Dear Stephen King,

[yendi]

Look, The Colorado Kid is a really nifty little book (although overpriced by about $3.50), and I don't regret any of the forty minutes or so I spent reading it.

That said:

If you're going to set a story in 1980, please, for the love of The Overlook, don't have characters in Denver step out to go to Starbuck's (which was still in Washington only at the time) or refer to renting movies at Blockbuster (which didn't even exist back then).


Otherwise, a damned fine novella.

Comments

[celticfeministw.livejournal.com]

Hee! redrua (aka my husband) said the exact same thing to me when he was reading it.

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

Stephen King's editors left a long time ago.

(Starbucks was started by an employee of Peet's, where I get my coffee, a long time ago. Mr. Peet had him sign a non-competition agreement, and over the course of that, Starbucks insinuated itself into everywhere but the SF bay area. Then the agreement expired, and Starbucks erupted in. Peet's has added stuff like cold blended coffee drinks and "flavor shots" to keep up. It's sad. Their basic coffee is much better, but folks come in wanting the same vanilla peppermint somethingchino they can get at Starbucks. Incidentally, the current CEO of Peet's is a former Starbucks exec who prefers Peet's as a company.)

[terracinque.livejournal.com]

Things like that bug the hell out of me. Like in the movie Seabiscuit, where a broadcaster calls Seabiscuit and his jockey "the greatest team since Hope and Crosby" although it was set in the thirties, before Hope and Crosby had ever worked together.

People call me nitpicky, but in the age of Google those details are SO easy to get right, and when they're right, they add immensely to the story's verisimilitude.

[yendi]

Hunh. I was familiar with Peet's, but I had no idea that their history tied so closely into that of Starbuck's.

And yeah, Peet's coffee is definitely superior.

[yendi]

That's exactly my attitude. And it's especially annoying, as King, in the afterword, mentions how he used Google to track down some details of an article. No bloody excuse.

[yendi]

It was so egregious, I honestly thought that it was supposed to be a clue that the flashback-teller was lying, but there was no follow-up.

[tattermuffin.livejournal.com]

Ha! I got it free for my Palm (the joys of reading the weekly emails about what's new, what's on sale, etc. through the ereader store!)

I'll be reading it soon - thanks for the heads up on the anachronisms though. Oy.

[nihilistic-kid.livejournal.com]

http://www.stephenking.com/news.php

"The review of The Colorado Kid in today’s issue of today's USA Today mentions that there was no Starbucks in Denver in 1980. Don’t assume that’s a mistake on my part. The constant readers of the Dark Tower series may realize that that is not necessarily a continuity error, but a clue."

[yendi]

As I noted in a comment, that's the only valid possibility. That said, this reeks of retcon.

[yendi]

It also reeks of one other character, otherwise shown to be intelligent, inquisitive, and likely to call the narrators on any small detail, to be a moron.

[thefirethorn.livejournal.com]

BWAHAHAHAHahahahhaha.

Starbucks.

Bwaha.

[kalquessa.livejournal.com]

While I love both Mr. King and Ms. Rowling, they could both do with a little less of the "As long as his/her name is on the cover it will sell. Why bother with editing?" treatment. Alas. Glad the book was still a decent read, despite this.

[unquietsoul5.livejournal.com]

Except the story doesn't ring true.

Peet's started in Berklee CA in 1966 but didn't expand outward from CA until the 80s. Starbucks started started in 1971 in Pike's Place Market as a coffee roasting place that sold beans (and wasn't an actual cafe) until 1982 when Howard Schulz came in as the marketing executive for the comany. He expanded their operation providing coffee to resteraunts etc.

In 1985 he opened the first coffee bar as an experiment in Seattle and gave it the Italian touch by naming it 'Il Giornale'.

The first actual Starbucks cafe until 1987 when he bought the company with the help of some outside investors and opened the first 17 stores.

[phantom_wolfboy]

Way to spoil the book, Adam! Jeesh! ;-P