Interview with Julia Marchese Director of I KNOW WHAT YOU NEED

Talk Stephen King: First of all, I was really excited to learn you took a trip to actually visit the towns we all visit in the works of Stephen King.  Tell me about that trip.

Julia Marchese: Last November I took a Stephen King pilgrimage to see the towns I read so much about all of these years - the names had taken on a kind of magical quality to them - Pownal, Portland, Bangor, Ludlow - such a beautiful state, with gorgeous scenery and lovely people. I took an amazing Stephen King tour of Bangor and was in absolute heaven walking around "Derry" and seeing the canals, the storm pipe, the bird baths, Paul Bunyan, Pennywise's drain, and even Stephen King's house itself. It was like walking through one of his novels. Pure bliss. I can't wait to show the beauty of this incredible state. 

Talk Stephen King: I’m so exited to hear about your Dollar Baby, “I Know What You Need .” 

Julia Marchese: Thank you! I'm excited too! "I Know What You Need" is my favorite Stephen King short story! It was first published in Cosmopolitan Magazine in 1976, then added to the short story collection Night Shift in 1978. The story centers on Elizabeth, a popular college junior who is approached one night by Edward, an unkempt outcast whose first words to her are "I Know What You Need" - and she is shocked to discover that he does. It's a love story! But a Stephen King love story, so you know things aren't always what they seem. 

I am keeping the film set when the story was first published, in 1976, and I'm also so incredibly thrilled that the The University of Maine - where Stephen King attended and where the story is set - will be allowing us to shoot this short film on their beautiful campus!

 So that means this movie will be shot in the exact same locations that Stephen King wrote about in the story!

Talk Stephen King: Tell us a little about yourself.

Julia Marchese: I am a filmmaker, actor, film programmer, podcaster, cinephile and Constant Reader. I have been an actor since I was a kid. I programmed film and coordinated guests for the New Beverly Cinema for 8 years My first film, 2016's Out of Print, is a documentary about the importance of revival cinema and 35mm exhibition and preservation to culture. It features interviews with filmmakers such as Rian Johnson, Edgar Wright, Kevin Smith, Joe Dante, Mark Romanek, John Landis, Stuart Gordon, Joe Carnahan, Tom Holland and many more. 

Out of Print was shot half on film and half on digital, and I was so thrilled to have a 35mm print of the film made. The film won the Programmers Award at the Sidewalk Film Festival and has played at art house cinemas, universities and film archives all over the world. The film is available on DVD, Amazon Prime and streaming & the 35mm print is still touring the world, having just played the Film Archive in Austria earlier this year. The film print lives now at The Academy Film Archive in Hollywood between screenings.

I also co-host a horror podcast called Horror Movie Survival Guide, which focuses on how to survive horror films and become the Final Girls. We have over 170 episodes and A LOT of Stephen King episodes! Pet Sematary was actually the first horror film I ever loved! 

Talk Stephen King: Where will fans of Stephen King be able to see your film once it’s completed?

Julia Marchese: Because of strict Dollar Baby guidelines, the film is only allowed to be shown in festivals and in private screenings. That means the only way you are guaranteed to see the film is to back the project and be sent a link to private live stream link when the film is finished. 

Talk Stephen King:  Are you doing this as a part of an assignment, a class or just because you love King?

Julia Marchese: Just because I love King!! 

The most exciting aspect of the contract is that Stephen King asks that all finished Dollar Baby films be sent to him to view - so dig this - he sells the rights to the stories for $1, basically because he's curious to see how other people view and interpret his work - how cool is that?

Talk Stephen King: That is pretty cool!

Julia Marchese: Knowing that Stephen King himself will watch a film that you can be a part of is a pretty awesome and unique opportunity!

The fascinating thing about Stephen King adaptations is how differently people can interpret the exact same story. Although we are all reading the same version of "I Know What You Need", it will be *my* version of the story up on screen, which I am sure is very different than how a lot of other people see this story. 

Naturally, as a woman, my vision for the story is probably very different from Stephen King's, but that's why I am so interested to see it come to life - the writer of the story is male, but the protagonist is female - and now will be adapted & directed by a female filmmaker. That being said, I feel very strongly as a Constant Reader that the dialogue and feel of any film based on King's work should stay as close to the original story as possible, and I've definitely kept that in mind when adapting the screenplay. Most of the dialogue is taken word for word from the story. 

Talk Stephen King: How hard was it to get the rights to the story for a dollar? 

Julia Marchese: Stephen King actually makes it pretty easy for fans! Just go on his website, check out the stories that are available to adapt and send in an application! He has a good amount of stories to choose from. 

Talk Stephen King: What kinds of conditions come with a Dollar Baby?

Julia Marchese: The conditions are that the film has to be 45 minutes or under, non-profit and non-broadcast. That means it can't be sold, or shown on TV or online, but it can be shown in film festivals and in private screenings. That means you have to make the film for the love of it - not because it can later be sold and shown. 

But as a Constant Reader, the making of it is enough! To show *my* version of the story is a dream come true!  And honestly, all I did was ask. So you have nothing to lose, if you're a King fan - you get in life what you have the courage to ask for! 

Talk Stephen King: How can King fans participate in this project?

Julia Marchese: Go to my Indiegogo campaign, running through October 24th. Donate if you can, but if you can't please SHARE! That is the most important part of any crowdfunding campaign, spreading the word - especially with other King fans! 

Twitter: @juliacmarchese, @IKWYNfilm

Instagram: @juliacmarchese, @iknowwhatyouneedfilm 

I Know What You Need - A Stephen King Adaptation

 

Talk Stephen King: Your obviously a big Stephen King fan. What first attracted you to king?  Do you have a favorite novel by King? 

Julia Marchese: I read IT in junior high and I was hooked from there, reading more and more throughout my life. 

I realized two and half years ago that I had never tackled his master work, The Dark Tower series. This needed to be remedied immediately. So I devoured the books, loving each one more and more and starting to panic as I neared the end of the series. I didn't want the story to end!! I got to the 11th stanza in book 7 - The Song of Susannah (Constant Readers will know where I mean) where the reveal was going to be so good and I was so excited, that I needed to prolong that feeling as long as possible. 

So I decided to pause my reading there and read every Stephen King novel and short story related to the The Dark Tower (there are A LOT, over 40 short stories and novels combined!) before re-reading the Tower series (and then continue on to the Marvel comic series omnibuses and The Dark Tower companions after that). It's taken me two and a half years so far and I am still working on it. It's the most incredibly brilliant literary multiverse puzzle that I have ever undertaken, and I am enjoying putting the pieces into place more than I can say.

I can't give you one favorite so I will give you top 5: IT, The Long Walk, Firestarter, The Stand and The Dark Tower Series!

Talk Stephen King: Have you had the opportunity to see other Dollar Babies?  Do you have a favorite?

Julia Marchese: I have seen a few other Dollar Babies, yes! I contacted a bunch of the other Dollar Baby filmmakers while arranging this film, and they were all super helpful and kind. I can't say I have a favorite, but I can say how cool it is to see other people's perspective on the same story and they are all made with such passion!

I know there is another Dollar Baby version of "I Know What You Need" out there, but I am going to wait to watch it until after I finish my version. That's probably silly, but I don't want to be influenced by another version, even though I am certain it will be very different! 

Talk Stephen King: Do you have a favorite Stephen King medium?  (reading, audio, movies, comics...) What's your favorite way to let Si King scare you?

Julia Marchese: I will always choose his books as number one. That's what got me started and that's really the essence of who he is. He has a way of writing that makes the reader feel that he is almost talking directly to them, a relationship of sorts between Stephen King and the Constant Reader that I absolutely love. There are some excellent film versions of course, but I like it best when it's just me and King and no one else. :)

Talk Stephen King: When will you begin filming?  Have you already cast the film?  How did you go about that?

Julia Marchese: If the crowdfunding campaign succeeds, the film will be shot in the summer of 2021, in Maine. I haven't started casting yet - I have to make sure we have the funds to shoot the film first! Auditions will of course be virtual, and will focus mainly on actors on the East Coast. 

On Childhood

Stephen King on Today Show (Nov 11th, 2014)

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.”

Goodreads Interview With Stephen King

Freelance writer Catherine Elsworth posted an interview with Stephen King at Goodreads. It's a great interview because it includes a lot of questions from readers, not just Elsworth.

Elsworth reveals that Revival is dedicated to "some of the people who built my house," including Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, and H.P. Lovecraft.

Of course, King spends some time in the interview smashing stupid sayings.  Remember his rant about how dumb an authors notebook is?  Well this time his gripe is with the advice, "Write what you know."  It's bad advice, King declares!  He then says it's good advice if you use it as a "foundation."

Also on the subject of writing, Elsworth cites a line from the book, "Writing is a wonderful and terrible thing. It opens deep wells of memory that were previously capped." She asks King if this is true from him and his fiction. "Writing is like being in a dream state or under self-directed hypnosis. It induces a state of recall that—while not perfect—is pretty spooky."

King does reveal he's working on a project with son Owen, but he doesn't say what.

Asked what  his scariest monster is, King declares it a tie between Pennywise and Flagg.  (Really?)

And then, discussing the Stand and ebola, King said:

There's one Stand story that still needs to be told, although it's not a long one. I happen to know that when [Stand characters] Stu Redman and Frannie Goldsmith headed back to New England (with their baby), Frannie fell into a dry well. That's all I know. I'd have to write the story to find out what happens. 

When asked what books inspired him, King gives a list which includes, surprisingly to me the Dean Koontz novel Watcher.  Also Lord of the Flies, all things Lovecraft and several others.  File this under shameless self promotion -- Stephen King, A Face Among The Masters discusses King and the novel Lord of the Flies as well as giving some space to Lovecraft's influence on King.

Highlights From the ROLLING STONE Interview

Rolling Stone has  posted their interview with Stephen King (rollingstone.com/culture)

The interview is interesting.  King admits he still feels insecurity.  He also admits that there is a cost to being "too political."  King says he never liked Tom Clancy, not because of politics, but because he did not feel Clancy was a good writer. Keep in mind, Clancy is almost totally plot-driven, while King is character driven. However, King likes an author named Stephen Hunter, and he's a republican.  So his taste in books and writing are not driven by his political views.  Or, put another way -- you can read novels by someone you politically disagree with.  (Sounds familiar to me)

Funny thing, King says he watched  about half of the room 237 documentary and then got "impatient" with it. He also says he doesn't "get"  the cult following that's grown up around Kubrick's version of the Shining.

Discussing his upcoming novel Revival, King said he's had the idea since he was a kid. He also noted that actually writing a book takes at least a year for him as it moves through various drafts. "I read this story called The Great God Pan in high school, and there were these two characters waiting to see if this woman could come back from the dead and tell them what was over there. It just creeped me out. The more I thought about it, the more I thought about this Mary Shelley-Frankenstein thing."

When asked if he is done writing the Dark Tower books, King said he's never done with the Tower.  He then drops something of a Tower-Bomb by revealing "those books were never edited, so I look at them as first drafts." Really?  King says the problem is in finding time to rewrite the books.  He acknowledges, "There's a missing element – a big battle at a place called Jericho Hill. And that whole thing should be written, and I've thought about it several times, and I don't know how to get into it."  I've been reading Dark Tower books -- and I agree with him.  I like the novels, bu it does feel like there is more to be done.

The interview also covers familiar ground about addiction and how in the world King would churn out bestsellers while hooked on coke.

Discussing his best and worst novels, King fesses up that in his view The  Tommyknockers is "an awful book."  The problem?  Well, he  says there might be a 350 novel in there -- but it's 700 pages!  That's insightful.  I've thought for a long time King should give us a revised/smaller version of the book, just as he gave us an expanded version of The Stand.

King also admits that he does not like Dreamcatcher.  That's a novel  I also struggled with; even though the early pages were totally engrossing.  But what is his favorite book?  Well, it's another I can't get through!  King chooses Lisey's Story. "That one felt like an important book to me because it was about marriage, and I'd never written about that. I wanted to talk about two things: One is the secret world that people build inside a marriage, and the other was that even in that intimate world, there's still things that we don't know about each other."

After discussing his struggles with organized religion, King spoke about his personal belief, stating, "Yeah. I choose to believe in God because it makes things better. You have a meditation point, a source of strength. I don't ask myself, Well, does God exist or does God not exist? I choose to believe that God exists, and therefore I can say, God, I can't do this by myself. Help me not to take a drink today. Help me not to take a drug today. And that works fine for me."

Asked if he wants to go to heaven, King replied, "I don't want to go to the heaven that I learned about when I was a kid. To me, it seems boring. The idea that you're going to lounge around on a cloud all day and listen to guys play harps? I don't want to listen to harps. I want to listen to Jerry Lee Lewis!"

As I read views on religion, I wonder -- who taught this guy?  People on clouds?  That's -- NOWHERE.  Harps?  He must have had like the worst Sunday School teacher ever.

If King Had Written Poltergeist

10,000 Magazines, #9992
Forrest J. Aackerman's Monster Land, April 1985 

Monster Land is -- well, the best.  I love it!  Forrest J. Ackerman was an early fan and collector of old horror props.

Magazine's are like time capsules  Locked in the pages are reviews and all kinds of cultural references.  There was a completely new Godzilla, and an article on the popular scifi television series "V."  It was actually dreadfully bad, but when I was a kid I liked it.

Charles Grant's interview with King is a great peek in a young Stephen King.  they discuss Tabitha King's writing, King's book Danse Macabre and Creepshow.  The  discussion also turns to what is now well worn ground: The Kubrick version of The Shining.

Grant also asked King if he would like to adapt one of his own works, and specifically asks about The Stand.  King quickly responds with a hearty, "No."  Interesting, since King did write the script for the mini-series of The Stand. "I'd like to do another feature," King says.  "something long.  God help me, I'd even like to do a novel for television.  Everyone has their own sword planted int eh sand and they go by it twice a day and say, Sooner or later I must rush on that sword; disembowel myself.  I think that's mine."

King goes on to say that he's convinced that network tv is still viable.  And he's stuck to that conviction, sans Under The Dome.  But then things get interesting as King begins to imagine the Dukes of Hazard as a horror flick.  "If you give somebody enough time and get the audience involved in the characters, you can scare people," King said. "You could even scare people over programs like The Dukes of Hazard if you could kill off one of those creepy kids.  Can you imagine the reaction of all those nerdy 11 or 12 year-olds sitting in front of their tvs watching The Dukes of Hazard and some 10 wheeler comes and just rams those duke boys right down!

When asked if there is a particular director he'd like to work with, King names Spielberg.  'i think that would be fun," King said.  "I came very, very close to writing Poltergeist."  WOE!  i wish the interview had backed up at that point for some more info, because that movie was SCARY!  And, not to mention there was that nasty creepy awful clown in Poltergeist.  I wonder what the movie would have been like with a King script.  Personally, I think I'm glad King didn't write that script.

King also says he would have liked to have worked with Don Siegel, the guy who did the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers.  Which, by the way, is on Netflix this October.

Stephen King, 1985

Here  are some of my favorite bits of the interview:

Grant: would you like to direct?
King: I'd like to do it once.  I've always had the feeling i could probably do a horror picture and scare people.  But that is yet to be proven.  There comes a moment when you're writing, that you see something some other writer has done and been paid for and you say, "I know I an do better than that!"  i don't know that I could do better than anybody else but sometimes I'd like to try it.  I think it would be possible to really give people the tremors, send them out of the theater straight to an ambulance.

Grant: Which of your stories is your favorite?
King: Think my favorite novel is still Salem's Lot in terms of the way it makes me feel.  I don't think it's the best but it's my favorite.  As far as short stories are concerned, I like the grizzly ones best.  however,r the story Survivor Type goes a little bit too far even for me.  After 4 years of fruitless efforts to get the thing published, Charlie Grant bought the story.

Grant: Do you really think that story is funny?
King: I think it's hilarious!  A guy cuts himself up and eats himself, piece by piece.  It's the grossest thing you've read!
Grant: Why did I buy that?
King: You bought ti because of King's name!

Stephen King Talks To George Stroumboulopoulos

here is an interview I didn't know existed.

Link: Stephen King Mr. Mercedes Interview

Here's the link to a short interview with King about Mr. Mercedes. And a glimpse at his Bangor office.  Not quite as cool as the house. . .

stephen-king-talks-new-novel/

King at UMass Lowell

Stars and Stripes Interview With Stephen King

I really enjoyed Stars and Stripes interview with Stephen King at Ramstein Air Base, Germany.  This was King's first  European tour.  He noted that Europeans all speak English, though he -- like most Americans -- is not really fluent in a European language.

Asked who he would most NOT like to meet among his many characters, King cited Annie Wilkes.  Because she  would be his #1 fan

Some of these questions we've seen  before (where do you get your ideas?), but the answers are kinda fresh this time around.  I wonder if he spent a day coming up with new lines for old questions!  When he was asked what scares him, he said, "Big audiences."

I work daily with the USMC and  Navy,and so I found his comments about the military delightful.  "Fantastic dedication," King declared.  As with most discussions with King lately,things turned quickly to substance abuse.  King said he's talked to a lot of people involved  with getting the military personnel clean and sober.

King calls writing his "playground."  It's a place he enjoys going.  He then, in a little bit more serious tone, admits that there is a  "craft" aspect of it.  I'm glad he says that, because when he just says he's having fun, some people tend not to take him serious as a writer.  It's as if they think an artiest can't be serious about their work and still have fun.  By the way -- thinking of the "playground" comment -- I think King would spook all the other kids on the playground out!

About the writing process itself, King acknowledges that he never "completely" knows when he begins a journey where a story is going to end up.  "with a novel, in particular, it’s a little bit like launching an intercontinental missile from the United States and hoping to hit one house in the Soviet Union. You can’t guide it that exactly, but I do the best that I can. And, you know, in the end, the story tells you where to go. It’s not like having a GPS. It’s more like exploring a neighborhood where you sort of know where some of the houses are but not everything, and to me that’s the fun of it."

About Doctor Sleep, King said:

it was very challenging, and for a long time I had a piece of an idea of what I wanted to do with the story, but not a complete idea. And I kind of fought the impulse to write that book because “The Shining” scared so many people, but they were younger then and I thought well, it’s one of those things where a lot of people remember it as the scariest book they ever read and no way could I live up to that, but at the same time, that was the challenge. 

But when I wrote “The Shining,” the main character, Jack Torrance was this alcoholic who was in what they call ‘white-knuckle sobriety.’ He doesn’t go to like AA meetings or anything like that. He’s just doing it on his own and that’s a lousy way to try to get sober. It’s dangerous and especially for a guy like Jack Torrance with a bad temper, it’s just asking for trouble. And Danny was the child of the classic dysfunctional family, alcoholic parent with tendencies towards abuse because he breaks the kid’s arm. 

I thought to myself, ‘I wonder what happened to that kid? What happened to him when he grew up?’ And not only that, people would ask me sometimes. They didn’t do that about any of the other characters in the books. Nobody ever came up to me and said, ‘Well, what eventually happened to Paul Sheldon in Misery?’ But Danny, people would ask about it and I was curious myself, and I wanted to kind of show redemption in action, because Jack kind of gives in to the Overlook Hotel and to his tendencies. And I wanted to see what would happen if I had Danny be an alcoholic who actually got recovered from that.

Does King have a favorite among his novels?  Well, get ready for this. . . he says "Lisey's Story" is his favorite.  He acknowledges that the book was not a "runaway bestseller" in the likes of Under the Dome or Doctor sleep, but "it's a book that means a lot to  me."  That's really interesting to me, since I've had trouble really getting into Lisey's Story.  I may have to try this again.  However, when asked which story he is most "passionate" about, King called out Under  The Dome.  That seems logical, since the story itself stayed with him for  such a long time.

This discussion about how King has changed as a writer over time is quite insightful:

It’s a little bit like looking at pictures of yourself as a child and then looking at yourself as an adult and you can see that there’s a quantum change in the way you look but it’s so gradual and you’re so much inside of it, you don’t really see it happen on a day by day basis. I think that I’m a better prose stylist now than I was when I was younger but probably not quite as fiery. I just think as you get older, a little bit of the urgency gets lost along the way and what you’re left with more and more isn’t the passion that you had as a young writer and more the craft. I still like it. Sometimes that still breaks out, I’ll feel that passion.

So who does Stephen King read?  Everyone.  More specifically,  Sue Grafton, John Sandford, Lee Child, Jonathan Franzen, Meg Wolitzer (he recommends her book, "The Interestings.")  HEY, no Dean Koontz?  Oh well.

Check  out the full interview: www.stripes.com

PEIRCE: I'm A Huge Stephen King Fan

photo credit: blog.seattlepi.com

Tim Hill has a great interview with Carrie director, Kimberley Peirce. Check it out at seattlepi.com.  What I really think is reflected in this interview is her passion for Stephen King and Carrie as the source material.  Maybe she should remake The Shining.

I also like it that Peirce clarifies that Carrie's mom is not practicing Christianity.  "She has her own iconography and as Carrie says, she changes things to mean what she wants."  That's pretty  insightful.  It can  be easy to mark an entire faith by the weirdo's who have twisted it up.  Carrie's mom falls in with David Koresh, Joseph Smith and the Westboro Baptist kooks.

My favorite lines (I'm picking and choosing -- read the context and full article at the link!)

• I’m a huge Stephen King fan. I was a literature student so I read it when I was in college. I re-read it when they came to me to do the movie and I was blown away at what an amazing storyteller Stephen King is. 
• I also love that it’s a Cinderella story. What does she want? Love and acceptance. When she’s asked to prom she can’t say no and we can’t say no. We’ve fallen in love with this Cinderella story. I think we want to take her to the height of the Cinderalla night and we crave seeing it turn on its head.
• When I read the book, I see it in my minds eye as this largely entertaining story using superhero powers.
• The difficult part of my job was figuring out how to put somebody’s face through a window. You can’t put an actor’s face through a window. So what do you do? A) You can put an actor’s face through sugar glass. B) You can put animation through fake glass. C) An actor can fly forward on a green screen. So that scene is a series of a ton of composites and that was really a blast for me.
• One of my favorite lines in the movie is something that Julianne and I pulled out of the book. She says, “I’ll be the preacher, you be the congregation.” 

There is a LOT in this interview.  How many times did they film the blood droppin' scene and so on.  Of course, that raises a question. . . how effective is a movie where we all already know there is a blood dropping scene?  I hope they've saved some surprises.  She is asked if there will be a sequel, and does not give an answer.  Does that suggest Carrie survives the horror?

News and Notes From King's Live Talk About UTD

CBS has posted the live chat with Stephen King at www.cbs.com

NEWS:

• King said he asked to write an episode next season.
• He is currently writing a book called REVIVAL.

MY NOTES:

INSPIRATION: Naturally King is asked what inspired  Under The Dome.  He doesn't know where the idea came from,  but offers some of his first images of what the story would be.  He says, "It was a lot of fun to create that situation."  (King does like to destroy the world, doesn't he?)  He notes  he tried it in 72 and the story was just too big for him at the time.  He put it aside and wrote Carrie instead.

CHARACTERS: Asked what the best part is of seeing his story come to screen, King said it was the opportunity to see characters he created in his mind come to life.  "Sometimes it's fun to see what set designers do with places you made up."

He says that Barbie is his favorite character; however, he also says that he likes whatever character he's working on at the moment -- even the bad  ones.  This explains why his character development is so strong.  He notes the tougher  part is being the women, since he can only do that by observation.  That's interesting, since both my wife and mother have mentioned how amazing it is that he can get inside a woman's head. "It's kind of interesting and challenging to be a woman for a while," King says. He calls it, "Creative cross-dressing."  (Check out my article, Seven Reasons We Read Stephen King, #4 He's A Woman Talk Stephen King seven-reasons-we-read-stephen-king)

He said he does get to have a part in the casting of actors to play his characters.  He also notes that he keeps character lists to help him remember who's who.  This is funny -- King says that after writing Gerald's Game, which is just about one character, his wife Tabitha said his next book would be called "Living Room" and would have no characters at all.

King was asked which character best embodies him.  King quickly responded Gordon Lachance from The Body. "If I've written anything autobiographical in my life, it's that."  He then insists there is not a lot of autobiographical stuff in most of his book.  "Folks," he seems to say to the world, "I'm making this stuff up."

FAVORITE BOOK: King said asking a writer what their favorite book is that's like asking someone who their favorite kid is.  "I like them all," he insists.  He said he really loves the book he is currently working on.  Presently he is writing a book called "Revival."  King said he is abut halfway through with it and totally in love with the book. He also noted a special place in his heart for Lisey's story, because he associates it with a good time in his own life.  He says the most difficult was Pet Sematary.   He also says the character he would most like to meet is Dolores Claiborne.

The Language: When asked about all the short cuts in the language (like in facebook, twitter and when texting) the linguistic prude in King comes out!  He doesn't like using "2" for two, and so on.

MUSIC: King says when he wrote Lisey's story, he switched to listening almost completely to old country music.  "A lot of times what I do these days, when I'm composing, I'm just composing and the room is completely quiet.  When I edit I let it rip.  I have a real weakness for metal, disco." He likes AC/DC, Gloria Gainer, Donna Summer, Metallica, Judas Priest.

The Message Of Under The Dome: King said the message of Under The Dome is that we all live under the dome.  "We're all on planet earth, and we're not going anywhere, not in the next  hundred years.   We have diminishing resources."  There is so much gas, food, medicine and good air -- that's the situation we're all in.

King Told Vaughan To Take The Dome Where He Couldn't

Check  out the Huffington Posts interview with Under The Dome's producer Brian K. Vaughan.

The whole interview is great.  This in particular stood out to me:

I was lucky enough to get to talk with Stephen early in the process. He said, to quote Elvis, "It's your baby, you rock it now." The big thing he encouraged us [to think about] is, when he came up with the concept, he first thought about, "What if these people were trapped under this dome for potentially years, how might society change?" [When writing the book], he was on page 1,200 and thought, "Oh my God, they've only been trapped under here for a few days. I better wrap things up." He said, "Use television to go to the places that I couldn't." 

That gives an interesting insight into the writing of the novel.  So King originally imagined entire society changing. . . but ran out of space.  Of course, in The Stand, he had things pretty torn up by page 300.  Still, a new society never fully developed there, either.  I was always interested in what was going to happen with the Free Zone.

Vaughan also talks about the impact Lost had on Stephen King.  He says, "I will always be happy and honored to have been a part of that world."

When asked what the fun part  of the project was,  Vaughan recalled sitting across from Steven Spielberg with King on speaker phone as they tossed ideas  out.  He called it "geek fantasy camp."  I don't know if I could sit across from Spielberg and not just bug the snot out of him about the Lincoln film.  I know everyone wants to talk Dome and ET -- but I was mesmerized by Lincoln.

Vaughan also said that he hopes the political themes don't feel "heavy handed."  I hope so, too.  I think they did feel exactly that way in the novel.  Of course, the same themes are still on the front page as when Under The Dome was written.

The full interview is great.  Check it out at www.huffingtonpost.com

Stephen King NEWS

• NPR has an engrossing interview with Stephen King at www.npr.org

• PARADE magazine has an interview with Stephen King.  He says his wife is tough to impress when it come to writing, and that he used to pay his kids to put books on tape.  That's so cool!  I used to bribe my sister  to do the same thing.  Now we have audible.  King says Mad Men is basically a "soap opera."  The PARADE interview is at www.parade.com

• Lilja's Library posted the episode list for Under The Dome at www.liljas-library.com

• James Smythe has posted the next part of his Rereading Stephen King (IT).  He calls IT, "one of King's most enduring novels" and "intimidatingly huge."  www.guardian.co.uk.   

• Crews working on the set of A GOOD MARRIAGE set off fire alarms for a second time -- annoying a neighbor enough to try and turn his irritation into "news."  So here it is!  news.  But it's not news, is it?  Nope.  But here's the link --tarrytown.patch.com

PARADE: Interview With Stephen King

Parade has announced that its Sunday edition will include an interview with Stephen King.

“I’ve been typed as a horror writer, but I never saw myself that way,” King tells PARADE’s Ken Tucker. “I’ve reached a point in my life where I can write pretty much what comes into my mind and not worry about grocery day at Publix.” 

In particular, I found his comments on Under The Dome TV series interesting.  King said, " It looks good. It’s not exactly like the book. It’s like a pogo stick: It hits big set pieces in the book, then bounces in its own direction. So that’s fine. You know what’ll happen is the purists who loved the book will probably scream, ‘Well, this is different and that isn’t there…’ But I think most people are going to like it. I hope they will.”

Check out: www.parade.com

King makes visit to Exeter High School

EHS Principal Sean Kiley and Stephen King
share a lighthearted moment following King’s visit to Kristina Peterson’s class on Friday.
PHOTO CREDIT: www.seacoastonline.com 

Sea Coast Online reports that last Friday Stephen King mad a special  visit to Exeter High School.  He was expected to skype with Kristina Peterson's class, which has focused the last semester on King's novel "The Stand."  Of course, students wanted to talk with the artist who destroyed the world with a super plague and then brought down the battle between good evil.

Now hold on!  They spent a semester studying The Stand?  Seriously -- I went to the wrong High School!  How cool is this!  I'm going crazy here with how awesome that is.

Principal Sean Kiley said that ten minutes earlier than originally scheduled, King rolled right onto the High School  grounds and spent three hours on campus. 

Kiley said about King, "He is as famous as he is humble, and agreed to be here today for nothing more than a roast beef sandwich and a diet Pepsi. Today at Exeter High School was a special one. King inspired faculty, staff, and students alike."

The first hour was given to a private hour long session with students in Peterson's classroom answering questions about The Stand.  I like King's summery of the book, he told students, "if you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything."

He then gave 90 minutes to answering questions and reading from his upcoming novel "Joyland."  

The Sea Coast article closes with, "In response to a student question, King summed up what Exeter High School holds to be true, 'if you can read and write, you can own the world.'"

The full article is at www.seacoastonline.com

Wilderness Of Error author interviews Stephen King

I am anxiously awaiting the publication of a book by Errol Morris.  The book is titled, "A Wilderness of Error, the trials of Jeffrey MacDonald."

As I poked around, learning more about Morris, I found he had  done an interview with Stephen King when King published 11.22.63.   (HERE)

Morris points out that King has his hero spy on Oswald in 11.22.63.  King responds, "The guy and his wife spoke Russian the whole time. That was the worst part of writing the book. I hope it’s not too boring."  Interesting, since that is about the point where I found myself wondering when the book would get moving again.

Here's something cool; King says that in a way 11.22.63 is a rethinking premise behind the The Dead Zone.  That is, if you know the future (or the past) and can change it -- then you should.  But in 11.22.63, we get a different answer from King . . . you should not!

This book is, in a way, like a photo negative of my novel “The Dead Zone.” In that book, Johnny Smith is the guy in the high place with the rifle who feels like he’s seen the future. He’s seen this guy, Greg Stillson, and he sees what he’s going to do when he becomes president, because he has this precognitive talent. And he feels like he has to kill him. At the last moment, fate intervenes. I got really uncomfortable with the idea of saying, “Well, under certain circumstances, assassination is a good thing.” And this book is a chance to do it the other way and to take the assassination back.

Morris also wrote a positive -- insightful -- review of the novel.  Morris offered all out relief that King did not worry about the machinery of Time Travel or swim through the depths of philosophy on the subject -- the author stuck to the story and allowed time travel to be little more than a vehicle to carry the story.

About the MacDonald case:

Morris is set to publish a true crime novel on the MacDonald murders.  The book Fatal Vision brought the case worldwide fame, though it was already on the media's radar long before!  And ever since I was a child I have found this one particular case interesting.  It really is a "did he do it?"

One thing that is so interesting about this murder is that the people who confessed are not the one's who are in jail.  People confess often to things they did not do, and the lady in question used a lot (LOT) of drugs.

A while back  there was an interesting book that rebutted Fatal Vision, titled Fatal Justice.  I thought it was well done.  However, there are so many things that leave the reader scratching their head at the end of any of the books about this case.  How could intruders enter the home and not awake the neighbors?  How many people were really in the house?  Why did MacDonald tell his father in law that he hunted down and killed one of the murderers?  Why were only weapons from within the home used? Why wasn't MacDonald more severely injured?  And then Fatal  Justice comes along and raises a whole new set of questions!  (Here is Ted Gunderson's interview with Helena Stoeckley, who claims to have been the woman in the floppy hat.)

I look forward to Morris' verdict, and hope he offers one!  According to the Atlantic, the books (as the title implies) argues for MacDonald's innocence.  The Atlantic's review of the book is HERE.

Morris' book, A Wilderness Of Error, is at Amazon HERE.

Remainders Last Show On THE LATE SHOW

CBS has posted the August 6 episode of The Late Show with Craig Ferguson.  The Rock Bottom Remainders played their last gig on the show, and Ferguson interviewed King.

Ferguson expressed confusion about the cover of the Wind Through the Keyhole.  He also noted that on the jacket cover, King seems like an "angry lookin' man."  They also discussed writing.  Ferguson said King is a "genre of his own."  I like that!  King says he read a lot of Poe and Lovecraft, but was impacted most by California writers like Richard Matheson and Ray Bradbury.

King emphasizes he is a regular guy -- his wife is not scared of him.  His job is to drag the trash. . . write a book.  Funny -- you sorta gotta see it.

King says that print interviews like to ask when he was like as a kid, with the real question being what happened to him as a kid that messed him up so bad.

Funny, King notes that he does not know how popular he'll be after he dies, but then says, "I'm not sure I'll care!  I don't think I'll be hanging around libraries as a ghost 'reeeeed my booook'."

They also discuss things that scare us all. . . like clowns!  "That clown figure is the same in a lot of cultures, societies.  Children have the same reaction to them everywhere."

The show is great.  CBS  online is a little. . . commercial intensive.  I can't complain, I am watching their show for free!  Check it out.

The episode is at  www.cbs.com

Gaiman's Unabridged Stephen King Article

Neil Gaiman has posted his full article on his interview with Stephen King.  It appears at his blog, journal.neilgaiman.com.  His version is longer than the version printed in the Sunday Times.

Gaiman explains:

I interviewed Stephen King for the UK Sunday Times Magazine. The interview appeared a few weeks ago. The Times keeps its site paywalled, so I thought I'd post the original version of the interview here. (This is the raw copy, and it's somewhat longer than the interview as published.)  

I don't do much journalism any more, and this was mostly an excuse to drive across Florida back in February and spend a day with some very nice people I do not get to see enough.