A new book! A NY Times bestselling anthology inspired by The Stand! Two feature films coming before the end of the year, along with a streaming series! A new Talisman novel! Another collaboration forthcoming! A miniseries renewed for a second season! New interviews, including a Reddit AMA! Buckle up!
A couple of weeks ago, I took part in a unique event: a simultaneous signing that took place in eleven cities in the US, as well as in Canada and the UK. I was paired up with Joe R. Lansdale at Murder by the Book in Houston as we discussed The End of the World As We Know It: New Tales of Stephen King’s The Stand. Has there ever been such a coordinated marketing effort before in the history of publishing? I wonder. Anyhow, a great time was had by all, and the turnout at the various venues was terrific. The Stand is a much-loved book, and people wanted to hear all about how we came to contribute to the anthology. King attended the Bangor event and talked a little about how the book came to be.
Then we were delighted by the news that the book debuted at #3 on the NY Times hardcover bestseller list. An amazing result, especially considering the conventional wisdom that anthologies don’t sell as well as novels. Everyone involved is over the moon by the book’s reception, and our ringleaders, Christopher Golden and Brian Keene, deserve tons of accolades for making the project happen.
One of the things I did while preparing to write my story “Lockdown” for the anthology was reread The Stand and create a day-by-day timeline of events so I could be sure I didn’t contradict the book’s continuity. I was pleased to discover that King did a fantastic job of accounting for every day. There were no wibbledy-wobbeldy sections. I sent a copy of the document to the editors so they could refer to it as they reviewed the submitted stories.
Then, out of the blue, Brian Freeman asked me if I knew if anyone had ever created a timeline of the novel. Well, as a matter of fact…I responded. And that turned into the third chapbook I created for his Lividian Press patreon, a booklet called How the World Ended, Day by Day: A Timeline of The Stand, illustrated by François Vaillancourt. I also contributed an introduction about creating this timeline and others, such as the ones found in The Road to the Dark Tower.
The Stand has the apocalypse on people’s minds again! King is contributing to a project called The End Times from Bad Hands Books, issued in the form of a post-apocalyptic newspaper, appearing in monthly installments starting in November and continuing for a year. A physical edition will be mailed to subscribers, and there’s also a digital edition, to be followed by a book collecting the twelve issues.
The editor-in-chief of The End Times is a woman who stumbles across a printing press a decade after a virus killed most of humanity and decides that survivors still need the news. The paper catches on and begins to include other voices, one of which is written by King. Creator Benjamin Percy says, “I’m not going to give too much away, but let’s just say some of what I already have in my inbox involves scarecrows with large button eyes and dead rats and bodies dangling from the rafters of barns. You know, the Stephen King special.” Percy hints that we might see the Bachman pen name in some form.
Did you realize King’s latest book came out on September 2? And that he collaborated with a long-dead artist to create this fascinating re-imagining of a classic fairy tale? The story in question is the Brothers Grimm’s Hansel and Gretel. Maurice Sendak, best known, perhaps, for Where the Wild Things Are, was asked to create sets and costumes for a Hansel and Gretel opera. King was presented with those images and given a chance to use them as the basis for his version of the story. King provides an introduction in which he discusses his process and inspiration, and he also narrates the audio version.
The vivid illustrations range from individual studies meant to show how to costume the characters for the opera to full-page color or black-and-white spreads depicting scenes from the story.
The pre-existing images provide the book’s framework, which is the opposite to how picture books are usually created. King’s job, then, was to tell — or re-tell — a familiar tale that illuminates the images instead of having his words be illuminated by an illustrator. He was at liberty to jettison a section of the original story he found problematic, primarily because Sendak had not created an image of that scene.
King has a past with Sendak’s work: he quoted from Really Rosie in Rose Madder and recalls reading Sendak to his children. Readers of this new picture book may be surprised to discover the name King has assigned to the wicked witch: Rhea!
The third Talisman novel hasn’t yet been announced, nor has it a title beyond T3 (Black House was known as T2 for much of its writing), but it’s likely to come out some time in 2026.
King took part in a Reddit AMA (ask me anything) recently. You can find his answers to some of the questions here. He also answered reader questions for the Guardian and was interviewed by the Sunday Times, in which he mentions his desire to write at least one more novel. You can read the whole interview here. And here’s a somewhat recent interview in AP.
He will also contribute to the documentary Chain Reactions about the enduring influence and impact of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. It will be given a limited theatrical release on September 19, followed by an expansion on September 26. You can see the trailer here.
The Institute has completed its eight-episode run on MGM+. But wait…there’s more! The series has been renewed for a second eight-episode season, allowing the writers to take the story in new directions.
Up next is the theatrical release of The Long Walk on September 12. The early reports on this one have been stellar. One theater in L.A. had the clever idea of replacing the theater seats with treadmills. Any viewer whose pace fell below 3 miles per hour would be eliminated — -err…removed from the theater. In the novel, King used 4 mph as the cut-off, but he asked producers to reduce it to a more realistic 3 mph for the film. “There’s no way that you could walk 4 miles an hour for that long,” King told them.
Then we have Welcome to Derry, premiering in October, followed by The Running Man, which will now appear in theaters on November 14, a week later than originally announced.
I don’t think we’ll see Mike Flanagan’s miniseries adaptation of Carrie this year, but it’s in production, so that’s encouraging.
Lionsgate optioned the rights to The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, setting JT Mollner, to write and direct the adaptation. Mollner also scripted The Long Walk.
There are plans afoot to make a feature film version of The Stand, adapted by Doug Liman. I wish him well in his attempt to squeeze that story into two or three hours.
Three of the stars of Stand By Me, Corey Feldman, Jerry O’Connell and Wil Wheaton will be getting together in New Hampshire in December for a screening of the film, followed by a conversation with the actors. Learn more at the event website.
Caroline Bicks, the University of Maine’s inaugural Stephen E. King Chair in Literature, became the first scholar to be granted extended access by King to his private archives. She spent a year exploring early drafts and hand-written revisions of The Shining, Carrie, Pet Sematary, ‘Salem’s Lot, and Night Shift. Her forthcoming book, Monsters in the Archives, explores how he crafted his language, storylines, and characters. The book includes scenes and alternative endings that never made it to print, but that King is allowing her to publish, along with interviews Bicks had with King along the way that reveal new insights into his writing process and personal history. Sounds like my kind of book!
I think that about covers it!
Signed copies of Stephen King: A Complete Exploration of His Work, Life, and Influences are available from Village Books in The Woodlands. Be sure to specify if you’d like a dedication and/or inscription on the order form. A new edition, Stephen King: His Life, Work, and Influences (Young Readers’ Edition), came out last September, which you can also order from Village Books, along with any of my other books.
