In 1985, 39-year-oldStephen King announced in public that his pseudonymous alter ego,Richard Bachman, was dead. (Never mind that he revived him years laterto writeThe Regulators.)At the beginning ofThe Dark Half(1989), 39-year-old writer Thad Beaumont announces in public that his own pseudonym, George Stark, is dead.Now, King didn't want to jettison the Bachman novel, titledMachine Dreams, that was he working on. So he incorporated it inThe Dark Halfas the crime oeuvre of George Stark, whose recurring hero/alter ego is an evil character named Alexis Machine.ThadBeaumont's pseudonym is not so docile as Stephen King's, though, andGeorge Stark bursts forth into reality. At that point, two stories kick