News From The Dead Zone #95

Breaking News from the Dead Zone

The publication date for King’s upcoming short story collection Just Past Sunset (ISBN-10: 1-4165-8408-0) is November 11, 2008 in the US and UK. The book will have approximately 400 pages and has a cover price of $28.

Though the list hasn’t been finalized, here are the stories that are confirmed for the collection: The Gingerbread Girl, Harvey’s Dream, Rest Stop, Stationary Bike, The Things They Left Behind, Willa, Graduation Afternoon, N, The New York Times At Special Bargain Rates, Mute, Ayana, A Very Tight Place. One unnamed “bonus” story might be added to the list.  I’ve never heard of “N” before.

Look for a new three-part interview with King later this week at Lilja’s Library.

Bravo in Canada is airing the one-hour show An Evening With Stephen King on Thursday at 9 pm EST. “Recently honoured with the Canadian Booksellers Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award, King is the first non-Canadian to receive the honour. BookTelevision’s cameras were there to record the historic evening. Authors Margaret Atwood and Clive Barker toast this literary legend, and pop culture writer and essayist Chuck Klosterman interviews King one-on-one. In his heartfelt acceptance speech, King pays tribute to many Canadian writers who have made an impact on his life.” The show does not appear on the US Bravo schedule.

News From The Dead Zone #84

Breaking News from the Dead Zone

Paris Review is now accepting online orders for the Fall issue, which contains the new King story Ayana. Stay tuned, too, in the next few weeks for the December issue of Playboy containing “Mute.” F&SF magazine is tentatively scheduling the publication of a new 3100-word story for the October/November 2008 issue of their magazine. The title of this story is still under consideration.

Actors Judith Ivey and Kelli O’Hara will read short fiction from The Best American Short Stories 2007 on Tuesday, November 6 at 8PM at Westport Country Playhouse in Connecticut. For more information or reservations visit www.westportplayhouse.org. Here’s a Harvard Crimson article about King’s visit to Cambridge to promote the anthology. Also check out this NPR radio interview.

Eli Roth recently told the folks at MTV that he hasn’t yet finished the script for Cell. “I’ve realized that I can’t multitask in the writing department; I can only kind of do one thing at a time. So right now I’m working on [a guest-director episode of] Heroes, and then I’ll work on Trailer Trash, and then we’ll see about Cell after that.”

Here’s an article in The Scientist by the authors of The Science of Stephen King: How now, Stephen King.

Mick Garris said the he hopes to include an adaptation of “Home Delivery” in the new NBC anthology series Fear Itself that he will be producing. Garris originally prepared this story for the Nightmares and Dreamscapes series but Masters of Horror obligations pulled him away.

News From The Dead Zone #82

Breaking News from the Dead Zone

A second new King story will come out in November. In addition to “Mute” in the December issue of Playboy, “Ayana” will appear in the fall issue of The Paris Review. This is the story Susan Moldow mentioned that King gave her when he appeared in Toronto earlier this year. See the June 11 post below for more details.

In a brief interview at USA Today, King talks about what he’s working on: “It’s called A Very Tight Place. Not a novel but a long story. I’ve been writing lots of stories lately.” The paper also reviews The Best American Short Stories 2007: At a story a night, there’s enough variety and talent in the 20 selections here to keep readers entertained for nearly three weeks. Guest editor Stephen King’s lineup includes literary all-stars: Alice Munro’s “Dimension” is a chilling look at criminal insanity; Richard Russo’s “Horseman” explores how a professor’s encounter with student plagiarism triggers questions about her authenticity. But the real finds are the lesser-known writers. Beverly Jensen’s haunting “Wake,” about a rousing funeral in the midst of a nor’easter, is made even more poignant by the note that Jensen died at age 49.

In an interview posted at The Overlook Connection’s web site, Peter Straub says: “The Talisman has just been shelved for the hundredth time, now because of the budget. Steve and I have agreed to do the last book in the series, but it will have to wait until our desks are clear.”

Director Tobe Hooper says that From a Buick 8 will not be “your stock horror film by any means. There’s a really cool, layered quality to the story. The producers, writers and I shared the same sensibility about the project and responded to it in a similar way.”

Note: Links to two web sites that posted clips from The Mist were removed from this page because the producers advised me the clips were unauthorized.

News From The Dead Zone #81

Breaking News from the Dead Zone

According to an announcement at the back of the current issue (November), there will be a new King short story called “Mute” in the December 2007 Playboy. The story is described this way: “In a confession to a priest, a traveling salesman tells of his encounter on the Maine turnpike with a deaf-mute hitchhiker to whom he rants about his adulterous wife.” The street date for this issue should be early November.

The Best American Short Stories 2007 entered the NY Times paperback list at #14.

Because 4 isn’t enough: MovieWeb has 8 clips from The Mist.

With the hunt for the World Series under way, King’s appearances at Red Sox games have been announced in numerous sports articles, including this one: King shows why he’s Faithful to the Sox.

King discusses movie violence in his new EW essay: A History of Violence.