Stephen King
Stephen King (September 21, 1947 - ) is an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, memoirist, graphic literature writer, and singular force to be reckoned with in publishing, book selling, and popular entertainment. He is the author of 61 novels (at the present moment) and over 200 short stories. His range of style and subject is underrated by assumptions of reviewers and readers who prefer (or abhor) one “Stephen King” over another “Stephen King.” I would suggest that there are few writers, no matter what pretensions they or their readers have, who have provided a more comprehensive analysis of post-WWII America into the 21st Century. King pursues relentlessly our fears, our paranoias, our comforts, our dreams, our nightmares, our obsessions, our moments of grace. He is breathtakingly familiar with our materialistic dependencies, sometimes to a satirical extent, sometimes as a secular hymn to his love of American culture. Always, however, King is curious about people, the everyday remarkable and interesting people who live in his and our world. He sees how they act, imagines what they think, deduces what they believe — and then he tests them. And us.
I remember seeing the all-black-but-one-red-blood-drop cover of ‘Salem’s Lot in a book kiosk in Dulles International Airport when I was a kid. That hooked me. It is still one of the scariest books I know. As a bookseller I have sold King for 40 years as of 2022. He never gets old. Enjoy — if you dare.
A Face in the Crowd and The Longest December
A Face in the Crowd and The Longest December
PUBLICATION “3/7/23” — STILL WAITING as of 4/7/23!
A unique new book published in the old-fashioned "double" tradition!
by Stephen King and Stewart O'Nan.
by Richard Chizmar.
Artists: Ben Baldwin (cover), Mark Edward Geyer (interiors).
Featuring cover artwork for both sides by Ben Baldwin
Interior artwork for each novella by Mark Edward Geyer
Trade Hardcover Edition
• Printed on acid-free paper
• Bound in cloth with colored head and tail bands
• Featuring hot foil stamping on the front boards and spine
• Wrapped in a full-color dust jacket
A Face in the Crowd by Stephen King and Stewart O'Nan (FIRST TIME IN PRINT!)
Dean Evers, an elderly widower, sits in front of the television with nothing better to do than waste his leftover evenings watching baseball. It's Rays/Mariners, and David Price is breezing through the line-up. Suddenly, in a seat a few rows up beyond the batter, Evers sees the face of someone from decades past, someone who shouldn't be at the ballgame, shouldn't be on the planet. And so begins a parade of people from Evers's past, all of them occupying that seat behind home plate. Until one day Dean Evers sees someone even eerier...
The Longest December by Richard Chizmar (EXPANDED VERSION!)
Bob and Katy Howard are a typical middle-aged couple living the good life in the suburbs. They're happily married, have successful careers, and a grown son starting college. Their recently widowed next-door neighbor, James Wilkinson, is practically a member of the Howard family. When police show up at the Howard's doorstep one snowy December morning with the news that they have been investigating Wilkinson for a series of violent crimes, Bob and Katy are left in shock and disbelief. The elderly James Wilkinson they know and love is kind and gentle. He shared their Thanksgiving table just a couple weeks earlier. He couldn't possibly be responsible for the gruesome deeds of which he's being accused. Or could he?
The Longest December (a revised and expanded version of Chizmar's acclaimed novella, A Long December) is a cat-and-mouse, Hitchcockian thriller that will shock you with its brutal twists and turns while also breaking your heart. Stephen King calls it "...a really terrific piece of work. I couldn't put it down. Chizmar played his cards with great craft. I'm an old hand at this, but I kept chasing the red herrings."