Stephen King Reads From the Sequel to The Shining

On Friday, September 23rd, Stephen King put the proverbial "icing on the cake" at this year's Fall for the Book Festival by reading from Dr. Sleep, the yet unfinished sequel to The Shining. Dr. Sleep picks up the story of the original book's now-grown up psychic child, Danny Torrance. Danny, now in his 40s, is a hospice worker who helps his patients die painlessly. There are vampires in this story. The vampire clan is called The Tribe. But they don't suck blood, they suck out psychic energy from people like Danny Torrance.

Stephen King first announced the idea of a sequel in 2009 at a reading of Under the Dome in Toronto.

Here's the fantastic video of his visit and acceptance of the Mason Prize at the Center for the Arts Concert Hall on George Mason University's Fairfax, VA campus. It does contain adult language that may not be suitable for children (I don't want you to just push play and be surprised if you have little ones around). The actual reading from Dr. Sleep begins at the 29-minute mark. Many thanks to GMU-TV for sharing it with us.

What's your favorite Stephen King novel?

Stephen King Short Story On Sale Now

Mile 81, a new short story by Stephen King is available only as an e-book.. 80 pages in length, King unleashes his imagination with another chilling tale set in an abandoned rest stop.

At Mile 81 on the Maine Turnpike is a boarded up rest stop on a highway in Maine. It's a place where high school kids drink and get into the kind of trouble high school kids have always gotten into. It's the place where Pete Simmons goes when his older brother, who's supposed to be looking out for him, heads off to the gravel pit to play "paratroopers over the side." Pete, armed only with the magnifying glass he got for his tenth birthday, finds a discarded bottle of vodka in the boarded up burger shack and drinks enough to pass out.

Not much later, a mud-covered station wagon (which is strange because there hadn't been any rain in New England for over a week) veers into the Mile 81 rest area, ignoring the sign that says "closed, no services." The driver's door opens but nobody gets out.

Doug Clayton, an insurance man from Bangor, is driving his Prius to a conference in Portland. On the backseat are his briefcase and suitcase and in the passenger bucket is a King James Bible, what Doug calls "the ultimate insurance manual," but it isn't going to save Doug when he decides to be the Good Samaritan and help the guy in the broken down wagon. He pulls up behind it, puts on his four-ways, and then notices that the wagon has no plates.

Ten minutes later, Julianne Vernon, pulling a horse trailer, spots the Prius and the wagon, and pulls over. Julianne finds Doug Clayton's cracked cell phone near the wagon door — and gets too close herself. By the time Pete Simmons wakes up from his vodka nap, there are a half a dozen cars at the Mile 81 rest stop. Two kids — Rachel and Blake Lussier — and one horse named Deedee are the only living left. Unless you maybe count the wagon.

Mile 81 also features a free excerpt from King's next novel, 11/22/63, which goes on sale Nov. 8. The novel is about a high school teacher who discovers a portal to 1958 and goes back in time with hopes of stopping the JFK assassination.

Happy reading,

Angela

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