I can’t answer that; I ain’t Steve. If you want my best guess, I think he’s going back through some of his older stuff and finding loose ends in the existing stories, then working them into the DT series. The character from Salem’s Lot, for example, almost literally “rode off into the sunset” in that book. A lot of King’s stuff is about redemption, so I think he saw an opportunity for this character to redeem himself.
I think I didn’t explain myself very well, but I love chatting about this sort of stuff!
Eddie’s world isn’t quite like our world, because in Eddie’s world he is a person, and in our world he is a fictional character. Likewise, in our world, The Shining is a work of fiction.
Based on Eddie’s comment, The Shining is also a work of fiction in Eddie’s world, and absolutely yes, I agree that SK was having a little fun with his own popularity. But at the same time, it makes my head hurt because if you follow the links through the various books, Eddie’s world and the internal world of The Shining (the world where Jack Torrance is a real person) are the same.
I agree with Green Bean. Mid-world = Sol 3 in the future (maybe only 1000 years or so) is still the story I’m sticking with.
Mid-Worlders remember “Hey Jude,” some practice a fragmented Christianity, and there are many other bits and pieces from our world. I think it’s much more compelling to imagine these relics as remnants of our world, than to say that they somehow slipped through interplanar portals. Rolands observations about our world, when he arrives on a flight to New York, become (IMHO) more poignant - our world will move on, paper will become a precious commodity, and we won’t be so surprised if somebody unzips our guts.
Maybe this wouldn’t bother SK as much, but I think it’s very significant that everyone is able to understand each other.
The change in shape of the world, IIRC, was attributed to the decay within the dark tower.
I rationalized this one for myself in this way: in Eddie’s world, Jack Torrance was a real person who had a movie made about him… a docu-drama called The Shining. 
I also thought that King may have been sniping a little bit at the fact that Kubrick’s version of The Shining was so different from King’s book. It’s like they were different worlds…
By the way, for confirmed DT fans (such as myself) the Stehpen King website is probably the best place for updated info on release dates and such. This page has the current scheduled release dates, as well as info the Berni Wrightson will be illustrating DT5. This page has a downloadable Prologue to DT5, called “Calla Bryn Sturgis,” in HTML, text, and PDF form.
I heard a rumour that King is trying to get Michael Whelan to illustrate the final volume of Dark Tower, which would be a great way to round out the series, since he illustrated the first book. Has anyone else heard the same thing?
So glad that so many have participated in what is turning into a really good discussion of SK & the Dark Tower series! In fact, I was so inspired that in a spurt of reading last night, I covered nearly half of “Wizard and Glass;” unfortunately, now i’m paying for it, since I was up until nearly 3 am reading. Well, it’s enjoyable; I won’t be able to finish it tonight, but perhaps by tomorrow night I will. I just almost couldn’t put it down last night! I would have stayed up longer, except I knew I had to come in to work today.
Oh wow! I just finished the prologue to DTV. I can’t wait! I fell back into that world just as easy as pie…
But what is this talk about Wolves? Could it be Jackie’s Bad Wolfs? From the Territories? And what do they want with the twin(ner)s?
Oh my, oh my…hurry, hurry, please Steve! Thankee-sai!
So, am I the only one here who grins every time Dolores posts into this thread???
Just a quick nit - the Kansas City Monarchs were KC’s Negro League baseball team. I guess in the Topeka that Roland et al. found themselves in were in a world where the Negro Leagues were either integrated directly into MLB, or became MLB.