News & Blog

Brian Keene’s out of print, four-issue miniseries for Marvel, Dead of Night: Devil-Slayer, which resurrects the old horror-tinged superhero Devil-Slayer for a new generation, has risen from the grave once again in digital form.

Not only is it a very good story, but it features a shout out to me in the form of a character named Isaac Kaufmann. Years later, I was able to get Brian back by naming a character Isaac Keene in Dying Is My Business. In case you were wondering where the name came from. (There’s a related story behind Underwood’s henchmen’s names Tomo and Big Joe — they’re the nicknames of two of Brian’s friends in real life.)

Fred Van Lente’s comics series The Mocking Dead also features a Kaufmann shout out (you have to look closely to spot it), which I suspect is reprisal for my naming Dying Is My Business‘s Van Lente Box after him.

And now you know!

The aptly named book blog Badass Book Reviews has chosen Dying Is My Business as one of their Badass Best of 2013! Another nice accolade to end the year on!

Click here for the full list of badassery.

I won’t be online much over the next couple of days — because of family stuff and because I want to avoid Doctor Who Christmas special spoilers — so if I don’t see you, I hope you have a merry Christmas!

My favorite glossy magazine about all things horror, Rue Morgue, ran a fantastic review of Dying Is My Business in their November 2013 issue. (The issue was plagued with distribution problems last month but should be appearing in subscribers’ mailboxes now, on the heels of the December issue. Keep an eye out for it.) I can’t link to it because it’s a print review, obviously, but here’s a pull quote:

“Kaufmann’s novel bristles with suspense; the storytelling is well-paced and the narrative is packed with intrigue. The eternal theme of what it means to be human or monstrous…is in play here, and Kaufmann handles it with dexterity.”

I’m not kidding when I call Rue Morgue my favorite. I’ve been hoping for a review in the magazine for years now, and I couldn’t be happier with this one.

I’ve been very lucky so far that the majority of Dying Is My Business reviews have been strongly positive. But this review is one of my favorites, if only because of this particular bit:

A cross between Harry Dresden and Seely Booth, Trent is the perfect Urban Fantasy protagonist. He is masculine without being a pig.

Ha! I don’t know why that tickles me so much, it just does. I feel like it would make a great slogan for a company: “Old Spice body wash. Be masculine without being a pig.” Or “Gillette Fusion ProGlide Shave Gel. Be masculine without being a pig.” (I’d suggest making up “Masculine without being a pig” t-shirts to sell at conventions, but the news coming out of some of them recently tells me they wouldn’t be accurate.)

Anyway, thanks to reviewer Zeenat, whoever you are, for the best line in a review ever!