David Lee Roth Yoga
Up at 4am yesterday morning. Did my usual Monday workout and then yoga. At 58, I’m probably not going to gain any muscle mass, so everything I do is just about maintaining strength, cardio, mobility, and varying attempts at losing weight. I lift weights every other day, and walk and do yoga daily. The type of yoga I do is something I call David Lee Roth Yoga, in which I listen to his solo albums and Roth-era Van Halen while kicking, jumping, and stretching and strutting while pretending there is a front row of big-haired metal girls down front. It sounds ludicrous, but the shit works.
Diamond Dave recently went viral on TikTok, as Gen Z begins to discover him for the first time. They came to him not via the old Van Halen concerts, or his solo music videos (which were all more like four minute films than music videos). No, they found him via footage of of a 71-year old man still rocking leather pants and just having a good fucking time in concert, and doing his best to make sure the crowd is having a good fucking time, as well. Kids age 12 to 20 are watching performances like this one and particularly dance videos like this one and they think it’s cool that this old man is loving life so much.
And it is cool. I can only hope to have that much energy, zeal, and lust for life in another 13 years.
This week I am working on a bunch of fan-commissioned LOST LEVEL stories and the first draft of FALLING ANGELS: THE LABYRINTH Book 4, (which is being serialized on Patreon). I only got a few hours writing done, before having to head over to the high school and pick up my youngest, who was under the weather. We spent a few hours at the doctor, and he’s fine — just a virus. But I was glad for that time together. He’s almost 18 and a senior in high school and between activities and his social life and filling out college applications, his mother and I both get to see him basically at breakfast time. So, even though he was sick, it was nice to spend a few extra hours talking about writing and college and movies and other things.
I’ll make up for lost time today, but I also want to carve out some hours to continue updating this website, which hasn’t had a major update since 2009. I got rid of the store page and replaced it with those dropdown boxes at the top, but I’m not crazy about them, so I want to play around with that a bit more today. Mary suggested maybe grouping the books that are in series as such, to lessen the number of dropdown links.
Spent some time on the phone last night with Kasey and Jonathan of Pandi Press, discussing November’s Brian Keene Box, which comes with two exclusive books: THE BEST OF BRIAN KEENE and FOUR PAST MEATNIGHT.
THE BEST OF BRIAN KEENE is exactly what it says on the tin — over 400 pages of what constitutes the best of my short fiction. It’s a strange feeling. When Chris and I talked to Stephen King about putting together THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT, he commented that it felt strange to him that he’d been doing this long enough for people to put together the literary equivalent of a tribute album. Well, let me tell you, it also feels strange to have been doing this long enough to put out the literary equivalent of a Greatest Hits album.
(And I suppose in another twenty years, the tribute albums will come, as well).
FOUR PAST MIDNIGHT is a brand-new anthology of four brand-new novellas written by Gemma Amor, Laurel Hightower, R.J. Joseph, and Hailey Piper, and edited by me. I also wrote the Introduction. I am so proud of this book, and of these four ladies.
And yes, if you are an OG reader of mine, and you’re thinking “Hmmm… that sounds like the recipe for 4X4” you are right. That’s where I got the idea for the anthology. It’s 4X4 for this generation of readers. Except better.
Anyway, both of these books are available only as part of the November Pandi Pack from Pandi Press. Preorder your November Pandi Pack here.
Okay… heading off to the mines now. Have a great day!