Stephen King Chides Governor LePage

In his weekly radio program, Maine governor LePage suggested that Stephen King left Maine because of the states income tax.

Meanwhile, remember who introduced the income tax here in Maine. Well, today former Governor Ken Curtis lives in Florida where there is zero income tax. Stephen King and Roxanne Quimby have moved away, as well.

Stephen King issued this response to Goernor LePage:

 "Governor LePage is full of the stuff that makes the grass grow green. Tabby and I pay every cent of our Maine state income taxes, and are glad to do it. We feel, as Governor LePage apparently does not, that much is owed from those to whom much has been given. We see our taxes as a way of paying back the state that has given us so much. State taxes pay for state services. There's just no way aRound it. Governor LePage needs to remember there ain't no free lunch."

Now it makes me wonder if the Republican Governor knows anything at all about Stephen King and politics.  Did he really think King, who has openly said he should pay more taxes, would leave the state because of taxes?

Amy Fried at Bangor Daily News points out that Stephen King has not left the state.  She writes:

 I live in Bangor and frequently walk past his house on West Broadway. There are often cars in the driveway with Maine plates. I sometimes see Stephen or Tabitha in Bangor. 

The Kings vote in Bangor. I’ve looked up their donations to federal candidates and they’re listed as Maine residents. 

Besides the Bangor home, they also own a home in western Maine. Plus there’s a house in Florida.

Bangor Daily News: Stephen King Still Wants to Scare You!

check out the entire interview at bangordailynews.com

The author of The Shining, Pet Sematary and Carrie is BACK!  Yeah, I know, he never went anywhere.  But -- he kinda sorta did.  Christine and Carrie were blood baths.  Some of his later novels -- not so much.  Here's my favorite quote from the interview:

“I think that one of the things behind ‘Revival’ was [for] people who really like books like ‘Pet Sematary’ and ‘The Shining,’ I really wanted to see if I could still bring a real scare to people and write the sort of book that people would say, ‘It’s a great story, but it scared the hell out of me and I had to keep the lights on,’” King says. “I was sort of aiming for that in particular.”

Drive Through Our Favorite Novels

Stu Tinker's van, equipped with an image of 'It' on its side, that he drives around Bangor when giving one of his SK Tours.

I really enjoyed Emily Burnham's article in Bangor Daily News about former Betts Bookstore owner, Stu Tinker. The article is titled “A Stephen King tour of Bangor, led by an expert.” Cool! It's like driving through your favorite books.

Burnham says that Tinker leads the tours almost every day of the week . . . in warmer months!  She writes:

There are just that many King fans who want to come to Bangor to see for themselves the inspiration for so many iconic scenes in his books and movies — from Bangor International Airport, the setting for the TV movie of “The Langoliers,” to the Bangor Auditorium, known as the Derry Civic Center in the book “Insomnia.”

Tinker says that people come from all over the world to take the tour, naming in particular:South Africa, New Zealand, England, Australia.  He has been leading tours since the early 90's.  

Burnham notes that Bangor and Derry are virtually indistinguishable from one another.  

Several major landmarks are included in the tour, such as the Standpipe, the Barrens — also known as the Kenduskeag Stream Trail — and the Paul Bunyan statue that comes alive in “It.” But there are plenty of other lesser-known spots, such as the Rite Aid on Union Street that figures in “Bag of Bones,” the apartment King lived in when he sold “Carrie” to Doubleday Publishing, and the spot in Mt. Hope Cemetery that was the scene of King’s cameo appearance in the film “Pet Sematary.” There are also a lot of new Derry locations in “11/22/63,” King’s critically-acclaimed 2011 book.

BDN includes this info:

To book a tour with SK Tours, visit sk-tours.com or call 947-7193. A tour is $39.95 for two people; each additional person is $25. You can also like them on Facebook at SK Tours of Maine.

The full article is HERE

Check out the video!

Looking For King's Yellow House

Check out this amusing post by Erin Donovan, in which she goes looking for Stephen King's house -- and finds it.  Turns out, King's house is a yellow Victorian mansion.  Right?  Yellow?

A simple, yellow Victorian house. It had a nicely landscaped front yard and a rocking chair on the porch. There were no Komodo dragons. There was no holding tower. No fog encircling only this house despite clear skies elsewhere. There were no tormented screams echoing from the upper windows. There were no medieval weapons or antique masonry tools lying around. And I didn’t see even one minotaur. As we were pulling away, I saw something strange. Something out of place. 

There were colorful paper tulips pasted to each window.

Gotta read it. bangordailynews.com

Darabont Goes After AMC

Frank Darabont -- known by King fans for his work on THE MIST and THE GREEN MILE -- is suing AMC, claiming that  they are withholding profits generated by his series, The Walking Dead. The series is in its fourth season, with each season progressively drawing a larger audience.

The Bangor  Daily News  reports:

Frank Darabont, who developed the TV show about a zombie apocalypse and was fired after the first season, filed the lawsuit on Tuesday in a New York State Supreme Court.
Darabont said that the way AMC is calculating the show’s licensing fees is depriving him and other participants of tens of millions of dollars, the lawsuit stated.
AMC spokesman Jim Maiella declined to comment.

The full article is at: bangordailynews.com

Pennywise At Work At The Bangor Library?

In article titled, "Stephen King’s scary library needs $9 million repair,"  Esmé E. Deprez at bangordailynews.com notes that the Library is one of Stephen King's favorite haunts -- literally and fictionally.

Fictionally: "Readers of Stephen King’s novel “It” know the Bangor Public Library as a hiding spot for the title character, a deranged clown on a murderous rampage. In real life, the library is falling apart."
Literally: "The Kings, who are both authors, met in the library at the University of Maine in Orono, just a few minutes up the road from the Victorian mansion they now own, according to his website. Both are avid users of the Bangor library, and Tabitha King served on its board for 12 years, McDade said. First editions of all of Stephen King’s titles are stored in the vault."

King Tells Washington To GROW UP!

Stephen King has an editorial at the Bangor Daily News (HERE).

Discussing his essay, "Guns" King wrote:

What I asked for in that piece — what I almost begged for — was that we Americans find some middle ground on the subject of heavy-duty firearms. Just a small median strip of rationality between the honking freeway lanes jammed with those on the political right and the political left. According to polls, the majority of Americans would really like a place like that, where a rational discussion could be held without raised voices.

About the reception to Guns, King shares that  the response has been strong but "in many ways depressing."

There have been more than 1,300 capsule reviews on the Amazon website. A thousand have been favorable (834 five-star reviews, 205 four-star reviews). More than 200 have been unfavorable (160 one-star reviews, 49 two-star reviews). In the middle, the place I really wanted to reach, less than 90. If you need a statistical example of how polarized the country is, there it is.

It is interesting, King points out, that those who liked the essay were also verified as having bought the book.  Many who marked it with one star were not noted as having bought the item!  Like writing a book report on a book you made up.

Throughout the article King calls for middle ground.  I'm a conservative on most social issues -- and I would be glad for middle ground and honest discussion in our nation. If we stopped hating each other, we might be able to talk.

King's Offer To Cover A Third Of Library Renovations

Bangor Daily Bews has an article titled, "Stephen and Tabitha King offer to cover one-third of $9 million Bangor library renovation, if library finds ways to foot the rest of the bill."  (Really, that's the header)

BANGOR, Maine — Authors Stephen and Tabitha King have pledged $3 million toward renovations at Bangor’s century-old public library, as long as the library reaches its goal of raising another $6 million, according to the library’s director. 

The Bangor Public Library has kicked off a $9 million fundraising effort in an attempt to modernize its building for the next generation of users and to protect its more than 500,000 volumes, Director Barbara McDade said Tuesday. 

The Kings offered to pay one-third of that bill as long as the library figured out how to come up with the rest. 

“They have just been wonderful supporters of the library,” McDade said of the Kings.

The full article, by By Nick McCrea is at bangordailynews.com

Thanks to Herbert West / Club Stephen King

Bangor Broadcasters Quit On Air

In an article titled, "Take this job and shove it: Fed-up Bangor TV anchors quit on air", Bangor Daily News writes: "Michaels and Consiglio, who have a combined 12½ years’ service at WVII (Channel 7) and sister station WFVX (Channel 22), shocked staff members and viewers with their joint resignations Tuesday evening. . . Neither reporter had told anyone of their decisions before Tuesday’s newscast."

The reason for their leaving?  Michaels said it was because they were  forced by upper management to do stories that were bias.  (They did not indicate which way they felt the bias was leaning).

bangordailynews.com

Mangler's Inspiration -- MANGLED

photo credit bangordailynews.com

A once busy laundromat in Bangor was demolished today -- it has been closed since 2000.  According to WABI TV 5 it is the same laundry Stephen King once worked at.  (www.wabi.tv)

Stephen King website charnelhouse notes,

the New Franklin Laundry (where King worked for some time, giving him the inspiration for “The Mangler” and providing a backdrop for the novels Carrie and Roadwork.) 

When asked what the worst job he ever had  was, King told Suspense Magazine,

When I washed industrial laundry for New Franklin Laundry in Bangor, twice a week (in summer) we used to get the table linen from Testa's of Bar Harbor. Testa's is a famous seafood restaurant, where the elite meet. But the elite never saw those napkins and tablecloths after a hot summer day in the back of a laundry pick-up truck. They stank, which was bad, and they were squirming with maggots. But I washed em, and. . . they came out clean.

Stephen J. Spignesi writes that King's experience working at the New Franklin Laundry inspired and informed The Mangler.  Spingnesi quotes King, "The first thing I am is a husband; the second thing I am is a father, the third thing that I am is, I'm a man of my place and time and my community.  And I have to be all those  things first because if I want to write, everything trickles down."  Spingnesi then notes, "The Mangler is stark evidnce of this: Everything trickles down." (The Essential Stephen King, p.261)

In an interview with Ben Rawortit (quoted  in Essential Stephen King), King discussed working at the laundry.  When Rawortit asked if that was "weird", King said, "THere was a guy who worked there who fell into the pressing machine, or 'mangler,' as you call it.  He was over the machine dusting off the beams when  he just lost his balance and fell."  Rawortit asked if the machine ate his hands.  "Yeah, it swallowed his arms.  So he had two hooks where his hands used to be."

I have not read The Mangler!  I don't know how this escaped me.  I will correct this quickly.

SK Fans Can Tour Bangor With iPhone App

You can now tour the local Bangor landmarks that appear throughout the Stephen King canon thanks to the Bangor Haunted: Stephen King’s Derry app, available for iPhone and Android.

Bangor Daily News explains,

"The app was designed and launched by Brett Hiatt, a writer and developer from Melbourne, Australia and a self-described “huge fan.” He visited Maine, and Bangor, two years ago, and was inspired to develop the app after trying to find King sites in town on his own, and not having much success."  (bangordailynews.com)

The article also notes, "The app, available for $1.99, offers up several views of town, from a Google map with all the locations plotted out, to an alphabetical list, with pictures and information. It’s customizable, so you can plan out your own King tour of Bangor, and in addition to just Derry, there’s lots more locations listed throughout the state, including a number in the Portland area."

If given the choice, I would rather go on Stu Tinker's tour than mess with the app.  But then, my cellphone might look like this. . .

The article also reports that the developers are hard at work on a Twilight app.  I just can't wait.

King Visits Canadian High School

Hold on. . . THIS IS COOL!

student banner asking King to come to High School
www.wix.com/mrssmithsrhs

Yorkton This Week has a short article about Stephen King visiting a Canadian high school in Sussex, N.B.

According to the article, the students had put on a "yearlong campaign" to get King to visit the school.  And, how cool is this. . .He met with 18 students in the school library to "provide feedback on their writing."  Imagine how shocked the students were to walk in the library and discover King!

He then spoke to 80 students in the auditorium about his experience as a high school teacher and the inspiration for his novels. 

Matthew Beyer, a 12th-grade student who shook King's hand, told the Kings County Record in Sussex he thought "it was absolutely insane" that King showed up. (www.yorktonthisweek.com)

The Bangor Daily News that described the atmosphere: "Dressed casually in a gray T-shirt and jeans, King sat on the edge of the stage to talk about his writing and how he comes up with the macabre and sometimes twisted ideas that have made him one of the best-selling authors of all time"

According to the Bangor article,

• He read  from his book Christine.
• He discussed being a teacher and bullying.  Surely the reason for his choice to read from Christine.  “One thing I decided after teaching high school for two years was that secretly, most kids feel like they’re out, that nobody likes them,” he told the students.
• Two students filmed King's visit. 
• King left at noon and did not sign autographs. 
• He did sign 10 copies of Different Seasons at the office, and collected some of the posters students had created. 

The Bangor article is HERE.  It has a lot of  info about the campaign the school put on to get King to come.  (Posters, letters so on).

The school created a website to lure King (HERE)

The school also made a blog with the letters to King HERE.  The blog is great,  and my favorite line: "You haven't written a book in a while and visiting Sussex might give you the next great book or movie."  And. . . "what drives you to write these crazy novels?"

Don't you know there is probably a kid who ditched school that day going, "MAN!  I missed it!"

King Donates To 11 Year Old's Cancer Fundraising

Ardeana Hamlin at Bangor Daily News has an interesting article about eleven year old Tommy Hosmer, who is raising money to fight cancer.  One of the things Tommy has done to fund raise is sold books.  The article indicates that Stephen King donated a signed book to help with the efforts.

Here’s the portion of the article about King:

Tommy’s first opportunity to help people with cancer came in 2010 in the form of 4,000 books a neighbor gave him to sell to raise money for a trip to Disney World the family was planning. Tommy told his parents he would rather donate the money from the sale of the books to EMMC’s CancerCare of Maine. With guidance from his parents, Tommy planned the book and bake sale, which featured a raffle for a book autographed and donated by Stephen King, and a bottle drive. He raised $3,000.

The full article is HERE.