Message Board
 Please keep your messages brief and contextual. Inappropriate messages will be deleted.
Name: Nancy         Date: 02.17.06         Location: Vermont

Message:   I tried to bid on this when it first appeared on Ebay but I pulled my bid when the news came out it was a fake. So now the publisher (Doubleday I think) says they can't say one way or another? Very weird behavior. Got to be a fake, though.
Name: Dan         Date: 02.17.06         Location: NY

Message:   According to "The Stephen King Encyclopedia" Blog, the book was bought by Doubleday itself to get it out of ciruculation. That's whay no information will be released from Ebay or anyone else about it. It was supposed to be a "mistake" released to add fuel to the conspiracies about who "Bachman" really was. Can anyone say "Paul is Dead?"
Name: XXxxXX         Date: 02.18.06         Location: St. Louis, MO

Message:   This is the most stupid fake ever. I can't believe any of you people are actually believing this. I think this who;le story was made up by the King PR people as a way to hype his new book.
Name: Kate         Date: 02.18.06         Location: R

Message:   I read the story (not he who tells) and it sounds like it is SUPPOSED to seem like King wrote it, but I don't think it's him. Not a bad read, though, IMO.
Name: BD         Date: 02.18.06         Location: Greenup, MS

Message:   XXxxXX: it may be fake, but that's the sort of judgement that simply cannot be made with the current evidence, and anyone who says so is showing just as much foolishness as you accuse the people who believe the story of showing. It may indeed be a campaign by the King people (the publisher, more likely) to create a viral buzz around the new book, but if it is, it doesn't seem to be working very well. This is one of only four or five websites actually talking about "The Bachman Shining". I read the story as well and frankly, I don't think any judgement can be made about that either. King is a talented and versatile enough writer that he could very convincingly write something just different enough from his normal style to throw us all off (he's obviously done it before). I can't wait to see how this all works out, if it ever does.
Name: RonJon         Date: 02.18.06         Location:

Message:   I can't download the story. Does anyone have a copy they can send me? The links don't seem to work at all and I haven't been able to find anything googling it. Is this for real or what?
Name: Sara K         Date: 02.18.06         Location: CHarlston, SC

Message:    I found a copy of thye story on Limewire that doesn't have any title and includes the message that it is an unpublished King story? Has anyone else seen this version? I can post it here if people want. It does read to me a lot more like Bachman (Rage and The Long Walk, in particular) than any of King's work, especially recently. I got through it in about an hour and it gave me some good shivers, especially when I look at "The Bachman Shining". VERY strange thing. Maybe the "Bachman Shining" and "Not he who tells" both slipped through the same wormhole from another dimension? LOL!!!!
Name: ChristopherBlue         Date: 02.19.06         Location: Cardiff, UK

Message:    I'm not able to get the story to download either. Perhaps someone could share a new link for the rest of us?
Name: Creeture         Date: 02.19.06         Location:

Message:    I read the story. There's no way to know for sure, but it reads like King (or Bachman) to me-- or at least close enough to give me the shivers! TOTALLY WEIRD STUFF, this showing up at the same time as "The Bachman Shining!" Maybe there really IS no such thing as fiction!
Name: Marcosprite         Date: 02.19.06         Location: Janisport

Message:    I orignially found the story at www.horrorkindgom.net, but the whole site seems to be down at the moment. I heard that the librarian (I think his name is Polhman, there was some info about him on HK before it went down) who found the story still has the original copy and is going to try to sell it on Ebay, but that Ebay is not going to allow it, since there is no way to prove who wrote it. Has anyone else heard this? Seems like if somebody who knew about forensics could look at the pages, they could determine something about the kind of typewriter that typed it, maybe firgure something out like those CSI types are always doing. I'll post again when HK comes back online and give a link.
Name: Marymouse         Date: 02.19.06         Location: White Plains, NY

Message:    The links seem to be working for me. As for the story: it seems a lot more baroque to me than any of King's work, including his Bachman works, and frankly, that freaks me out a bit. I mean, if one were to make the (admittedly crazy) assertion that the ideas in "Not He Who Tells It" are true, then one would EXPECT some differences in style from another dimension's version of Rich Bachman. This reads to me as the difference between a younger, more lead-footed writer and the same writer grown up and a little more seasoned, a lot like Bradbury over the years. Does anyone else get that sense? It's like the literary difference between Bachman's older pic and the one in the Bachman Shining: apparently the same person, but at different ages and in very different moods. All I can say is "yikes!"
Name: Kurt         Date: 02.20.06         Location: San Diego

Message:    I read a story on the Smoking Gun a week or so ago that this whole thing is a madeup story! Does anyone actually remember seeing the Ebay auction when it was going on?
Name: RooMom         Date: 02.20.06         Location: the backyard

Message:    The librarian's name is Greg Pohlman, according to the story I read, and he isn't trying to sell the manuscript on Ebay. He is, however, planning to release a scanned version of the actual manuscript so we can all read the original typed version. Sounds a little fishy to me, I admit, but its a fun diversion no matter HOW it all turns out!
Name: Kamiquazi         Date: 02.20.06         Location: Reno, NV

Message:    Does anyone remember where the title of the story comes from? I think it is a reference to "the Breathing Method" story from "Different Seasons". In the library where all the men gather to tell stories, there is a fireplace with the words "It is the story, not he who tells it" carved into the stones of the mantel. Seems like an appropriate reference, considering the mystery of the author, and the who "Bachman Shining" thing as well.
Name: Steve P.         Date: 02.20.06         Location: Boulder, Colorado

Message:    I saw the auction when it first happened, but I assumed it was a forgery. Didn't they pull it in the end? I am pretty sure that the whole thing was just a fraud. As for the story, I frankly thought it was a pretty weak ripoff. Let's show some critical thinking here, peoples.
Name: Marlin         Date: 02.20.06         Location:

Message:    The links seem to come and go. The webmaster seems to be trying to keep up with whatever links stay active. Hopefully they'll just host the story themselves once and for all. You can always try downloading the story on any popular file sharing network. They all seem to have some version or other of it floatin around out there in "the world between the worlds" (:
Name: OolongTea         Date: 02.21.06         Location: Falmouth

Message:    I work at Doubleday all I can say is that we were told via memo to not comment one way or another on the whole "Bachman Shining" story. We were even discouraged from talking about it at work. Very suspicious stuff, especially since, here in office, they have absolutely denied EVER producing such a thing!
Name: Dale         Date: 02.21.06         Location: Trenton, MO

Message:    Definitely a reference to "The Breathing Method". What about the email address for information about the Bachman Shining? two_fortynine_b@yahoo.com? I won't give it away, cuz it's a pretty good secret, but SOMEbody out there HAS to have figured that out! Maybe somebody IS who we thing they are?
Name: frozone2399         Date: 02.21.06         Location: Lake Geauga, Ohio

Message:    I used to work for Doubleday and I still have a lot of good friends there. I've asked them and NONE of them have received any memos about keeping hush about "The Bachman Shining". You can't believe everything you read on the internet, and I think that is a very good thing to keep in mind when reading THIS website.
Name: Rebecca M         Date: 02.21.06         Location: Kalamazoo, Mich

Message:    OMG!! Bachman lives! If this ain't true, it SHOULD be! More!