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Man vandalizes King novels in Aussie bookstore
Or so the owners thought...
He is one of the world's top authors - but not in Alice Springs.
Horror maestro Stephen King was mistaken for a vandal in a book shop in the Outback city, it has emerged.
Customers at Dymocks raised the alarm yesterday after King was seen signing several of his own books.
Store manager Bev Ellis said the onlookers thought he was vandalising the books.
But the horror novelist was soon recognised.
Ms Ellis followed him to a nearby supermarket - where the multi-millionaire was buying fruit and veg - and thanked him for autographing seven copies of his latest work, Lisey's Story.
A customer immediately bought one of the books and the shop plans to donate the rest to be auctioned for charity.
King is believed to have left Alice yesterday afternoon.
Ms Ellis said the author's surprise visit and private signing session was not particularly eccentric.
"Lots of authors do it," she said. "They'll come into the shop and check if their works are on the shelves.
"If they are, they'll often sign a few copies. If they're not, they'll ask about them.
"It's embarrassing if we haven't got their work on the shelves."
Ms Ellis said King was on a private visit to the Territory and wanted to keep a low profile.
"His Australian distributor rang me and he didn't even know King was in the country."
He is one of the world's top authors - but not in Alice Springs.
Horror maestro Stephen King was mistaken for a vandal in a book shop in the Outback city, it has emerged.
Customers at Dymocks raised the alarm yesterday after King was seen signing several of his own books.
Store manager Bev Ellis said the onlookers thought he was vandalising the books.
But the horror novelist was soon recognised.
Ms Ellis followed him to a nearby supermarket - where the multi-millionaire was buying fruit and veg - and thanked him for autographing seven copies of his latest work, Lisey's Story.
A customer immediately bought one of the books and the shop plans to donate the rest to be auctioned for charity.
King is believed to have left Alice yesterday afternoon.
Ms Ellis said the author's surprise visit and private signing session was not particularly eccentric.
"Lots of authors do it," she said. "They'll come into the shop and check if their works are on the shelves.
"If they are, they'll often sign a few copies. If they're not, they'll ask about them.
"It's embarrassing if we haven't got their work on the shelves."
Ms Ellis said King was on a private visit to the Territory and wanted to keep a low profile.
"His Australian distributor rang me and he didn't even know King was in the country."
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Alice Bed Springs, Australia - (Ass Mess): Horror fiction writer Stephen King was finally nabbed by an Australian bookstore and ejected from the premises after CCTV caught him 'wantonly scribbling' inside display items at an Alice Springs shop.
"This was a major act of vandalism," bookstore owner Baz Bongo said today.
"We had a tip off last week that there's this guy pretending to be a world famous author, making unannounced visits to shops in the area and leaving disgusting written messages inside first editions of our top best sellers.
"Messages like 'Congratulations on your superb eclectic taste in literature'.
"Literature? I ask you.
"So we laid on a few extra cameras and sure enough it didn't take long before he targetted our store."
The author is best known for works such as Carrie, The Shining and Misery.
When police officers arrived and saw the evidence he was taken away and charged with five counts of vandalism and destruction of property.
His latest effort, a novel called Lisey's Story is struggling in the ratings.
The bookstore has said the damaged books will be incinerated "unless somebody makes us an offer, maybe for sale at auction on the internet.
"Round these parts it's common for writers to visit stores, check if their books are on the shelves and maybe pen something totally gross or disgusting on the inside of the dust jacket, especially if their books are performing badly in the sales figures.
"Frankly, it's embarrassing."
HBJ,
Aussie expat.
American thriller writer Stephen King visited Kalgoorlie today. The Kalgoorlie Miner caught up with him for a chat. The photograph is by Mary Mills and the story by Alicia Bridges:
A magic swag, two broken axles and a desert diva, among other characters, could have provided some uniquely Australian inspiration to literary legend Stephen King during his journey across the central desert.
But the humble genius assures Goldfields residents he was only on holiday when he explored Kalgoorlie-Boulder yesterday. Before enlisting the help of a regular bush mechanic to fix a broken axle using tree branches and hub caps, King and his co-traveller Carter Withey found themselves sleeping under the stars, watching camels stroll by from their swags.
The experience conjured imagery of a “magic swag”, the only story idea King revealed when he spoke with the Kalgoorlie Miner yesterday.
King set out on the trek across Australia, with his Harley in tow, to complete a journey started with a close friend Joe Floyd who has since passed away.
The pair decided to ride their motorcycles across Australia in 1997, however Floyd’s experience with two-wheeled machines had ended 20 years before and they chose not to travel the central desert realising they might not have been prepared at the time.
“I said ‘can you ride’ and he said yes,” King said.
“He hadn’t been on one in 20 years. The first roundabout we got to he dumped his bike.
“He said that this was the best time of his life over here in Australia.”
The trip has taken King from Alice Springs, through Warburton and Warakurna, stopping in Laverton yesterday where he met the renowned “desert diva”, a shop-owner noted in the Kalgoorlie Miner recently who he described as “kick-ass”.
King said the Australian outback had strong similarities to America’s west, however he said even in the United States’ most remote corners there were still links to civilization with powerlines and usually phone coverage.
“Until you get here you don’t realise how different it is,” he said.
“(America’s West) is empty but you always see a powerline or a house twinkling off in the distance. Out here there’s f**king nothing.”
King and Withey planned to tour the underground tunnels of the KCGM Super Pit, a reminder of the Nevada open pit mine which inspired the story Desperation, named after the town.
However King described his impression of Kalgoorlie-Boulder as a hard-working town showing plenty of life in the midst of the resources boom.
While he noted the trip was an opportunity to clear his head, there is still the possibility locals could find themselves in tale or two as the author claims inspiration can come at any time.
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