Stephen King is probably used to the raucous applause that awaited him Friday at the Hughes Metropolitan Comlex. After all, he’s as close as a novelist can get to being a rock star.

However, he asked the packed house to give themselves a round of applause, simply because their numbers showed how important and popular books still are in 2014.

“We’re all here tonight because we love books. We’re not home watching TV,” King said. “This is the first church of reading, and you ought to give yourselves a hand.”

King spoke to an attentive crowd for about an hour as part of a national speaking tour. At the end of his talk, King read an excerpt from his new novel, “Revival,” and each attendee received a copy of the book.

The event was organized by Watermark Books & Café, and as one of just six cities King will visit on this tour, Wichita got a relatively exclusive look into the mind of one of America’s most successful living authors.

King saidhe visualizes his writing process as a hole with a red string in the middle, which represents an idea. After finding his red string, he pulls and pulls some more until he has a story with a beginning, middle and end.

“I am not what you would call an organized writer,” King said. “I  start with the image, with the red thread that comes out of the hole, and I just pull it. I don’t have any idea where it’s going.”

King admitted that sometimes he never finds the end of the red string and leaves stories unfinished.

“Everything starts from that one little idea,” King said. “But, sometimes the string breaks.”

King said the stories just come to him. He likened himself to a journalist, as he merely receives information and communicates it to the reader.

This is just how he justifies controversial decisions, such as the death of a child at the end of one novel. He does not do it himself — it just happens.

“I didn’t kill him. He just died,” King said. “I don’t make the news. I just report it.”

King said the dark nature of some of his stories causes fans to curse him and ask for a hug in the same breath. He said it makes him feel like a combination of Godzilla and Santa Claus.

King’s reception in Wichita was warm as could be, though. Wichita State President John Bardo spoke briefly at the beginning of the event, referring to King’s talk as part of a bit of a cultural renaissance in Wichita right now.

“We want to continue to reach out to the community,” Bardo said. “And make sure that you have the opportunity to learn, to hear, to think, to engage with the greatest minds out here, and we have that opportunity with you, again, tonight.”