Stephen King Talks About Visiting Sixth Floor Museum

Iconic writer Stephen King made a rare appearance in Dallas, TX, 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 and Fort Worth, TX, area to write it.

How much time have you spent in Dallas over the years?

I haven't spent very much. I have relatives in Plano so we've [King's wife and himself] been down there a bit. We've been in to Dallas, but the only extended trips that I've made are this one and the trip I made when I came down to the Texas School Book Depository to try to get the lay of the land. Not enough and I'll pay for it. I paid for it a little bit already.

There was a review in the Houston Chronicle that pointed out I had misspelled the little town of Killeen. I used one "L" and it's two "Ls." That's my own fault. It was right in front of me on the computer but I did it wrong anyway. Also, there's a station in Dallas named KLIF. In the book, the kids call it "KLIFE" because it just seemed natural to me. I found out they called it "CLIFF" because it's [for] Oak Cliff. Stuff like that. That's what happens when you write about a place that you haven't been familiar with in a thousand years.

Will you be doing anything for the anniversary of the assassination?

No. The tour will be over then. I don't have any plans for the anniversary whatsoever except to be sorry that we have a day like that on the calendar.

Did you talk to any of the principals who are still alive like Detective [Jim] Leavelle or anybody like that?

No sir. No I didn't.

Tell us about the things you couldn't have gotten access to without the help of the Sixth Floor Museum?

I couldn't have written the book without spending time on the Sixth Floor. We were given permission to video tape, which helped to a degree. The process was really a visual process for me. For all I know that may be why so many of the books I've written have been turned into movies. I have a clear visual sense and I can't write about a place until I know what's on my left and what's on my right.

A reporter this morning from USA Today asked me what I felt when I saw the place. [They wanted to know] whether or not it creeped me out. All I felt was sort of this excitement. The lights come on and you say, "OK. Here's where he stood with that rifle and over there is where they were replacing the floor." I asked what it would have smelled like because of the plywood. They were planing wood and stuff. I really wanted to get a feel for that place and I think I did.

If anything gave me the willies, it was looking out from where Oswald was with the rifle and seeing the "X" on the road by the Triple Underpass. One of the things that I discovered after my visit to the Sixth Floor Museum is there's apparently a streaming Earth cam. You can watch the cars going through the pass and everything. To me it was like if you'd seen all of Clark Gable's movies and then went to visit his house. That's a crappy metaphor but…

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.