Rare sightings of Stephen King on Twitter are so special, his fans savor each and every one of them. With that statement deeply embedded in sarcasm, the great author’s birthday wish to John Sandford has quite a few fans a little confused.
Even compared to Stephen King, John Sandford is no slouch when it comes to his own work in the mystery and thriller genres. He’s a New York Times best-selling author, and a Pulitzer Prize recipient. His Prey series debuted back in 1989 with Rules of Prey, which established the identity of Lucas Davenport, a super detective in Minnesota who tracks down the most insane murderers. Sandford has published a new novel in the series almost every year since, and will be coming out with his 33rd installment soon, having tweeted that he’s working on it now — and the Prey series aren’t his only works for his fans to read. A busy, busy man!
On Thursday, the Prey author tweeted that he was celebrating his 79th birthday, adding that while he didn’t feel too enthused about that part, he was happy about working on his 33rd Prey novel.
What threw some Stephen King fans off was The Shining author’s retweet.
Why would that confuse anyone? The perplexity seems to arise from Mr. Sandford’s referring to himself in the third person, omniscient-narrator style, in his original tweet — i.e., using “the author’s 79th birthday” rather than the more-obvious, first-person “my 79th birthday.” Thus, in Mr. King’s retweet, “the author” to whose birthday the original tweet refers might be mistaken to be King, not Sandford. And since King responded with “Go with your bad self” instead of, say, “Happy birthday John Sandford, aka ‘the author’ in this tweet,” King’s response could be misinterpreted as his acknowledgment of Sandford having wished King a happy birthday.
…Are you still with us? In any case, some fans are getting this one all wrong.
Happy Birthday Mr. King. I wish you a great day Sir, and many more great years to come.
— OUTLAWNSTEEL (@HydTechRepPres) February 24, 2023
It’s contagious!
HBD, Stephen in Bangor ME or FL!
— Brac Nan (@brac_nan) February 24, 2023
True fans of It will most likely know that King’s birthday is on September 21, 1947, which is not even close to today. So, readers who are on the ball are, correctly, happily congratulating Mr. Sandford on his 79th birthday, and #33.
LOVE John Sanford’s PREY books. Lucas Davenport definitely one of my favorite fictional characters. When I visited Minneapolis/St. Paul years ago I was driving around areas I felt weirdly familiar with.
— DollyDagger2020 (@DDagger2020) February 24, 2023
Prey is a great series to get into for any reader who hasn’t heard of Sandford — though of course, not too many haven’t.
One of the few authors whom I have read all the works. 32 Prey Novels, waiting on #33. Be well, gentlemen, both of you.
— C B Hasbrouck (@hasbrouck_c) February 24, 2023
Happy belated Birthday, Mr. Sandford! Can’t wait for the next installment.