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Interview: Christian Haywood on Adapting Stephen King’s “L.T.’s Theory of Pets”

Cemetery Dance OnlineFebruary 18, 2019February 17, 2019InterviewsBlu Gilliand, Christian Haywood, Interviews, Kickstarter, L.T.'s Theory of Pets, Stephen KingLeave a comment

By now you’ve likely heard of Stephen King’s “Dollar Baby” program, in which he grants the rights to adapt one of his short stories to fledgling filmmakers for a buck. Frank Darabont is perhaps the best-known graduate of the “Dollar Baby” program, having adapted King’s short story “The Woman in the Room” before going on to helm one of the most acclaimed King adaptations of all time, The Shawshank Redemption (not to mention the undervalued, in my eyes, adaptation of King’s The Green Mile).

Writer/director Christian Haywood is among the latest “Dollar Baby” filmmakers. He and his crew have launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the filming of their version of King’s story “L.T.’s Theory of Pets.” Recently, he answered a few questions for us about the project.Continue Reading

Bev Vincent Reviews Elevation by Stephen King

Bev VincentOctober 23, 2018October 23, 2018Reviews, Stephen King News from the Dead Zone19, castle rock, Christine, Elevation, Flight or Fright, Gwendy's Button Box, Hulu, Joe Hill, Needful Things, News from the Dead Zone, Pennywise, Richard Bachman, Richard Matheson, Sheriff Alan Pangborn, Sheriff George Bannerman, Stephen King, The Shrinking Man, The Turbulence Expert, Thinner2 Comments

“The Incredible Lightness of Being”

Stephen King’s most recent published work, “The Turbulence Expert” in the anthology Flight or Fright (which he co-edited with yours truly), suggests the existence of people who prevent airplanes from crashing. It’s an uncharacteristically encouraging notion.

His new novella, Elevation, has an even more positive outlook, despite its setting: Castle Rock, a small town in Maine where terrible things have been happening for decades.

That’s not to say bad things aren’t happening to protagonist Scott Carey, forty-two, recently divorced and dealing with the repercussions of that life change. He’s living alone (with a cat) in a too-large house on Castle View, and he’s having problems with his new neighbors.Continue Reading

Exclusive Audio Excerpt of Bev Vincent’s “Zombies on a Plane” from FLIGHT OR FRIGHT!

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 5, 2018September 4, 2018Book Excerpts, Stephen King News from the Dead Zoneaudiobook, Bev Vincent, Corey Stroll, Fright or Flight, Stephen King, Zombies on a PlaneLeave a comment

Get a sneak-listen of the Flight or Fright audiobook below! Read by an all-star cast featuring David Morse, Norbert Leo Butz, Christian Coulson, Graeme Malcolm, Elizabeth Marvel, Santino Fontana and Simon Jones, the audiobook also features a brand-new story and tailored introductions written and read by Stephen King himself.Continue Reading

Bev Vincent reviews Mr. Mercedes Season 2

Bev VincentAugust 21, 2018August 18, 2018Stephen King News from the Dead Zonebill hodges, brady hartsfield, end of watch, Finders Keepers, Mr. Mercedes, News from the Dead Zone, Stephen King1 Comment

“I Feel Like He’s Still Among Us”

The creators of the Mr. Mercedes, the TV adaptation of Stephen King’s crime novels, were faced with a dilemma when the series was renewed for a second season. Protagonist Bill Hodges (Brendan Gleeson) doesn’t appear until 150 pages into the second novel, Finders Keepers, and his nemesis, Brady Hartsfield (Harry Treadaway) is effectively not in the book at all.

That’s easier to manage in a book than in a movie or TV series, where you can’t keep the talent in reserve. Viewers expect them to show up in the opening scenes and appear regularly throughout the season. Imagine The Empire Strikes Back, but with Han Solo in a coma for the entire film and Luke Skywalker not showing up until an hour in.
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Everyone Has An Annie Wilkes

Cemetery Dance OnlineJuly 20, 2018July 15, 2018What I Learned from Stephen KingColumns, Jason Sechrest, Misery, Stephen King, What I Learned from Stephen King3 Comments

In 1987, the gods of creativity were looking favorably upon Stephen King, who blessed Constant Readers with three books in a ten-month period — a new record for the already highly prolific author. Among the three novels published that year was Misery, an instant bestseller that would become hailed as one of King’s classics. At the time of its release, however, it might not have seemed very King-like at all. Continue Reading

Bev Vincent reviews Castle Rock on Hulu

Bev VincentJuly 11, 2018July 11, 2018Stephen King News from the Dead Zone"The Body", Alan Panborn, Bag of Bones, Bev Vincent, castle rock, Columns, Cujo, Dolores Claiborne, Hulu, It, Needful Things, News from the Dead Zone, Norris Ridgewick, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, Shawshank Prison, Stephen King, The Dead Zone, The Green Mile, The Shining1 Comment

“I fear this place. I fear what’s to come.”

In 2018, Castle Rock, the town Stephen King introduced in The Dead Zone and returned to numerous times in subsequent works, isn’t on the map any more. A few years ago, the town voted to disincorporate itself. The historic downtown is mostly home to boarded-up businesses. Nan’s Luncheonette burned under mysterious circumstances a while back. The nearest Wal-Mart is some sixty miles distant[1]. The town’s main employer is Shawshank Prison, twenty miles away. A considerable percentage of the people behind bars in that establishment are from Castle Rock.Continue Reading

Bev Vincent Reviews The Outsider by Stephen King

Bev VincentMay 21, 2018May 21, 2018Reviews, Stephen King News from the Dead ZoneBev Vincent, Columns, It, Mike Hanlon, Mr. Mercedes, News from the Dead Zone, Reviews, Stephen King, The Outsider2 Comments

Reality is Thin Ice
The Outsider by Stephen King

Reviewed by Bev Vincent

One of the themes of Stephen King’s 1986 novel It was the notion that adults lose the ability to believe in the kinds of things they embraced as children. Mike Hanlon contemplates this issue when he’s planning to summon his childhood friends back to Derry to confront the monster they defeated but did not destroy nearly three decades earlier. He wonders if they’re up to the task because their former ability to believe in the power of certain talismans gave them the strength to hurt Pennywise.

The inability to believe plays a major part in The Outsider. Continue Reading

Stephen King: News from the Dead Zone #204

Bev VincentJanuary 5, 2018January 5, 2018Stephen King News from the Dead Zone1922, Bev Vincent, castle rock, Columns, Finders Keepers, Gerald's Game, Hulu, It, Mr. Mercedes, netflix, News from the Dead Zone, Owen King, Reading Stephen King, Sleeping Beauties, Stephen King, The Dark Tower, The Outsider1 Comment

The Year in Review and a 2018 Preview

Last year was been a banner year in the Stephen King Universe, particularly with respect to the diverse cinematic adaptations of his novels. Let’s take a look back at the various treats we received during 2017, and a peek ahead to what we can look forward to in 2018.
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Review: ‘Stephen King and Philosophy’ edited by Jacob Held

Cemetery Dance OnlineNovember 24, 2017November 22, 2017ReviewsJacob Held, Kevin Lucia, Reviews, Stephen King, Stephen King and PhilosophyLeave a comment

Stephen King and Philosophy edited by Jacob Held
Rowman & Littlefield (August 2016)
328 pages; $13.56 paperback; $9.99 e-book
Reviewed by Kevin Lucia

In a documentary filmed many years ago, bestselling author Peter Straub lamented the fact that, ever tongue-in-cheek and self-deprecating, Stephen King once referred to his own work as the equivalent of a “Big Mac and fries.” Straub considered it an unfortunate comparison which didn’t do King justice, that his work was far more substantial than mere intellectual junk food. Continue Reading

Why did it have to be rats? Bev Vincent reviews ‘1922’

Bev VincentOctober 24, 2017October 23, 2017Reviews, Stephen King News from the Dead Zone1922, Bev Vincent, Gerald's Game, Hemingford Home, Molly Parker, netflix, rats, Stephen King, Thomas Jane1 Comment

Why Did it Have To Be Rats?

Rats have featured prominently in many Stephen King novels and stories. After the prom, Carrie White imagined rats crawling all over Chris Hargensen’s face. There were rats in the basement of the boarding house in ‘Salem’s Lot and in the walls of Chapelwaite in “Jerusalem’s Lot.” Rats in the sub-basement of the mill in “Graveyard Shift” and in the basement of the castle in Delain. Rats in Desperation, Nevada, in the ventilation system of Shawshank Prison and in the walls of Dooling Correctional Facility for Women. Drowned rats in the toilet bowls at Derry High School. Nigel the robot was programmed to get rid of the vermin in the Fedic Dogan, although he actually fed them to Mordred Deschain.Continue Reading

My First Fright featuring Michael Wehunt

Cemetery Dance OnlineOctober 13, 2017October 9, 2017My First Fright'Salem's Lot, Columns, John Brhel, Michael Wehunt, My First Fright, Stephen KingLeave a comment

Usually, I avoid stuff that gives me nightmares; I’m funny like that. I don’t get much sleep as it is (father of two little ones) and when I do, I prefer to sleep soundly, my dreams free of terrifying imagery.

Michael Wehunt apparently doesn’t value his sleep. He watches movies that give him nightmares and keeps going back for more! But perhaps that unbridled enthusiasm for the macabre helped lead to his success as a writer?

Wehunt is an Atlanta-based author. His debut collection, Greener Pastures, was shortlisted for the Crawford Award and a Shirley Jackson Award finalist. His short fiction has appeared in publications like Shock Totem, Innsmouth Magazine and, yes, Cemetery Dance.Continue Reading

Bev Vincent reviews Gerald’s Game

Bev VincentOctober 3, 2017October 2, 2017Reviews, Stephen King News from the Dead ZoneBev Vincent, Cujo, Dolores Claiborne, gerald burlingame, Gerald's Game, jessie burlingame, mike flanagan, netflix, Reviews, Stephen King, Stephen King News, The Dark Tower2 Comments

The Moonlight Man

There’s a lot to like in Mike Flanagan’s adaptation of Gerald’s Game, a book long thought to be unfilmable since so much of it consists of internal dialog, with the main character handcuffed to a bed for much of it.Continue Reading

Bev Vincent reviews ‘Sleeping Beauties’ by Stephen King and Owen King

Bev VincentSeptember 25, 2017September 24, 2017Stephen King News from the Dead ZoneBev Vincent, Owen King, Reviews, Sleeping Beauties, Stephen King, Stephen King News, The Stand2 Comments

Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King and Owen King
Scribner (September 26, 2017)
720 pages
Reviewed by Bev Vincent

The world has ended in many ways in post-apocalyptic fiction, but Owen and Stephen King have created a scenario unlike any other. It happens all at once, around the globe. Women who go to sleep (or are already asleep when the epidemic begins) won’t wake up. They form cocoons and go into a kind of hibernation. Disturbing sleeping women is a bad, bad idea: they attack anyone who breaks through the gauzy material.

Apparently pitching story ideas is a thing in the King family. Sleeping Beauties came about because Owen King suggested this idea to his father; it sounded like a Stephen King kind of story. The elder King immediately thought of all the possible ramifications of this concept, but told Owen he should write it. Eventually they agreed to work on it together.Continue Reading

The Letter I Wrote to Stephen King, and the Response that Changed My Life

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 8, 2017September 8, 2017What I Learned from Stephen KingColumns, It, Jason Sechrest, Stephen King, What I Learned from Stephen King17 Comments

When I was 10 years old, I sent Stephen King the first thing I had ever written.

It was a short story called “Murder on Washington St.”

The reply I received changed the course of my life forever. Continue Reading

Bev Vincent explores It (2017) – Chapter 1

Bev VincentSeptember 7, 2017September 7, 2017Reviews, Stephen King News from the Dead ZoneAndy Muschietti, Bev Vincent, Carrie, derry, It, Losers Club, Pennywise, Reviews, Stephen King, stranger thingsLeave a comment

Welcome to the Losers’ Club by Bev Vincent

There are a lot of monsters in Derry, Maine during the summer of 1989. These are in addition to the lurching leper, the toothy creature from the painting, a boy who lost his head during the Easter Explosion of 1908 and, of course, Pennywise the Dancing Clown.

The monsters to which I refer are the citizens of this long-troubled, perhaps cursed town. They include people who drive past without offering to help a boy being savagely beaten by bullies, the mother who lies to her son about his health to control and manipulate him, and the sexually abusive father. To the extent that there are adults in Derry (and in some ways, this reality resembles the world of Charlie Brown where grown-ups are seldom seen and hardly ever heard), they are abusive, neglectful or emotionally absent.
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Reality is Thin Ice The Outsider by Stephen King

The Year in Review and a 2018 Preview

Welcome to the Losers’ Club by Bev Vincent

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Reality is Thin Ice
The Outsider by Stephen King