Bag of Bones

Bag of Bones is a 1998 horror novel by American writer Stephen King. It focuses on an author who suffers severe writer's block and delusions at an isolated lake house four years after the death of his wife. It won the 1999 Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel, the 1999 British Fantasy Award for Best Novel, and the 1999 Locus Award for Best Dark Fantasy/Horror Novel. The book re-uses many basic plot elements of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca, which is directly referenced several times in the book's opening pages; however, the relation of these elements (including a wife who is dead as the book opens, her posthumous effect on future romance, a drowning, and house haunted by the memories of previous inhabitants) to the plot and characters is markedly different. When the paperback edition of Bag of Bones was published by Pocket Books on June 1, 1999, it included a new author's note at the end of the book, in which Stephen King describes his initial three-book deal with Scribner (Bag of Bones, On Writing, and a collection of short stories titled One Headlight, which later became Everything's Eventual), and devotes most of the piece describing the origins of the then-forthcoming Hearts in Atlantis. Background information Stephen King had been publishing his books with Viking since The Dead Zone in 1979. In October 1997, after Viking published King's then-latest novel, Desperation (1996), and King's deal with Viking expired, it was being reported that King was seeking a large advance for his next novel ($17–18 million according to various reports) and 26% of gross sales, whereas his deal with Viking previously paid a $15 million advance per book. King also wanted to move to a more literary and prestigious publisher. Ultimately, King left Viking and on November 6, 1997 signed an initial three-book deal with Simon & Schuster, with a $2 million advance for Bag of Bones in addition to 50% profit-sharing. The novel, first reported to be a thousand pages but turned out to be nearly half that, was billed as "a haunted love story", and this phrase was printed on the back cover of the hardcover first edition, which had a print-run of 1.4 million copies. Plot summary The narrator, Mike Noonan, a bestselling novelist, suffers severe writer's block after his pregnant wife Jo suddenly dies due to a brain aneurysm. Four years later, Mike, still grieving, is plagued by nightmares set at his summer house in TR-90 (an unincorporated town named for its map coordinates), Maine.