Stephen King might be writing a novel about the coronavirus.
The new wave of COVID-related novels has already infected Gary Shteyngart, Margaret Atwood, John Grisham, and Dave Eggers—and the latest writer to succumb might be Stephen King. In an appearance on The View to promote his new crime novel Billy Summers, King announced his plans to tackle COVID in novel form.
“I want to write a book next that deals directly with the coronavirus,” he said. “I want to set it in 2020, and see how that works as a book. It’s going to be difficult.”
(Whoopi Goldberg’s response: “I don’t think it’s going to be as hard as you think.”)
In the interview, King also discussed how COVID affected his Billy Summers writing process (characters exited the story by going on a cruise; then the cruise lines got shut down; King sighed and moved the events of the novel back to 2019); his filmic inspirations for Billy Summers (The Asphalt Jungle and The Getaway); masking (“It’s not a personal freedom issue. It’s a social issue and a public health issue.”); and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (“not the brightest bulb in the chandelier”).
You can watch the full interview below:
