More on Stephen King’s Grandmaster Status

So yesterday morning, I put up a one-line mention of Stephen King being named the Mystery Writers of America‘s newest Grandmaster. I thought it was odd that the St. Paul Pioneer Press had run with it and I hadn’t heard head or tail about the announcement, but figured the MWA would announce it officially later that day, and thought little of it. Because that’s exactly what happened.

Except the announcement was supposed to be embargoed until the 24th, when King’s next novel, LISEY’S STORY, would be released in stores. Turns out someone at the Pioneer Press jumped the gun, and by linking to it, I inadvertently helped to let the cat out of the bag a couple of weeks early.

Point being, if you read the announcement as issued yesterday, it says fairly emphatically that King will be available for interviews. Not so fast. That won’t be the case till LISEY’S STORY is officially published.

Embargo issues aside, I do like the direction the MWA is taking with this announcement. Even though King is only nominally a mystery writer, his ability to tell scary stories certainly fits with genre ethos. More to the point, the Edgars are going to attract even more publicity next year, which should be a lot of fun to watch. But all thoughts are welcome in the backblog.