Ниже приведен отрывок из статьи
A King-Size Challenge от Ray Routhier из портландской Maine Press Herald:
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"...Huh? What? Um, sure.
I was too stunned to grasp what was going on. King, who has talked to me twice on the phone, who has denied my interview requests a dozen or more times, wants to include me in a book?
So what's the bad news?
"Because he's recovering from the pneumonia," DeFilippo told
me, "Stephen is just not doing any publicity for the TV how. Doctors say it'll be six months before his lungs are fully recovered, so he's put everything on hold."
I felt like I had been invited to King's house for dinner, then told I would be dining alone. A few days later I got this e-mail from King, asking me to sign the formal permission slip so he could use my name:
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"Dear Ray, at the end of my forthcoming novel, SONG OF SUSANNAH (Volume VI of The Dark Tower), a fictitious June 1999 clipping from the (Maine) Sunday Telegram is displayed, featuring a very large headline reporting (fictitiously of course) my death as a result of being hit by a van in Lovell, followed by a brief article.
"It would tickle me - and I hope you - if I could use your byline for the article. Would you have any objection to this form of homage? And if not, would you mind scrawling your signature at the bottom of this letter to reassure my publisher. Sincerely, Stephen King."
So, the way I read it, Stephen King wanted me to write his obit, of sorts. My editor, knowing how long and twisted my pursuit of King has been, said that maybe he was having fun with me. Maybe he was trying to say the only way I can have a face-to-face interview with him is over his dead body.
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Maybe.
I signed the permission slip and resigned myself to writing about "Kingdom Hospital" without any input from King.
Then, like a stray bullet, I get hit with this e-mail from DeFilippo:
"Ray, When I told Steve that you had signed the permission and were flattered to have him use your name, I also mentioned that you had called about an interview for 'Kingdom Hospital.' He said that if you could do a short phoner on Tuesday or Wednesday of next week, he'd be agreeable to making an exception. The only other interview he's giving is for the NY Times."
A phoner's better than nothing, I figured.
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So on Feb. 20, King called me from his home near Sarasota, Fla. He began the conversation with a cheerful "Hi, it's Steve." During our chat, I asked King why he wanted to use my name on top of the fictitious story of his death. Why me, of all the reporters he's dealt with? **********************************************
"Because you've written a bunch of stuff about me. I wanted someone local," said King. "I didn't want to use (film critic) Marty Meltz's name, he would have given my death three and a half stars. He gives everything three and a half stars."
At the end of our pleasant and brief conversation, I decided to bring up the sit-down. I told King my editors are really "on me" about it."
Суть статьи: Кинг позвонил одному из журналистов штата Мэн и попросил разрешения на использование имени журналюги в Темной Башне 6 для указания под статьей о его (Кинга) смерти в результате наезда автофургона.
Вот так - в ТБ6 Кинг "убьет" самого себя!
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Вот так, я смотрю, слухи и рождаются?
