FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
1 MAY 2003

TWO LOST STEPHEN KING STORIES FOUND

The authors of the upcoming 'The Complete Guide to the Works of Stephen King' are pleased to announce they have included the details of two previously unknown King stories in the Guide, which will be published this month.

The stories, 'Code Name: Mousetrap' and 'The 43^rd Dream' were originally published in King's high school newspaper while he was on its staff. The stories were originally rediscovered by a teacher at Lisbon High School, while cleaning her files on her retirement in June 2002. She then placed the newspapers for auction on Ebay.

The authors had compiled 268 Works of King Fiction for their Guide when Stu Tinker, of the specialist King bookseller Betts Bookshop in Bangor, Maine told co-author Rocky Wood of the rumour another story existed. Wood was visiting Bangor for research at the University of Maine at Orono for three weeks in November 2002.'With Stu's assistance we were able to track down a collector who had a copy of Code Name: Mousetrap, published in 1965, King's senior year,' Wood said. 'The collector provided a copy and assisted in writing a Chapter for the Guide. Full provenance for the story and newspaper came with it and we were then certain the story, to which there has been no prior reference in King research, was real,' he added.

'After releasing details of the find earlier this week we were stunned to be contacted by another collector who had been able to secure a different copy of 'The Drum', from 1966. Contrary to our earlier expectations and research there was indeed another fiction story by King in a later edition of that newspaper,' Wood said.

The story, by 'Steve King' is titled 'The 43^rd Dream'. 'Barely a page in length it is a surreal description of the narrator's dream and includes some very interesting foreshadowings of future King themes,' Wood said after reading the story and composing a Chapter on it for the upcoming Guide. Again, full provenance for the story has been secured.

'The Complete Guide to the Works of Stephen King' by Rocky Wood, David Rawsthorne and Norma Blackburn, a 3000 page reference work to be published on CD ROM in May 2003, is the most comprehensive study of King's fiction ever produced.

Contact Details: Rocky Wood - Country Code 61 (419) 898-882

Website for the Guide: www.horrorking.com (a jpeg of the cover from the Guide may be downloaded from this site)