What People are Writing about Stephen King

[sarah]

This is from Entertainment Weekly's Popwatch Blog:


Authors are dying for a shout-out in this novel
May 18, 2007, 06:00 PM | by Ken Tucker

Categories: Books, Celebrity Feuds, Who Else Remembers This?

So there’s this new novel being published June 1st called Who's Killing the Great Writers of America?, by Robert Kaplow, see? And in it, famous scribes, including EW columnist Stephen King (pictured) — as well as Tom Clancy, Danielle Steel, and Sue Grafton, among others — are offed violently. In the novel, the murderer turns out to be... comedian-writer Steve Martin. Cindy Adams is reporting in The New York Post that Martin is annoyed about being portrayed in this way.

Well, as EW’s unofficial Ancient Pop-Culture Guy on the staff, I can pull a tattered paperback off of my dusty shelves and remind you whippersnappers that way back in 1973, there was a novel called American Mischief, by one Alan Lelchuck. In it, the lead character shoots Norman Mailer at point-blank range and kills the famed author of The Naked and The Dead dead. And — well, whaddaya know? — at the time, Mailer, like Martin, was peeved at being portrayed fictionally.


But while Cindy Adams asserts that Steve Martin’s agent has tried unsuccessfully to prevent publication of Kaplow’s book, back in 1973, Mailer took matters into his own rough-knuckled hands. As Time magazine’s R.Z. Sheppard reported at the time, Mailer threatened to reduce Alan Lelchuck to "a hank of hair and some fillings." (Ancient Pop-Culture Guy is moved to remark with admiration: They don’t make threats like they used to, do they?) While Alan Lelchuk has published numerous books since American Mischief, none of them has brought him anywhere near the coverage and notoriety that Mischief did. And if I was Robert Kaplow, I wouldn’t have picked Stephen King as a victim no matter how much ink it got me. Gosh, I’d hate to see Kaplow reduced to a hank of hair and some fillings in a future King thriller...

So, given the fact that, despite having published a number of other novels, Robert Kaplow isn’t exactly a household name, do you think killing off "great writers" is: a publicity stunt? A rip-off of Alan Lelchuk’s idea? A chance for readers to discover a bold talent who hasn’t yet received the acclaim he deserves? Or some combination of all of these?

[sarah]

The best rock songs ever, according to Stephen King
May 17, 2007, 06:00 AM | by Dawnie Walton

Categories: Music

Lists are fun, people! A couple weeks ago we incurred your wrath with our Top 25 sci-fi list; now, in his Pop of King column in the new issue of Entertainment Weekly, Stephen King wants to be starting somethin' with his list of the 24 greatest rock songs ever made.

Clearly, your Uncle Stevie likes the boogie — just not the disco kind (he eliminated that genre entirely, along with ballads, soul, and overplayed tunes like "Stairway to Heaven," from consideration). Instead, you'll find tunes by Chuck Berry, the Dominoes, and Little Richard. Also making the cut: Elvis (Presley gets three mentions; Costello, one), Bruuuuuuce, the Stones and the Beatles, and two rocking ladies (Connie Francis and Wanda Jackson).

So... have at it. What's missing? The most recent song in King's countdown is from 1983 (that would be the Lyres' "I Want to Help You Ann")... is that an appropriate commentary on the state of modern rock, or are there glaring omissions? Discuss!

[ZoNeSeeK]

An excerpt from an interview with King by Ben Rawortit, regarding inspiration for Secret Window, Secret Garden:



BR:: And have you had any bad experiences with a "Number One Fan" yourself?

SK:: I haven't directly, but my wife has. There was a guy who broke into our house when she was home alone. It was about six o'clock in the morning, and she had just got up when she heard glass breaking downstairs.

BR: And she went down to investigate?

SK: Yes.

BR: What did he look like?

SK: He looked like Charles Manson with long hair, and he had a rucksack in his hands. He said that he was my biggest fan. Then he stopped suddenly and said he actualiy hated me because I'd stolen the novel Misery from his aunt. Then he held up the rucksack and said that he had a bomb and was going to blow her up.

BR: Jesus! What did your wife do?

SK: She ran out in her bare feet and nightgown, man! The police came round and he was still there. It turned out that all he had in the bag was a load of pencils and paperclips in a box.

BR: What was up with him, then?

SK: It turned out he was from Texas. His aunt was a nurse who'd been fired from some hospital, and he made a connection with the nurse in Misery.


Tell ya what, those texans are craaayyzeee :) *ruki*

[ZoNeSeeK]

Here's another interview, but from 1988, which is very candid, in depth, and focuses on Roland and the Dark Tower - I've never seen it before and was surprised by its focus! Its too long to quote so I'll just post the link:

Please watch for Gunslinger spoilers.

Janet C Beauliu with Stephen King (http://carolinanavy.com/navy/creativewriting/sking/view.html)

[sarah]

This is from usatoday.com

http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/reviews/2007-06-11-blaze_N.htm





By Carol Memmott, USA TODAY
There's a reason Stephen King's name — he wrote the foreword to Blaze— is bigger on the book jacket than that of author Richard Bachman: King is, or was, Bachman.
Rabid King fans already know this. Between 1966 and 1973, King, writing as Bachman, produced four novels: Rage, The Long Walk, Roadwork and The Running Man. Blaze, written toward the end of that period, was relegated to the castoff pile — until now. King has snatched it from obscurity, revised it and polished it. The result is an exquisitely written tale of suspense laced with one man's yearning for acceptance and love.


EXCERPT: Get a sneak peek at 'Blaze'

Clayton "Blaze" Blaisdell Jr. is a guy who never got a break. His mother was struck and killed by a truck when he was 3. Several years later, his drunken father threw him down a flight of stairs, dragged him back up, threw him down again, then repeated the process.

Blaisdell, forever more, would be categorized as "a big dummy" — and at his full adult height of 6 feet, 7 inches, he's a very big dummy indeed. The stairs incident left him with a huge dent in his forehead, "deep enough for a frog pond." It's a symbol of the pain and loneliness that will haunt his entire life.

FIND MORE STORIES IN: King | Stephen King | Blaze | Long walk | Roadwork | Running Man
As a young man, he turns to the art of the con. George Rackley, his partner in crime, wants to pull a crime of the century: kidnap a baby, the heir to an enormous fortune. Rackley dies before they can pull it off, but Blaze, hearing Rackley's voice in his head, kidnaps the baby on his own.

And that's when it happens: Blaze, who has lived with a perpetually bruised heart, falls head over heels in love with baby Joe. He feeds him, he changes him, he soothes him when he cries. "You're all right. You're okay. You're rockin'. Go to sleep. Hushabye-hushaboo, zippity-doo."

Here is the unconditional love to heal Blaze's malnourished heart. He imagines Joe growing up under his care. Blaze would "have somebody." But should Blaze keep Joe or should he give him back to his parents? Or should he do what the voice in his head is telling him — "kill that kid!"?

Blaze, you might think, is a very bad man, but readers will root for him from the moment he goes flying down those stairs and lands on his head. King builds on that empathy by threading flashbacks to Blaze's life of missed opportunities and blown chances throughout the dead-of-winter, dogged manhunt for man and baby.

In this unexpectedly heartfelt novel, the words swirl up off the pages, forming cinematic images that engage the mind and tug at the heart. It's classic American noir. Here's hoping there's another Bachman novel moldering in a trunk somewhere.

[Erin]

Thanks for posting that Maerlyn! I think lately I've been getting all my Stephen King articles and info from you. :D

[kithereal]

I read the following in Wikipedia....It would be awesome.
I know that the Lost folks a have an enormous respect for SK


KIT



IGN Movies has reported that a film adaptation is in the works; whether it is for a movie or a television series is unknown. J. J. Abrams, who has been behind shows such as Lost and Alias, is supposedly attached to produce and direct.[1] Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof, also affiliated with Lost and JJ Abrams, have optioned the Dark Tower series from King for a reported nineteen dollars, which of course, is the infamous number from the Dark Tower series of novels.[2] According to issue #923 of Entertainment Weekly, King "is an ardent supporter of the desert-island show and trusts Abrams to translate his vision" into a film franchise with Lindelof being "the leading candidate to write the screenplay for the first installment."[3]

[ZoNeSeeK]

I know, its exciting, but these things always take a few years to get going depending on what other projects are on the boil i guess.

[Adumbros]

I know, its exciting, but these things always take a few years to get going depending on what other projects are on the boil i guess.

no shit. look no further than Clive Barker for proof of this (anyone ready for the Third Book of the Art, yet?)

[chemical0815]

:-$