The Dark Tower: FOUND!

Dark Roasted Blend has made a connection that's -- well, out there.  Until you see the photo's!  Seems the Dark Tower actually exists, in our world! 

Dark Blend writes,

Maybe you've read Stephen King's huge fantasy epic "The Dark Tower" . . . you'll be surprised to find the fantastic huge black tower actually exists... on a small island near Africa. More precisely, on the São Tomé island in the Gulf of Guinea. It's called Pico Cão Grande, or the Great Dog peak.

The photo's are credited to   Inna Moody.  The painting is the always awesome Michael Whelan.

Get these ominous lines,
"Fearsome black snakes live on this peak."
"approaches to it are filled with impenetrable giant ferns and lianas"
"Among the animals who live in the nearby jungles and come to pay respect to the tower are the Leatherback Sea Turtle"
"Vertical climbing of this peak is complicated by the thick mist that lingers around it."
About Devil's Tower in Wyoming, "Big monsters tend to find such towers and climb them to their doom. Here is a (bear)? trying to scale the Devil's Tower in Wyoming."
Huuuuhhhh!  Sounds like the tower rising in our world.  Snakes.  The turtle.  The bear.  Difficult approach.  ehhh?!

In all honesty, this would make some great shots for a movie. . . if they were to ever make a movie.  You know, someone should do that!  Someone should make a Dark Tower movie. 

Betts Bookstore Spotlighted

Under the headline, "Laid off, Fairfielder finds new career selling Stephen King collectibles" Karen Kovacs of Fairfield Citizen offers a great person of interest story on David Williamson. Williamson is the owner of Betts Bookstore. A collector himself, Williamson bought the store when he was laid off.

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Just a personal note -- I really liked this article. I hope you'll check it out. More than that, I am hopeful that the King community will continue to support Williamson the way they did when the store was located in Bangor. Our contact with Williamson has been fantastic. He certainly knows the market, and has a keen eye for being able to find exactly what you're looking for. Also, when dealing with King collections it's important to know what things are worth. As the article notes, "Williamson knows first-hand how the collectible market operates, because he has been one of its consumers for almost two decades." Anyway, back to the story . . .

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What was Stu Tinker's response to the idea of selling Betts to Williamson? "He said he would rather sell his business to someone like me because he knew it would be in good hands," Williamson explained.

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This is the best quote: "I love what I am doing. It's such a gift to me to be able to be with my family on a day-in, day-out basis, too."

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By the way, he is also the model Michael Whelan (a personal friend of his) used for the character Father Callahan in the Discordia project.

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If you're going to purchase Full Dark, No Stars you might as well purchase from Betts. http://www.bettsbooks.com/w95020ai.html

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The artcle is here: http://www.fairfieldcitizenonline.com/news/article/Laid-off-Fairfielder-finds-new-career-selling-450447.php

you can also read an interview with David Williamson at King's website:

http://www.stephenking.com/darktower/interview1.html

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The photo is from stephenking.com

Link: Michael Whelan Interview

Can you judge a book by the cover? Well, that's what Michael Whelan would like you to be able to do! In a recent interview, Erik Ofgang asked Whelan, "When you illustrate a book cover, do you read the book, do you talk to the author, how does that work?"

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"Always, (but) there's a few instances where the book hadn't been written yet, because I get booked so far in advance (and) my slot for a book cover comes up before the books actually been written. In that case, I'll talk to the author on the phone or via e-mail and get at least a plot outline and synopsis and description of characters so I can try to be as accurate as possible. It always bothered me as an avid reader myself that you couldn't judge a book by its cover. I decided early on that my book covers would be different, that you'd be able to."

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LINK: http://www.newstimes.com/news/article/Sunday-Chat-with-Michael-Whelan-364140.php

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For a more specific "Stephen King" interview, check out Liljas Library at: http://www.liljas-library.com/showinterview.php?id=19

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Picture: http://www.michaelwhelan.com/catalog/home.php