{"id":16675,"date":"2022-01-31T07:00:32","date_gmt":"2022-01-31T12:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/?p=16675"},"modified":"2022-02-12T08:24:38","modified_gmt":"2022-02-12T13:24:38","slug":"stephen-king-news-from-dead-zone-227","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/stephen-king-news-from-dead-zone-227\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen King: News from the Dead Zone #227"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Stephen<\/p>\n

Happy New Year to all my readers. It’s been a while since my last news update, primarily because there hasn’t been a lot going on in the Stephen King Universe. However, I now have some cool things to talk about, so pull up a chair.
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\"\"<\/a>The next book to be published with Stephen King’s name on the cover will also feature the name of Cemetery Dance’s own Richard Chizmar. Gwendy’s Final Task<\/em><\/a> comes out on February 15, capping off the trilogy that began with Gwendy’s Button Box<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The Button Box has been in and out of Gwendy’s life over the years, but now it’s up to her to do something with what is possibly the most dangerous object in existence. The novel takes readers “on a journey from Castle Rock to another famous cursed Maine city to the MF-1 space station, where Gwendy must execute a secret mission to save the world. And, maybe, all worlds.” And if you’ve spotted a certain something familiar in Ben Baldwin’s awesome cover art, you may be thinking about a field of roses and what lies at the center of it. I’ll have more to say about this novel as we get closer to publication day.<\/p>\n

The big surprise news this week, though, is the announcement of Fairy Tale<\/em>, which will be published on September 6, 2022. Many of us had been thinking the next book we’d see would be the Holly Gibney novel King mentioned in an interview with Linwood Barclay at Bloody Scotland last September. Based on the promotional copy from Scribner, it looks like that isn’t the case. The book is a “spellbinding novel about a seventeen-year-old boy who inherits the keys to a parallel world where good and evil are at war, and the stakes could not be higher\u2014for their world or ours.” Read an excerpt from the novel here<\/a>, and check out the full description below.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Charlie Reade looks like a regular high school kid, great at baseball and football, a decent student. But he carries a heavy load. His mom was killed in a hit-and-run accident when he was ten, and grief drove his dad to drink. Charlie learned how to take care of himself\u2014and his dad. Then, when Charlie is seventeen, he meets Howard Bowditch, a recluse with a big dog in a big house at the top of a big hill. In the backyard is a locked shed from which strange sounds emerge, as if some creature is trying to escape. When Mr. Bowditch dies, he leaves Charlie the house, a massive amount of gold, a cassette tape telling a story that is impossible to believe, and a responsibility far too massive for a boy to shoulder.<\/p>\n

Because within the shed is a portal to another world\u2014one whose denizens are in peril and whose monstrous leaders may destroy their own world, and ours. In this parallel universe, where two moons race across the sky, and the grand towers of a sprawling palace pierce the clouds, there are exiled princesses and princes who suffer horrific punishments; there are dungeons; there are games in which men and women must fight each other to the death for the amusement of the \u201cFair One.\u201d And there is a magic sundial that can turn back time.<\/p>\n

A story as old as myth, and as startling and iconic as the rest of King\u2019s work, Fairy Tale<\/em> is about an ordinary guy forced into the hero\u2019s role by circumstance, and it is both spectacularly suspenseful and satisfying.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Philippa Pride, King\u2019s UK editor at Hodder, said: \u201cFollowing the number one bestselling thriller Billy Summers<\/em>, master storyteller Stephen King now turns his amazing imagination to the world of the fairytale. If you grew up reading the Brothers Grimm and came of age watching Stranger Things<\/em>, you will relish this fabulous new novel which reminds us of both the richness of fairytales and the darker side of the \u2018happily ever after\u2019. Charlie\u2019s quest to save his dog by entering a magical yet decaying land will certainly pull at your heartstrings, and we can\u2019t wait to share this very special book with King\u2019s legions of fans this summer.\u201d<\/p>\n

There’s been no definite publication date yet for McSweeney’s<\/em> Issue 66, which contains King’s new story “Willie the Weirdo.” Amazon lists it as May 31, but the release date has been floating freely for a while.\u00a0 I brushed up on my high school French to read the translated version (“Willie le Zinzin”) in Bifrost n\u00b0 104.<\/a> The story reminds me a little of “Gramma” crossed with “Apt Pupil.”<\/p>\n

“Red Screen” was an interesting publishing experience. The story was only available for a little while as a “Humble Bundle” fundraiser for the ACLU. Hopefully you took the chance to get a copy. “A\u00a0city detective interrogates a deranged plumber who just murdered his wife, only to discover something far more insidious.”<\/p>\n

“A Face in the Crowd,” which King co-wrote with Stewart O’Nan, based on an idea he came up with while they were working on Faithful<\/em>, will make its first-ever hardcover appearance (and, indeed, a rare print appearance of any type) in a unique “double” book from Cemetery Dance<\/a>, pairing the story with an expanded version of Richard Chizmar’s “The Longest December.”<\/p>\n

King contributed “Summer Thunder” to the charity anthology Revelations : Horror Writers for Climate Action<\/em><\/a> edited by Sean O’Connor and published by Stygian Sky Media.<\/p>\n

King isn’t particularly known for his culinary expertise (previously published recipes have included “Lunchtime Gloop,” which consists of a couple of\u00a0 cans of Franco American spaghetti with hamburger served on Wonder Bread), but that didn’t stop Theresa Carle-Sanders from writing Castle Rock Kitchen: Wicked Good Recipes from the World of Stephen King<\/em>, which collects 80 classic and modern recipes inspired by Stephen King’s Maine, featuring dishes from the books set in Castle Rock, Derry, and other fictional towns, with a foreword from King. Recipes in the book include:<\/p>\n