Stephen King Releases Short Story “Laurie,” Novella “The Gingerbread Girl” To Be Adapted and “IT: Chapter Two” Finds Two More Actors

King surprised everyone May 17, with the online release of a brand new short story, “Laurie.” (that is a link to the pdf). You can find the story through a link in King’s tweet announcing the story’s release, or through his website.

I’m posting a brand new short story, if you want to read it–think of it as an appetizer to the main course, THE OUTSIDER, coming next week. The story is free. Read, print, share, whatever. Go to my website or click the link. Enjoy! https://t.co/tfHIWTPoNw

— Stephen King (@StephenKing) May 17, 2018

“Laurie” tells the tale of Lloyd Sunderland, an elderly man living alone in Florida following the death of his wife. Lloyd’s sister stops by one day and gives him a puppy, Laurie.

For fear of spoilers, I’ll stop there, but “Laurie” is a very nice, heartwarming tale with an interesting King-esque thrill dropped in later.

I give it a 4 out of 5. It had some reminiscent themes from “Insomnia.”

In other news, the movie rights to King’s novella, “The Gingerbread Girl” were purchased by Brainstorm Media.

“The Gingerbread Girl” was first published in Esquire magazine but can now be found in King’s 2008 short story collection “Just After Sunset.”

The novella tells the tale of a woman who forces herself into a grueling running routine to avoid dealing with loss. One day she runs into the mysterious Pickering (dun dun dun).

Craig Baxley will be directing the film and he is co-writing the script with King himself. Baxley directed “Storm of the Century,” a screenplay King wrote and released in 1999.

Mitchell Galin has signed on to produce the film. King fans may recognize his name seeing as how he has produced the adaptations of Kings “Pet Sematary,” “The Stand,” “Thinner,” “The Langoliers,” “The Night Flier” and “Golden Years.” You could say King likes his work and vice-versa.

No release date has been announced yet, but casting is currently underway.

A couple weeks ago I told you the second part Andy Muschietti’s adaptation of “IT” had found a few actors, well this week they added two more to the adult Losers Club.

On May 16, James Ransone announced via his twitter page that he will be playing adult Eddie Kaspbrak and constant readers everywhere are sucking on their inhalers in excitement.

Ransone is known for his work in “Sinister,” “Sinister 2” and “The Wire” along with a few smaller films and shows.

Only a day after Ransone made his announcement, Andy Bean was announced as adult Stanley Uris.

The announcement came via Wyatt Oleff’s Instagram page. Oleff played young Stan in the uber successful first part of Muschietti’s adaptation.

Bean’s previous work include “The Divergent Series: Allegiant,” and TV shows “Power” and “Here and Now.”

Bean and Ransone aren’t very well-known actors, and they’ll have to fight for screen-time with James McAvoy, Bill Hader, and Jessica Chastain, but I’m sure the two new additions will do very well in their roles and I have complete faith in Andy Muschietti’s direction.

Lastly, let’s not forget the release of “The Outsider” is fast approaching… constant readers can practically taste the 22^nd.

In other writing release news, a collection of short stories edited by Stephen King and writer Bev Vincent, “Flight of Fright” is set for a September 4 release.

“Flight or Fright” contains stories all about the horrors of plane travel. It includes stories from King himself, as well as his son Joe Hill, and 15 other authors.

A month after “Flight or Fright” hits shelves, King’s newest novella, “Elevation,” will be released October 30.

It is seriously a great time to be a constant reader and Stephen King fan.