James Patterson Dishes On Unpublished ‘Murder Of Stephen King’

James Patterson is getting candid about his sophisticated historical past with fellow bestselling writer Stephen King, and he isn’t shying away from the stress.

In a brand new interview with Graham Bensinger, James Patterson, recognized for his wild thriller books, opened up a few potential collaboration with King, the sharp public jabs they’ve exchanged over time, and the behind-the-scenes drama surrounding his unpublished novella titled “The Homicide of Stephen King.”

When requested a few rumored joint interview project, Patterson stated, “We’ll see what occurs,” including that his workforce has reached out to King’s. “I’d like to do it. I believe it will be nice.”

He additional defined, “One of many issues I stated to his folks was, ‘Look, we might do some good on the planet. We might get extra children studying. There’s lots of issues we might do if we collaborated a bit bit.’”

That olive department comes regardless of some tough historical past between the 2 authors. At one level, King famously referred to as Patterson “a horrible author,” one thing Patterson doesn’t deny outright.

“That’s simply foolish,” he stated with amusing. “He may need learn one thing that was horrible… ‘Season of the Machete’ is a horrible guide that I wrote. So if he learn that, I might see calling me a horrible author.”

Patterson added, “‘Virgin’ can also be not terribly properly written. ‘The Jericho Commandment,’ among the early books, they are not nice. I might go together with that. I don’t find out about ‘horrible,’ however I’ve advanced. I’m fairly good now.”

However the drama didn’t finish there.

Patterson additionally addressed his notorious novella “The Homicide of Stephen King,” which by no means noticed the sunshine of day.

Was he attempting to mess with King? “Yeah, however in a enjoyable approach,” Patterson admitted. “He was the hero of the guide. He doesn’t get killed.”

The novella was a part of Patterson’s “BookShots” line and, in keeping with him, was meant as a tongue-in-cheek homage. However when he despatched an advance copy to King, the response wasn’t fairly what he anticipated.

“His folks referred to as. They stated, ‘Properly, that wouldn’t be good,’ as a result of I believe his spouse, Tabitha, anyone broke into their home and stuff,” Patterson stated. “And I’m going, ‘Properly, I don’t know. Then he ought to cease writing his books, as a result of that occurred due to his books, not due to ‘The Homicide of Stephen King.’ He’s the hero within the guide… I believed it will be humorous.”

In the end, the novella was scrapped, all 100,000 copies.

“We ate it,” Patterson stated. “They didn’t publish them. You wish to purchase a duplicate? I’ve 20 copies. I’ll promote it to you for $10,000.”

As for why he pulled the plug? “Out of respect. Tremendous. OK… His spouse, no matter. We simply stated, ‘OK, wonderful. We received’t publish it.’”

Feud or future collab? With Patterson and King, you by no means know, but it surely’s clear that these two literary titans have a shared historical past as layered as any of their thrillers.

Whereas Patterson has heard all of it in the case of critics of his writing fashion, he’s not bothered as a result of, for him, it’s all concerning the story.

“For those who inform story, you don’t essentially should be an incredible author,” he stated. “Freida [McFadden], no matter, not an incredible author, however actually good tales. Quite a lot of my stuff. Grisham, most likely, I don’t imply to demean John, however let’s say not an incredible stylist. However good tales.”

Patterson’s level? Readers care extra about staying up all night time, turning pages, than they do about poetic sentence construction.