Stephen King’s new story “Morality” was just published in the July issue of Esquire. A few sentences of that story appeared on the front cover in a manner which cannot be matched by a Kindle.

I recommend the piece, which is quite dark, reminding me a bit of the film Crimes and Misdemeanors. Not in any aspect of the plot, but rather in its bleak outlook.

The cover, however, was neither dark nor bleak … nor did its design have anything to do with the story itself.

You can find out more about the creation of the cover here.

Contrary to what the cover blurbs would have you believe, those sentences printed on model Bar Refaeli are not the opening sentences of the story, which confused me a bit when I tried to read them as such and then continue on inside.

I’m not sure why after having gone to all that trouble they let stand what appears to be a crossed-out typo just above her knee. But perhaps you were too distracted to notice.

In an article about George Pelecanos in last week’s issue of The Washington Post Magazine, timed to coincide with the publication of his 15th novel, The Turnaround, several other writers who happen to be fans of his work are mentioned in order to show how popular he is, and how his books cross boundaries.

The first such writer mentioned is “distinguished novelist Jonathan Lethem.”

The second is “horror titan Stephen King.”

Am I the only one who’s irritated by these contrasting descriptions? I guess it’s further proof, if we needed any, that Jonathan has broken out of the ghetto (a hot topic of discussion at the recent Readercon), but … isn’t King also a distinguished novelist?

Perhaps I shouldn’t be annoyed by this. But I am.