Stephen King discovers 'horror' of the Internet

Stephen King has been forced into the mayhem of the Internet world, launching his own Website after masses of bogus ones started.

King himself is not a wired guy - he has spent years trying to avoid the Net. He does not spend his free time surfing the Web or hanging out in Internet chat rooms, he has never published an email address for himself and, like any other medium, his stories cannot be published on Internet sites without his permission.

That was until recently. In an effort to counter the thousands of unofficial web sites, www.stephenking.com has just made its online debut as King's official site.

Users can now browse it for information about King, a mini-autobiography of him written in part by his wife, Tabitha; past, present and future book titles, such as Legacies and the Green Mile due out in March, 1999; as well as information such as why he became a writer and where he gets his ideas.

King agreed to his own online presence so fans will be confident of getting facts, not rumors, explained King's assistant, Marsha DeFilippo. She said people were sending books for King to sign, manuscripts for him to review and questions for him to answer personally, all because they had read on the Internet that he did those things.

In fact, on King's web site it says he has been advised by his attorneys, to avoid any litigation problems, not to look at manuscripts which have not already been accepted by a publisher. The site does recommend some good reference books, such as Literary Market Place and Writer's Market.

"He's been avoiding this for years," DeFilippo said.

Unofficial sites have names such as De Nederlandse Stephen King Website, The Stephen King House O'Love, Hungarian Stephen King Headquarters and Stephen King: Childe Roland To The Dark Tower Came The Unofficial Website. There are also several email lists, newsgroups and realtime chat channels focused on King.

Already the official web site has the following notation: "Due to the overwhelming flood of email, which Stephen King's assistants are wading through, we are temporarily suspending email sent to his office. Please check back when they've had a chance to get caught up. Thank you in advance for your patience."