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Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Sleeping Beauties TOUR with Stephen King and Owen King @stephenking @owenkingwriter @scribnerbooks

Sleeping Beauties
by Stephen King and Owen King
Scribner Books

❈ Available NOW ❈


Ok everyone - I FINALLY, FINALLY attended my first King book event last night.  It was through Books Are Magic, located at St. Ann's Church in Brooklyn and was a first come, first seat type of event.  Which meant by the time I got there, I was bringing up the ass end of the line and had to sit ALL the way in the back!  But hey, I got there and THAT's the important part... right?  RIGHT!  Or, that's what I'm telling myself anyways.  

First, the venue is GORGEOUS!  Check out pics and even get some history on this church HERE. But, since it's the first week of fall and the weather decided to be summer, it was muggy and HOT and there was no air in the building so I was trying to sit as still as I could, allllll the way in the back.  Did I mention how FAR away I was from the Kings?  Oh, yes?  Anyhooooooo,  it was fairly miserable in there and most of the time I could feel myself shriveling up like a raisin as my body starting craving water, or any liquid of any kind, and a fan... a big ass fan that shot cold air at all of me!  But then, the event begins...

First of all, I didn't realize that Books Are Magic (an independent book store in Cobble Hill/Brooklyn) is owned by Emma Straub... Peter Straub's daughter!  And apparently he was also at the event but I couldn't see him because he was in the front row.. and well, you know where I was!  Apparently she's known the King family all her life so it was cool to see that this whole event was a bit family style. 💝

I won't go into the details of what they spoke about in case it's a somewhat repetitive thing throughout their tour and you'll be attending - no spoilers here, EVER (or at least I always try my very best not to)... BUT, I will say that their collaboration story is fantastic.  It was fantastic to listen to them feed off each other as they told their stories from King's experiences when he was younger, to their relationship when Owen was younger.  

On the way out, you turned in your wrist band for a copy of Sleeping Beauties and signed copies were riddled throughout the stack.  I was THRILLED to see my copy is signed!! SQUEEE!!  I'm truly excited for this story - I'll be honest, I auto bought this book because well, it's KING... but I had no clue what the story was about.  And quite frankly, I could use some time cocooned up - what say you? 

Let me leave you with this thought though - Bill Hader as a young Stephen King?  What do you think??  👍


Goodreads Synopsis:

In this spectacular father-son collaboration, Stephen King and Owen King tell the highest of high-stakes stories: what might happen if women disappeared from the world of men?

In a future so real and near it might be now, something happens when women go to sleep; they become shrouded in a cocoon-like gauze. If they are awakened, if the gauze wrapping their bodies is disturbed or violated, the women become feral and spectacularly violent; and while they sleep they go to another place. The men of our world are abandoned, left to their increasingly primal devices. One woman, however, the mysterious Evie, is immune to the blessing or curse of the sleeping disease. Is Evie a medical anomaly to be studied, or is she a demon who must be slain? Set in a small Appalachian town whose primary employer is a women’s prison, Sleeping Beauties is wildly provocative and gloriously absorbing.


About the Authors:


Stephen King

Stephen Edwin King was born the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. After his father left them when Stephen was two, he and his older brother, David, were raised by his mother. Parts of his childhood were spent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father's family was at the time, and in Stratford, Connecticut. When Stephen was eleven, his mother brought her children back to Durham, Maine, for good. Her parents, Guy and Nellie Pillsbury, had become incapacitated with old age, and Ruth King was persuaded by her sisters to take over the physical care of them. Other family members provided a small house in Durham and financial support. After Stephen's grandparents passed away, Mrs. King found work in the kitchens of Pineland, a nearby residential facility for the mentally challenged.

Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. From his sophomore year at the University of Maine at Orono, he wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper, THE MAINE CAMPUS. He was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. He came to support the anti-war movement on the Orono campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the war in Vietnam was unconstitutional. He graduated in 1970, with a B.A. in English and qualified to teach on the high school level. A draft board examination immediately post-graduation found him 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums.

He met Tabitha Spruce in the stacks of the Fogler Library at the University, where they both worked as students; they married in January of 1971. As Stephen was unable to find placement as a teacher immediately, the Kings lived on his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry, and her student loan and savings, with an occasional boost from a short story sale to men's magazines.

Stephen made his first professional short story sale ("The Glass Floor") to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. Throughout the early years of his marriage, he continued to sell stories to men's magazines. Many were gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies.

In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching English at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels.



Owen King

I'm the author of the novel Double Feature and We're All In This Together: A Novella and Stories, co-editor (with John McNally) of the anthology Who Can Save Us Now, and co-author (with Mark Poirier) of the graphic novel Intro to Alien Invasion. My writing has appeared in publications such as GrantlandThe Los Angeles Review of BooksPrairie SchoonerSubtropicsLady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, and One Story. My next book, Sleeping Beauties, a novel co-authored with Stephen King, will be published by Scribner in 2017. 

My wife is the beautiful and mysterious Kelly Braffet. She has written three wonderful books, but my personal favorite is Save Yourself

Here are what a couple of my favorite authors were nice enough to say about Double Feature:

“What a kinetic, joyful, gonzo ride—Double Feature made me laugh so loudly on a plane that I had to describe the plot of Sam's Spruce Moose of a debut film (it stars a satyr) to my seatmate by way of explanation. Booth and Sam are an unforgettable Oedipal duo. A book that delivers walloping pleasures to its lucky readers.” - Karen Russell, author of Swamplandia! 

“Sharp, hilarious, and irreverent, Double Feature is not only a love-letter to cinema, but also a moving exploration of what it means to be an artist. This novel is brilliant, and Owen King is a magician.” - Lauren Groff, author of The Monsters of Templeton and Arcadia

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