Do you sometimes feel like you're living in a prequel to a Stephen King book due to the Coronavirus outbreak? Don't worry, the author apologizes for the current mindset if you read The Stand. Luckily, it looks like King is being more careful about the novels he is writing. The writer has just admitted that he is changing the plot of his upcoming book because of COVID-19.
King recently spoke to NPR about If It Bleeds, his new collection of short stories. Not surprisingly, the IT author admitted that he is currently working on a new novel but has made some necessary changes due to everything that's happening in the world today.
"I set [the book I'm working on] in the year 2020 because I thought, 'OK, when I publish it, if it's in 2021, it will be like in the past, safely in the past.' And then this thing came along, and I immediately looked back through the copy that I'd written and I saw that one of the things that was going on was that two of my characters had gone on a cruise. ... And I thought, 'Well, no, I don't think anybody's going on cruise ships this year,'" King revealed.
Of course, that needed to be tweaked. Luckily, King is a fast writer who immediately came up with a solution.
"I looked at everything and I immediately set the book in 2019, where people could congregate and be together and the story would work because of that," he said.
Well, at least the characters in King's book are still safe and sound (and probably just complaining about the Game of Thrones finale). Hopefully, the rest of us in the real world will eventually get to go on a cruise just like them.
If It Bleeds contains four novellas that feature Holly Gibney, a character who has previously appeared in The Outsider. The novel will be available starting April 21.
Related: Stephen King's The Outsider Star Teases Possible Season 2
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