Stephen King Talks About New Book '11/22/63'

Iconic writer Stephen King made a rare appearance in Dallas, Texas, to promote his newest novel, "11/22/63." It revolves around a man who goes back in time to prevent President John F. Kennedy from being assassinated. He took some time to answer questions about the book and give some background on what sort of research he had to do in the Dallas-Fort Worth area to write it.

Why this subject matter and why did you write "11/22/63"?

I had the idea for the book in 1971. It was November 22. I was in the teacher's room and people started to talk about the anniversary. 1971 was eight years after the assassination. It was as fresh as 9/11 is now. People started to talk about what might have happened if Kennedy didn't get assassinated and the series of events that allowed it to happen. I thought, "There's a book in this. A great story. A time travel story." A guy goes back [in time].

I got about 25 pages in. I got all this stuff about the man finding out that there was a time rift in the back of his diner. The guy who discovered it couldn't use it anymore because he had cancer. Then I came up against this thing where there was all this research involved. I didn't have the time or the resources to get anybody to help do that. I had two kids. I was making $6,400.00 a year. There was nothing like Google or Bing at that time. I also wasn't capable then. I was still new at my craft. It was obviously a huge project so I just put it on the shelf.

I'm really glad I did for all kinds of reasons. One, it was too soon afterward. Many of the people who were involved were still alive at that time. Jacqueline Kennedy and both of the Kennedys' children were alive. It wouldn't have been right. I don't think I realized this [at the time] but I do now. 48 years is enough distance. The idea never left me. It was too good and it was too simple. To me, it had a lot of dramatic power. I finally got around to writing it. I have a friend named Russ Dorr who helped me with "Under the Dome." It was natural for me to turn to him. We started to amass this huge backlog of material about the assassination between the two of us.

Are you happy with the book?

I'm delighted. The reviews have been good. It was a lot of work. Part of the job was trying to make sure the story was the star and that I didn't write a lot of history stuff.

You hardly ever do press events. Why two in Dallas, TX?

I wanted to do something for Dallas. The one thing I wanted to do was something bookstore-sponsored because the bookstores are all under siege. Anything that I can do to help that way is a great thing. I wanted to do it in Dallas because this place just sort of opened up to me. Everybody that I met here while I was doing the research was terrific. The [people of the] Sixth Floor Museum in particular were terrific.

You can see pictures from Stephen King's tour stop in Dallas, TX, right here.

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Eric Shirey is the founder and former editor of Rondo Award nominated movie news websites MovieGeekFeed.com and TheSpectralRealm.com. His work has been featured on Yahoo!, DC Comics, StarWars.com, and other entertainment websites. Eric has interviewed and worked with actors like Harrison Ford, Brooke Shields, Gerard Butler, Brendan Fraser, Selena Gomez, and many more.