Algorithm Zero

7/1/26
Brian Keene Brian Keene

7/1/26

But as far as the actual Women In Horror Month goes? Well... for one month, your social media feed is positively full of such accolades and recommendations, and then, if the vagaries of the algorithms hold sway, such content will vanish from your feed fairly quickly, replaced by whatever terrible outrage is taking place today or perhaps a more palatable video of a cute kitten that may or may not be generated via AI.

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6/30/26
Brian Keene Brian Keene

6/30/26

You can either dig that or you don’t. I don’t care. It’s my bandwidth, and I will set the limits.

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6/29/26
Brian Keene Brian Keene

6/29/26

…a book length collection of erotic horror that is both sensual and sinister, often simultaneously. They range from one-page flash fiction to the novella-length title story, and along the way…

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6/27/26
Brian Keene Brian Keene

6/27/26

When it comes to Grief Horror, Tom Piccirilli walked so that Laurel Hightower could run, and The Day of the Door is her marathon. A novel by a writer in full command of her talents, written with surety and certainty, not one

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6/26/26
Brian Keene Brian Keene

6/26/26

As one reviewer wrote at the time of its release back in 2011: “As much as these stories appear to be erotic, in fact, they aren’t really about sex at all. They are about the fear of sex, of what…

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6/25/26
Brian Keene Brian Keene

6/25/26

…or the absolutely masterful “Violet is the Color of Your Energy” — easily my favorite of the collection, and a staggeringly great reimagining of Lovecraft’s “The Colour Out of Space”…

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6/24/26
Brian Keene Brian Keene

6/24/26

Riff didn’t ask for much. A Coke and a burger during one afternoon of some much-deserved R&R which we spent taking intertubes down the Jordan River, and he was alright with the world.

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6/20/26
Brian Keene Brian Keene

6/20/26

Every author does that. Not every time. But they all do. Rereading the book now is like traveling back in time and watching Kelly outdrink Jack Ketchum and still be coherent enough to opine on the work of Anne Rivers Siddons and still keep a watchful eye on then teenager Kelly Laymon (whom she was fond of). She was a den mother, troublemaker, and bard allk at the same time.

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6/19/26
Brian Keene Brian Keene

6/19/26

DC Comics continues to woo both readers and creators with a new golden age, while Marvel is late paying their creators.

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6/18/26
Brian Keene Brian Keene

6/18/26

If you miss the golden age of Bizarro — those early days of Eraserhead Press, Lazy Fascist, Raw Dog, etc (the era of The Baby Jesus Butt Plug and Ass Goblins of Auschwitz and Love In The Time of Dinosaurs and The Greatest Fucking Moment In Sports), then my friend, Eve Harms has you covered.

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6/17/26
Brian Keene Brian Keene

6/17/26

Post-production continues on DEAD FORMAT. We have a composer attached now, so look for an announcement on that soon. Lombardo and I are going to view…

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6/16/26
Brian Keene Brian Keene

6/16/26

One might think that, for her first entry here during Women In Horror Year, that I would go with one of Nancy Collins’ Sonja Blue novels, or her Swamp Thing run, or her weird westerns.

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6/15/26
Brian Keene Brian Keene

6/15/26

Nicky quickly eviscerates that trope, delivering a gripping psychological thriller that allows itself to be a full-on horror novel couched in the traditions of southern gothic while traversing everything from coming-of-age territory to magic realism.

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6/13/26
Brian Keene Brian Keene

6/13/26

But Judith — like myself and J.F. Gonzalez and Nate Southard and Bryan Smith before her — wasn’t content to just write one thing or one style over and over again. Her more recent works are beginning to branch out into…

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6/12/26
Brian Keene Brian Keene

6/12/26

Until the advent of social media, we had a little something called Free Speech. Protecting that right didn’t mean protecting the words you agree with. It meant protecting the words you vehemently disagreed with.

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6/11/26
Brian Keene Brian Keene

6/11/26

Jeff Strand has written a pretty good thought piece about the HWA and the Bram Stoker Awards…

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6/10/26
Brian Keene Brian Keene

6/10/26

Sometimes, the universe puts you where you’re needed. I just wish it didn’t do so with brain fog.

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6/9/26
Brian Keene Brian Keene

6/9/26

And that’s important because the town is as much a main character in this novel as any of the other souls who populate it. I know these people. I know this town. I grew up with both, and it is very easy for me to tell when a fellow writer doesn’t “get” it. Sarah not only gets us — she, like the antagonist of the novel — knows all our secrets. Even the ones we keep from ourself.

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6/8/26
Brian Keene Brian Keene

6/8/26

…and while the teachers may be cool, if they linger too long, it gets weird, because it’s not cool to hang with the teachers. I guess maybe we’re just figuring out the social rules for this new phase...

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6/4/26
Brian Keene Brian Keene

6/4/26

…her poetry challenged conventions, bulldozed tropes, and moved the genre ever forward.

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