The Rock Bottom Remainders

Did you know Stephen King played in a band called "The Rock Bottom Remainders?" I knew he has been a lover of rock and roll for most of his life. You can tell this by the things he writes about. I had even heard he was in a band, but it was this week that I learned he formed the band with several of his author friends: Matt Groening, Dave Barry, Roy Blount, Jr., Mitch Albom, and Amy Tan.

There was an interview I found on YouTube this week about a final concert by the Rock Bottom Remainders. In that interview he talked a lot about his inspirations in music. He talks about how music affected his writing.  You can Watch the interview here:

It is fun to watch these men and women sing songs that are raw and inspired, most are cover songs that musicians have loved all their lives. They go around the country and sing for charity.  Here is King singing Dirty Water:

2 Movies for Stephen King's "It" a Good Idea?

All the news today about Stephen King has been about the making of one of his earlier novels called "It" directed by Cary Fukunaga. The thing is, they are planning to split the movie into two parts. I am sitting here wondering if this is a good idea or not.

On the one hand there are enough Stephen King Fans out there, the movie will probably make enough money to make both movies. I know I am one of those people who will go out and pay the ridiculous amounts of money to see the films. I just hope they don't make it in 3D.

The story is long enough they will be able to fit it into two movies. I just wonder if it is necessary. Stephen King has problems with Movies and TV because he treats it like a novel. I spends so much time on the world and character building that he loses the short attention spans of people who would rather watch the film instead of reading a book-stop of a novel.

On the other hand I am not sure the story can be successfully split into two. There are so many things going on in this story. I guess they could split it into time periods. The first movie would be about the group as kids and how they all left town. Then the second movie could be about them coming back together as adults to face the one thing that changed their lives forever.

Needless to say, this is going to be a fun couple of films based on one of King's Masterpieces. It is going to be fun, scary and will remind us why we all hate clowns.

Stephen King Seems to be Writing More

I find it amazing how much Mr King is writing these days. I think it has to do with not being able to do as much as he wanted to do with TV and Movies as he was hoping to do. After his accident Stephen was not sure how much more writing he was going to be able to do. He even warned his readers that he might be cutting back on the amount he was writing. That thought was just that; only a thought.

He focused on his dark tower series and completed the seven book series. Then he started releasing nearly 2 books per year after that. The man is a writing machine. Today I got a birthday present in the mail. It was the collectors edition of his book called Under the Dome. It has been out for a while. It is a doorstop at 1074 pages. This is one that is going to take me a while to read.

He recently came out with a novel about time travel and the Kennedy assassination. Then just this month I got a copy of Esquire Magazine that has a new story by King in it. I believe it is part one. the August issue will have part 2 in it. I forgot how much fun it was collecting everything Stephen King. 

I want to take the inspiration of Kings prolific writing and apply it to my own work. I want to write something that is going to inspire me to write even more. I want to create a masterpiece that will live on in people's minds and on their bookcases. I want to inspire myself to keep writing.