Hi Brian, thank's that you have taking the time to answer a few questions of Elements of Crime.

You've already tried some professions, such as a Truck Driver, Dockworkers, DJ, & Commercial Scurity Guard. How did you come up the idea to be a writer of horror and fantasie novels?

Well, I always wanted to be a writer—ever since I was a little kid. These other jobs were just a way to pay my bills until I could earn a living writing. But I’m glad I had them. They gave me experiences that I draw on for my work.

What do you need to created a good horror story in your head?

Usually, I start with a simple idea. For example, The Conqueror Worms/The Worm Gods, started with me thinking “What if it started raining all over the world one day, and didn’t stop?” The novel sprang from that idea. Once I have the idea and a good opening sentence, I’m usually ready to begin writing the book.

Your first Novel "The Rising" (2003), a smart revival of the zombie subgenre, received the Bram Stoker Award. Already in 2001 you have received it for your book "Jobs In Hell". Have these awards changed your life and especially your writing?

Not at all. Awards are nice, and I’m very honored to have them, but they aren’t important. What is important are my readers. They are my first priority. I want to keep them entertained and give them my best with each and every book I write. There is nothing more rewarding than knowing that a book you wrote made somebody else’s life a little better—it got them through their commute or their lunch hour or their lonely night. That’s what matters.

You were not so popular in Germany, but that changed quickly, however, after the appearance of "The Conqueror Worms / Die Wurmgötter", "The Rising + City of the Dead / Das Reich der Siqqusim", "Take the Long Way Home / Der lange Weg nach Hause "and of course " Dead Sea / Totes Meer ". How big is the success of your books in other European Countries?

My books are in Spain, France, Italy, Taiwan, Poland and several other countries, but I think the audience in Germany is probably bigger than in those other countries. I haven’t been to Germany since 1986 (I visited Keil when I was in the Navy). I’d love to come back sometime, and meet my German readers and sign their books. It seems that I have a lot of them there.

If I am correctly informed, you started with Clicker and The Conqueror Worms a Trilogy. In 2011 appears "Deluge" from the The Conqueror Worms series. Will it be published in Germany and other European Countries?

Yes. Right now, it appears as a weekly serial on my website: www.briankeene.com. I post a new chapter every Friday. In that format, it is free for anyone to read (but it’s in English). I’m offering it free as a way to thank my readers for their support. Once I’ve completed it, I will then sell it for publication in book form, both in the US and in Germany.

In 2011 in Germany appears "Castaways / Die Verschollenen," a stand-alone novel. You have already written several novels, can we look forward to further publications in Germany?

Yes. Otherworld-Verlag will be publishing Kill Whitey later this year, as well.

Can you tell us something out of "Castaways / The Disappeared, what we can expect?

Castaways is a spoof of American reality television. I’m sure you have these shows in Germany, as well. The idea is that there is a reality-television show in which the participants have to survive on a deserted island for 90 days. The winner gets a million-dollars. But what the show’s producers don’t know is that there are a sub-human race of monsters living on the island, as well.

Your Blog "Hail Satan" is considered the best in the scene. How do I imagine that? What's going on in particular? Why he is the best, what do you think?

Well, Hail Saten used to be very popular, but I shut the Blog down several years ago when I created the Brian Keene.com website. I wanted people to visit the website rather than the Blog. But yes, it was a popular Blog for a long time, because I featured all sorts of genre news and commentary in addition to my own work.

As for the name, it had nothing to do with the Satan of the Bible. It was a joke. Early in my career, a woman said my books were detrimental to young people’s minds and she compared me to Saten (she misspelled it with the ‘e’). I thought that was funny, and used it as the name of my Blog.