The latest novel from the prolific author, swaps the supernatural for page-turning thrills.
The answer to that conundrum occupies much ofBilly Summers(out Aug. 3).
Here, King, 73, offers a peek inside.
Stephen King.Scott Eisen/Getty Images
Was that a subject you’d been wanting to tackle?
STEPHEN KING:Not really.
It’s all a question of what follows what.
‘Billy Summers,’ by Stephen King.Scribner
You’ve got this kid, and he’s had to go to a child-welfare situation.
What does he do?
He joins the military.
It’s horrific stuff street-to-street and house-to-house [combat].
This is not the first time you’ve created characters who are writers.
Who is the most talented of your fictional authors?
[Laughs] Maybe Thad Beaumont.
He was inThe Dark Half.
And Mike fromBag of Bones.
Although Mike in is a blocked writer, that was part of the idea.
Did you always plan on writing a “straight” thriller?
I’m not wedded to one particular genre.
I don’t even like that word, “genre”; I think it’s a lazy word.
The thing is, my interest is still the same.
Billy Summersis set in 2019 and the Trump presidency is repeatedly referenced.
Were you tempted to foreground that?
No, I don’t think so.
The thing is, I have a soap box onTwitter.
I don’t use it all the time.
But I am also interested in politics.
But when I write books I take a stab at get down off the soapbox.
The thing about this book was, it was supposed to be set in the year 2020.
I was writing it in, I think, 2018 and maybe the early part of 2019.
I thought, ah, they get an inheritance and they go on a cruise.
Then coronavirus hit and I said to myself, no, because the cruise lines are shut down.
I’m not sure that I would change that much.
