Stephen King Discusses New Book ‘Sleeping Beauties’ With Son Owen King

It’s been a long time coming, but the lead-up to the September release for Stephen King’s new book Sleeping Beauties has finally begun with a thoughtful and touching two-minute audio clip discussing the book’s conception and writing.

The book will be Stephen’s first full-length collaboration with his 40-year-old son, Owen King (emphasis on “full” — Sleeping Beauties is to be 720 pages long). In the clip, the father and son describe working together.

Both of them agree the premise, which Owen King says he dreamed up over dinner one night, was immediately inspiring.

When he casually mentioned the idea, Owen recounts, the elder King “brightened right up and insisted we write it together.”

“The idea was so cool,” gushes Stephen King during the clip. “What if all the women in the world fell asleep except for one mysterious woman incarcerated in a women’s prison… What might men, desperate to get their women back, do to get at her? Had to write it, we just had to.”

Owen, a very talented but much more novice writer than the illustrious Stephen King, was similarly enamored with the deep concept but admits he was a bit daunted when his father proposed they actually flesh it out and publish it.

“I was a little hesitant at first because the premise seemed so large and involved,” he notes.

He was eventually convinced, though, and a long writing process began.

Both King men have written many books before (Stephen King has over 55 novels under his belt), but they agree putting this one together was special because they got to spend quality time with each other while at work.

“I want to say what a labor of love this has been,” Owen King expounds. “It was a delight to get to spend so much time as an adult with my father, and an education to have a close-up look at his work process.”

“Working with Owen was a terrific experience,” adds Stephen.

Hopefully the familial warmth and support felt by Stephen King and his son during writing will shine through in the presentation.

Though not much is known about the book other than its length, a brief plot synopsis (more details at Vulture), and its cover (pictured below), expectations are certainly high. And why not? Stephen King, historically an extremely prolific author, has not published any novels from his “wheelhouse” genre of horror/psychological thriller since 2014’s Revival. The Bill Hodges trilogy, all three installments of which have been published since then, were Stephen King’s foray into the crime/detective genre, and 2015’s The Bazaar of Bad Dreams was a book of short stories. Stephen’s fans are hungry for King to return to his roots with a long read that will incorporate some of his tried and true themes.

In SLEEPING BEAUTIES, @StephenKing and @OwenKingwriter explore what might happen if women disappeared from the world:https://t.co/PLltpjwOy3 pic.twitter.com/yC669VaJju

— Pocket Books (@Pocket_Books) May 7, 2017

The huge amount of anticipation for the novel might also be due in part to the recent resurgence in popularity of all things Stephen King, a subject the Inquisitr discusses in detail in a previous report. A slew of Stephen King story-based adaptations are in the works, with The Dark Tower, The Mist, Mr. Mercedes, It, Gerald’s Game, and 1922 coming to either the big or small screen during 2017 alone. JJ Abrams is also producing a Stephen King anthology series for Hulu that we may see before 2018.

Also, In The Dark Tower movie it appears Jake finds traces of Pennywise The Clown in Mid-World. I'm a little bit excited and have to re-read pic.twitter.com/9SsrZHDfLD

— Mece (@mece66) May 9, 2017

The hype for Sleeping Beauties is so great, in fact, that, as Deadline reported last month, a television studio by the name of Anonymous Content has already bought the rights for the story and are planning to adapt it into a show alongside the authors once the studio heads actually get a chance to read it.

One can only imagine all of this is a bit much for Owen King, who has, whether he likes it or not, been plunged headfirst into the world of superstardom Stephen has eased into over the past four decades. It will undoubtedly do wonders for his writing career, though, so don’t expect to hear him complaining.

Sleeping Beauties by Stephen and Owen King will be published by Charles Scribners’ Sons on September 26.

[Featured image by Elise Amendola/AP Images]