The next book we’ll be seeing from Stephen King is Holly, which is set to reach store shelves on September 5th (you can pre-order a copy HERE) and centers on the Holly Gibney character that King has previously written about in the Mr. Mercedes trilogy, The Outsider, and the If It Bleeds story contained in the short story collection of the same name. Now, during an interview with the Talking Scared podcast, King has revealed three more projects that he’s working on or thinking about working on: another short story collection, another Holly Gibney story, and possibly a third book in the Talisman series he started with the late Peter Straub.
King told Talking Scared (with thanks to The Guardian for the transcription) that the short story collection is called You Like It Darker and is expected to be published sometime in 2024. The book has a page count that exceeds 600 – and within those pages is a story that King even creeped himself out with. It’s called The Dreamers, and King said it’s so creepy that he couldn’t think about it at night. “I had this image of a man who is under some kind of drug, and he opens his eyes and they turn black, and these tendrils start to come out of his eyeballs. It just creeped me out.” He added that the story was inspired by and is dedicated to No Country for Old Men author Cormac McCarthy, who passed away earlier this year.
The next Holly Gibney book is called We Think Not, and that one is also turning out to be fairly long because there are “too many stories” going on in it. King said, “I feel kind of like the mad juggler. I’m trying to keep all the balls in the air and not drop any of them.“
As for The Talisman 3… well, it doesn’t sound like it’s a sure thing, but King did say, “Before he died, Peter sent me this long letter and said we oughta do the third one, and he gave me a really cool idea and I had some ideas of my own.” If he did write it, it would be “a long book”. Which makes sense, because its predecessors The Talisman and Black House were both over 600 pages.
While King decides whether or not to write a third Talisman book, Stranger Things creators The Duffer Brothers are planning to turn the first book into a TV series with showrunner Curtis Gwinn, Amblin Entertainment, and Paramount Television.
Are you a King reader? Would you be interested in checking out the You Like it Darker short story collection, the We Think Not Holly Gibney book, or a third Talisman book? Let us know by leaving a comment below.