To my mind, the only real competition for King is Interview With a Vampire and I Am Legend. Rice's work, for better or for worse, set the groundwork for the "romantic" vampire genre, and is rightly a classic. I Am Legend is a classic novel by a legendary writer. However, though the creatures in I Am Legend are called vampires, they're really not.

The Grant and Yarbro might not have enough "legendary" cache, and the Newman may simply be too new (even though it's 20 years old now). 'Salem's Lot, on the other hand, almost singlehandedly brought the vampire to America, changing the horror genre forever. I think it'll be King.

Check out the entire article here!

January 17, 2012

Really fantastic and unique news about the UK publication of The Wind Through the Keyhole. Hodder says:

Could You Find Your Face on Stephen King's New Book?

To celebrate the publication of The Wind through the Keyhole, the hotly anticipated new episode in Stephen King’s fantasy series The Dark Tower, we’re inviting you to help make literary history; lucky entrants will have their faces featured on the back of the jacket artwork.

Using mosaic design technologies, thousands of readers’ images will be incorporated in the illustration on the back cover of The Wind through the Keyhole.

One winner will also be selected at random to receive the entire STEPHEN KING backlist published by Hodder in the UK.

For your chance to be a part of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, all you have to do is upload your photo via this facebook app https://www.facebook.com/stephenkingbooks. We can’t guarantee that everyone’s photo will make it on – but we’ll contact you when the jacket is ready so you can see if your face is featured, and if you’ve been lucky, you can share your pixels of fame with friends and family! The closing date for entries is 23rd January 2012. Terms and conditions apply, click here for more details.

VERY neat! So go ahead, be a visual part of King history!

January 11th, 2012

Donald M. Grant put out a newsletter today, detailing so, so much about the upcoming Dark Tower novel, The Wind Through the Keyhole. Let's dive right in:

DARK TOWER: THE WIND THROUGH THE KEYHOLE

1. WEB ORDER PAGE

We have added another of Jae Lee’s color illustrations to the web page.

Since we began accepting advance orders on December 19 we have received over 3,000 orders. We are accepting advance orders for both the Deluxe and Artist Editions of THE DARK TOWER: THE WIND THROUGH THE KEYHOLE at:

https://secure.grantbooks.com/z-sk-dt-twttk.html

Please read the rest of this Newsletter before placing your order.

2. TRADE EDITION SLIPCASE

We will be producing a slipcase for the Scribner Trade Edition which will match the three slipcases we produced for the first seven Dark Tower books:

https://secure.grantbooks.com/z-sk-dt-slipcases.html

This will not be shipped until 6-8 weeks after the Trade Edition is released so that we can be sure it will fit properly. Cost is $30.00 plus a $1.00 shipping charge. We will not be charging the $5.00 order fee on orders where the slipcase is shipping by itself.

3. ORDER CONFIRMATION

If you send a check and the check is cashed we have received your order. If you sent an order via our website you will receive as confirmation an email titled “RE WWW Form Submission.” We have received over 3,000 email orders but are now sending confirmations within 3 or 4 business days. If you call or email us this will only delay getting orders ready but if you sent in your order in December and did not receive an order confirmation please send us an email with the subject NO ORDER CONFIRMATION to karenf@grantbooks.com.

We have a small staff and will be hiring extra help but it will take time to process orders, especially for people expecting a specific numbered copy. We appreciate your patience.

Please do not call or email us for further details as we will just refer you to our web site and suggest you remain subscribed to our email newsletter.

4. PRINTED FLYER

Our usual full-color printed flyer will be in the mail next week.

5. LITTLE SISTERS - MATCH YOUR NUMBER

Due to financial considerations at the time many of our customers who bought the Deluxe Edition of LITTLE SISTERS OF ELURIA chose not to purchase the matching numbered Gift Edition. As we have been shipping copies from the higher number down we still have many of the Gift Editions up to number 690. If you would now like to match your Deluxe Edition with the same numbered Gift edition please email Karen French at karenf@grantbooks.com under the subject title “Little Sisters Gift Number” with your number and Karen will confirm if we still have that number.

We will send out another Newsletter when we know when shipping THE WIND THROUGH THE KEYHOLE will begin.

Thank you.

Robert K. Wiener, President Donald M. Grant, Publisher, Inc

All around terrific news! Hooray! I am PSYCHED for this book, everyone. You should be, too!

January 9th, 2012

King's awesome ebook, "Mile 81," is now available as an audiobook single, b/w King's scary new story, "The Dune"! Read by Edward Hermann and Thomas Sadoski, this terrific package is available digitally through iTunes, or physically through Amazon!

January 9th, 2012

Cemetery Dance Announces "All You Can Read eBook Membership Guys, I am SUPER PLEASED to be announcing this. Today, Cemetery Dance Publications launched its All You Can Read eBook membership program, meaning you pay one price ($49), and you can download any book that Cemetery Dance is publishing in 2012 ... and any book Cemetery Dance has already published, including books by yours truly, Kevin Quigley. Check the details:

In the six months since we launched our eBook store, we've published books by William Peter Blatty, Peter Straub, Jay Bonansinga, Norman Partridge, Glen Hirshberg, Brian Hodge, Brian Keene, Mick Garris, Rick Hautala, Ronald Kelly, Simon Clark, Ed Gorman, Geoff Cooper, Brian James Freeman, James A. Moore, Rocky Wood, Kirby McCauley, and many others [like awesome writer Kevin Quigley.]

There are nearly 40 eBooks you can download right away with a combined retail value of more than $130, plus we have dozens of new eBooks in the works for 2012, including some exciting originals and also reprints of classic out of print horror novels you haven't read in years!

Our eBooks range in price from $0.99 [including all eBooks by Kevin Quigley] to $9.99, but the cost of this membership is just a one-time fee of $49, which breaks down to $4.08 per month! If you think you'd want to download even a couple of eBooks each month, this is a great deal!

Cemetery Dance sweetens the deal, too, offering a FREE signed limited print book coming later this year: Because we hope you still love print editions as much as we do, members will also receive a FREE signed Limited Edition hardcover later this year! All you'll have to pay is any applicable shipping. Considering the retail value of $30 to $40 for the free book, the low purchase price of this membership is an EVEN BETTER deal with this special bonus!

You can find all the awesome details here! And don't worry, if you're in the plan and you happen to buy books by me, I still get paid. Yay innovative epublishing! Whee! Go! Read! Buy! Love!

January 7th, 2012

Hello all! My first column for FEARnet.com for 2012 is now up! It's called "Collection Time: An Observation," and it looks at King's recent short stories and my opinion that he has almost enough for a new anthology. From the column:

King's excitement for the short story hasn't abated one bit, and in the years since Just After Sunset, his short work is stronger than ever. In fact, he's been writing and publishing so much short work lately that he just might have enough material for a new collection, one as good (if not better) than Sunset. Let's take a look...

It's a fun look! Check it out yourself: "Collection Time: An Observation" can be found here, and if you like it, click the "Like" button at the end, please! Thank you so much!

January 7th, 2012

Lilja's Library unveils Marv's Museum! Now, here's something cool. Over the years, Hans-Åke Lilja (King expert, Lilja's Library webmaster, and my co-author on the upcoming Illustrated Stephen King Movie Trivia Book) has been collecting Stephen King memorabilia - promotional material, film props, you name it. Now he's decided to unveil it all in a new featured page of the Library, Marv's Museum. Says Lilja:

Marv’s Museum is a museum where I will show you interesting items that I have collected over the years. Initially there will be props from King movies but as time goes on I hope to add other things, things that I think you will find interesting.

Folks, Lilja's got some awesome stuff on display, and you're gonna love it. Check it out here!

January 3rd, 2012

A Look Ahead: Hey all! Kev here. I am thrilled to announce that Charnel House and I are in our sixteenth year of providing you quality King news, full-length reviews, and King-related stuff you won't find anywhere else on the internet (particularly Writing On King, my Listening List of King on Audio, and especially my favorite part of this site, The Chart of Darkness).

2011 allowed for some substantial growth for Charnel House. In addition to the Critiques bar on the left, leading you to full-length analyses of every King book ever published, I've added a Release Schedule bar on the right, to give you quick access to all that's coming up. My reviews are now appearing on FEARnet.com, and all five of my chapbooks about King - Chart of Darkness, Drawn into Darkness, Ink in the Veins, Wetware, and Blood in Your Ears - were made available through Cemetery Dance, iTunes, and Amazon. It's been a huge year.

2012 looks to be even huger. My big limited-edition hardcover on Stephen King, A Good Story and Good Words, will be released through Cemetery Dance. In addition, a book I co-authored with Brian Freeman and Hans-Ake Lilja (with awesome illustrations by Glenn Chadbourne - wait'll you guys see these), The Stephen King Illustrated Movie Trivia Book, is also due out this year.

But this is also a humungous year for King himself. Let's just take a look at the upcoming projects, shall we?

All in all, an exciting, packed year ahead. I'm so excited for me, for you, and for Charnel House. Thanks for reading, everyone!

December 31, 2011

It looks as if Stephen King will be riding into the new year at #1. Not only has 11/22/63 proven a critical success, it also seems to be King's most popular novel since 1998's Bag of Bones.

Whether it's due to variance in King's popularity or the shifting attitudes of the book-buying public in general, in recent years, King's hardcovers have been hitting the New York Times Bestseller List high and then falling down (and off) rapidly. Not so with 11/22/63. It debuted at #1 - never an oddity for King - then dropped to #2 for three successive weeks as new books by James Patterson, Janet Evanovich, and Michael Connelly each smashed in at #1 ... and fell. In its fifth week, King's time travel novel shot back up to #1, making the first King hardcover to drop from the top spot and then reclaim it since 1990's The Stand. For the last three weeks, it has held fast to #1, making it King's longest stay at #1 since Dolores Claiborne's seven-week run in 1992/93.

The critics have been very kind to this book, and with good reason, but it's really gratifying that in his fifth decade of publishing books, King is just as popular as ever, if not more so. The reading audience is changing, but they still love Stephen King. That's pretty amazing.

From all of us as Charnel House to all of you out there, Happy New Year! 2012 is going to be so amazing, I promise you that!

December 23, 2011

New kick-ass anthology to benefit the even more kick-ass Rocky Wood. Hey folks! A new horror anthology called Rage Against the Night is OUT NOW, and all the proceeds go to benefit our awesome friend (and President of the Horror Writers Association) Rocky Wood, recently diagnosed with ALS.

From the Rage Against the Night site:

Under the onslaught of supernatural evil, the acts of good people can seem insignificant, but a courageous few stand apart. These brave men and women stand up to the darkness, stare it right in the eye, and give it the finger. These are the stories of those who rage against the night, stories of triumph, sacrifice, and bravery in the face of overwhelming evil.

Rage Against the Night features the megastars of dark fantasy and horror—including Stephen King, Ramsey Campbell, Peter Straub, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, F. Paul Wilson, Jonathan Maberry, Scott Nicholson, Nancy Holder, Sarah Langan, and many, many more.

All proceeds will be donated to Rocky Wood, author and President of the Horror Writers Association, who is battling motor neurone disease.

You can get the book in a variety of different ebook formats - iBooks, Kindle, Nook, .pdf, and more - through the Smashwords web site. It's only $3.99, and you not only get an awesome anthology, you also get to help a guy who really needs and deserves your support! Happy holidays, everyone!

December 22, 2011

Now, feast your eyes on THIS:

This is the mass market cover of The Wind Through the Keyhole, coming to bookstores everywhere April 24th, 2012. Now, I'm not going to say it's a BETTER cover than the limited edition ... but, um. It might be.

From King's website!

We join Roland and his ka-tet as a ferocious storm halts their progress along the Path of the Beam. As they shelter from the screaming wind and snapping trees, Roland tells them not just one strange tale, but two--and in doing so sheds fascinating light on his own troubled past.

In his early days as a gunslinger, in the guilt-ridden year following his mother's death, Roland is sent by his father to a ranch to investigate a recent slaughter. Here Roland discovers a bloody churn of bootprints, clawed animal tracks and terrible carnage--evidence that the 'skin-man', a shape-shifter, is at work. There is only one surviving witness: a brave but terrified boy called Bill Streeter.

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.'

All in all, this sounds like an entirely different kind of adventure for Roland and his clan, and though I've been suffering Tower Fatigue for awhile, this description has me very, very excited. Also, check out the promo page on King's site and scroll all the way to the bottom. Is that ... a dragon?

So excited!

December 22, 2011

Original ending of 11/22/63 coming? (WARNING: SPOILERS!) In his afterword of 11/22/63, King says

My son, the novelist Joe Hill, pointed out several consequences of time-travel I hadn't considered. He also thought up a new and better ending. Joe, you rock.

It seems as though the original (and worse?) ending will be seeing the light of day in the not-too-distant future. The moderator of King's message board reports:

I've read both [endings] and have been meaning to ask him if he would consider putting the first version on the site so people could compare. He told me he'd changed it because Joe had seen some problems with the way the first one was written but I don't know with 100% certainty whether Joe gave him specific ideas for the rewrite...

I was able to ask Steve about this, so here's his answer. Joe only told him that Jake had to meet Sadie again when she was an old lady but how that happened was completely Steve's idea so what we've read in the book was all Steve's writing based on Joe's suggestion to have Jake see Sadie one more time. He also told me it would be okay to put up the original version of the ending but I need to wait at least a month before doing so to give more people the chance to read it as published.

I loved the ending, so sight-unseen, I think I can say King made the right choice. But this is nonetheless exciting stuff! I can't wait to see the changes!

December 21, 2011

Just in time for the second day of Hannukah comes my FEARnet.com review of It: The 25th Anniversary Edition, brand-new from Cemetery Dance. In addition to my review, there's info on how to get your copy, plus a link to Brian Freeman's It photogallery. This is a TERRIFIC edition, one that does right by my favorite novel of all time.

December 21, 2011

According to King's website, the unexperdated version of The Stand will soon be available for purchase:

Random House Audio will be releasing the long-awaited unedited audiobook edition of The Stand which will be read by Grover Gardner. The exact date of publication has not yet been determined, but is tentatively scheduled to be on February 14, 2012. The recording will be released for purchase digitally by Audible.com and iTunes and available in the library market on CD.

Great news for us audio nuts! Now, how's about we work on getting Pet Sematary on audio, pretty please?

December 19, 2011

Check it out, everyone:

Also? Stephen King's foreword and the first five pages of the novel. WOW. Just wow.

Donald M. Grant is NOW TAKING ADVANCE ORDERS for this brand-new Dark Tower novel by Stephen King. There are two states:

The Deluxe edition can only be purchased by long-time customers who have matched-number copies of Grant's The Little Sisters of Eluria, OR through a lottery system as detailed by Grant:

The 800 copy of a Deluxe Edition is signed by both Stephen King and Jae Lee and is issued in a stamped clamshell tray case. Retail price is $350.00 + $6 SS for Insured Shipping.

As usual there is a much greater demand for our Deluxe Editions than copies available, so in keeping with our policy of supporting our long time customers, the S&N Deluxe Edition can be ordered only by those who have a S&N THE LITTLE SISTERS OF ELURIA below # 801 (you must still own it when we ship THE WIND THROUGH THE KEYHOLE or your order will be cancelled and any depost/payment refunded and the Deluxe Edition sold to the new owner.).

We will then do a lottery drawing approximately six weeks after the Deluxe Editions are shipped for remaining available copies but as we expect there to be very few copies available the lottery will be restricted to owners of Numbered THE LITTLE SISTERS OF ELURIA between 801 and 1,250.

LOTTERY: Send us a POSTCARD (NOT an email or letter)which reads:

“Please put me in the lottery to purchase a copy of the signed & numbered Deluxe The WIND THROUGH THE KEYHOLE. I have # ____ of The Little Sisters of Eluria.” Include your name, address, phone number, and if you wish, email address.

REMEMBER, only send in ONE post card per copy of The Little Sisters of Eluria that you have. If we receive more than one request from anyone we will throw them ALL away. We want everyone to have an equal chance.

Check out all the details on the Donald M. Grant site!

December 16, 2011

In reaction to the miniseries, my Retro Book Look review of the novel Bag of Bones is now up on FearNet.com! Check it out, hit "Like" if you like! Or even if you don't! I'm not picky! But I hope you like it a lot. Hooray!

December 14, 2011

The audio adaptation of King's ebook novella "Mile 81" is coming this January. Read by Thomas Sadoski, "Mile 81" is accompanied by an audio presentation of King's super scary short story, "The Dune," narrated by Edward Herrmann. This type of thing is neat, because it's like an audiobook single, with an A side and a B side. You can preorder it now from Amazon, but as we get closer to January 10th, it will likely also be available on iTunes and other sources, as well.

December 14, 2011

For the third week in a row, King holds tight to the #2 spot on the New York Times bestseller list for hardcover fiction, after debuting at #1. This is interesting, because as three new novels have claimed the top spot - Kill Alex Cross, Explosive Eighteen, and The Drop - King hasn't budged. 11/22/63 is shaping up to be a very tenacious bestseller, and rightfully so. Check out the current list!

December 2, 2011

Okay, this is just cool: an animated short film, accompanied by Craig Wasson's narration, depicting Jake Epping's walk through the time bubble in 11/22/63. SO. NEAT. Watch it here!

December 1, 2011

For the first time ever, Stephen King makes the New York Times "Top Ten Best Books of the Year" list with the magnificent 11/22/63. The lugubrious high-lit acceptance of Stephen King once again takes a leap forward! Harold Bloom must be having a whole litter of kittens right now. Read all about it, here!