Diane Kratz at Stephen King Book signing event.
November 13, 2014 KC, Mo.
What happens when you finally get to be in a room with a legendary author you fell in love with as a teen? Would you fear being disappointed? Well, I did, and I wasn’t disappointed!
On November 13, 2014, this chick went to a Stephen King event in Kansas City, MO. Rainy Day Books put on the event. My sisters from Midwest Romance Writers and I all went as a group.
Stephen King on stage, wearing a Royal’s ball cap.
He came out on stage wearing a Kansas City Royals ball cap, and of course the crowd roared. (Read the blog above this one)
He even read an excerpt from his new book, Revival. How cool is that!
As a wanna-be author, I was enthralled especially when he talked about his writing process. He’ll see a story on the news and it will stick with him or, as he said, “percolates” for a few weeks or even months. The idea begins to beg him to write about it. Once it does, he sits and writes his story. The writing takes about four months, sometimes longer. But his bottom line was, “it takes as long as it takes, but if you don’t keep at it, you don’t pay the bills.”
Of all the authors I’ve ever read, he is the one that sticks out as the “Great One” and always will be. Carrie scared the hell out of me when I was fifteen and went to the movies to see it with my girlfriends. That part where Carrie’s hand comes up from the grave and grabs her friend’s hand, just when she about to lay flowers on her grave, still gives me the willies. I think about it every time I visit the cemetery.
stephenking.wikia.com
That, my friends, is what you call great writing—if the image is still with you from something you’ve read or seen a couple of decades ago. He talked about being called the “King of Horror” and how he never thought of himself as writing horror. He told about an older lady who came up to him in the grocery store and said, “I know who you are. You’re that man who writes all them horrible books and I don’t read those. Why can’t you write something like Shawshank Redemption or The Green Mile?”
Ha! He wrote them both.
One of the questions he is always asked is, “What happened in your childhood that would make you write the kind of stories you write?” He didn’t have a bad childhood. His mother was a “hardcore” Methodist. He himself doesn’t like organized religion because it forces people to act, believe and think like the institution and not for themselves.
He read an excerpt from his new book, an excerpt about music. He loves rock and roll. The Rain Day people had a guitar brought in and he played song “Gloria” by the Doors for us. It was GREAT!
-
- Stephen King with guitar in KC, Mo.
-
- dailydead.com
He talked about being offered a cameo part in Sons of Anarchy (one of my favorite TV series). He loves Kurt Sutter’s writing. He said, “Ordinarily I would say no but he said he’d put me on a Harley, so I agreed.” Sutter also assured King that his character would be doing something “suitably nasty.”
latimesblogs.latimes.com
Stephen King played “Bachman” in Season Three, Episode Three, titled “Caregiver.” Also interesting for me is that King wrote two novels under the pen name of Richard Bachman—The Running Man (1987) and Thinner (1996). http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1559911/
King has been getting some bad press here in Kansas from Kerri Rawson, daughter of Dennis Rader (aka BTK serial killer from Wichita, Kansas), over his screenplay and upcoming TV movie from a story inspired by Dennis Rader. “A Good Marriage” is a story in a collection from his book published in 2010, Full Dark, No Stars. See Associated Press article dated September 27, 2014: http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2014/09/27/daughter-btk-killer-publicly-criticizes-stephen-king/
insidemovies.ew.com
I am happy he is making the movie because his last stop before he came to KC was in Wichita, and I assume that was what brought him to our state. I love Stephen King books. As a writer, we get our ideas from the environment around us. Anyone who says different is in denial. I can’t wait for the movie to come out, and I ordered “Full Dark, No Stars” and got it today. I can’t wait to start reading it!
And so does Heidi Senesac!
One disappointment was Stephen King only signed a certain number of books. I didn’t get one. But our wonderful president of MRW did and e-mailed me asking if we could trade because she knows I’m a big fan! Thank you, Heidi! You’re the best friend ever and a wonderful president of our group!
What a year it has been! Life just keeps getting better and better!
Until next time,
Happy writing,
Diane Kratz
Blog Edited by: Sally Berneathy
Profiles of Murder 
Wonderful series of articles, Kim. Glad you’re thriving on adventure this year. And I didn’t know Heidi exchanged books with you. Congrats! I knew she was awesome. I didn’t know how awesome.
Pretty Damn Awesome in my world!
Great article!
Being in the same room with a writer who has a legacy of being the bestselling horror/psychological fiction writer ever, must have been thrilling. I’ve always been amazed by Stephen King’s talents of how he can write gory, outlandish fiction like Carrie, yet write profoundly moving stories like The Green Mile, and The Shawshank Redemption has got to be one of the most compelling stories of all time.
For me, it was probably the most thrilling event I ever went too. Thanks Rosary for stopping by!
Diane
It was a great evening spent with great friends.
I had the best time. And thank you Gemma/Heidi for the autographed book! I love you to the moon and back!
How cool just to be in the same room on the same day at the same time, thinking, this is possible, success as a writer is possible.
I remember reading about Dean Koontz one time that he doesn’t write horror, he writes hope. I believe Stephen King does the same in his own way. There may (or may not) be a horrific background, but the core message of King novels I’ve read that come to mind are that love and honor persevere, and anything good is worth fighting for.
Hi Sherry,
Thrilled you stopped by. And I couldn’t agree with you more, that’s why his been around so long. It was a thrill for me to be in the same room as him. He is one of the “Great Ones”, and I wasn’t disappointed.
How fabulous that you got to meet Stephen King! I’m green with envy. I learned a lot about him from this post, so thank you for that. I’ve always loved his books, too. BTW, my husband was a homicide detective in Wichita and worked the BTK killings prior to 1982 when he retired there and became Chief here.
Wow, Jackie! I didn’t know that. Guess I know who to ask if I have questions about the case. Did you know Dr. Katherine Ramsland has a book coming out next month, on BTK? She and another doctor conducted interviews with him. I don’t know the name yet, but I can’t wait to read it and find out their take on the guy. Thanks for stopping by!
Diane