>> he does. you know, the letters are, the white house can be tough on access. but let, are one of the very few things they like talking about because they believe it shows he's connected to the country and listening. in truth, what the letters really reveal is what's going on in the country, and oftentimes it's heartbreaking, brutal stuff that doesn't necessarily reflect well, but they were willing to show everything because i think they want to show he listens to everything. ..

>> good evening. welcome to fall for the book. what including even the 13th annual book festival. we are clad you are here. you have never been to a fall for the book events, it is housed here at the may 7

due to the contributions of sponsors come individuals corporate and governmental be do a season event throughout the will community. we're older than the national and have more prestigious writers than the national. [laughter] [applause] as evidenced by the person you came here to see. [laughter] tonight is presented with one of four awards of the mason award there is more as diego longs level not say anything further but i do want to make a couple of business announcements we will have a book signing after this. is limited to persons holding a book signing ticket. if you are, go to the lobby and the ushers will give you directions.

i am sorry if you do not have a book signing ticket you cannot get a book signed. also turn off your cellphones. we will be doing a a question and answer after the presentation and based on cards that had been previously submitted reset that was the best way to do that. there will be a couple of speakers and then mr. king and question-and-answer we will present to night's award. i now turn things over to congressmen connolly. [applause] >> and do we like to read here in fairfax?

[applause] we sure do. thank you for being here tonight. this is the 13th "fall for the book" festival beginning in 1999 in cooperation with the city of fairfax, the two day e event is now week-long in regionwide. we have specially tailored workshops for elementary, middle and high school level to promote lifeline reading, opportunities for readers to meet their favorite readers like mr. king we will honor tonight and have cultural reference with forms in discussion groups. we love discussion groups. the growth merits the growth of the great university which is now the largest university and the commonwealth of virginia. [applause] and this university is named

after our founder george mason the author of the declaration of rights which ultimately became the basis for the bill of rights to the united states constitution that george mason opposed because it did not have a bill of rights. he was a passionate advocate in if he were still alive he would-be in the front row tonight. but the award named in his honor makes extern their contributions to bring literature to wider audiences. stephen king certainly fits that description and. let's hear if for the boston red sox. [cheers and applause] there is always a yankee have color. [laughter] if you can believe

this, ranking 303rd on the list of all-time best-selling authors in human history. [applause] he sold 350 million bucks. do not believe the books are obsolete. he had 400 years but i am personally a fan of his riding and my favorite is salem's lot. [applause] the reason i went into politics i was a literature major and i did not write 12. [laughter] i am a great admirer of those who can in do. this festival is a vital part of the ever along with our communities to have a nationally recognized library system. thank you so much for coming

out tonight. i hope you will enjoy the program and to introduce our honored guest who will be the recipient of the mason award is the president of the mid-atlantic chapter of mystery writers of america up. [applause] mystery writers of america is the premier organization for mystery writers and for those who like to read a good mystery. our co-sponsors is george mason university library with special thanks to the university library and and we are particularly pleased to be co-sponsor of mr. king because in 2007 gave him the grand master award which is something we reserve for the giant of the genre.

i could list his awards that links but without further ado, stephen king. [cheers and applause] [cheers and applause] >> thank you. all of that for a writer. you don't get out much. do you? [laughter] this is great. i really appreciate the chance to be here. i have been at george mason basketball fan for a long time. [cheers and applause] and i always have been in the final four on my brac

and one-year everybody thought i was a genius. [laughter] that was a good year i just did not tell people i always do. we will go there. that puts the wrong spin on it. but i am grateful to get an award when i get a big hand like that i never know if it is because you like the work [laughter] anyway, it is strange for me because writers are not supposed to be recognized or famous or renowned. we are supposed to be the secret agents. it is strange. i remember going to fenway

park probably may be a 10 years ago. my kids were smaller and my son said you are always getting father. why don't you put on a pair of sunglasses? i did. and the little kids said look unless said it is stephen king with the sunglasses. [laughter] that was that. but the first time i ever knew that to something was changing in my lifetime i went on a book tour for a book called of the dead zone. [applause] like stephen king greatest hits. [laughter] but don't stock. i'd love it. that was so long ago. i was on the road with kitty kelley who wrote a book about frank sinatra. my mother would call him frankie does not.

he will never be big. [laughter] was shocked when jerry committed suicide he was a cheerful by he would spend all day scarf been the small city media which is what you're supposed to do we were on the chicken circuit. and he always made you feel eat you got off a russian tank he would grab you but i discovered the but two were basically in those days you done no about these things, they are called newspapers. [laughter] and the idea is the newspaper would ask you to cleveland for a cincinnati or ostend or someplace like at and you would go to a

dinner but before that you could scarf every bit of media you could get. the local magazines e they're cleveland, albany, but whenever it was a man getting out at 5:00 with a hangover from than 94 and you do that all day long then the big climax of the newspaper dinner and from what used to be called page voodoo was always chicken and fish and a palette gravy. i was in pittsburgh and i did all of this stuff. near the end of the two were and the last act was dinner no way to get down you are just stock up there.

this is a part of the store where i have to be careful to choose my words very carefully. there is the same called montezuma's revenge. [laughter] where nine 1/2 to visit the nearest convenience the early and often and this restaurant had a bathroom but there were no doors on any of these dolls and the whole point* of my life rushing in there to sit down and whole book to our came out. do know what i am saying? [laughter] thinking things cannot get any worse, there is a washerman 10 negative roughly 150 years old slowly turns and looks at me in the staal and starts to walk

toward me with a 10. [laughter] -- pen and he said argue stephen king? [laughter] he said i saw new-line a and that spurred can i have your autograph? but the thing about being a writer is people look at you. really at some point* you have to give yourselves a handout on friday night because of books. for christ's sake. clap. [applause] the most potent weapon against the assholes of the

world. turnoff "dancing with the stars" and read a book. why not? go buy a dollar $26 if you went to a movie that tickets in popcorn then you come home baby sitter and parking. don't get me going. [laughter] but the thing is they know us from somewhere if you knew how many times people have walked up to me to say argues steven spielberg? [laughter] and i always say yes. [laughter] because i want to get along. when i was a kid my mother was say if you were a girl you would always be pregnant [laughter] it is probably true. toward the end of her life i

can remember her saying to my brother and i she said you either awfully funny are awfully polite. i want to move on. the best game that never happened to be in terms of the whole deal they since hotdogs in new york. i ordered day hotdog, sauerkraut, coke, pe psi, this was around the time of the dead son when i still grow a beard because it was black. instead of old guy. i know i am told i had a birthday the day before yesterday at. [cheers and applause]

sixty-four. i am a fucking beatles song. it beats him being dead. [laughter] get out of bet in the morning and put on your articles and don't bump would you are being okay. i am et my hot dog there is a path into the kitchen and looking back there he sees me looking at him. pretty soon he looks okay he knows two i am. finally he came out to say are you francis ford coppola? [laughter] i said gas and i signed the autograph. [laughter]

it is strange to realize in your old age somewhere between the three ages of man use common middle-aged and you look fucking agree. i have reached a the third age. at some point* i became, not through any master plan america is bogyman. how melamine is my a least favorite holiday. [laughter] but i think what happened is albert hitchcock died and then they said you got the job. doesn't pay? yes. but the questions come with that people want to know how that happened. and they come at it in this

way to say what was your childhood like? what we like as a kid? this is the curse of fraught -- the curse of freud. what fucked did you up so badly you turned out the way that you did. [laughter] the answer is nothing. with the possible exception of when i was eight or nine might bedtime story was dr. jekyll and mr. hyde. [laughter] that is true. and what i remember, almost like the basis of what i do, not on purpose but i am drawn that way but when people say when you choose to do what you do what makes

you assume i had any choice? with dr. jekyll mr. hyde period coming he walks along the side of the road and a mother and a young girl are walking. and he walks right over her and her bones are breaking and snapping in a little girl screaming and he turns around in walks over her again. i have never forgotten that. maybe that twisted me a little bit but who could say for sure? [laughter] my mother used to say this is the basis of it the of the worst thing that could have been. then whatever happens is better than that. [laughter] only somebody from new england thinks that way but it became my a mantra.

if i could think the worst thing to articulate it made me a lot of money also a little bit paranoid. we are here now together having a wonderful time because we are together. out but later you have to go out into the dark where you park your car and it is a true fact. [laughter] people say that immediately the audience says you are talking bullshit one added 50 of you have left your car unlocked and i think the chances are very small that a psychotic%. [laughter] could even now be in the parking lot trying your door. but if it was a psychotic

person a chance he would have a very large nine far greater proportionately they and he would not and that is why it is very wise to check your car, the front seat, backseat, the trunk before you get in. of course, one out of 75 forget to lock the house. [laughter] [applause] and if there was a psychotic, if there was, and if your house was unlocked come i don't want you to think about this later on. put it out of your mind. [laughter] the place that they go is the bathroom. you may ask yourself to have

the opaque shower curtain? if you do come and that is the place they will go. [laughter] if you have a transparent curtain they go behind the door. i never worried about that i would always check my car but i never worried about leaving the house unlocked because i am the kind of person that has to go back four times to check the of 10. did you leave the lebanon? i am paranoid by nature. where do you get your ideas? that is the question that people ask you are scared of it because you think if you think about it too much you don't have any more but most of mine are what if and what is absolute worst thing that could have been? there are exceptions to the rule there was a film made

it stand buy me. [applause] thank you i love retain that story. it was the middle of the summer i was taught thinking of all the bullshit my friends and i were up to is we were kids and a lot of parts of that story are actually true and of course, a lot is absolutely made up because when you are a fiction writer if the ellipse our movie he is lying a little bit it is total bullshit actually more than one in 50 leave their car unlocked. [laughter] but a lot of the of stories what is the worst thing that could have been? high road a book when i was then colorado that book has

been very strange every time another disease comes along the sales of spike like a fever. [laughter] i was listening to the religious radio the preacher said wants in a generation in the plague will fall among us and i had a cold. [laughter] i am thinking what is the worst thing that could happen? [laughter] what if everybody dies clerics because i am not defense they shopped a missed i said there are few people left people like me. [laughter] it came from an ad and to joe. [applause] i am a bike tour. i start off so many ignorant people do with one kind of

bike before moving up to the harley-davidson. it is a mayor can bet to i did have one that was not a harley and it started to miss and skip and i could not fix it. the postman said there is them man up around 7 acres farm who could fix that for you. i said why don't i give it a shot? as i got into the driveway the bite quit and it rolled to a stop at least i got here then this a bernard came out of the raw edge. [laughter] it was the biggest thing you had never seen in your life. i was out in the open with a motorcycle the guy who ran the farm said don't worry about lucky he is grey with

people and he starts to growl. [laughter] and his hind quarters budge down and he would go for me and the guy had s sock it ranch and with it down on his hind quarters and he shrank down and that was it. he looked at the and not a word of apology and said lucky just must not like you [laughter] but the incident stayed in my mind. and finally i wrote a book about it. i want to mention one more. i will read something new for you. i can remember one time about the time i was and colorado and again add case of car trouble the the

american motors matador basically the sellout. [laughter] on the street and the tow truck came and i had to walk home. there was a little wooden bridge and i walked over the bridge and i had some boots like these except classy and the heels made this sound and i thought of a story called the three billy goats gruff who is that trip trapping on my bridge? i got to think about how that is basically then that to of everything that scares us. who is that trip dropping? what awful thing may be

closing in? is started to think about all of this saying this all of the monsters and the movies and i started to think i would like to write since i started to get the reputation, you cannot even be a mr.. [laughter] you are devoted to meister. the horror meister is better than negative mach. [laughter] i have been called both. but i started to think of these monsters and think if i have a reputation isn't it great to write a story that has all the monsters? a final exam. all of the things that scare people frankenstein, the money, where wolf, rodin the japanese monsters.

all of it in their. i will call this book it. [laughter] [applause] because that is the basis of four we don't know what it is my wife said that is crazy. my wife said they will call it shit. [laughter] they will say this is at shit. i said probably. but what is the scariest thing of all? it ought to be something that children see that scares them more than anything else in the world. i will make it a fucking clown. [cheers and applause]

and it worked out well. i even scared myself. i can tell you where some of these changes came from in front of an audience if they say where do get your ideas i can say some but there are certain things that is the mystery of what you do and the wonderful things the unquantifiable things that if you ask about these other books i don't remember where they came from. of "the dead zone." i don't remember. but at some point* nine seal like shit, i don't know. agreed mile. [applause] i had this image of a guy and a prison pushing a cart

full of candy and sandwiches and the people he was servicing were condemned prisoners. and was on agreed corridor and that is all that i had when i started. eventually that did not even show up in the book although the guy pushing the cart eventually gave morphed into john coffee. i have a book coming out in about a month called the 112263 about a man who discovers what he calls a rabbit hole in time and could go through this. two minutes before erred noon and this friend of his gets him to commit to this day and living in the past

stop being the harvey oswald from killing president kennedy because that is the moment that changed everything. 19711972 iowa's steve to use school and a research requirements where too much for me. i am glad i did not try to write it because the wound was still very fresh. the people of my generation, barely 17 calmat that was on 9/11. i remember i was the team's goal and there was a conversation whether oz walled acted alone iras a conspiracy it is called bozell waltz tale where he speaks very eloquently about

and talks about going into the book he was what he claimed to be a vent and he says it one point* in the book that if you believe where one lonely unbalanced man can bring down the leader of the most powerful nation on earth in the midst of his security did you believe in a universe that is the absurd. there was said done man on a grassy knoll or in the sewer , and is the periscope

has to team from the third floor and even people who believed for awhile that there was no lee harvey oswald, that he was a russian agent to was fixed up like x files to look like him and they convinced his widow who was still alive that this was the case but they did the dna and it was him. i think we were talking about that hong about the number of coincidence involves four oz wall to be there it almost seems molded bit because at that time so many things rabbit tipping point*. i thought it would be fun to write the book but i cannot remember exactly where i got the idea of.

what i want to read is not from that book because they got i am not on a book tour. i will be hit about a month that will be eating based food and i will get the media but i feel like you are my friends i do not need to sell you anything. [applause] thank you. guide them as you bought plenty of put our kids through school. that is a wonderful thing but for me, living in isolation most of the time to get that response part of the ones to please people i guess i would be always be pregnant if i was a girl. [laughter] i can tell you this is an idea i have had for some time. i wrote to a novel in the

'70s called "the shining". [applause] is like being leonard scattered. [laughter] or maybe the grateful dead. but i always wonder what happens to that kid when he grew up. every now and then people say to me to do you keep a notebook? i don't because it is the best way to a more elias bullshit and a bad idea is. but if you don't keep a notebook of the dar matured process takes place and the bad ideas go away. but the good ones, they bounce back up and where did

he go? let's sold by little the story started to form and it is almost done. it is called doctor sleep. [applause] i think with a blessing it will get done. this goes back to what is the worst thing that you can think of? [laughter] it is funny how all the idea like that goes into your mind and you look at perfectly ordinary things a and they start to look sinister i knew there were bad people in this story that rely vampires they did not set out led by a psychic energy from the special

people. i came to realize they were called the tribe and they move around a lot and in the leader is the woman who calls herself rose. they have these pirate games because how do people like that get along? then i realize if you go on the turnpike. [laughter] the most sinister thing out there on the turnpike and did the rest area is the rv. [laughter] this is from dr. sleep, the tribe, the rp people coming from many years of being exhausted.

made or got colorado arizona sen bid their stay in those places for long. mostly they were migratory. if you drive the turnpike to the highway of america iq may have seen it. maybe ojai and i 85 in south carolina maybe it was i 80 montana and amounted countries. or 301 in florida. how many times have you found yourself behind a lumber and rv eating exhaust and waiting patiently for your chance to pass? creeping along at 40 would you could be doing perfectly legal 65470 kaman there is no hold for you can pullout you see a whole line of those saying this teeeleven

by the bespectacled golden oldies to hunch over the wheel gripping it like they think it will fly away. what about the turnpike rest area of a new stock to take a leak your stretcher lakes to drop a few quarters, the entrance ramp cars and one parking lot, long-haul trucks and rv and another. usually that is a little further away. you may have see the tribe rowley motor homes park and that lot. you may have seen them walking into the rebuilding. slow because those are old and pretty darn fact. always keeping to themselves. sometimes they pilaf added exit where there is plenty of gas stations or boatels or fast food if you see them

part then you keep going because you know, they will be lined up at the counter. lire a golf hat or a fishing cap it is always totter blue and a shirt that says ask me about my grandchildren. [laughter] or jesus is skiing. happy one tour. to go half a mile down the road to the wall fall house you know, they will take for ever to order. looking over the menu plenty the quarter pounder out the pickle or the bopper without the sauce progress being if there is any interest seen tourist attraction in although anybody can see this is another nothing three stoplight town where the kids leave as soon as they graduate from the nearest ties school.

you hardly see them. they are just in the rv people. the ones the figure out their retirement on the road staying at campgrounds were they sit around two cocom the hibachi grill. they will always stop at the flea market and a yard sale and half on the shoulders a you have to slow to a crawl to creep by. there the opposite of the motorcycle clubs from the maine traveled highway they are by no weigh in is how would they descend on the rest area but once the bowels work you put them out of your mind. no more remarkable the end of flock of birds crazy in a field you might wonder how

they cut afford to feel love those monstrosities because they must be at a fixed income. how else could they spend that time driving around? and i would anybody want to spend their golden years driving those files between those places but probably never cost you. if you happen to be one of those unfortunate people who has ever lost a kit with the bite in the lot and the street you probably never thought about them. you do. why would you? it was probably a hobo or poor believe plausible but some sick bastard maybe from

you're very own a neighbor heard or st. some pervert was looking marvell and will continue until somebody finds bones in his basement where buried in the backyard. you ever think of the are the people those we grandma and grandpa with their son risers and mostly you are right because there are thousands of or the people who by 2011 there is only one tribe left in america. they like to move around and that was a good because i had hong if they stayed in one place they would attract attention because they know aged like other people. they may appear to age 20 years overnight. little twins, the youngest

my eight snapback the age at which they turn. you can see how it may raise questions. a grumpy becomes 60 again. on baby is able away to put away the came. and then go from our days half blind do cataracts and the bald spot magically gone. then walking the shuffle at the same time his wife can deter in confidence bands to go out dancing. people wonder and they would talk for credential the a reporter would turn up and the trident shied away from publicity the brave they

shined on some of my. since they don't and they want to date bought and paid for tampa bay fit right and and they wear the same clothes comment cheap sunglasses and by the same t-shirts and get the same road map and they tout all of the peculiar places they've visited. i had of ball out the largest ball of twine. you look i am a conservative and five roach while you are stuck behind retain for a chance to pass you by the occasion no scratch check it where they sell the year and energy jakes and that where

people take ed table in until it is finished. one but day pissed off some others to no end. if they got stopped for speeding or another offense, it does happen and then the top is up today insurance kurds and with the obvious speed trap come but of finance are paid from plate and.

>> is slips along with the virus but soon initial leave the low of dogs they have fears a game parks but you see them in in theater is straying the high a.m. pooper-scooper but in addition to the bumper stickers. you may say that the dogs a

see through them to the sharp and watch all i behind the sunglasses and to those hunters legs many and polyester slacks from wal-mart to the one who has dentures. they don't like dogs but they like certain children. they like certain children very much. thank you. [applause] lee well have question time now.

[laughter] sorry. [laughter] petites levying children should have read the material? >> i think there parents it should have is say what they read and what they don't but with the taxpayers there should be some input but they should not be assholes about it. [applause] you have to be careful because it is a slippery slope. >> day bollea van gogh's? >> [laughter] do i believe in coast?

>> i never saw the north pole but i believe then that. the jury is out. i am a ghost agnostic. but i believe in this story heidi thing the ninth feels about always being second best? [laughter] first of all, i don't think that he does. he is a terrific guy and beyond that i don't want to comment. [laughter] this is the real briar patch tonight. [laughter] i selected these four entertainment values tranfor maximum discomfort on my part. >> we will shift gears.

who inspired you to write? >> there were a lot of people that i read. in some ways the biggest motivating force were the horror comics from the '50s i was terrified i thought maybe i could do that but for most writers, would you are wrong with you read a book that is not that good to say i could do that then you feel inspired to try. i don't know. i was inspired that i loved reading so much it became almost second nature. >> a follow-up to that are you ever worried they you well put somebody else's

words into your own work? >> no. that is called plagiarism actually. [laughter] it is difficult to believe that and when i do what i prefer to call it the all mileage. [laughter] but we have to realize we are part and parcel of levy and every now and then some they will come up where you want to appeal -- put your head on your head to say stop it eyes to spend a year and a half under the dome where somebody pointed out to be there is a dome over springfield in the some sense movie and i said that everybody thinks i will copy that. shit. [laughter] i really never did the senate this is a rigid and a

seven it and it has a certain town. >> nice your stories have found my a dark spot" is that close to any other spot south? [laughter] i have not finish the question any at. [laughter] one it surges stories found your dark spot? [laughter] >> i would say in the early-- the edgar allan poe like the rats in the wall and telltale heart those were stories that could be

close to ride i live in one couple driving through town stopping at the restaurant then realizing they are the only people there all the other customers and wait staff to reflect because they are all vampires and they turn out to be a dinner and everybody seek, it still works. [laughter] but the one that gets me close is the or of the fis because i related to this story with the very thin veneer of civilization because that this what i

think. >> your biography of benjamin franklin? >> i have been working on an for so long. [laughter] find something more classier it feels like family feud. >> i am rejecting some. i noticed that. >> which of your characters you relate to the most or the least? >> the one that i relate to the most is in nepal sheldon. [laughter] although i never had my foot amputated or by some, i have

been a number one fans most dark gray but every now and then there is somebody. [laughter] but as far as the character i would relate to the least common there are so many. so many people in my stories i do not want to be like and is so disturbing to think i created them out of myself. there is wide the horrible not see character, petty why is the clown, there is a little bit of randall flag in the but there is in everybody. maybe the character that i relate to the jovi's diss the politician and under the dome because he is so awful the plausible because with the political set up what it

is in america today come it is too easy and so much hate and bigger. one of the reasons for her 18 d kennedy broke at that time, to damage the atmosphere it was so ugly and charged, i thought about right team the book again around the second year of the obama administration to see the disconnect of the political party and your real anger i will not get on a political hobbyhorse but to say when you have a president who was disregarded as weak because he looks for a consensus there is something very wrong. [applause] one morrice. >> how many times