A Comment and a Question about Collaboration

[HedlessChickn]

I just watched Sai King's speech at the Nat'l Book Festival at the Library of Congress and he mentioned that he was going to try to start on the third book of the Jack Sawyer novels with Peter Straub in February! I will be anxiously awaiting that novel unlike anything else in recent tears. Not since DT7 and HP and the Deathly Hallows at any rate. In fact, I don't think there's a followup novel I can think of by any other author(s) that has me as excited as this!

My question is this: Is there any other author that Sai King would like to collaborate with that he hasn't already?

Personally, I'd love to see what he and Gaiman can do together. Hell, even King and Clive Barker would be phenomenal.

 

[skimom2]

I think something with King and Michael Grant would be interesting. Grant seems to me to be the YA King. Their sensibilities and styles are very similar--they're good at seeing the people on both sides of the line of good and bad (and both recognize that line inside each person).

 

[Doc Creed]

Normally, I don't read collaborative fiction because it just doesn't work. The Talisman is, maybe, a rare example of it succeeding. I don't like when authors are hired to ghost write or finish another author's work, either. There's always an exception or two but this is what I find to be true. I agree with Skimom's suggestion, however. I can certainly imagine such an undertaking. Hmmm...if I were to pick a King collaborator I'd say Lee Child, John Sandford or John Grisham just because he reveres them so much. Maybe he could inject a little supernatural into the mix? Mostly, I jest but now that I think about it the idea is kind of intriguing.
I do want to read the writing he's done with Joe and the forthcoming novel he cowrote with Owen.

 

[GNTLGNT]

...He has done well with Straub, his son Joe-and we shall see about Owen....that one is intriguing, because Owen's writing is to me anyway, world's apart from dad and his brother....

 

[skimom2]

Normally, I don't read collaborative fiction because it just doesn't work. The Talisman is, maybe, a rare example of it succeeding. I don't like when authors are hired to ghost write or finish another author's work, either. There's always an exception or two but this is what I find to be true. I agree with Skimom's suggestion, however. I can certainly imagine such an undertaking. Hmmm...if I were to pick a King collaborator I'd say Lee Child, John Sandford or John Grisham just because he reveres them so much. Maybe he could inject a little supernatural into the mix? Mostly, I jest but now that I think about it the idea is kind of intriguing.
I do want to read the writing he's done with Joe and the forthcoming novel he cowrote with Owen.

I agree with you about collaborative writing--I'm not really a fan. I love The Talisman, but it is dominated by Mr. King's style. Black House doesn't work for me, but it's dominated by Mr. Straub's style, and he's not someone I seek out. A true collaboration seems like it would be incredibly difficult unless the writers were very simpatico and their styles similar.

I've read both shorts ("Throttle" and "In The Tall Grass") written with Mr. Hill, and they work quite well. For those who are so familiar with Mr. King's particular style, it isn't too difficult to tell who wrote which bits, but their styles parallel in ways that make the pairing work.

I'm with Scott on the collaboration with Owen King. Their styles are wildly different. It will be something to read that one, I think.

 

[HedlessChickn]

Normally, I don't read collaborative fiction because it just doesn't work. The Talisman is, maybe, a rare example of it succeeding. I don't like when authors are hired to ghost write or finish another author's work, either. There's always an exception or two but this is what I find to be true.

If you want to read an extraordinary collaboration try reading Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. It is, hands down, one of the funniest books I've ever read. It's right up there with the Hitchhiker's Guide. I really cannot recommend it enough.

 

[doowopgirl]

I am really looking forward to another King/Straub collaberation. Another colaberation that works is Larry McCmurtry and Diana Ossana. Check out Zeke and Ned and Pretty Boy Floyd. Another two to add to my list of books I read again and again.

 

[muskrat]

Well, this was certainly some good news for me today. A'yuh, I'll read another Jack Sawyer book. Hope this one is heavier on the fantasy/Territories stuff, like the first. And BIG BIG, yer bugger. 800 to 1000 pages or so.

As far as other collaborations go, it woulda been cool if, say, back in the eighties, King and Hunter Thompson did a book together. Fear and Loathing in Castle Rock:

"We were somewhere in Maine, when the sky became full of savage mutant bats, all swooping and diving around the Cadillac. One of the beasts attached itself to my attorney's neck and began feasting on his Wild Turkey and Mescaline rich blood. I remember screaming 'holy Jesus, what are these g*ddam things?' when a voice from the back seat said, in a slow Yankee drawl, 'Shouldn'ta come down this 'rud, Doc...'

Dang! Did I just write that? Or think it? Was I speaking? Can they HEAR me?

 

[GNTLGNT]

Well, this was certainly some good news for me today. A'yuh, I'll read another Jack Sawyer book. Hope this one is heavier on the fantasy/Territories stuff, like the first. And BIG BIG, yer bugger. 800 to 1000 pages or so.

As far as other collaborations go, it woulda been cool if, say, back in the eighties, King and Hunter Thompson did a book together. Fear and Loathing in Castle Rock:

"We were somewhere in Maine, when the sky became full of savage mutant bats, all swooping and diving around the Cadillac. One of the beasts attached itself to my attorney's neck and began feasting on his Wild Turkey and Mescaline rich blood. I remember screaming 'holy Jesus, what are these goddam things?' when a voice from the back seat said, in a slow Yankee drawl, 'Shouldn'ta come down this 'rud, Doc...'

Dang! Did I just write that? Or think it? Was I speaking? Can they HEAR me?