Posted by Jonathan in Books, Movies on March 5th, 2010
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Matthew Greenberg, writer of the Stephen King adaptation 1408, will once again bring King’s words to the big screen with a remake of Pet Sematary.
The idea of a remake has been circling for a while, and at one point producer Alphaville, writers Mike Werb and Michael Colleary, and actor George Clooney were being considered. With a 20 year break and producers Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Steven Schnieder jumping on board, this will be an interesting remake of a classic to look out for.
Paramount first brought the book to life in 1989 under director Mary Lambert, which starred Dale Midkiff, Denise Crosby and Fred Gwynne.
King’s 1983 novel follows the Creeds, a family who trade their city life in for a new life in the country, only to discover the pet cemetery behind their house rests on an ancient burial ground, which local legend claims has resurrective abilities. When their toddler son is killed in a tragic auto-accident, the father takes the body the burial ground in hopes of bringing him back to life. He awaits his return, only what comes back isn’t his son, but a demonic form set to kill!
Posted by Ashleigh in Books, Comics on February 24th, 2010
If you’ve been counting down the days until the release of the first issue of Stephen King and Scott Snyder’s American Vampire — well, you’ll still have to wait until March 17. But hey! Look! DC/Vertigo has released images of Vampire’s variant cover as designed by the legendary Jim Lee.
Horror fiction powerhouse King was pleased with the design, saying, “That’s one of the best comic mag covers I’ve seen since the days of my misspent youth, when I haunted the newsstands in Brunswick, Maine each month for the new Creepy or Eerie. Kudos to Mr. Lee.”
Some background on the upcoming release: The new ongoing series, AMERICAN VAMPIRE, will introduce readers to a new breed of vampire – a more muscular and vicious species of vampire with distinctly American characteristics. The series’ first story arc, to be told over the course of five issues, will feature two different stories, one written by Snyder, the other by King.
Snyder’s story will be set during the Roaring Twenties and follows wannabe starlet Pearl as she searches for her first big break in Hollywood. Her quest for fame soon turns into a nightmare after she encounters something far more frightening than a motion picture contract.
King will tell the story of Skinner Sweet: murderer, bank robber, cowboy and the first-ever American vampire. I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that he doesn’t sparkle in the sun.
Future installments of the series will follow Sweet’s descendants through the decades as they blaze a bloodstained trail through American history.
Musical theater isn’t often the medium for horror- or thriller-related stories, but two upcoming shows will follow the Sweeney Todds and Draculas of the world in bringing terror singing and dancing to the stage.
The above picture is the first released photo of the cast of the upcoming musical version of The Addams Family – which includes Nathan Lane as Gomez and Bebe Neuwirth as Morticia. The show will open in Chicago, but if it does well, expect to see it on Broadway next. The show’s website has more info, plus a history of the family’s transition from The New Yorker to television to the movies to the stage.
Even more surprising is the news of a revival of Stephen King’s Carrie, a musical based on the horror novel of the same name. The show was a huge financial disaster when it first debuted in 1988, not attracting nearly enough viewers to fill its huge budget. The revival will, apparently, be a wildly different take on the same book and music. It’s also already been cast, with the players including Molly Ranson as the telekinetic lead, Marin Mazzie as her cruel and fanatically religious mother, and Sutton Foster as gym teacher Ms. Gardner.
As a lover of musical theater, moaning butlers and buckets of big blood, I’m pretty intrigued by both of these shows. Thanks to io9 for the scoop!
Tuesday, J.J. Abrams revealed to MTV that he and Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof would not, in fact, be adapting Stephen King’s Dark Tower series to the big screen. “You’ll be hard-pressed to find a huger fan of The Dark Tower than me, but that’s probably the reason that I shouldn’t be the one to adapt it,” Abrams said. “After working six years on ‘Lost,’ the last thing I want to do is spend the next seven years adapting one of my favorite books of all time. I’m such a massive Stephen King fan that I’m terrified of screwing it up. I’d do anything to see those movies written by someone else. My guess is they will get made because they’re so incredible. But not by me.”
But it’s not all bad news for fans of King’s magnum opus. At a book signing for his newest novel, Under The Dome, the author was asked about any future plans for the Dark Tower universe, and revealed that he plans to release a new book, to take place between Wizard and Glass and Wolves of the Calla. The news was elaborated on at King’s official message board, where the moderator revealed that King won’t have enough time to start work on the new book for at least eight months, but that he already has a working title: The Wind Through The Keyhole.
Obviously, this is something to be excited about. The Dark Tower series is King’s masterpiece, and one of my favorite pieces of sci-fi/fantasy fiction ever. Presumably, the book will follow Roland, Susannah, Eddie, Jake, and Oy on the road from the Emerald City to the Callas; there is, after all, a pretty significant leap in action between the fourth and fifth books. There’s always the slight possibility that the book will follow the lead of Wizard and Glass and continue the story of Roland’s past, but I’d hope this isn’t the case, since this is ground that’s already being pretty well trod with Marvel’s Dark Tower comics.
At the same signing, King was also asked if Under The Dome would be turned into a movie. Without hesitation, he said no – but it would be an HBO miniseries. I haven’t seen any official announcement to support this, but assuming he wasn’t just joking, this is downright great news – partly because it means another HBO mini to look forward to, and partly because if they make one successful King show, what’s to stop them from doing Dark Tower on HBO? Certainly, in terms of content, audience and length, it would make more sense on a premium cable network than as a big-budget Hollywood PG-13 movie.
Anyway, that’s plenty to think about for the avid King fan. The book signing video is below… it’s just nice to hear him talk. Stephen King is a guy I’d really love to just grab a beer with.
Book trailers are an interesting recent development in marketing. The very concept doesn’t make a whole lot of sense at first, seeing as books don’t actually have visual scenes to make a trailer out of, but done properly, they can be pretty effective tools for creating buzz around a new novel. And sometimes, they can be pretty cool. The trailer for Stephen King’s new book, Under The Dome, falls squarely into the “cool” category. The novel follows the inhabitants of a small town that is trapped in a huge, clear dome by unknown forces.
Some say King’s best years are behind him; I disagree. That’s not to say I enjoy every last one of his books – hell, the man’s written so many, there’s no way they could all be great. But when he’s on, he’s one of the best writers in modern horror (and sometimes science fiction). To me, it seems that he’s at his best when he gives himself room to breathe, page-wise. The Stand is brilliant; so is It. Both are over 1000 pages. The Dark Tower series, his masterpiece, unfolds over the course of seven increasingly long books. Under The Dome will be 1088 pages long; hopefully, that means we can expect the epic storytelling and surprisingly personal character development the author, at his best, is capable of.
Check out the trailer below; it’s short, but it got me kinda pumped for this book.
Featuring the complete original novella and screenplay, along with full-color and B&W artwork by horror legend Bernie Wrightson.
Plus: Exclusive storyboards, photos from the set, production notes, hand-corrected script pages, and more from the Top Secret “Director’s Notebook” kept during the production
About the Book: Riding the Bullet by Stephen King has been described as a “ghost story in the grand manner” and the story of “a young man who hitches a ride with a driver from the other side,” but in this special edition only available from Lonely Road Books, we’re going to show you King’s classic novella in a way you’ve never seen it before: alongside the feature film screenplay adaptation by director Mick Garris.
The road from print to the silver screen is often a bumpy one and much has been written about how a story is sometimes transformed to make it work in moving pictures. This is your chance to experience Riding the Bullet in a way only those close to the production of the film ever have. Start with King’s original novella, then flip the book over and read the original script by Mick Garris. Compare what he kept, what he had to change, and even the storytelling flourishes he added to round out the tale.
This highly collectible special edition will be published in the same manner as our acclaimed edition of The Arthur Darknell Double — in the tradition of the old Ace Doubles. This is the very first Stephen King Limited Edition to be published in this manner, and we’re certain it’ll be a huge hit with the collectors.
Complete with stunning cover artwork and beautiful interior artwork by Bernie Wrightson, this exclusive Lonely Road Books special edition is going to be one of the most discussed small press books of the year.
About the Special Features:
With an oversized page size and an extremely low print run, Riding the Bullet by Stephen King and Mick Garris is being designed with the ultimate collectors in mind. Each edition will feature a deluxe binding selected from the finest materials available. And like the previous Lonely Road Books releases, all of the signed copies are expected to be reserved right away, so don’t wait to place your order!
For seventeen years of his life, the whereabouts of the medieval Italian poet Dante Alighieri is unknown to modern scholars. All we know is that during this time, he traveled as an exile across Europe, while working on his epic poem, The Divine Comedy. In his masterpiece he describes a journey through the three realms of the afterlife. The volume describing hell, Inferno, is the most famous of the the three.
Valley of the Dead is the real story behind Inferno. In his wanderings, Dante stumbles on a zombie infestation, and the things he sees there – people being devoured, burned alive, boiled in pitch, torn apart by dogs, eviscerated, impaled, crucified, etc. – become the basis of all the horrors he describes in Inferno. Afraid to be labeled a madman, Dante made the terrors he witnessed into a more “believable” account of an otherworldly adventure with demons and mythological monsters, but now the real story can finally be told.
The palette of history and horror mingle in the hues of crimson blood and blackest death. The ghosts of the past mourn for lives unfinished, vengeance unfulfilled, and loves lost. The heart beats in a cacophony of anticipation and fear, echoing with the memory of those that once were, once danced, once believed.
Hues of fear, of woe and dying. Shades of death, of blood and shadow. Fallen women, queens, and angels. Angry men, ghosts, and devils. Life is woven in a tapestry of joy and sorrow; painted in the colors of pain, and triumph, and love. What artistry is found within the soul of every man — some perfection, some wretched — painted words and pictures of things glorious and of things unspeakable.
Angeline Hawkes writes with the fatalistic poetry of unstoppable history gone disturbingly wrong. — John Everson, Bram Stoker Award winning author Shades of Blood and Shadow represents only a taste of the hundreds of short stories penned by Bram Stoker Award nominated writer Angeline Hawkes. From ancient Mayans to the horrors at Chernobyl, she pulls you into the hearts and minds of fiendish creatures and tortured man. History offers up the wayward and the monstrous in this collection of ghoulish hues.
“Angeline Hawkes’s … imagination seems to tend toward a Lovecraftian-meets-George Romero-in-a-dark-alley sensibility.” — Robert Butterfield, Necropsy: The Review of Horror Fiction
“…Angeline Hawkes conducts an orchestra of creatures that are both bloody and sexy. You won’t forget this tour through historical horror; it’s a sumptuous smorgasbord for beasts craving variety.” –Gregory Lamberson, author of Johnny Gruesome and Personal Demons
“…every story is unique, and every story works. Angeline Hawke’s writing is sharp, elegant and satisfying in the most deliciously dark way.” — Jonathan Maberry, Bram Stoker Award winning author of Zombie CSU and Patient Zero
“Angeline Hawkes…conjures dark and dangerous experiences, satisfyingly horrorific stories seasoned with sly humor, historical epics slipstreaming into alternate realities… hellishly inspiring, fantastically inventive, a collection of dark fiction impossible to forget!” — C. Dean Andersson,Bram Stoker Award nominated author of I Am Dracula, Raw Pain Max, and the Bloodsong Saga”
“Chambers is adept at striking the perfect balance of darkness and light…” –Dark Wisdom
They say Mooncat Jack takes the kids nobody is watching, the kids nobody wants. They say he takes them in the dark and smiles with teeth like black dice and eyes like pools of dead water waiting to suck them down to…someplace else….
Darkness is everywhere. It lingers in the echoes of the past and dwells behind the closed doors of ordinary houses. It rises from the dead and hides behind the face of true love. Pretend you don’t see it, but you know it’s there. You know, sooner or later, a day will come when you feel its touch and see its face.
“…Chambers writes stories that are paced fast enough to friction burn a reader’s eyeballs.” –Horror Reader.com
Now from one of dark fiction’s most powerful new voices comes this collection of nightmare visions of the things that live beyond the light. Sure, they say James Chambers is a normal guy. They say he doesn’t look like a horror writer. And yet he’s gazed into the dark and lived to tell these tales of madness and betrayal, shocking Lovecraftian mysteries, and terrifying journeys into history. Known for creating surprising twists and haunting characters, Chambers delivers atmospheric suspense mixed with disturbing, psychological dread. Consider these stories to be cautionary tales, warnings of the unseen horrors that lurk all around us, and read them if you dare.
“This is one mean word jockey.” –CJ Henderson
Published here for the first time anywhere is Chamber’s chilling novelette of the New York City underworld: “Five Points.”
You can reserve all four book in this series at this link and get a special slipcase to hold all four editions. Here is the link for more details.
Lost masterminds J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof have big plans to work through Abrams’ Bad Robot Prods. to develop a franchise out of Stephen King’s long running series The Dark Tower. Begun in 1970 and stretching to 2004, the series consists of seven novels. It’s wide grasp of different genres can account for part of its popularity (fantasy, scifi, horror, and western). It reaches out to a broader audience.
The series follows a gunslinger knight, Roland, on his quest to find the Dark Tower, a mythical building said to be the nexus of all the universes. Roland’s world is of a magical nature, with all the fines of King Arthur’s court. It is a feudal society that greatly resembles the American old west. It is ripped apart by wars and disasters. Everything is in chaos.
“Damon Lindelof and I talked to Mr. King,” Abrams told IGN while promoting the upcoming “Star Trek” film. “We got the rights for ['Dark Tower'] as a film. Damon is obviously still on ‘Lost’ and we’ve been working on ‘Star Trek’ together. As soon as ‘Lost’ is done, hopefully we’ll begin tackling that.”
The duo hasn’t done much focusing on The Dark Tower due to the huge task of completing Lost. They do know they want the scope to be very much like Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, and are hoping for seven separate films. Nothing will move forward substantially until Lost is over, which has only one season left.
Stephen King: The Non-Fiction is over 600 PAGES in length, easily making it the most comprehensive review of Stephen King’s non-fiction works, many of which you’ve never read or even heard of before — and it even includes the complete text of a very rare essay written by Stephen King! This signed & slipcased oversized Limited Edition is Rocky Wood’s official companion volume to the fan acclaimed Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished so make sure you order a copy today to complete the set!
About the Book: Stephen King: The Non-Fiction is the first significant review of King’s Non-Fiction. Most fans and readers know King has written three non-fiction books and may have noticed his introductions and Author’s Notes to his own works; but few know of his hundreds of columns, articles, book reviews and criticism.
In fact the Authors review over 560 published works of non-fiction (more than a dozen are revealed here for the first time) and a further nine unpublished non-fiction pieces. Full details of these unpublished pieces are revealed for the first time.
Important Update About This Book!
SURPRISE ADDITION FROM STEPHEN KING!
Have you ever heard of “My Little Serrated Security Blanket” by Stephen King? It’s a very rare essay King wrote over a decade ago, and most fans have never had a chance to read it… until now!
That’s right! Stephen King has just granted permission for “My Little Serrated Security Blanket” to appear in our special deluxe edition of Stephen King: The Non-Fiction! Our designer is working hard at this very moment on a re-design of the book so we can include this entertaining and difficult to find article! Stephen King: The Non-Fiction fills all the gaps, providing significant detail on each of the most significant of these Non-Fiction Works; and a review of every other piece!
Authors Rocky Wood and Justin Brooks spent five years compiling this outstanding reference work, with the assistance of many of the leading King researchers, collectors and ’super-collectors’; and access to Restricted Non-Fiction Works in King’s papers at the University of Maine, Orono.
Covering all King’s published and known unpublished works from 1959 to mid-2006, Stephen King: The Non-Fiction reveals for the first time dozens of pieces of non-fiction and their appearances that were previously unknown to King researchers.
If you’ve ever wanted to know more about King’s amazing and often controversial non-fiction, this is the reference work you must have. This is the ultimate volume to accompany Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished — and this is the perfect companion in your collection for The Stephen King Universe and The Road to the Dark Tower.
Among new pieces reviewed in the book are:
Two previously unknown King pieces from his high school days – sports reporting in the Lisbon Enterprise (these are not the articles King describes in On Writing); and a King non-fiction piece from his high school newspaper The Drum; along with the fascinating story of their rediscovery by the authors
A 1967 column supporting the US troops in Vietnam
Previously unknown pieces from The Maine Campus, such as a review of the Spring 1969 issue of Ubris (in which King published the first version of Night Surf, the precursor to The Stand); an amazing movie review; and letters to the editor (many highly amusing)
Nine unpublished pieces of non-fiction reviewed in detail, including pieces held in the Restricted Boxes of King’s papers at the University of Maine – for the first time anywhere the authors describe these works in detail
A large number of previously unknown letters to the editor
Introductions to the work of other authors; and book reviews published in unusual venues
Comprehensive reviews of King’s non-fiction in the Bangor Daily News and other Maine newspapers, some of it controversial King’s early baseball writing, most published in Maine newspapers
Working from the original sources Wood and Brooks also identified and corrected numerous errors in the previous reporting of material – incorrect titles, dates, pagination and even publication information Contents
Argument: A Guide to King’s Non-Fiction. Introducing the Reader to the book and King’s rich tapestry, including his strong sense of opinion, sense of humor, style and risks he often takes in the Non-Fiction mode. King’s Major Non-Fiction
• Early Columns – Garbage Truck
• Danse Macabre, On Writing
• Baseball – Faithful; Heads Down and the Red Sox Obsession
• Opinion – Horror
• Opinion – The Craft of Writing
• Author’s Notes and Introductions to His Own Work
• Later Columns – The Pop of King King’s Minor Non-Fiction
• Introducing the Works of Others
• Book Reviews
• Letters to the Editor, Guest Columns
• Opinion – Radio, Music, Film and Television
• Opinion – Venturing into Politics
• Opinion – Let’s Argue
• Miscellany King’s Unpublished Non-Fiction
Each of the Chapters is in narrative form and covers the following information:
• The history of and interesting information about each piece
• Summary, including significant quotes
• Critique
• Relevance to other King Works (particularly to his Fiction)
• Advice to Readers wishing to accessing the piece
Bibliography: A full list of all King’s Non-Fiction, with detailed citations
Stephen King: The Non-Fiction is going to be a must-have for every Stephen King collector, and we expect it to sell very quickly!
A collection of the darkest and nastiest Etchison stories—both brand new and reprint—that have not been included in any of his recent collections. If you love horrific short stories, you will need this collection in your personal library!
Table of Contents:
Foreword
Introduction by George Clayton Johnson
Sitting In The Corner, Whimpering Quietly
The Walking Man
The Pitch
You Can Go Now
Today’s Special
Call Home
The Machine Demands A Sacrifice
On The Pike
White Moon Rising
The Scar
The Detailer
Home Call
Red Dog Down
One Of Us
In a Silent Way
My Present Wife
No One You Know
Got to Kill Them All
OBJECTS OF WORSHIP, the debut collection by Claude Lalumière—twelve strange, eerie, sensual stories of monstrous gods, disturbing faiths, and urgent desires by a bold new voice in weird fiction. Interior illustrations by Rupert Bottenberg (Claude’s Lost Myths collaborator). Introduction by World Fantasy Award-winning author James Morrow.
HARDCOVER-ONLY EXTRAS:
• Two bonus stories of extreme horror/humour: Claude’s tribute to Iggy Pop, “The World’s Forgotten Boy and the Scorpions from Hell,” and its sequel, “Motherfucker”
• Back-cover mosaic of Objects of Worship icons by illustrator Rupert Bottenberg
“Claude Lalumière’s stories are dark, mordant, precisely formed. His first collection is extraordinarily accomplished in its craft and subversive intent.” —Lucius Shepard
“These stories are terrifically creepy. And not unlike Edgar Allan Poe or Potted Meat Product, they gave me the willies.” —Christopher Moore
“Claude Lalumière has a poet’s sensibility. He suggests; never overstates. This finely crafted, stylishly dark collection is a vitrine of objets and curios, a specimen cabinet of elegant bizarrerie. I recommend it to all connoisseurs of lyricism and things passing strange.” —Richard Calder
“You hear about kids locked away in attics, their only toys broken clothespins, a few pipe cleaners, a spool of yarn. Yet with these toys, they manage to concoct imaginary worlds of great wonder and beauty. Claude must have grown up in an attic because he writes like one of those kids.” —Neil Smith
“Claude Lalumière’s extravagant imagination is matched by only two other qualities: his compassion for his characters, and his sparkling facility with language. His stories resound with the clash of ideas, the music of hearts and the howls of indignation that any sensitive creator emits when confronted with a universe less esthetically pleasing and fair-minded than the ones he daily strives to create.” —Paul Di Filippo
“In these stories, life still aches after death, spirits leave the flesh and return, and the only people comfortable with their bodies are rotting zombies. Disturbing and funny, sexy and psychedelic, this collection marks the debut of a highly original voice in fantastic fiction. Read it for the thrill of getting lost, or the pleasure of letting an author lead you into undiscovered places.” —Jan Lars Jensen
“Claude Lalumière’s stories are delicious.” —Anna Tambour
This is the 4th book in the Bad Moon Books very popular, very limited Eclipse line. 100 numbered hardcover copies. Art by the AMAZING John Pierro! This is going to be the first of two novel featuring the detectives the media has dubbed The Green Hornet and Cato.
This is a little darker than most of Gene’s work but it is just a brilliant! If you love Gene’s novellas and novels you are going to LUST after this one!
Artwork and Specs for the upcoming Children of the Corn, Stephen Kings 25th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray from Anchor Bay Entertainment are below. Be sure to hit the stores for its release on July 28, 2009!
• Audio commentary with Director Fritz Kiersch, Producer Terrence Kirby, and Stars John Franklin and Courtney Gains
• NEW “It Was The Eighties!” (HD) — Linda Hamilton talks about working on the film, offering great behind-the-scenes stories about the cast and crew
• NEW “Stephen King on a Shoestring” (HD) – Interview with Producer Donald Borchers.
• NEW “Welcome to Gatlin: The Sights and Sounds of Children of the Corn” (HD) – Interview with Production Designer Craig Stearns and Composer Jonathan Elias
• “Harvesting Horror: The Making of Children of the Corn” (SD)
• Fast Film Facts
• Original theatrical trailer
• Poster and still gallery
• Original storyboard and original title sequence art
In more Stephen King news, we received the following press release from our friends at Centipede Press today.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
**********************************************
Centipede Press is pleased to announce the forthcoming
publication of Knowing Darkness: Artists Inspired by
Stephen King, with an original introduction by film
director Frank Darabont. Michael Whelan will be
drawing remarques for only 50 copies of the deluxe
edition. See below for more information. The attached
PDF file also has a lot of details!
KEY SPECIFICATIONS:
* hardcover with sewn signatures and reinforced binding
* full color
* 11 x 15 inches
* 448 pages
* over 500 illustrations
* 30 pages of double-page foldouts
* publication date: November 2009
Drawing on 35 years of artwork by the best fantasy artists
of our time, Knowing Darkness is an oversized
coffee-table art book that reprints virtually all of the
art done for King’s limited edition books, all out of
print. It also reprints art for King’s trade editions, film
stills, movie posters, foreign editions, and movie tie-in
editions. (more…)
Our friends over at Cemtery Dance have released some information and the sales copy of Stephen King’s upcoming novel “Under The Dome”.
Under the Dome
The epic new novel by Stephen King!
1,100+ Pages In Hardcover
As our newsletter subscribers already know, Scribner has added the new Stephen King novel, Under the Dome, to their 2009 publication list, and we’ve just received the sales copy for this huge new novel:
“On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester’s Mills, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener’s hand is severed as ‘the dome’ comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when—or if—it will go away.
Dale Barbara, Iraq vet and now a short-order cook, finds himself teamed with a few intrepid citizens—town newspaper owner Julia Shumway, a physician’s assistant at the hospital, a select-woman, and three brave kids. Against them stands Big Jim Rennie, a politician who will stop at nothing—even murder—to hold the reins of power, and his son, who is keeping a horrible secret in a dark pantry. But their main adversary is the Dome itself. Because time isn’t just short. It’s running out.”
Obviously this is going to be the kind of epic King novel we haven’t seen in a long time, so use the link below to place your preorder today!
If any of you Stephen King fans have read his previous novel “Duma Key” you know that contraty to popular belief Mr. King has not lost any of his horror writing ability. “Duma Key” is exceptional, frightening and as usual the characterizations are unbelievable. I for one am really looking forward to sinking my teeth into this monster of a book.
I love long novels, the last two I read being “The Terror” and “Drood” by Dan Simmons, two extraordinary books written by one of the outstanding talents of our time.
In today’s The Who’s News Blog over at USA Weekend, writer Lorrie Lynch, who’s in the process of creating an American Icons cover story on Stephen King, posted a conversation I’m more than happy to relay: Stephen King on J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter series) and Stephenie Meyer (Twilight Series).
In her discussion of popular authors vs. the academic elite with King, King strongly voiced his opinions on the aforementioned popular authors. To put it lightly, King is not a fan of Meyer’s work.
“Both [J.K.] Rowling and Meyer, they’re speaking directly to young people,” he explains. “The real difference is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephenie Meyer can’t write worth a darn. She’s not very good.” It doesn’t get much more blunt than that. He goes on, “People are attracted by the stories, by the pace and in the case of Stephenie Meyer, it’s very clear that she’s writing to a whole generation of girls and opening up kind of a safe joining of love and sex in those books. It’s exciting and it’s thrilling and it’s not particularly threatening because it’s not overtly sexual.”
Agreeing with King, Rowling’s writing compared to that of Meyer’s is extremely more intelligible while still appealing to a similar (and even wider) demographic. While I enjoyed reading Meyer’s Twilight series, I had to put the book down half way through Eclipse, Meyer’s third novel in the series. I’ll have to muster up the wherewithal to finish the series in the coming weeks.
For more on King, you can check out Lynch’s cover story in the March 6-8 issue of USA Weekend.
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According to the Hollywood Reporter, Matthew Greenberg, writer of the Stephen King adaptation 1408, will once again bring King’s words to the big screen with a remake of Pet Sematary.
Tuesday, J.J. Abrams 
Tower series is King’s masterpiece, and one of my favorite pieces of sci-fi/fantasy fiction ever. Presumably, the book will follow Roland, Susannah, Eddie, Jake, and Oy on the road from the Emerald City to the Callas; there is, after all, a pretty significant leap in action between the fourth and fifth books. There’s always the slight possibility that the book will follow the lead of Wizard and Glass and continue the story of Roland’s past, but I’d hope this isn’t the case, since this is ground that’s already being pretty well trod with Marvel’s Dark Tower comics.
