An Evening with Stephen King
Never in a ba-gillion years did I think that I would ever be seated a few feet away from my favorite author, Stephen King. I mean, the only way I thought I would ever get to see him is if I took my ass to Lovell, Main and walked around town hoping to run into him while he was on one of his walks. I know what you are thinking...."creeper much?" Yup.
One phone call from my friend, Amy, changed all of that. Changed that line of thinking, anyway. Amy called me to tell me that Stephen King would be at McKinney High School in November. She told me how to get tickets from a bookstore's website. Moments after I spoke with her, my ticket to the event and my ticket for the plane to get me there were both purchased.
On the day of the event Amy picked my ass up from the Dallas airport and drove me to Mckinney high school where Will (her husband) and two of their friends joined us. We arrived at the high school at 4:00 and got in line. About 5-10 people were ahead of us. The line quickly grew to snake around the corner of the building.
Wait a second...how is it that I have never noticed that snaggle tooth of mine?
We made friends with those around us and got all nerdy talking about Stephen King books.
We were very excited and could not wait to get in the auditorium.
Here is Will with his boss moustache. Oh yeah, I said "Boss" as in Incrediably Awesome; miraculous; great. Will grows that shit out for Movember (moustache November....raises money for prostate cancer research).
After waiting for an hour outside, they finally let us into the auditorium. We were able to get seats only a few rows back from the stage! This lady (pictured below) was seated in the row directly in front of us. She was the worst! There were tote bags on our seats and she stole Will's right in front of him! I wanted to give her a piece of my mind, but Amy suggested that we not tarnish the energy of the evening.
Later, the woman took out her ipad and used it to take pictures. Seriously? You don't have something smaller to take a photo with? "Oooooh, look at me with my fancy ipad! I steal tote bags and sell them so that I can afford to buy the newest devices." Oh, and she saved a seats for friends that arrived only a few minutes before Stephen King took the stage. This was a very craptacular move as people waited an hour in line, and then 2 hours in the theatre for this event. Her friends just waltzed right in there like they owned the place. Ugh. Made me want to scratch the back of their necks with a rusty nail.
Back to the good part.
Like I said, we had to wait 2 hours in the auditorium! Yowza!
So we clowned around a bit. Oh, before I forget, thank's to Amy for the group shots and the pics of Stephen himself! We were not allowed to use flash photography and she still managed to do a good job!
and finally, Uncle Stevie appeared!
He was great. He started out by telling some stories about his experience as an author. He is really funny and endearing. At one point, Amy leaned over and whispered into my ear "he looks like my grandmother." I almost peed myself. She was not trying to be a smart ass....she was serious! To her, he really does look like her grandmother. I've never seen her g-maw, but I can assume she is correct in her comparison.
He spoke for quite some time before taking out his newest novel for a quick reading.
How crazy was it to hear my favorite author read a book he has written? Supa-dupa crazy, son.
He then answered questions that the audience submitted. I did not submit a question. I have read many a Stephen King interview in various magazines and websites. I have read all of his books, including the one On Writing. I know the answers to most questions that I have had about the man. The only thing left to ask would be "um, Mr. King....would you consider coming over to my house for dinner?" Nope. Can't really ask that. Instead, I listened to the other questions. Some good, some bad. One question was, "would you ever consider writing a young adult novel? Ugh. Seriously? I was a young adult when I started reading Stephen King. Heck, I was still in elementary school! Psh!
His answer was no, in case you were wondering.
When Stephen was done a lady came out to tell us that there would be four exit areas. At each exit, we were to pick up our first edition copy of Stephen King's new book. The best part was that 25% of the audience was to get a signed copy! The five of us in our group all ended up at the same book table. Three of us got books! We beat the odds!
I was a lucky member of the audience. I now own a first edition, signed copy, of a Stephen King book. This book, titled 11/22/63, has gotten great reviews. I can't wait to read it! I had to go and buy another copy to read so that I don't mess up the signed edition. Lord knows I would probably drop that sucka in the bathtub.
Anyway....thank you Amy. I love ya.
One phone call from my friend, Amy, changed all of that. Changed that line of thinking, anyway. Amy called me to tell me that Stephen King would be at McKinney High School in November. She told me how to get tickets from a bookstore's website. Moments after I spoke with her, my ticket to the event and my ticket for the plane to get me there were both purchased.
On the day of the event Amy picked my ass up from the Dallas airport and drove me to Mckinney high school where Will (her husband) and two of their friends joined us. We arrived at the high school at 4:00 and got in line. About 5-10 people were ahead of us. The line quickly grew to snake around the corner of the building.
Wait a second...how is it that I have never noticed that snaggle tooth of mine?
We made friends with those around us and got all nerdy talking about Stephen King books.
We were very excited and could not wait to get in the auditorium.
Here is Will with his boss moustache. Oh yeah, I said "Boss" as in Incrediably Awesome; miraculous; great. Will grows that shit out for Movember (moustache November....raises money for prostate cancer research).
After waiting for an hour outside, they finally let us into the auditorium. We were able to get seats only a few rows back from the stage! This lady (pictured below) was seated in the row directly in front of us. She was the worst! There were tote bags on our seats and she stole Will's right in front of him! I wanted to give her a piece of my mind, but Amy suggested that we not tarnish the energy of the evening.
Later, the woman took out her ipad and used it to take pictures. Seriously? You don't have something smaller to take a photo with? "Oooooh, look at me with my fancy ipad! I steal tote bags and sell them so that I can afford to buy the newest devices." Oh, and she saved a seats for friends that arrived only a few minutes before Stephen King took the stage. This was a very craptacular move as people waited an hour in line, and then 2 hours in the theatre for this event. Her friends just waltzed right in there like they owned the place. Ugh. Made me want to scratch the back of their necks with a rusty nail.
Back to the good part.
Like I said, we had to wait 2 hours in the auditorium! Yowza!
So we clowned around a bit. Oh, before I forget, thank's to Amy for the group shots and the pics of Stephen himself! We were not allowed to use flash photography and she still managed to do a good job!
and finally, Uncle Stevie appeared!
He was great. He started out by telling some stories about his experience as an author. He is really funny and endearing. At one point, Amy leaned over and whispered into my ear "he looks like my grandmother." I almost peed myself. She was not trying to be a smart ass....she was serious! To her, he really does look like her grandmother. I've never seen her g-maw, but I can assume she is correct in her comparison.
He spoke for quite some time before taking out his newest novel for a quick reading.
How crazy was it to hear my favorite author read a book he has written? Supa-dupa crazy, son.
He then answered questions that the audience submitted. I did not submit a question. I have read many a Stephen King interview in various magazines and websites. I have read all of his books, including the one On Writing. I know the answers to most questions that I have had about the man. The only thing left to ask would be "um, Mr. King....would you consider coming over to my house for dinner?" Nope. Can't really ask that. Instead, I listened to the other questions. Some good, some bad. One question was, "would you ever consider writing a young adult novel? Ugh. Seriously? I was a young adult when I started reading Stephen King. Heck, I was still in elementary school! Psh!
His answer was no, in case you were wondering.
When Stephen was done a lady came out to tell us that there would be four exit areas. At each exit, we were to pick up our first edition copy of Stephen King's new book. The best part was that 25% of the audience was to get a signed copy! The five of us in our group all ended up at the same book table. Three of us got books! We beat the odds!
I was a lucky member of the audience. I now own a first edition, signed copy, of a Stephen King book. This book, titled 11/22/63, has gotten great reviews. I can't wait to read it! I had to go and buy another copy to read so that I don't mess up the signed edition. Lord knows I would probably drop that sucka in the bathtub.
Anyway....thank you Amy. I love ya.
posted by sarahsmile3 at
6:18 PM
3 Comments:
You are welcome. And now I will post this sweet story about my grandmother.
What a great experience! I'm so glad that you got to go - AND get a signed book! Obviously you didn't have cocktails before you went... because if you had, I know you would not have been able to restrain yourself from saying something to that stupid bag-stealing, ipad photo taking mean lady. People like that deserve to be kicked.
PS - what snaggle tooth? I can't even tell what you are talking about. You crazy.
What a super duper rad experience!
I'm sure the bag stealing evil fan tripped over a rock in the parking lot and dropped her i-pad in a puddle of water. Here's hoping anyway.
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