Salem's Lot Special Edition

I'm LOVING the artwork for the Cemetery Dance edition of Salem's Lot.  Let's face it, the early works of King were not given the best artistic treatment by Doubleday.  Well, the wrong is being righted!

From Cemetery Dance:

'Salem's Lot: The Deluxe Special Edition
A Collectible Limited ONE TIME PRINTING featuring an introduction by Stephen King, an afterword by Clive Barker, color paintings by David Palumbo, and Special Bonus Features including deleted scenes, two related short stories, and a map of the town by Glenn Chadbourne!
Volume Two in The Stephen King Doubleday Years Set!

'Salem's Lot: The Deluxe Special Edition (Volume Two in the "Doubleday Years" Collection)
 by Stephen King

Featuring full color wrap-around artwork by David Palumbo and full color interior paintings printed on a high-quality glossy stock and tipped into the book!


About the Book:
 'Salem's Lot is a small New England town with white clapboard houses, tree-lined streets, and solid church steeples. That summer in 'Salem's Lot was a summer of homecoming and return; spring burned out and the land lying dry, crackling underfoot. Late that summer, Ben Mears returned to 'Salem's Lot hoping to cast out his own devils and found instead a new, unspeakable horror.

A stranger had also come to the Lot, a stranger with a secret as old as evil, a secret that would wreak irreparable harm on those he touched and in turn on those they loved.

All would be changed forever—Susan, whose love for Ben could not protect her; Father Callahan, the bad priest who put his eroded faith to one last test; and Mark, a young boy who sees his fantasy world become reality and ironically proves the best equipped to handle the relentless nightmare of 'Salem's Lot.

This is a rare novel, almost hypnotic in its unyielding suspense, which builds to a climax of classic terror. You will not forget the town of 'Salem's Lot nor any of the people who used to live there.

Special Features For This Deluxe Special Edition:
• an introduction by Stephen King
• an afterword by Clive Barker
• many deleted scenes that were cut from the original manuscript
• the short stories "Jerusalem's Lot" and "One for the Road"
• deluxe oversized design (7 inches X 10 inches) featuring two color interior printing as part of the page design
• printed on a heavy interior specialty paper stock that is much thicker than the paper in a normal trade edition
• epic wrap-around full color dust jacket artwork by David Palumbo
• a different full color dust jacket for the Numbered Artist Edition painted by David Palumbo
• full color interior paintings by David Palumbo
• interior artwork will be printed on a heavy glossy stock and tipped into the book
• an original map of the town drawn by Glenn Chadbourne exclusively for this special edition
• signature sheet artwork for all three editions by Glenn Chadbourne
• high-quality endpapers and fine bindings
• an exclusive reproduction of the first reader's letter to point out the Father "Cody" error and several internal memos from Doubleday about changing the pricing after the first edition of the book was already printed
• extremely collectible print run that is a tiny fraction of the TENS OF MILLIONS of copies of this novel you've seen in bookstores over the years!

picture credit: cemeterydance.com

Published in three states:
• Slipcased Oversized Hardcover Gift Edition of only 3,000 copies printed in two colors on a specialty paper stock; bound with a fine binding, two color hot foil stamping, and embossed endpapers; and featuring a unique black-and-white limitation page with artwork by Glenn Chadbourne ($95)

• Traycased Oversized Hardcover Numbered Artist Edition signed by the artist and limited to only 750 hand-numbered copies printed in two colors on a specialty paper stock; bound with a different fine binding, two color hot foil stamping, and full color illustrated endpapers; a full-color signature sheet signed by the artists and featuring artwork by Glenn Chadbourne; and housed in a traycase ($250)

• Traycased Oversized Hardcover Artist Lettered Edition signed by the artist and limited to 52 hand-lettered copies printed in two colors on a specialty paper stock; bound in two different fine materials in a hand-made three piece binding featuring spine hubs, gilded page edges, two color hot foil stamping, and full color illustrated endpapers; a different full color signature sheet signed by the artists and featuring artwork by Glenn Chadbourne; and housed in a unique "three piece" traycase ($1250)

Cemetery Dance Offers UK Limited Edition of REVIVAL

Cemetery Dance has posted news that it is offering the UK Slipcased Limited Edition of REVIVAL for "just" $199.  (That comes with a $50 Cemetery Dance Coupon.)

cemeterydance.com

CD notes:
 We're very pleased to have a few copies of the UK Slipcased Limited Edition of Revival by Stephen King on the way, and we're offering them on a first come, first served basis. We've also arranged for our collectors who buy this book through our online store to receive a $50 Cemetery Dance coupon to spend on any books, magazines, comics, or eBooks you'd like this month -- the perfect way to snag a holiday gift for someone special or for your special collection!

DUTCH Revival Cover

source: liljas-library.com

This is the Dutch cover for Revival. I found this at Lilja's Library.  Lilja is currently seeking obscure foreign editions of Stephen King's work.  It's a pretty neat project.  Of course, Dutch isn't obscure.  AND -- I like this cover A LOT.  It may be just the complete let down of the American edition.

I  wrote to Cemetery Dance and asked them if they would be producing a special edition of Revival.  I opted for the CD edition of both Doctor Sleep and Full Dark, No Stars, over a First Edition.  Their books are always beautiful.  However, the publisher emailed back to say that they did not have plans for a special edition of Revival.

What exactly is Revival?  There is a book description out, that still doesn't reveal much.   King said it was a nasty little novel.  Are we in for a treat?

Screamplays Arrives

My copy of Screamplays came on Friday.  What a great day!  And what a nice looking book.

Screamplays is huge (why I had Miriam hold it, just for  perspective.)  The cover and interior art are also nicely done. The book itself is first drafts of various screen plays by famous authors.

Table of Contents:"Introduction" by Dean Koontz
"General" by Stephen King
"The Legend of Hell House" by Richard Matheson
"Moonlighting" by Harlan Ellison
"Killing Bernstein" by Harlan Ellison
"Dead in the West" by Joe R. Lansdale
"Track Down" by Ed Gorman
"The Hunted" by Richard Laymon

The driving force behind Screamplays is Cemetery Dance's editor, Richard Chizmar.  By the way, just look at that lineup of writers.  I'm excited anytime Matheson, Laymon and King are all in the same book!

The plays themselves are well done.  I hesitated to read them because I was afraid it was going to be like trying to read Shakespeare in High School.  Who wants to read a play?  Just dialogue, right?  Well, these gifted writers get a lot done with dialogue!  And no, it's not like trying to read the Bard.

The book has been out for a while, but this over sized special edition is new to the scene.  I think I bought the book before the kid holding it in the picture was born.  I'm not kidding.  After buying it, I checked the mail every day.  Finally called CD, and was told that the book had been a "pre-order." Then years went by.   Years!  I actually thought they'd forgotten about it.  Then one day, notice came to my email that they were sending me the book.

By far, my favorite part of the book is Dean Koontz's introduction.  It is hilarious! Koontz discusses the absolute joy of writing a first draft of a screen play.  He explains that unlike a novel, a screen play is easy to play with, to add new plot lines and to keep things moving.  He is definitely a fan -- of the FIRST draft.  But then the work gets sent off to Hollywood producers, directors and the pain begins.  Koontz describes an incident with a confused, muttering director that he ultimately refused to work with.  It's great stuff!

Classic King Is Coming Back

Cemetery has announced a return to Stephen King's "Doubleday Years."  Six volumes that will include Carrie, 'Salem's Lot, The Shining, Night Shift, The Stand and Pet Sematary.  Carrie will feature an introduction by Stephen King and an afterword by Tabitha King.  It also features six color paintings by Tomislav Tikulin, and "Special Bonus Features Exclusive to This Edition!"  What's that mean?  I dunno.

It's interesting that the Doubleday books were cheaply produced with sometimes awkward covers.  Who was that on the cover of Carrie? Is Cemetery Dance purposefully righting this wrong?  

From Cemetery Dance:

www.cemeterydance.com

These are the books that launched King's career and made him a household name, and our special editions will be beautiful and oversized volumes like we've published for From a Buick 8, It, Doctor Sleep, and many other King books over the years.

The first title in this special six volume set is Carrie, which will be published later this year and is available for preorder immediately. Other volumes in this series will follow approximately every six months after that and several acclaimed artists are already creating stunning art for these books. These special editions will feature exclusive bonus features such as introductions, afterwords, artwork, and even deleted material in some cases.

We expect extremely strong demand for these special editions of Stephen King's extraordinarily popular early books, and collectors who preorder Carrie directly from us will be the first collectors offered the opportunity to order the next volume before the general public.
Please note that our last Stephen King Gift Edition sold out in just ONE WEEK, so please don't wait because you could miss out and there will be NO second printings.

"These were the ghosts which kept trying to come between me and what I was writing, kept insisting that I combine them, somehow, into a story that would tell what could have happened if there really was such a thing as telekinetic energy..."— Stephen King, from the introduction

Special Features Exclusive To This Deluxe Special Edition:
• An introduction by Stephen King detailing why he wrote the book
• A lengthy afterword by Tabitha King discussing the book's unbridled exploration of adolescent terror, sexuality, and the unknown
• Deluxe oversized design (7 inches X 10 inches) featuring two color interior printing as part of the page design
• Printed on a heavy interior specialty paper stock that is much thicker than the paper in a normal trade edition
• Epic wrap-around full-color dust jacket artwork by Tomislav Tikulin
• A different full-color dust jacket for the Artist Edition painted by Tomislav Tikulin
• Six full-color interior paintings by Tomislav Tikulin
• Interior artwork will be printed on a heavy glossy stock and tipped into the book
• High-quality embossed endpapers and fine bindings for all editions
• Full-page reproduction of the telegram Doubleday editor Bill Thompson sent Stephen King to announce the publisher was buying the book
• Extremely collectible print run that is a tiny fraction of the TENS OF MILLIONS of copies of this novel you've seen in bookstores over the last 40 years!

Get it at cemeterydance.com

Cemetery Dance Has A Deal For You. . .

I like Cemetery Dance a lot.  Mostly I like the books they publish.  My copy of Full Dark No Stars was awesome!  As was the anniversary edition of IT.  And for both those books, I paid a lot.  But I was willing because they were Stephen King special editions.

Cemetery Dance is currently promoting sales of a book about the Salem's Lot miniseries, titled, "Tobe Hooper's Salem's Lot: Studies in the Horror Film."  The 464 page book is due out in April, 2014.

Few horror films in the history of television can boast the deadly seriousness, inspired casting, indelible images and lingering impact of Salem’s Lot. Tobe Hooper’s adaptation of Stephen King’s 1975 novel about vampires that infest a small Maine town was first broadcast in November 1979. 

The three-hour film featured unforgettable performances by an array of stars — James Mason, David Soul, Lew Ayres, Bonnie Bedelia — along with one of the most truly terrifying monsters in the history of movies: the feral vampire Mr Barlow played by Reggie Nalder. 

This book documents the gestation and production of the film. There are reminiscences from cast and crew, including new and exclusive interviews with Tobe Hooper, David Soul, cinematographer Jules Brenner and producer Richard Kobritz; dozens of images, including many never before published behind-the-scenes production stills; deleted scenes from the original teleplay; foreign posters and artwork inspired by the film; photographs of Ferndale, California, where the exteriors of Salem’s Lot were filmed; and much, much more.

That looks really neat!  But there is a bit of sticker shock on this one.  How about $40 for the PAPERBACK.

I'm not suggesting collectors won't buy this book, because obviously CD knows their market.  What I'm wondering is why.

Mr. Mercedes is selling for $18.00 first edition hard cover.  Revival is selling for 19.48.  So for $37.48 you can have BOTH Stephen King first edition new books -- or there the $40 Salem's Lot book.

Leads me to a curious question.  What price should books about Stephen King be set at?  

 

REVIVAL

Cemetery Dance gives us this summery of Stephen King's 520 page novel, REVIVAL.  It will be coming out in November, 2014. My favorite words, "nightmare" "Edgar Allan Poe" and "dark."  In other words, it's a Stephen King novel!

From master storyteller Stephen King comes a spectacularly dark and riveting novel about addiction, religion, fanaticism, and what might exist on the other side of life.

In a small New England town more than half a century ago, a boy is playing with his new toy soldiers in the dirt in front of his house when a shadow falls over him. He looks up to see a striking man, the new minister, Jamie learns later, who with his beautiful wife, will transform the church and the town. The men and boys are a bit in love with Mrs. Jacobs; the women and girls, with the Reverend Jacobs — including Jamie's sisters and mother. Then tragedy strikes, and this charismatic preacher curses God, and is banished from the shocked town.

Jamie has demons of his own. Wed to his guitar from age 13, he plays in bands across the country, running from his own family tragedies, losing one job after another when his addictions get the better of him. Decades later, sober and living a decent life, he and Reverend Charles Jacobs meet again in a pact beyond even the Devil's devising, and the many terrifying meanings of Revival are revealed.

King imbues this spectacularly rich and dark novel with everything he knows about music, addiction, and religious fanaticism, and every nightmare we ever had about death. This is a masterpiece from King, in the great American tradition of Frank Norris, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Edgar Allan Poe.

(Cover picture was taken from: www.pxleyes.com, erathion)

Mr. Mercedes Looks To Give Classic King Chills

If you're a King fan, then there's good news ahead!  I spotted this summery of Mr. Mercedes at Cemetery Dance, and it looks plenty scary!

The mind that gave you Christine and From a buick 8 is back behind the wheel. . .

In the frigid pre-dawn hours, in a distressed Midwestern city, hundreds of desperate unemployed folks are lined up for a spot at a job fair. Without warning, a lone driver plows through the crowd in a stolen Mercedes, running over the innocent, backing up, and charging again. Eight people are killed; fifteen are wounded. The killer escapes. 

In another part of town, months later, a retired cop named Bill Hodges is still haunted by the unsolved crime. When he gets a crazed letter from someone who self-identifies as the "perk" and threatens an even more diabolical attack, Hodges wakes up from his depressed and vacant retirement, hell-bent on preventing another tragedy. 

Brady Hartfield lives with his alcoholic mother in the house where he was born. He loved the feel of death under the wheels of the Mercedes, and he wants that rush again. 

Only Bill Hodges, with a couple of highly unlikely allies, can apprehend the killer before he strikes again. And they have no time to lose, because Brady's next mission, if it succeeds, will kill or maim thousands. 

Mr. Mercedes is a war between good and evil, from the master of suspense whose insight into the mind of this obsessed, insane killer is chilling and unforgettable.

Mr. Mercedes is scheduled  to be released June 3, 2014.

Summer Thunder is on its way

Stephen King's website has announced the release of "Turn Down the Lights" Published by our good friends at Cemetery Dance, Turn Down the Lights is a trade hardcover featuring Stephen's never before published short story, Summer Thunder. This edition celebrates the 25th anniversary of Cemetery Dance with special editions to be published in 2014. For more information, see the Cemetery Dance website at the link below.

Doctor Sleep Journal #4: I Talked To Stephen King Today

Annie, trying to be scared of a book she never read

The Girl With The Book:

This involves what some might consider whining.  Be assured, it is not whining, it is sulking.

Why is she holding a copy of Doctor Sleep in Walmart?  Let's just say I have to visit Walmart to see a real print edition of this book right now.  I guess part of buying a super-duper copy of Doctor Sleep is the joyful experience of waiting for it.  So, my joy and anticipation increases each day. Waiting.  waiting.  waiting.

What Stephen King Said To Me

One of the  things I  really love about King's writing is that he is not locked into a single, robotic form or style.  He is very free in his narration.  The reader can tell when he feels  light hearted, or when he just wants to scare us somethin' fierce.

In chapter 5 King speaks directly to the reader.  I'm listening to the novel, so it's like he's there -- in my headphones, talking right to me.  Here are a couple of examples (I'm choosing quotes I've heard King publically read)

--How many times have you found yourself behind a lumbering RV, eating exhaust and waiting impatiently for your chance to pass? Creeping along at forty when you could be doing a perfectly legal sixty-five or even seventy? 

--Or maybe you’ve encountered them in the turnpike rest areas, when you stop to stretch your legs and maybe drop a few quarters into one of the vending machines.

King goes on like this for quite a few pages, talking to us about those RV's that seem like such a normal part of America.  It's a shared common experience.

Is this style normal?  I don't think so.  Usually writers feel compelled to be a little more -- serious.  But King has no problem removing the wall between himself and the reader and speaking directly to us.  The narrative tone is conversational, easy going and even kind of gentle.  But don't be fooled!  King is laying a trap for the reader.  He is speaking gently right to us, drawing us in so that he can do crazy stuff to our brains and scare us so bad we scream like little girls.

I like the conversational narration a lot.  It makes it clear that this is not happening in a fantasy world; this isn't mid-world or OZ; This is happening in our world.  Does that matter?  YES!  King is not really telling a story set in in our world.  He is telling a story about vampires and decaying women who come out of your bathtub.  To help you with this -- that doesn't happen in our world! But by speaking to me, suddenly my world feels like it is indeed that world.  I have been drawn in to King's story, and my entire world with it.  Suddenly my world is one where nasty dead bodies could rise up out of the bathtub.  My children are in danger of the True Knot.

Shared experiences are important to this book.  King not only uses things we are familiar with -- RV's -- but events we all experienced together.  Things like the events surrounding 9/11 are given subthemes in the novel, causing the reader to quickly identify.  By the way, it says something for our national healing as 9/11 is now beginning to appear in literature as a fictional theme without people feeling traumatized.  (Yes, I do remember the towers had a role in the Dark Tower)

So what did Stephen King say to me?  (and you, if you'll read it)  He said that RV's might seem like a normal part of American life.  We all experience some of the same frustrations when we get stuck behind them, but we really don't pay them any mind.  However, we  should not be so quick to just think of them as part of the landscape of America.  It is the perfect place for evil to camouflage itself.

Scraps: Stuff That Caught My Eye:
1. Jerusalem's Lot
2. Hello Tony.
3. I like this quote

America is a living body, the highways are its arteries, and the True Knot slips along them like a silent virus.

The True Knot -- Evil or Not?

King is so good at putting us in the mind and body of his characters that he can actually get the reader to identify with some pretty naughty people.  Crazy as it sounds, as the True Knot took "steam" from a young boy, they so perfectly explained their morale that I understood it. They are so incredibly evil!  And they know  they are evil.  But, as they see it, they have to eat.  We don't think much of eating a cow. Well, they just happen to eat. . . steam.

Cemetery Dance Offers First Look At Special Doctor Sleep

Here is a quick sneak peek at the SLIPCASE for the Cemetery Dance Publications Gift Edition of Doctor Sleep by Stephen King.

Quigley prepares to release a new book about Stephen King

Cemetery Dance just announced its new Collector's Club. One of the major features is that it's the only place to get Kevin Quigley's new hardcover, A Good Story and Good Words.

About A Good Story and Good Words, Cemetery Dance notes:

This 750 page manuscript dives deep into the works of Stephen King and will be an incredible addition to any collection. There will be a trade edition down the road, but you get the World's First Edition, First Printing and the only Signed Limited Edition that will ever be printed. The manuscript has already been copyedited and is being designed right now, so this will definitely be one of our 2014 titles.

At his site, Quigley explains, "Guys, this is your EXCLUSIVE chance to get my very first solo hardcover, A Good Story and Good Words. Hundreds of hours of research and three years in the writing, Good Story is my first major statement on the work of Stephen King. I really think you're going to like it, and I hope you jump into this awesome club. Thanks!"  http://charnelhouse.tripod.com

FROM CEMETERY DANCE:

The Cemetery Dance Collectors Club Is BACK!
Members Receive A FREE Signed Limited Edition, A Brand New Exclusive "Short Story" T-Shirt, An Exclusive Signed Limited Edition Chapbook By Richard Chizmar, An Exclusive Halloween Poster By Alan M. Clark, A Stephen King Art Mouse Pad, A Keychain, Exclusive Discounts & Advance Notice on New Books, and Other Perks Not Available to the General Public!
PLUS: Members will receive the only Signed Limited Edition of A Good Story and Good Words: The Many Worlds of Stephen King, a groundbreaking new look into the works of Stephen King that would have retailed for $65 if it was available to the general public!

Check out my interview with Kevin Quigley, Talk Stephen King: Tenish Questions For Kevin Quigley

Lilja Reviews THE DARK MAN

I think Lilja's Library has the best reviews of King's work. He reviews. . . everything! Check out his insights on the Cemetery Dance edition of King's Poem, The Dark Man at liljas-library.com

Lilja advises constant readers to read the book several times, promising we will find new things each time.  He calls the work a compliment to the entire series, noting, "It shows you where King’s quest for The Dark Tower started and how it has evolved."

Chadbourne "I'm Very Proud Of This Project."

photo credit: K Fletcher
from lincoln county news

lincolncountynewsonline.com has an interesting article about artist Glenn Chadbourne  titled, "Chadbourne's Pen Brings Life To Next Stephen King Publication."

From the article:

Chadbourne who has done extensive work for King, said he spent the bulk of the past winter working on the project. Chadbourne said the original poem he received was only three written pages. 

"It's my baby," he said. "They gave me the text and then just let my imagination rip. They wanted between 70 and 90 pages and I gave them 88." 

He spent several months working 12 to 16 hours a day to come up with art for the project, including a half dozen different cover pages for the various editions. 

"I am very proud of this project," he said. "It is not every day you get something like this."

The Dark Man: An Illustrated Poem

Cemetery Dance has announced the release of "The Dark Man: An Illustrated Poem"

"Randall Flagg came to me when I wrote a poem called 'The Dark Man' when I was a junior or senior in college. It came to me out of nowhere, this guy in cowboy boots who moved around on the roads, mostly hitchhiking at night, always wore jeans and a denim jacket. I wrote the poem in the college restaurant on the back of a placemat, but that guy never left my mind."

— Stephen King

The Cemetery Dance website gives this info:

About the Book:
Stephen King first wrote about the Dark Man in college after he envisioned a faceless man in cowboy boots and jeans and a denim jacket forever walking the roads. Later this dark man would come to be known around the world as one of King's greatest villains, Randall Flagg, but at the time King only had simple questions on his mind: where was this man going? What had he seen and done? What terrible things...?

i have ridden rails...
More than forty years after Stephen King first wrote his breathtaking poem "The Dark Man," Glenn Chadbourne set out to answer those questions in this World's First Edition hardcover featuring more than 70 full-page illustrations from the talented artist behind The Secretary of Dreams.

i have slept in glaring swamps...
This Cemetery Dance Publications hardcover is a true marriage of words and art, with Chadbourne pulling the images from King's imagination and illustrating them in magnificent detail. This incredible blending of King's words with Chadbourne's art creates a unique page turning experience you can return to again and again, always finding new details hidden on every page. You'll discover hidden layers and mysterious secrets for years to come.

i am a dark man...
So who is the Dark Man and why is he traveling the country? The answers are terrifying....

Check it out at www.cemeterydance.com

Doctor Sleep You're Lookin' Good!

Wow!  I'm loving the new Cemetery Dance artwork for Doctor Sleep.  Interesting how a books pictures can make me so interested in the book itself.  Even as a kid, when I had a novel with pictures in it, I would thumb through and stare at the pictures and wonder what was to come. I remember reading The Stand for the first time, and making it a goal to get to the picture where Lloy was in the prison cell reaching for a dead body.

The Woman In Black (isn't that a great name!) at dreadcentral.com writes at their website:

Author Brian James Freeman posted the following photos on his website, and Cemetery Dance provided a bit more elaboration: 

Vincent Chong has turned in the rest of his original color interiors for [the] special edition of Doctor Sleep by Stephen King, which sold out just one week after it was announced, and [here's] a little sneak peek at ... main characters Abra Stone [and] Rose Flanagan, who is known as Rose the Hat by the True Knot, the nomadic family she travels with.

She notes, "We don't know what's up with the train, but it sure is plenty spooky." YES!

Will the book be as good as the pictures?  It's Stephen King writing a horror  novel. . . !

Chong's Interiors For Doctor Sleep

Sneak Peek: A Second Look At Vincent Chong's Interiors for Doctor Sleep

Vincent Chong turned in the rest of his original color interiors for our special edition of Doctor Sleep by Stephen King, which sold out just one week after it was announced, and we thought you might like a little sneak peek at another of the main characters, Rose Flanagan, who is known as Rose the Hat by the True Knot, the nomadic family she travels with.

SOURCE: www.cemeterydance.com

Cemetery Dance Signed Copies Of THE DARK TOWER COMPANION

Check  out my review of THE DARK TOWER COMPANION (HERE)

From Cemetery Dance:

Hi Folks! 

We're pleased to report that our signed Limited Edition hardcover of The Dark Tower Companion: A Guide to Stephen King's Epic Fantasy by Bev Vincent contains material not available in other versions of the book! 

AN ALL-NEW COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO ONE OF THE MOST BRILLIANTLY CONSTRUCTED WORLDS IN ALL OF FICTION! 

Stephen King's bestselling multi-volume Dark Tower series is the author's most inspired and imaginative creation. The story of Roland Deschain of Gilead, the last gunslinger, and his lifelong quest to reach the tower and save humanity across infinite parallel worlds is one that has consumed King throughout his career as characters and concepts crossed back and forth between the series and the rest of his fictional universe. The mythos continues to be chronicled and expanded in graphic novels overseen by King, interactive adventures on his website, a proposed film adaptation, and in a new Dark Tower novel. 

The Dark Tower Companion is the ultimate compendium to King's evolving magnum opus, presenting the mythology, history, and geography of this epic fantasy that has captivated generations of readers. 

Featuring interviews with Stephen King, Ron Howard, Dark Tower expert Robin Furth and others, Bev Vincent reveals The Dark Tower's influential literary origins, examines its connections to the vast majority of King's other novels, explores the expanded universe, catalogs the major characters, locations and concepts, and includes a travel guide to the story's real-world locations, giving fans who have followed Roland's journey—or those who are discovering it for the first time—a fascinating overview of the series and an inside look at the creative process of one of the world's most popular authors.

Purchase it HERE

Collecting As Investment

Ed Lin at Penda Daily posted an article I really enjoyed  titled, "Making a killing off  Stephen King." (barrons.com)

Lin addresses special editions as investments.  Do  you think of your collection as an investment?  I have thought how difficult it would be to break my collection down and sell each piece on ebay.

Cemetery Dance sold the signed limited edition of Doctor Sleep for $2,500 with a print run of 52 books.  Even at that steep price, it sold out in 75 minutes.  Lin puts the pieces together, adding up that readers paid a total of $130,000 on PRE-ORDERS!  Pre-orders create lots of anticipation -- and sometimes you even forget what you bought.  I ordered a book called "Scream Plays" YEARS ago -- and am yet waiting.

Selling such nicely produced books with a very small print run creates what Lin calls a "instant rarity."

Lin writes:

“We’ve been publishing limited editions in the 500-to-2,000 copy range since 1992, and the market has stayed fairly strong even when the economy hasn’t been chugging along,” says Brian James Freeman, the managing editor. “We have witnessed other presses come and go over the years, but we have a strong base of collectors who have seen us through good times and bad.”

No matter what Freeman says about customers seeing CD through good times and bad, no one is buying books just to keep the publisher in business!  They are selling books because  they are producing something buyers want: A high quality product that is instantly rare by a beloved author.

Now, I have a first edition of The Shining, and was anxious for the Doctor Sleep signed editions to be offered.  However, when I saw the price of the signed editions (just the signed ones came to something like $350) I could not justify it.  I could afford it -- but I couldn't justify it.  Kids to send to camp, dance costumes to  buy. . . and I want a $350 book.  What's different about it?  King signed it.  Is a signature worth it?  I would argue not.  I own one item signed by King (Under the Dome), and that's enough for me.  (See my article:  Signed Books, Do They Matter? talkstephenking)

HOWEVER. . . if you are collecting to SELL, Lin points out that signatures might be well worth it!

By the way, I love special editions!  I think the IT edition by King was fantastic.  Also Full Dark  No Stars was a great production.  Simply put, buyers purchase from CD because they keep swinging home runs.

Lin offers the following "rough" guidelines for collecting special editions:

• Sign up for the publishers’ email lists.
• Acquire all the titles in a series. 
• Buy books that you would truly enjoy owning.

The full article is HERE.

Double Feature SIGNED

This is cool -- Cemetery Dance has copies of Owen King's novel, Double Feature for $26.00.  That's. . . REALLY GOOD!

Fellow King blogger, Bryant Burnette asked Owen King about all the B-movie plots he had to make up as part of Double feature.  King said,

The challenge of the made-up films was to make sure that they made sense in their respective milieus - i.e. B-movies or indies or avant garde or mainstream or whatever. It was definitely fun, though, and probably the part of the novel where I was most able to let my imagination run wild. (Much of the pleasure, from my standpoint, is that they're just brief descriptions. Actually drawing stuff out - i.e. turning a story into prose - is what makes writing fiction so agonizing!)  (thetruthinsidethelie.blogspot.com

Here's the announcement from Cemetery Dance:

Double Feature by Owen King
Signed Trade Hardcover Edition!

Publisher: Scribner
Format: Trade Hardcover
Publication Date: March 2013
Trade Hardcover: $26.00

PRE-ORDER SIGNED COPIES OF DOUBLE FEATURE HERE

Note for Collectors:
Owen King has generously agreed to sign copies of the trade hardcover for our collectors, so this is a preorder.

About the Book:

SAM DOLAN is a young man coming to terms with his life in the process and aftermath of making his first film. He has a difficult relationship with his father, B-movie actor Booth Dolan—a boisterous, opinionated, lying lothario whose screen legacy falls somewhere between cult hero and pathetic. Allie, Sam’s dearly departed mother, was a woman whose only fault, in Sam’s eyes, was her eternal affection for his father. Also included in the cast of indelible characters: a precocious, frequently violent half-sister; a conspiracy-theorist second wife; an Internet-famous roommate; a contractor who can’t stop expanding his house; a happy-go-lucky college girlfriend and her husband, a retired Yankees catcher; the morose producer of a true-crime show; and a slouching indie-film legend. Not to mention a tragic sex monster.

Unraveling the tumultuous, decades-spanning story of the Dolan family’s friends, lovers, and adversaries, Double Feature is about letting go of everything—regret, resentment, dignity, moving pictures, the dead—and taking it again from the top. Against the backdrop of indie filmmaking, college campus life, contemporary Brooklyn, and upstate New York, Owen King’s epic debut novel combines propulsive storytelling with mordant wit and brims with a deep understanding of the trials of ambition and art, of relationships and life, and of our attempts to survive it all.