Just After Sunset

First edition cover
Author	Stephen King
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Horror fiction
Publisher	Scribner
Publication date	November 11, 2008
Media type	Print (hardcover)
Pages	386
ISBN	978-1-4165-8408-7

Just After Sunset is the fifth collection of short stories by Stephen King. It was released in hardcover by Scribner on November 11, 2008, and features a holographic dust jacket. On February 6, 2008, the author's official website revealed the title of the collection to be Just Past Sunset. About a month later, the title was subtly changed to Just After Sunset. Previous titles mentioned in the media by Stephen King himself were Pocket Rockets and Unnatural Acts of Human Intercourse.^[1]

On February 19, 2008, the author's official site revealed twelve stories that would comprise the collection, mentioning the possibility that one additional "bonus story" could be included, and on April 16 "The Cat from Hell" (a much anthologized but heretofore uncollected short story originally published in 1977) was added to the contents list.

King planned to begin writing a new novel, but after he was asked to edit The Best American Short Stories 2007, he was inspired to write short stories instead.^[2]

Upon King's request, a limited edition was released, along with the regular version, featuring a DVD collection of the 25 episodes of the online animated series based on N., one of the stories collected in this volume.^[3]

Stories collected

Connections

References to other King works in Just After Sunset

• "N."

N. mentions the town of Castle Rock, where several of King's stories – including The Dead Zone, The Dark Half, and Needful Things – are set. It also mentions the fictional town of Chester's Mill, which is the setting of his later novel Under the Dome. A clipping from the Chester's Mill local paper, the editor of which is a major character in Under the Dome, is part of the nested narrative.

• "Mute"

In part two of this story, the main character recounts how his wife and her lover, "Cowboy Bob," had gone up to Derry and spent a couple of days at a place called Hollywood Slots. The town of Derry, Maine is the setting of King's 1986 novel It and many of his other novels and stories.