Anderson’s Bookshop in downtown Naperville delivered the best gift for those who are avid horror and Stephen King fans: they brought Stephen and Owen King to Naperville for their book tour. Following the Sept. 26 release of Stephen and Owen King’s new novel, “Sleeping Beauties,” the father-son duo greeted an audience of about 3,300 in North Central’s Res/Rec.
Photo by Halle Olson
Candace Purdom, publicity and events head, said this is one of the largest crowds they have seen for any of their events. Fans were decked out in their Stephen King merchandise, and one fan even brought along a single, red balloon.
The event started with Stephen and Owen each reading an excerpt from their new novel. From there, Owen did a Q&A with his father. The father-son duo mentioned that Owen was the one who came up with the idea for “Sleeping Beauties.” Owen admitted that it wasn’t something he would ever think of doing since his father is approached all the time by people about possible story ideas. However, he pitched the idea, and well, the rest is history.
Stephen’s main advice for aspiring writers is to “write what comes to your mind.” He also says that being brave will be beneficial in the long run.
Another word of advice Stephen gave is to always read reviews that people write about your books, even if they are less than pleasant. “Worse thing you can do is not read your reviews,” he states.
The night progressed with father-and-son banter over the new book and being a writer. Owen even brought out a quiz book all about Stephen King and made his dad answer a few of the questions from the book. Stephen also had a thing or two to say about President Trump, relating the president to some of his characters in “Dead Zone” and “Under the Dome.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: The author sent his thanks to the Naperville/NCC crowd via Twitter the next morning:
