Stephen King Returns; Artistic Envy Explained

Today in books and publishing: Stephen King will release a new book next June, Saddam Hussein's daughter wants to publish her dad's memoir, artistic envy explained.

This is good news: Stephen King is going to publish a new paperback potboiler for Hard Case Crime, the pulpy imprint that seven years ago published The Colorado Kid, the most love-it-or-hate-it book in King's entire oeuvre, save for the Dark Tower novels. The new tome, Joyland, is set in 1973 and tells "the story of the summer in which college student Devin Jones comes to work as a carny and confronts the legacy of a vicious murder, the fate of a dying child, and the ways both will change his life forever." We're there. The book comes out next June.  [GalleyCat]

Saddam Hussein's daughter, Raghad Saddam Hussein, wants to publish her father's handwritten memoir. Raghad's lawyer was unclear on the specific contents of the book, or how it long it took the late dictator to write the manuscript.  [Al Arabiya via GalleyCat]

Envy is easy. But artistic envy -- a la what Salieri felt about Mozart -- is a different ball of wax. It's all-encompassing, a feeling of never quite being good enough. The Los Angeles Review of Books provides one of the better lengthy examinations of what happens when authors become jealous of their peers, and how that jealousy impacts their work. [Los Angeles Review of Books]

The best commencement speech from a literary type this graduation season was delivered by American Gods author Neil Gaiman at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. He gives everyone advice on how to freelance successfully! [via The New York Observer]