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Print This PageLooking thin and pale in baggy jeans, T-shirt and Red Sox baseball cap, author and part-time local resident Stephen King was eager to get started on a local book signing that drew massive fan reaction Monday night.
“I got the flu, so don’t breathe on me … it’s gonna be ‘The Stand,’” King hollered to the crowd in Barnes & Noble Monday night, referring to his book about how good and evil face off to horrific consequences. “I don’t know how long I can be with you.”
King slipped in through the back door of the bookstore about 30 minutes earlier than his scheduled 7 p.m. appearance to sign hundreds of copies of his new novel “11/22/63.”
The color-coded line of book-buyers seeking autographs snaked up and down every aisle of the South Tamiami Trail store as employees directed groups who were organized by wristband color and brought inside in groups of 50 patrons at a time. King immediately set to work signing flyleaves.
Fans were handled with expediency to move the process along. “Have it facing him, get that book open to the right spot,” ordered Nancy Barbara, regional community relations manager for the store.
See a gallery of photos from the signing
William Conklin from Dunedin was first to get his book signed.
“I think he’s fantastic,” said Conklin, who’s read all of King’s books since “Carrie” was published in 1974. “I would read anything he writes.”
Conklin arrived about 12:30 p.m. to collect a copy of the book he’d called ahead to reserve. The Clearwater store was sold out.
That was true in Sarasota as well, where all the local store’s copies were sold shortly after noon. Although store managers don’t give specific numbers, Sandi Gershon, community relations manager, said they’d sold more than 800 copies since the books arrived last Tuesday.
King’s official appearances in Sarasota are relatively rare, although he’s sometimes spotted browsing in area bookstores or shopping at Publix. King, 64, a native of Maine, owns a winter home on Casey Key. He has sold an estimated 350 million books.
Fans spent the afternoon scrambling to find copies at other retail outlets after Barnes & Noble suspended its policy of King signing only books sold by Barnes & Noble.
Nichole Hamilton and Wendy Scott got up at 4 a.m. and drove from Lakeland to collect their wristbands and copies of the book, which is about a time-traveling English teacher who tries to prevent the assassination of slain President John F. Kennedy.
“He’s a living legend,” said Scott, who described herself as an avid reader. “You don’t have an opportunity to meet somebody you respect and admire.”
There was no time for talking in the line, as King scrawled his signature on book after book — one per customer, no personalization. A roped-off area in front of the table where King signed was filled with fans snapping photos with cell phones and digital cameras.
A few scenes in the new book are set in the Sarasota area, as King’s protagonist, Jake Epping, makes his way from Maine to Texas via Florida, stalking Lee Harvey Oswald. Epping later suffers a serious beating that feels reminiscent of King’s accident of 1999 in which he was struck by a minivan while walking in Maine and suffered severe injuries.
What a fabulous author….Have to admit he appears to be a bit looney….The thing I find most interesting about Mr King is that he support things like the “occupy movement” and many anti-capitalist groups while living in a $10 Million Dollar Mansion on North Casey Key with access to the beach there barricaded to the proletariat…Mr.King..”Take Down That Wall !”