Short Story Collection - Just After Sunset

BevVincent

The cover, as posted at Amazon. Not so sure I'm very fond of it.

jhanic

Looking at the cover gives me a headache!



John

CRinVA

I am not too fond of this cover! Really!

DanishFan

I'm confident this won't be the cover. Amazon is like IMDB in many ways. A lot of guesses, early speculations, no sense of discerning rumors, so no need to worry. Also, King himself would probably prefer a better cover.

willowlove

Have to agree that the cover needs work.  Also, it is the official cover (for now)--you can see it at the publisher's site.

Lilja

Yes, Scribner confirmed that this is the cover they'll use.



Lilja

BevVincent

Promo video at Amazon with King talking about short stories.

BevVincent

I found reference to a teaser from H&S (UK) for the collection:

The Hodder and Stoughton team know of my fascination for all things King and were kind enough to send me a proof volume of his new collection containing four of the stories as well as a new introduction and afterword from King himself.

jhanic

I've asked my UK contact if he can get me a copy. He's been VERY reliable in the past.



John

BevVincent

"Carlos Detweiller" is interested in getting a copy, too, so if you can hook him up, I'm sure he'd appreciate it.

jhanic

Unfortunately, my contact only has the one copy. I've already talked to Carlos.



John

BevVincent

Just After Sunset

Stephen King. Scribner, $28 (384p) ISBN 978-1-4165-8408-7

In the introduction to his first collection of short fiction since Everything’s Eventual (2002), King credits editing Best American Short Stories (2007) with reigniting his interest in the short form and inducing some of this volume’s contents. Most of these 13 tales show him at the top of his game, molding the themes and set pieces of horror and suspense fiction into richly nuanced blends of fantasy and psychological realism. “The Things They Left Behind,” a powerful study of survivor guilt, is one of several supernatural disaster stories that evoke the horrors of 9/11. Like the crime thrillers “The Gingerbread Girl” and “A Very Tight Place,” both of which feature protagonists struggling with apparently insuperable threats to life, it is laced with moving ruminations on mortality that King attributes to his own well-publicized near-death experience. Even the smattering of genre-oriented works shows King trying out provocative new vehicles for his trademark thrills, notably “N.,” a creepy character study of an obsessive-compulsive that subtly blossoms into a tale of cosmic terror in the tradition of Arthur Machen and H.P. Lovecraft. Culled almost entirely from leading mainstream periodicals, these stories are a testament to the literary merits of the well-told macabre tale. (Nov.)

BevVincent

This short story collection is read by:





Stephen King (reading "Harvey's Dream")



Jill Eikenberry (reading "Graduation Afternoon" and "The New York Times at Special Discount Rates")



Holter Graham (reading "Willa," "The Cat from Hell" and excerpts of "N.")



George Guidall (reading "Ayana")



Ron McLarty (reading "A Very Tight Place" and "Stationary Bike," previously recorded)



Denis O'Hare (reading "Rest Stop" and the title character for "N.")



Ben Shenkman (reading "The Things They Left Behind" and the character Johnny for "N.")



Skipp Sudduth (reading "Mute")



Mare Winningham (reading "The Gingerbread Girl," previously recorded)



Karen Ziemba (reading the character Sheila for "N.")

BevVincent

According to PW: Just After Sunset by Stephen King (Scribner, $28). 1.25 million copies.

jhanic

Thanks, Bev. I was wondering.



John

BevVincent

Print runs for short story collections are typically lower than for novels. This is about the same size as the first printing of The Regulators.

jhanic

And this is the announced print run.  I know the actual run can vary also.  But it gives a good general indication of the size of the run. It sure won't be one of the rarer items!



John

BevVincent

I'm not sure there's many first trade editions of a King book that I would consider "collectable" (from a scarcity point of view) since the mid 80s. I remember when The Talisman was announced with a 750,000 copy first printing. I'm sure there must be a fair number of those still kicking around somewhere!

jhanic

The Illustrated Salem's Lot had a fairly small initial print run, I've heard (25,000 copies). From what I've seen of that one, though, I think it was substantially higher than that. Other than that one possibility, though, I agree.



John

willowlove

The paperback for Duma Key came out today and I see that "The Cat from Hell" is included at the end, so if you want to read it before Just After Sunset is released, there you are.

BevVincent

Interesting -- it's also in the 10th anniversary edition of Bag of Bones.



The story feels badly dated compared to the others in Just After Sunset. I don't know what inspired him to include it.



I received my finished copy of JAS from Scribner last night. The front cover is even funkier live than it seems in images.

DanishFan

You mean King didn't update and revise it?

BevVincent

I didn't compare it with the previous versions, but the story itself is just old-school King, like something he dashed off to raise a coupla hundred bucks for prescriptions.

willowlove

6 days early, we have The New York Times review.





And, as long as I'm posting, RIP Michael Crichton.

Lou_Sytsma

Wow! On the Michael Crichton news. I had no idea.