Just curious.
@IrishKing
Thanks for the props. I appreciate it.
naaaa, I don’t get the joke. it ain’t cool to think of Brian being dead.
Wish I had a blog so I can kill Brian Keene.
Hi, Brian -
I’m late to the party but I wrote one, too. Hope you don’t mind being killed again.
http://www.martelsardina.com/2009/11/brian-keene-must-die.html
Martel
I’m rather late as well. Just found out today, but wanted to add a tidbit.
http://llsoares.livejournal.com/
And just when you thought you were done being killed. LOL
L
I’m a little surprised they’re doing this again. Did the Jack Haringa book do well? I read it; most of the stories were built on private jokes that fell flat (and looked childish) to me, who is outside the circle of friends who wrote them. I’m not attacking the concept, nor the cause, but if the goal is to make money for the Shirley Jackson awards, shouldn’t a book be devised that people not on the commitee or directly involved with it would want to own? I have supported the award, by bidding on a number of the books they offered for auction, and by buying used books sold by the SJ commitee at a Boston convention a couple years back. Those items were worth owning.
I hope this collection evolves into something more thoughtful than the last–considerate, that is, of the audience it seeks (rather than the audience it already has). I *did* like Laird Barron’s story in the last book (many of his co-contributors commented at the time how it was a real story) but the rest were uninteresting at best.
“I’m not attacking the concept, nor the cause, but if the goal is to make money for the Shirley Jackson awards, shouldn’t a book be devised that people not on the commitee or directly involved with it would want to own?”
To clarify: This was devised by Paul, Nick, Nick, Lee, myself and a few others. Our goals were simply to once again raise awareness of the organization and hopefully earn some donations for them (which is why a link to the org was provided with each “official” story).
There are no plans at this time to collect the stories into a second volume. Not saying we wouldn’t do it if such an opportunity presented itself and the monies went to the org. But as of now, there are no plans and no offers. The goal was simply to increase awareness, if only for a day.
And to have a bit of fun doing it. ;>)
“Our goals were simply to once again raise awareness of the organization and hopefully earn some donations for them (which is why a link to the org was provided with each “official” story).”
I think that’s Kearny’s point: you raise awareness by moving outside your little box. The only people I know who care about these yearly “Kill This Guy” things are the people who write them and their friends, who already know all about the Shirley Jackson Awards.
It’s the other 99.999999999999999999999999999% of humanity the award needs to “raise awareness” with. This is never going to accomplish that purpose, not unless you get Stephen King or Anne Rice to sign up to get killed in blogs.
“The only people I know who care about these yearly “Kill This Guy” things are the people who write them and their friends, who already know all about the Shirley Jackson Awards.”
The key phrase there is “people I know“, meaning your assumption is based off people you know. I’d propose that you don’t know most of the people who frequent this site. No offense, but it’s flawed logic. For example: The only people I know who bought Sarah Palin’s new book is the guy who owns the gun store I frequent, and yet her book is number one this week. The only people I know who like Turkey Hill’s Party Cake ice cream are me and my friend Jason, yet Turkey Hill continues to manufacture it, so it must appeal to someone else.
Based on what I know of my audience, I’d propose that probably 45% to 55% of the folks who read my work (and this site) probably never heard of the Shirley Jackson Awards before now.
Point taken David and Robert, however, I wanted to make you aware that we have had two other much larger (larger in terms of scope, in terms of funds raised, in terms of publicity and coverage the events received), fund raising endeavors: the KGB reading of works of Shirley Jackson in July of ‘08 to celebrate the anniversary of “The Lottery,” (readers included Peter Straub and Jeffrey Ford) and February of 09’s “lottery” where a whole slew of authors donated great prizes for a lottery/raffle that lasted for two weeks. So it’s not like we solely rely upon the Haringa book or the blog day.
Exactly. The lottery/raffle included donations from such luminaries as Peter Straub and Neil Gaiman, and I daresay Neil Gaiman has just as sizable and fervent a following as Stephen King or Anne Rice.