It’s been over a month since my last post. Sorry about that. Too many things going on and too much drama to hash out here. I can’t promise I will be back regularly, at least for a few months. I’m in the last lap of grad school, and you know what this means; finishing up a master thesis and profile while taking those last two classes.
But, as today is Stephen King’s birthday, I thought I’d offer a bit of King trivia. Those who have followed me for a while know he’s one of my favorite authors. To you, my fine and patient friends,
I give you 6 things you may not know about Stephen King’s work.
Kings first professional work was a short story titled The Glass Floor. He sold to “Startling Mystery Stories” in 1967.
King’s first novel, Carrie, was almost lost to history. King’s wife, Tabatha, fished the rough draft out of the garbage and had to convince her husband to finish and submit it to publishers. 33 turned it down. Double Day bought it. The Hardback only sold 13,000 but the paperback sold over a million.
The Stand was originally published in 1978. It was 823 pages long. The original manuscript contained 1152 pages, but the Double Day (his then publisher) was reluctant to release such a large book for fear that the cost of such a large book would result in poor sales. The first printing sold 70,000 copies.
King’s popularity was so great, that in 1990, Double Day consented to have The Stand re-released in the original uncut version. The first printing sold 4000,000 copies. (I have first editions of both)
It has been long rumored that Stephen King used the pseudonym Richard Bachman to prove to his critics that fans weren’t just buying his name, but his writing. In truth, as King explains on his website, StephenKing.com “I did that because back in the early days of my career there was a feeling in the publishing business that one book a year was all the public would accept”. http://stephenking.com/faq.html – 1.6
To date, there have been 72 film adaptations (including sequels to sequels) of King’s books. Stanly Kubrick’s The Shining is the most well known and is the one King really, really, doesn’t like.
The other day the website litreactor.com published an article that tried to explain the plot of King’s books in 140 characters or less. It would have been worth noting here but A: It wasn’t all that clever and B: The author, who obviously never read a King story in his life, included some Dean Koontz novels. Goes to show even a “literary” site can fail. Oh and how epic that fail was! The comment section screamed for the author’s head. Word to the wise, never confuse King with Koontz. King’s rabid fans makes Cujo seem like a lovely puppy by comparison.
To finish this post off, I thought we’d try something fun. Let’s do a mash up of #explainaSthephenKingbook and #explainabookplotbadly. Because King was an English teacher, let’s call it #ExplainaStephenKingbookpoorly.
The Stand; If reading this book while suffering from a cold you will compelled to make out your will. #ExplainaStephenKingbookpoorly.
It; Proves two points. Clowns are evil and you really shouldn’t go home again.
Cujo; Visiting a mechanic who works from home, and looks like he stepped out of Deliverance isn’t a very good idea. #ExplainaStephenKingbookpoorly.
Carrie; High School really is a bloodbath sport. #ExplainaStephenKingbookpoorly.
Christine; A morality tale on why guys should stop giving their cars female names. #ExplainaStephenKingbookpoorly.
Your turn!
The View From Sari's World 
Ah, grad school; glad I’m finished. There’s another blogger I follow who’s just started grad school, and her posts have suddenly decreased in frequency.
Anyhow, to the point: “Salem’s Lot’: People who live in small backwoods towns in Maine are really desperate for entertainment.
“The Shining”: Dyslexic child fails to warn family of impending danger.
Moral of both the above stories: writers cause trouble. Stay away from them.
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As Chris Hardwick would say, “Points”. Love The Shining plot.
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Hi! The Koontz inclusions were intentional and were really funny. I think the lack of cleverness falls clearly on your side of the fence.
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As any good comedian would say, “when a joke falls flat, it’s not funny”. I’d add that any attempt at humor that needs explaining can’t be very funny.
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The funniest thing is that Max Booth’s sense of humour is so highly pitched only dogs can hear it. The anguish over his satirical list shows that the internet really does average out to the lowest common denominator of stupid.
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Maybe he should have written a disclaimer that the list was meant for dogs with an ironic sense of humor.
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Still have to discover the joys [sic] of King. Some time. When I’ve got my current pile smaller…
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How is that going Chris? I had a yard sale again this last Saturday. Got rid of a box of books, so now I’m down to five that need good homes. My local library will take them, but only one box at a time.
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Slow but steady, Sari! In the last couple of weeks I’ve reduced the waiting pile at my bedside from 25 to 21…
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LitReactor has since corrected the error and Koontz was rightfully credited for writing THE STAND.
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Now, that sir, was funny!
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