The Stephen King Thread - Part 1

[:eek:]

US Cover & Excerpt For Sleeping Beauties

Posted: March 29, 2017, 16:16:42
Section: Book » Sleeping Beauties

Here is the US cover for Stephen and Owen King’s upcoming book Sleeping Beauties. Release date for the book is September 26th.

You can also head over to EW for an excerpt from the book.

 

[Finarfiniel]

I read this once every few years. Same with It. It's gotten to the point where sometimes I'll flip to a random page and just start reading and not feel like I missed anything.

I'm so glad it's not just me. I've read IT in particular so many times I've completely lost count, currently about 40% of the way through yet another re-read because the new movie adaption has me hyped. I love the characters so much, every time I do a re-read it's almost like re-visiting old friends that I haven't seen in a while, and then of course I start ugly-crying the minute I turn over to the last page and the journey ends.

 

[:eek:]

Reading Stephen King: New Book About King

Posted: April 6, 2017, 21:03:12
This fall Cemetery Dance will release a book called Reading Stephen King with essays about why we love reading the works of Stephen King. The book is edited by Brian Freeman and illustrated by Ray Russotto.

Table of Contents:
- "Introduction" by Brian James Freeman
- "Sometimes You Go Back" by Stewart O'Nan
- "Christine" by Richard Chizmar
- "The Art of Stephen King" by Frank Darabont
- "Spock's Not The Only One Who Can Mind Meld: Stephen King and the Telepathy of Writing" by Stephen Spignesi
- "Disappearing Down That Rabbit Hole" by Justin Brooks
- "The Politics of Being Stephen King" by Tony Magistrale
- "The Adventure of Reading Stephen King" by Michael R. Collings
- "Reading the Lost Works of Stephen King" by Rocky Wood
- "Twins and Twining in Stephen King's Dark Tower Series" by Robin Furth
- "King Since Scribner" by Kevin Quigley
- "Being a Non-US Stephen King Fan" by Hans-Ake Lilja
- "The Role of Religion in Stephen King's Desperation" by Billy Chizmar
- "From A Buick 8" by Jack Ketchum
- "Living in a Web of Mystery" by Bev Vincent
- "The One That Got Away" by Mick Garris
- "My Accidental Obsession" by Jay Franco
- "Stephen King Celebration" by Clive Barker

Order your copy now from Cemetery Dance.

 

[:eek:]

https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/488355271/the-illustrated-stephen-king-universe

 

[:eek:]

Limited Signed Sleeping Beauties Announced

Posted: May 2, 2017, 09:13:15
Section: Book » Sleeping Beauties
Cemetery Dance Publications has announced a Deluxe Special Limited Edition of Stephen King and Owen King’s first collaborative novel, Sleeping Beauties

A Traycased Oversized Hardcover Signed Limited Edition will be printed in two colors with two-color hot foil stamping, a satin ribbon page marker and embossed endpapers, epic wrap-around cover artwork, nearly a dozen interior color paintings by Jana Heidersdorf, a signature sheet signed by Stephen King, Owen King, and Jana Heidersdorf, and the book will be housed in a custom-made traycase exclusive to this edition.

There is also an unsigned Oversized Slipcased Hardcover Gift Edition of only 1,750 illustrated copies that will be printed in two colors with two-color hot foil stamping, a fine binding, epic wrap-around cover artwork, nearly a dozen interior color paintings by Jana Heidersdorf, and it will be housed in a custom-made slipcase.

Order here but hurry, they will go fast.

 

[:eek:]

Excerpt From Joe Hill's Coming Book

Posted: May 4, 2017, 07:35:00

Not King but almost...

Here is the cover and an excerpt from Joe Hill's upcoming book Strange Weather. The book is out October 24.

 

[cabel]

Listened to Carrie and The Gunslinger. Got about a third into the Talisman, but it didn't keep me interested.

Listening to Cujo narrated by Lorna Raver. Enjoying it by she keeps taking me out of it by giving Tadd and the men the most cartoonish over the top voices.

 

[StarLord]

Edit - wrong thread!

 

[:eek:]

Cemetery Dance Covers For Sleeping Beauties

Posted: June 1, 2017, 08:24:30
Section: Book » Sleeping Beauties

Here are the Cemetery Dance covers for Sleeping Beauties. The Gift Edition cover (the one with the fox) and Limited Edition cover (the one with the moth).

 

[:eek:]

King Blocked By Trump!

Posted: June 14, 2017, 08:34:56

That King don't like Donald Trump most of us know and as of June 13 he is now blocked by Trump on twitter...

 

[guitarsingerguy]

My fiancee is absolutely obsessed with King. Anybody have any other suggestions on books she can read in a similar vein? No Dean Koontz, and I've recently introduced her to Clive Barker. Anything else would be much appreciated.

 

[:eek:]

My fiancee is absolutely obsessed with King. Anybody have any other suggestions on books she can read in a similar vein? No Dean Koontz, and I've recently introduced her to Clive Barker. Anything else would be much appreciated.

Peter Straub and Dan Simmons has written a few horror novels somewhat similar to King's classic works. Swan Song by Robert McCammon can also be recommended, an epic book similar to The Stand. For more recent releases you can try the books by King's own son, Joe Hill.

 

[Drizzle]

I've been on a Stephen King kick lately. I reread It to prepare for the movie, then I moved on to Misery and I'm almost halfway through Pet Sematary. The latter is so much better than the movie, of course, but when I was reading Misery all I could picture were Kathy Bates and James Caan.

 

[The Joker]

Well the movie Misery is one of the better adaptions of a King book. It nails both main characters.

 

[:eek:]

The Outsider; New King Book

Posted: August 9, 2017, 19:49:45
Section: Book » The Outsider
In a Q&A with USA Today King reveals that his next book is called The Outsider. No release date was revealed but a guess is 2018.

Anything you want to spill about The Outsider?

Nope. Well, there’s a lot of things I want to say about that, but I can’t. It’s too cool to talk about right now. All I can say is it won’t be out in 2017 because I’ve got enough going on.

Source: USA Today

 

[:eek:]

Thin Scenery; New King Story

Posted: September 10, 2017, 00:53:06

Thin Scenery is a new story by King that can be found in Ploughshares summer 2017 issue.

The Summer 2017 issue of Ploughshares. Ploughshares is an award-winning journal of new writing. Two out of each year’s three issues are guest-edited by prominent writers who explore different personal visions, aesthetics, and literary circles; the Winter issue is staff-edited.

Distinguished writer Stewart O’Nan guest-edits this issue. As O’Nan writes in his introduction, “I want to feel moral confusion, because nothing in this world is simple. As a writer reading, I also admire the precision and audacity of an author’s language and use of form. Do it differently or better, or don’t do it at all.” Featuring new work from Stephen King, Christie Hodgen, Askold Melnyczuk, and Michael Byers, the pieces in this issue cover a wide range of themes and explore inventive narrative structures.


More info here and a short preview here.

You can order your copy here.

 

[Defacto]

So I haven't read Stephen King's It, but I did read about this scene it has, where the Losers Club have group sex as 11 year olds. I've read the context of that scene, but can't help not being somewhat grossed out by it. Stephen King commented on it recently saying "it’s fascinating to me that there has been so much comment about that single sex scene and so little about the multiple child murders. That must mean something, but I’m not sure what."

I don't really get that answer. It's such a cop out. It's like his saying the child sex scene is no biggie and you are a hypocrite if you focus on that and not on the horrible child murders that he also wrote. I get that his trying to make it out to be the old "americans are so sensitive about sex but violence is fine" argument, but it doesn't work. Nobody is saying anything about his adult sex scenes in his other books, the big deal here is that it's kids having sex in very explicitly written way. I wish he would have just come out ans said something like "yeah, I was was ****ed up on coke and alcohol when I wrote that, not my proudest moment". Instead this bs.

 

[Marvolo]

I think he means that he finds it odd that people are more hung up on eleven year olds having sex with other eleven year olds than kids being gruesomly murdered and terrorized by a monster. And I agree it is interesting that two eleven year olds having sex with each other seems to bother people more than kids being murdered by a monster. An eleven year old having sex with another eleven year old certainly isn't good and can potentially cause all sorts of problems for the kids, but it pales in comparison to a monstrous alien killing, butchering, and eating the kids. And yet people get more hung up on the eleven year olds having sex with each other than kids being murdered.

King has said before that he intended for the tunnels and the children being lost in them and finding their way out to be a metaphor for the transition from childhood to adolescence. The sex was meant to reinforce that when they leave those tunnels they aren't children anymore.

It's definitely an uncomfortable scene to read. Sex involving underage kids isn't something any normal adult wants to read about in detail. Being grossed out or uncomfortable when reading that scene is entirely normal for any normal adult. But in a book involving children being brutally murdered, kids having sex with other kids seems hardly worth getting bent out of shape over.

King's books are crammed full of uncomfortable things. Kids dying and coming back to life as murdering zombies, kids getting crushed by vehicles, kids being murdered by an alien demon creature, child abuse, incest, sexual abuse, passages about masterion, mass murder, a baby being crushed by a vehicle, suicide, racism, bigotry, xenophobia, assault etc. I've never even been able to finish Mr.Mercedes because of the killer's totally ****ed up sexual nature and his incestuous relationship with his mom. So that scene in IT just seems like par for the course to me. I just add it to the list of uncomfortable things King has written about and move on.

 

[Finarfiniel]

I've been on a Stephen King kick lately. I reread It to prepare for the movie, then I moved on to Misery and I'm almost halfway through Pet Sematary. The latter is so much better than the movie, of course, but when I was reading Misery all I could picture were Kathy Bates and James Caan.

Same here, I'm currently re-reading IT and the Dark Tower series at the same time. Planning to re-read The Stand and Desperation next (two other favourites) and will probably read on from there. There's just something about the way that King writes that really connects with me on a very deep level. No other modern day writer can create and write as well fleshed out, believable, fully realised characters as he can in my opinion. I get so attached to the characters in his books (The Losers Club in IT, Roland and his Ka-tet in the Dark Tower series, e.t.c) that I get really emotional when I reach the end because it's honestly like losing touch with a bunch of really good friends or something like that. I remember absolutely crying my eyes out the first time I finished reading IT (I was only 12 or so) and I still get misty eyed every time I re-read those final two chapters.

I absolutely love the last paragraph of IT (well, before Bill's epilogue), I find it incredibly poignant:

Drive away and try to keep smiling. Get a little rock and roll on the radio and go toward all the life there is with all the courage you can find and all the belief you can muster. Be true, be brave, stand.
All the rest is darkness.

I tried to put it in my sig, but it wouldn't fit damn it.

 

[:eek:]

Stephen King turns 70 today. Happy birthday.

 

[Defacto]

I think he means that he finds it odd that people are more hung up on eleven year olds having sex with other eleven year olds than kids being gruesomly murdered and terrorized by a monster. And I agree it is interesting that two eleven year olds having sex with each other seems to bother people more than kids being murdered by a monster. An eleven year old having sex with another eleven year old certainly isn't good and can potentially cause all sorts of problems for the kids, but it pales in comparison to a monstrous alien killing, butchering, and eating the kids. And yet people get more hung up on the eleven year olds having sex with each other than kids being murdered.

King has said before that he intended for the tunnels and the children being lost in them and finding their way out to be a metaphor for the transition from childhood to adolescence. The sex was meant to reinforce that when they leave those tunnels they aren't children anymore.

It's definitely an uncomfortable scene to read. Sex involving underage kids isn't something any normal adult wants to read about in detail. Being grossed out or uncomfortable when reading that scene is entirely normal for any normal adult. But in a book involving children being brutally murdered, kids having sex with other kids seems hardly worth getting bent out of shape over.

King's books are crammed full of uncomfortable things. Kids dying and coming back to life as murdering zombies, kids getting crushed by vehicles, kids being murdered by an alien demon creature, child abuse, incest, sexual abuse, passages about masterion, mass murder, a baby being crushed by a vehicle, suicide, racism, bigotry, xenophobia, assault etc. I've never even been able to finish Mr.Mercedes because of the killer's totally ****ed up sexual nature and his incestuous relationship with his mom. So that scene in IT just seems like par for the course to me. I just add it to the list of uncomfortable things King has written about and move on.

Ehh, I think kids getting killed in a horror book is something that can be expected, thus it's not as controversial. Explicit sex scenes are also common in his books, but explicit child sex scenes not so much. And 11-12 year olds are still very much children. It's just really ****ed up and I wish he had said that it's ****ed up.

 

[Brother Jack]

I'm reading The Stand currently. I've dabbled in it before but this is the first time I've tackled the whole thing in all its unabridged glory. I'm really enjoying it. I hope with the success of the It movie this will finally be able to get its proper dues on screen. I wouldn't call the miniseries terrible but it's a far, far cry from the book and what the book could be on screen. I think it will happen eventually, if for no other reason than because it's considered by a lot of people to be King's best.

 

[Patricku]

Its been a long time for me since I read the old hardcover of Under the Dome. When was that released? Like back in 2009 or something? Like I said been a long time since I read it.

That and I need to re-read Just After Sunset, been a long time since I read it since I still have the hardcover of it.

and I just started reading Joyland the weird paperback murder noir whatever it is by Stephen King.

 

[squeekness]

Joyland was great.

 

[Patricku]

Isnt the Haven tv show supposed to be based on Joyland or something?