Burying the hatchet

> James Patterson decides to end his years-long feud with fellow author Stephen King by scrapping his latest book, The Murder of Stephen King

DURING a now-infamous interview in 2009, Stephen King ( far right) referred to fellow author James Patterson ( right) as “a terrible writer”, but later admitting “he’s very successful”. Despite this, the Alex Cross writer responded by praising King, telling the Wall Street Journal: “He’s taken shots at me for years. It’s fine, but my approach is to do the opposite with him – to heap praise.”

However, the rift didn’t end there, and Patterson eventually co-authored a novel called The Murder of Stephen King, the story of a psychotic fan re-enacting the murders from King’s book with the goal of eventually killing King himself.

With just weeks until the book’s release, Patterson has suddenly realised the book may not be such a good idea after all.

Having learnt that fans had “disrupted” King’s home in real life, Patterson issued a statement on the novels withdrawal.

It read: “My book is a positive portrayal of a fictional character, and, spoiler alert, the main character is not actually murdered.

“Nevertheless, I do not want to cause Stephen King or his family any discomfort. Out of respect for them, I have decided not to publish The Murder of Stephen King.”

Before the release, Patterson wrote on his website: “I’m a Stephen King fan, but Stephen King did not participate in the making of this novel, nor is he affiliated with it in any way. I hope he likes it.” King has yet to comment on the book’s withdrawal. Meanwhile, Patterson announced that his next book, Taking the Titanic, will take The Murder of Stephen King’s release spot on Nov 1. Meanwhile, King’s novella Hearts in Atlantis has been announced to be receiving an on-screen adaptation. The celebrated author has given his personal approval to the adaptation, which is based on his own time in college.

The story centres on a group of poor freshmen, surviving off scholarships and aid packages, who become obsessed with the highly-addictive – and highly-vindictive – card game Hearts, and find their world starts to slowly unravel.

Their grades begin to fall, and one by one they flunk out at a time when life outside college meant the draft and the jungles of Vietnam. – The Independent 2 3 4 5 6 7 – Cheeming Boey – Kanyin Publication – Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali – Tun Musa Hitam – Tan Yen Fong – Edition Didier Millet