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Duma Key

edited January 2007 in General news
Lilja heard from Scribner that they are going to release Duma Key in January 2008.
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Comments

  • According to the interview that Lilja did, it sounds like a very cool book.



    But does anyone else think that the concept there is very similar to some other stuff that he's already done? This is also about a picture thet changes every once in awhile like Rose Madder and The Road Virus Heads North. And also the whole part of drawing and adding/deleting things in the real world, sounds just like Word Processor of the Gods and DT7.



    I hope it's not a sign that he's starting to repeat himself too much.



    Any thoughts?
  • yeah, my first thought was Word Processor, than I read other thoughts about Patrick from DT VII... strange a little bit  :-?
  • King was interviewed by Hard Case Crime's Charles Ardai at the Edgar Awards last month in NYC. I just received a DVD of the interview. During the lengthy talk, King had this to say about Duma Key:



    1) As of last month, he was still working on revisions

    2) He once described the book as The Maltese Falcon meets The Shining

    3) He was walking down a lonely, quiet road in Florida one evening. Most of the houses on the road were empty. He noticed a sign that said "Slow -- Children Playing," but he'd never seen any children there before. Maybe their ghost children, he thought. He had an image of these ghost kids walking behind him and he decided at that moment that somewhere in Duma Key there were going to be dead children.

    4) The book also features a mystery from the 1920s that required him to do some research.

    5) The book is in part about memories -- how we keep them and how they change. How we remember things one way and someone else remembers them another way.

    6) Edgar's new talent, discovered after his accident and after he moves to Florida, is reminiscent of Patrick Danville's skill (though King did not mention Patrick during the interview)

    7) There was a famous child kidnapping/murder case that played out while King was in Florida. Videotape captured the kidnapping--a man walked up to the missing girl in a parking lot and lured her away. The brief video played over and over on the news. At one instant, it captures the young girl looking up at her captor with a look of trust. When the culprit was caught, he said, "I got high and did a terrible thing." King was so angry with the guy that he decided to put him in the book and do a bad thing to him.





    In unrelated news, King mentioned that he at one time considered writing a Travis McGee novel. He had the whole thing imagined in his head -- it was going to be called CHROME and would start with Meyer being shot and seriously injured while he and Travis were out for a walk on the beach. The question was going to be whether the shooter had been after Meyer or Trav.



    King was serious enough about the book to track down John D. MacDonald's son and literary estate guardian in Australia or New Zealand, but the younger MacDonald wouldn't give him permission to do the book.
  • Hey Bev is the DVD something that will be commercially available?
  • It is -- go to http://www.mysterywriters.org/ and click on Order DVD/CDs/Tapes
  • Thank you sir!
  • My pleasure. The interview and Q&A run about 1 hour total. I got a little discount as an MWA member, but then I ordered the entire set of panel sessions, too.
  • Sorry to continue to ask about this. Does the 6 DVD set include the King interview as well?



    Also the panel discussions on 6 DVDs - that must be a lot of material to go through.



    How did you find the quality of the DVDs and more importantly the panels.



    Thanks again.
  • The King interview is the final one of the six DVDs. I haven't watched the others yet so I can't comment on their quality, but the King/Ardai session was decent. The camera is stationary, so you can't see who goes to the mike for the Q&A but I didn't mind. Sound and picture were good.
  • Lilja reports that Duma Key will be approx. 592 pages and that King will narrate the audio edition.
  • Very cool about King doing the reading - he does a great job.



    BTW when do you expect to receive the ARC for Duma Key?
  • I haven't even inquired yet. I'd be surprised if there was anything available before October. King's still working on the manuscript.
  • The official U.S. release date: January 22, 2008.
  • DUMA KEY is the engaging, fascinating story of a man who discovers an incredible talent for painting after a freak accident in which he loses an arm. He moves to a 'new life' in Duma Key, off Florida's West Coast; a deserted strip, part beach, part weed-tangled, owned by a patroness of the arts whose twin sisters went missing in the 1920s.



    Duma Key is where out-of-season hurricanes tears lives apart and a powerful undertow lures lost and tormented souls. Here Freemantle is inspired to paint the amazing sunsets. But soon the paintings become predictive, even dangerous. Freemantle knows the only way forward is to discover what happened to the twin sisters -- and what is the secret of the strange old lady who holds the key?



    The story is about friendship, about the bond between a father and his daughter. And about memory, truth and art. It is also is a metaphor for the life and inspiration of a writer, and an exploration of the nature, power and influence of fiction.
  • Oooh!  girlie squeal! :-[  Sounds very good!
  • Bev_Vincent wrote: Lilja reports that ... King will narrate the audio edition.



    Lilja now reports that King won’t be narrating the audio version of Duma Key as previously planed. This because it dosn’t fit into his schedule at the moment.
  • Here's the full cover in color:



  • anyone know when ARCs are going out? i'll need to get in touch with Scribner.



    -justin
  • I haven't heard yet. I'd guess maybe October/November.
  • John Fulbrook designed and Mark Stutzman illustrated this cover. Stutzman has done many of King's covers for Scribner.



    King's publicist at Scribner told me today they don't yet have a galley date.
  • A video teaser for Duma Key at Amazon
  • John Slattery will read the audio version of the book.







    Lilja
  • I just won one of the ARCs via a BIN:



    Duma Key ARC



    John
  • Hoping to get mine from Scribner any day now...
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