For readers new to The Dark Tower, The Wind Through the Keyhole is a stand-alone novel, and a wonderful introduction to the series. It is a story within a story, which features both the younger and older gunslinger Roland on his quest to find the Dark Tower. Fans of the existing seven books in the series will also delight in discovering what happened to Roland and his ka-tet between the time they leave the Emerald City and arrive at the outskirts of Calla Bryn Sturgis.
This Russian Doll of a novel, a story within a story, within a story, visits Mid-World's last gunslinger, Roland Deschain, and his ka-tet as a ferocious storm halts their progress along the Path of the Beam. (The novel can be placed between Dark Tower IV and Dark Tower V.) Roland tells a tale from his early days as a gunslinger, in the guilt ridden year following his mother's death. Sent by his father to investigate evidence of a murderous shape shifter, a "skin man," Roland takes charge of Bill Streeter, a brave but terrified boy who is the sole surviving witness to the beast's most recent slaughter. Roland, himself only a teenager, calms the boy by reciting a story from the Book of Eld that his mother used to read to him at bedtime, "The Wind through the Keyhole." "A person's never too old for stories," he says to Bill. "Man and boy, girl and woman, we live for them." And stories like these, they live for us.
August 11, 2011
"I'm not afraid." Wow! For those of you (all of you) clamoring for the new Stephen King novella, "Mile 81," due on ebook on September 1st ... your wait just got a little easier. Today, iTunes released a preview sample of the story (twenty-seven pages, the entire first chapter!), including the table of contents. It's neat that the chapters are named after people with the names of their vehicles in parentheses. Gives us a glimpse as to what's going to happen! I can't wait!
August 3, 2011
Cemetery Dance announces VERY limited edition of A Book of Horrors! I've been hyping this book for awhile, and with good reason. It's all-new, classic horror from leading writers in the field. People like Dennis Etchison, Elizabeth Hand, Ramsey Campbell, Richard Christian Matheson, and of course Stephen King. If you haven't read my review of King's contribution, "The Little Green God of Agony, do it and let it convince you. This collection is terrific. A further description from Cemetery Dance:
Open this book at your own peril! That is because this volume is exactly what it says on the cover—A Book of Horrors contains all-original stories by some of the most successful and exciting names in modern horror fiction.
For the first time in many years, here is an original anthology of horror and dark fantasy in all its many and magnificent guises—from classic pulp-style tales of Dark and Stormy Nights, through more contemporary and psychological terrors, to the type of cutting-edge fiction that only the very best horror fiction can deliver.
Brought together from around the world by World Fantasy Award-winning editor Stephen Jones, one of Britain's most acclaimed and experienced anthologists of horror fiction, here are many of the authors who have helped shaped the genre in all of its forms, along with terrifying tales of unease by a new generation of storytellers devoted to the Dark Side.
But be warned: once you begin to delve within these pages, your imagination and senses will be assaulted by terrors both grim and gruesome, literary and lethal, that will stay with you long after you have closed its covers and tried to put aside the images and situations which have wormed their way deep within your mind.
Don't blame us for the bad dreams or cold sweats that these tales will induce. We did tell you — this is A Book of Horrors, and once you open it there is no way that these scarifying stories will ever be forgotten... no matter how much you wish that the nightmares will just go away!
Anyone familiar with Charnel House knows that Cemetery Dance puts out massively cool limited editions. This one is going to rock and no fooling! BUT! Because this is a co-publishing venture with PS Publishing in the UK, they only have HALF the print run to sell, and they're already going fast. Order quick atwww.cemeterydance.com/page/CDP/PROD/jones02!
August 3, 2011
New short story: "The Dune," coming this fall! Literary magazine Granta will be publishing an all-Horror special for their Fall/Winter edition, and Stephen King has a brand-new short story in it. (Can you believe how much new writing he has given us this year?) It's called "The Dune," and the issue should be available October 27! More info as it comes!
July 30, 2011 
Here's some fun and interesting news. King's The Stand has been re-released in mass market paperback with a new, body-strewn cover. Random House, which now owns Doubleday (King's publisher for his first five books, plus Pet Sematary), has released the book under its Anchor imprint, a new publishing division for The Stand. (My thought? It's to class things up a bit. The Pocket Books releases are really snazzy.)
But that's not the most interesting part! Take a look at the new "Also By the Author" page (and ignore my thumb):
The first thing I noticed is that the books are listed in (mostly) true chronology. Notice that Drawing of the Three and The Waste Lands aren't lumped together like they usually are in these books; all the Dark Tower books are listed as when they were published by Grant, not mass market publishers. (Sadly, stuff like The Eyes of the Dragon are only listed according to when Viking published it.)
The next interesting thing is that Cycle of the Werewolf is nowhere to be found. What!? Is it because Silver Bullet is listed? Also: Rage is listed. While the last Stephen King novel to feature an "Also By" page - The Dark Tower - listed Rage, but Blaze, which came later, left Rage off the page.
There's also a brand-new category, which I find a little funny. "Story Collections and Novellas" is interesting. Hearts In Atlantis is over here, which is arguable. Also here: Blockade Billy, which does count as a novella ... but then why is Cycle of the Werewolf (which would count) not here? And why is The Colorado Kid in Novels and not over here? So puzzling! Also: no The Plant. Which is understandable, but still!
Anyway, the "Also By" page was one of my favorite parts of King books when I was growing up, and it's neat to have it back. Now, let's put it in 11/22/63! Come on!
July 26, 2011
Read King's enlightening introduction to a new British release of Lord of the Flies! I love this essay!
July 26, 2011
My review for the Full Dark, No Stars bonus story, "Under the Weather," is NOW UP!
July 20, 2011
The heart of Stand By Me and the genius horror of Christine. Stephen King's Official Site has given us more information on the upcoming eBook novella, "Mile 81":
At Mile 81 on the Maine Turnpike is a boarded up rest stop, a place where high school kids drink and get into the kind of trouble high school kids have always gotten into. It’s the place where Pete Simmons goes when his older brother, who’s supposed to be looking out for him, heads off to the gravel pit to play "paratroopers over the side."
Pete, armed only with the magnifying glass he got for his tenth birthday, finds a discarded bottle of vodka in the boarded up burger shack and drinks enough to pass out.
Not much later, a mud-covered station wagon (which is strange because there hadn’t been any rain in New England for over a week) veers into the Mile 81 rest area, ignoring the sign that says “closed, no services.” The driver’s door opens but nobody gets out.
Doug Clayton, an insurance man from Bangor, is driving his Prius to a conference in Portland. On the backseat are his briefcase and suitcase and in the passenger bucket is a King James Bible, what Doug calls “the ultimate insurance manual,” but it isn’t going to save Doug when he decides to be the Good Samaritan and help the guy in the broken down wagon. He pulls up behind it, puts on his four-ways, and then notices that the wagon has no plates.
Ten minutes later, Julianne Vernon, pulling a horse trailer, spots the Prius and the wagon, and pulls over. Julianne finds Doug Clayton’s cracked cell phone near the wagon door – and gets too close herself. By the time Pete Simmons wakes up from his vodka nap, there are a half a dozen cars at the Mile 81 rest stop. Two kids – Rachel and Blake Lussier –and one horse named Deedee are the only living left. Unless you maybe count the wagon.
With the heart of Stand By Me and the genius horror of Christine, "Mile 81" is Stephen unleashing his imagination as he drives past one of those road signs...
The novella will also include an excerpt of King's upcoming mammoth novel, 11/22/63. Very exciting stuff coming down the pipeline! We'll keep you updated with all the news on this surprise new title!
July 13, 2011
So fresh, so unique, and so viscerally frightening. Read my review of Stephen King's newest short story, "The Little Green God of Agony," which appears in the upcoming anthology, A Book of Horrors, edited by Stephen Jones. You guys are going to love this story!
July 13, 2011
New eBook coming! Scribner announced today a NEW eBook coming from King, September 1st of this year! Called Mile 81, the ebook will be novella-length - 80 pages - at a price of $2.99. Check out the official Mile 81 page at Scribner!
July 12, 2011
Date and length of Wind! Scribner announced today that the new Dark Tower midquel, The Wind Through the Keyhole, is coming April 3, 2012, and that it will be 336 pages! Longer than the first, shorter than all the others, I think King had said. I'm getting pretty amped for this one!
July 8, 2011
Buy Rocky Wood's stuff! Rocky Wood, co-author of Stephen King: The Non-Fiction and president of the Horror Writers Association of America, is selling off all his King stuff through The Overlook Connection! You might have noticed the link at the top of the page. If you've clicked it before, good news: there's a whole bunch of new stuff up there now! If you haven't ever looked at the Rocky Wood Collection at Overlook, YOU'RE in luck! There's so much stuff!
The Rocky Wood is a win-win: you get way cool King swag, and Rocky gets funds he needs to treat his ALS. So do Rocky - and yourself - a favor and buy something cool!
