News and Notes From King's Live Talk About UTD

CBS has posted the live chat with Stephen King at www.cbs.com

NEWS:

• King said he asked to write an episode next season.
• He is currently writing a book called REVIVAL.

MY NOTES:

INSPIRATION: Naturally King is asked what inspired  Under The Dome.  He doesn't know where the idea came from,  but offers some of his first images of what the story would be.  He says, "It was a lot of fun to create that situation."  (King does like to destroy the world, doesn't he?)  He notes  he tried it in 72 and the story was just too big for him at the time.  He put it aside and wrote Carrie instead.

CHARACTERS: Asked what the best part is of seeing his story come to screen, King said it was the opportunity to see characters he created in his mind come to life.  "Sometimes it's fun to see what set designers do with places you made up."

He says that Barbie is his favorite character; however, he also says that he likes whatever character he's working on at the moment -- even the bad  ones.  This explains why his character development is so strong.  He notes the tougher  part is being the women, since he can only do that by observation.  That's interesting, since both my wife and mother have mentioned how amazing it is that he can get inside a woman's head. "It's kind of interesting and challenging to be a woman for a while," King says. He calls it, "Creative cross-dressing."  (Check out my article, Seven Reasons We Read Stephen King, #4 He's A Woman Talk Stephen King seven-reasons-we-read-stephen-king)

He said he does get to have a part in the casting of actors to play his characters.  He also notes that he keeps character lists to help him remember who's who.  This is funny -- King says that after writing Gerald's Game, which is just about one character, his wife Tabitha said his next book would be called "Living Room" and would have no characters at all.

King was asked which character best embodies him.  King quickly responded Gordon Lachance from The Body. "If I've written anything autobiographical in my life, it's that."  He then insists there is not a lot of autobiographical stuff in most of his book.  "Folks," he seems to say to the world, "I'm making this stuff up."

FAVORITE BOOK: King said asking a writer what their favorite book is that's like asking someone who their favorite kid is.  "I like them all," he insists.  He said he really loves the book he is currently working on.  Presently he is writing a book called "Revival."  King said he is abut halfway through with it and totally in love with the book. He also noted a special place in his heart for Lisey's story, because he associates it with a good time in his own life.  He says the most difficult was Pet Sematary.   He also says the character he would most like to meet is Dolores Claiborne.

The Language: When asked about all the short cuts in the language (like in facebook, twitter and when texting) the linguistic prude in King comes out!  He doesn't like using "2" for two, and so on.

MUSIC: King says when he wrote Lisey's story, he switched to listening almost completely to old country music.  "A lot of times what I do these days, when I'm composing, I'm just composing and the room is completely quiet.  When I edit I let it rip.  I have a real weakness for metal, disco." He likes AC/DC, Gloria Gainer, Donna Summer, Metallica, Judas Priest.

The Message Of Under The Dome: King said the message of Under The Dome is that we all live under the dome.  "We're all on planet earth, and we're not going anywhere, not in the next  hundred years.   We have diminishing resources."  There is so much gas, food, medicine and good air -- that's the situation we're all in.