Quaint for charming or quaint for odd?
Quaint for charming or quaint for odd?
Wanted list:
Ubris
Well I am here at the hotel. We got in yesterday morning. Took the red eye flight in from SFO. Spent the day on the DC "Mall" seeing some of the major sites including the new Martlin Luther King memorial-stunning by the way. Also spent a few hours at the Smithsonian Air and Space museum. Had lunch at Capitol Brewing not far from Capitol hill. Lots of suits and ties. Got back to the hotel and missed one of our members who was at the lounge. No worries, I will catch up with everyone today at 4pm.
The King social is at our hotel, and the actual event is only a 7 minute walk away, so all should go smooth. GMU is a gorgeous campus.
Perhaps I will do a "live update", this afternoon from the lounge.
Have an amazing and unforgettable day today all!
Wanted list:
Ubris
David, sexy as ever...even the sleep pants and slippers! I think I like you with facial hair! Good look for you.
Have a great time everyone! I am jealous! Take pictures!
Promise me you'll always remember: You're braver than you believe, stronger than you seem and smarter than you think.
Hope to run into everyone. today is the first day I venture outside the hosue since my back surgery. I am looking forward to it. I told my wife I could walk from the car but she insists that she drop me at the door and then go park. Some things you just have to give in to.
I have the DTDOTORG Hoodie but its too hot to wear. I do have a DTDOTORG Button so will prominently display on my shirt. I'll be easy to spot. I'll be the guy walking slowly! :-)
DT Spoiler - Enter at your own risk!
Spoiler:
Wow. That really is disappointing about the New Orleans Appearance. I am glad I was leaning more towards the Atlanta event. I know King will be on stage but is it just me or does it sound a little greedy of the bookstore to sell more than 250 tickets(the number of presigned books)
PS. I hope everyone has a great time at the Mason Event and safe travels to and from.
ROLL TIDE......14 NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
The souls of humans have become poor and transparent things.
- Elvid in "Fair Extension"
That just in, from our King DC Correspondent..................................... ...............................Originally Posted by Randall Flagg
28 in 23 (?)!!!!
63 in '23!!!!!!!!!!
My Collection: https://www.thedarktower.org/palaver...ion-Merlin1958
The Houston Astros cheated Major League Baseball from 2017-18!!!! Is that how we teach our kids to play the game now?????
My wife and I are about to head out for GMU in about 10-20 minutes. Should be there a little after 4:00.
David and I are having a beer right now...................
I'm on my third Bacardi. Slurp!David and I are having a beer right now...................
Hope you all have a great time. I expect to see some pics in the "New pride & joy" thread from those of you with a golden ticket.
I wanna see some pics of these "Joker's" hanging out in their TDT.Org gear!!!! Must be a blast!!!
28 in 23 (?)!!!!
63 in '23!!!!!!!!!!
My Collection: https://www.thedarktower.org/palaver...ion-Merlin1958
The Houston Astros cheated Major League Baseball from 2017-18!!!! Is that how we teach our kids to play the game now?????
I'm looking forward to hearing about the event!!.
Wow, what an event. I will try to post a recap to the best of my ability, but keep in mind that I was not a VIP so I'm sure other people have even more stuff to share regarding that part of the event.
So it was pretty much a packed house, with people filling the main part of the auditorium as well as the upper deck. It started at roughly 7:30 with introductions from the event organizer, a lady from the Mystery Writers of America, and a local congressman. Steve then came out full of energy, wearing blue jeans, a red t-shirt, and boots. He had the whole stage to himself, just him and a microphone, so it was a great opportunity for him to just speak his mind for about an hour. Never seen him in this format before, so it was really cool. He talked about everything from his various experiences touring to his childhood to The Stand to The Dead Zone to It and a whole bunch of other stuff (movies, politics, motorcycles). He also talked briefly about 11/22/63 and some of the research he came across while writing it.
Off the top of my head, he revealed two very interesting things:
-Dr. Sleep, the sequel to The Shining, is nearly complete. He talked about the plot and read about a 5-minute excerpt from it. Let's just say that this one is going to be... interesting. It involves a tribe of elderly, vampiric R.V. drivers who are much younger than they appear. They are out to hunt children and, for some reason, have a strong dislike for dogs. I honestly have no clue what to make of this one.
-King has approximately 40 novels that he started at some point but has never finished. He talked about one in particular, entitled "Hatchet Head", that he stopped writing at about 150 pages. I believe it's about a high school kid who, after beginning a project about a recently executed man, starts to receive letters in the mail from him. The plot sounded really intriguing and I hope someone caught a more in-depth summary of it than I did.
Someone came out to do a Q&A with him using questions that were pre-submitted by the audience. Some were pretty good, some not so much. I still have no idea what that Ben Franklin biography question was all about, and would love to know. The mayor then came out to present him the Mason Award, a hat, and a George Mason shirt which he put on for the signing.
The signing took place right afterwards in an area near the lobby. Very long line, but it got moving relatively quickly.
I got my 1st/1st of The Shining signed. After I gave it to him to sign, he promptly crossed out his name on the title page and signed beneath it. I honestly have no clue why he crossed out his name, as I thought he only did this with Bachman books. Does anyone know why he did this, or what it means? Maybe he did it to everyone's book, I'm not sure.
Anyways, here's a picture.
I told him it was great to meet him (even though I've met him before lol) and he said same to you. I told him I was looking forward to the sequel (for The Shining) and he said he's looking forward also, that it wasn't easy to write but that he thinks it turned out well. I'm paraphrasing here because I was pretty nervous and trying not to come across like an idiot haha.
I hope other people have some photos to post because mine are pretty blurry.
Anyways, can't wait to hear everyone else's experience.
Sounds like it was a fun time.
I wonder why he crossed his name out though. If member here knows why, please explain.
I've seen King do that quite a few times where he crosses out his name and signs it, not just with Bachman books. As far as Ben Franklin is concerned, I can't be sure without knowing the context, but it might have been from the episode of the Simpsons where Marge meets King and asks him about what new kind of horror book he's writing, to which he replies that he's not working on horror anymore and says, "I'm working on a biography of Benjamin Franklin. He's a fascinating man. He discovered electricity, and used it to torture small animals and green mountain men. And that key he tied to the end of a kite... IT OPENED THE GATES OF HELL!"
"Smile... It is a fine day..."
He does this regularly. He crosses the name out to show that it was "genuinely" signed by him, but at a date much later than the book was released. I think it is a great touch, and helps with authenticating the signature.
Haha okay, it makes sense now.
Ah, I see. Interesting.He does this regularly. He crosses the name out to show that it was "genuinely" signed by him, but at a date much later than the book was released. I think it is a great touch, and helps with authenticating the signature.
Anybody know how to secure tickets to the Dallas signing? I live in Texas, and want to go......he never comes to Texas.
Sloth Love Chunk
I was also at the GMU event last night. Only DT Dot Org member I spoke with was Wizardsrainbow (David) who actually came up behind me while I was in line for the signing. I do believe I saw Ralph Muellins and Jerome in the reserved seating section. I did see their names in the Festival Guide on the last page which listed the Founding Members of Friends of Fall for the Book. I also did see an old SKEMER friend of mine named Cliff Kearns who I met in 1998 at a Rock Bottom Remainders concert at The Bayou in Georgetown (Washington, DC).
Since I had back surgery a week ago the plan was for my wife to drive me to the building and then go park, but there was a parking garage ($7) right next to the building. There appeared to be quite a line growing up to the building that stretched from the opening at the garage to the fron door. Fortunately the line started to move a few minutes after we got in line so I did not have to stand too long. One of the Festival employees told me that people started to line up around 1pm. There were quite a few there hoping for a signature but had no idea what a "Golden Ticket" was and were thusly disappointed. We also met a woman in line that thought she could get two books signed. There was a B&N table set up selling Stephen King books but of course there were all later editions, including some recent Carrie hardcover editions. What bugged me about this woman (she was a GMU Employee (ditzy one at that) and she told me she did not read SK at all) She was quite bored to be in the line at all. In the end a friend (another employee) joined her and all of a sudden she also had a Golden Ticket. She also did not read King, but was surprized to hear that King wrote Shawshank and Stand By Me (The Body).
Another line story and more in my next post. Hopefully some pictures too!
DT Spoiler - Enter at your own risk!
Spoiler:
OK my next line story - a couple in front of us was this family - man, wife and two kids and they all had stuff to be signed - He had each kid holding a Startlin Mystery Storys mag in protective bags to get signed. Wife had two books but he would only sign one. The man presented King with two things to sign and some sort of letter. King read the letter and said OK and signed both items. Not sure who this guy was or what his letter said or who that letter was from, but it was intriguing to say the least.
Another quick line story - there was this young woman in line who worked for teh Center for Disease Control and she said she often though of The Stand while at work! Funny stuff. She had the unabridge version of the Stand for signaute.
There was a young girl (and boy friend) behind me. She was nervous and said she has wanted to see King and get an autograph for 15 years - she apperaed to be no more than 25 years oldd. She had a recent Gunslinger (the amended version) for signature. She said it was her favorate King book ever. I told her (and showed her) that I had a First Edition Gunslinger for signatue - she oohed and aahed and told me she was very jealous of me!
I must say that I was fairly close to the fron of the signing line - again thankful that I did not have to stand too long (remember teh back surgery). I had two Golden Tickets and had my wife go first with my First Edition The Shining. King did indeed line out his name and sign right below. then it was my turn and my wife tried to use my cell phone for a picture. Not sure why I did not bring my camera. I think because they tried to stop all photos at The Three Kings Event a few years ago. At this event they just announced that no flashed were allowed. I presented King with my First Edition Gunslinger. They did tell us as we approached the signing table to open to the page we wanted signed. The page in The Gunslinger is a dark page and the signature bewow King's name would be hard to see, so I opened it to a "white" page that just said The Gunslinger and thus got a very nice signature with no lining out of the name. Pictures to follow. I told Sai King that I was excited to hear about Dr. Sleep and asked when it might be published. All he said was that he had another Dark tower book to publish first and he thought it would be next June. I think it is really next Spring, so perhaps Dr Sleep is next fall perhaps in November! Again just my opinion.
Now about the event, Divemaster did a pretty good job summarizing King's talk. One of the event employees did tell me that they oversold the seating capacity and were struggling to find everyone seats. Some late arrivals ended up getting the last reserved seating thus their tardiness paid off big time.
King did start of his talk with aroutine that he has used successfully over the eyars. He quotes some statistics about one in fifty people leave their car unlicked and that why they were all safe and having fun here in the auditorium that they all had to go to their cars at some point and to be very watchful for what might be lurking. Then he said they were probalby OK but then stats also say that 1 in 75 leave their homes unlocked and the bad guy was probably in the bathroom. King is a natural speaker and drew lots of applause, standing ovations and basic audience roars.
For the record the local Congressman was Congressman Connally, a favorate in the area and from Fairfax County where the event was held.
The comment about Ben Franklin's Biography was a joke!
About Dr. Sleep - excited that the book is a reality and almost completed. He described the Tribe as like vampires except they suck the life essence out of you. I think the whole bit about they are like normal RV people with one exception, they do not like dogs and dogs do not like them - will play a major plot theme. Just my opinion of course.
About 40 unfinished novels - cool - Hatchet Head sounds great. I hope he finishes it!
King talked about how he got some ideas and the premise was "what is the worse thing that could happen" - pretty good stuff. he mentioned walking over the foot bridge with boots clopping and thinking about the three billy goats gruff and the Troll and what came out of it was IT. I have heard that before.
King did make one political comment and I am not sure if I understand what he was saying or not, but what I thought I heard was his displeasure with the Obama presidency - He is a Democrat so not sure what I heard.
Someone asked (these were all presubmitted questions by the way) what he thoguht Dean Koontz felt about always being second to himself. The questions got a roar from the audience and King kind of laughed at it and said Koontz was a nice guy and he wasn't second.
Someone asked who King thought he was like and who so unalike. He pondered quite a bit. He siad he was most like Paul Sheldon of Misery - again to the satisfaction of the audience. He he was mostly unalike - he went through a few characters and ended up with Big Jim Remmie from Under The Dome, referring to him as thei dirty politician. A great choice in my view.
I will put up my pictures shortly.
DT Spoiler - Enter at your own risk!
Spoiler:
Jealous!
Obviously, there are more stories to come....but would he personalize the item if you wanted, or just sign it?
WOW! Congratulations, guys! Keep the stories coming!
Any chance someone recorded the excerpt reading?
Wanted list:
Ubris
UGH! SOOOO JEALOUS!!!
Promise me you'll always remember: You're braver than you believe, stronger than you seem and smarter than you think.
Really enjoyed reading those recaps. Thanks, guys!
A NEW GAME BEGINS
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
