Remember The Time. . .

When you enjoy a person, you have some great memories of them.  When you don't actually know the person, the stories you remember are stuff  you got second or third hand.  We all have favorite stories of famous people. 

Here are a few of my favorite Stephen King antidotes:

Remember the time. . .

He slipped into a bookstore and started signing his own books.

A bookstore manager was stunned when she saw someone enter her bookstore and begin writing in the books. The person quickly left, causing the employees think they were the victims of vandalism. 

Ms. Ellis said, "So we immediately ran to the books and lo-and-behold here was the signature in several books. We sort of spun around on our heels, [saying] 'where did he go, where did he go. . . So I went over and introduced myself ... He was lovely, very nice, charming." 

King signed a total of six books. I don't know, I just find something fun about that story! Imagine going to the bookstore, not a specialty store or something like that, just a regular store, and choosing to buy a Stephen King book -- and it turns out to be signed! Cool.
www.abc.net

The time the lady told him WHAT?!!!

King told Neil Gaiman at journal.neilgaiman.com this fantastic story:

I was down here in the supermarket, and this old woman comes around the corner this old woman – obviously one of the kind of women who says whatever is on her brain. She said, 'I know who you are, you are the horror writer. I don’t read anything that you do, but I respect your right to do it. I just like things more genuine, like that Shawshank Redemption.'

“And I said, 'I wrote that'. And she said, 'No you didn’t'. And she walked off and went on her way.”

Stephen King was so messed up, he forgot writing Cujo.

I'm not kididng! King has said that he was so drugged and drunk at the time he wrote Cujo, he doesn't remember the process of writing it.

Stephen King and his wife went to see Carrie in the theater:

In Stephen King Goes To Hollywood, King shared:

The first time I saw Carrie with an audience they previewed it about a week and a half before Halloween.  They didn't do a screening in Maine, but they did one in Boston, so my wife and I went down to the theater, and I just looked around in total dismay, because the regular picture that they were showing was Norman, Is That You? with Red Foxx.  The theater was entirely full of black people.  We looked like two little grains of salt in a pepper shaker, and we thought: This audience is just going to rate the hell out of this picture.  What are thing going to think about a skinny little white girl with her menstrual problems?  And that's the way it started, and then, little by little, they got on her side, you know, and when she started doing her shtick, I mean, they were going, "Tear it up!" "Go for it!" and all this other stuff.  These two guys were talking behind us, and we were listening to them, and at the end they're putting on their coats and getting ready to leave.  Suddenly his hand comes up, and these two big guys screamed along with everyone else, and one of them goes, "That's it!  That's it!  She ain't never gonna be right!"  And I knew it was going to be a hit.  (p.ix) 

Stephen King threw Carrie away:
Yeah, you remember that one.  But  what I love more is the story of the day he got the call Carrie was going to be a paperback.

Stephen King used another persons author photo for Richard Bachman

Richard Bachman's author photo taken by Claudia Inez Bachman. The actual subject of the photo is Richard Manuel, the insurance agent of Kirby McCauley, who was King's  literary agent. (Source: Wikipedia)

Stephen King bought the van that almost killed him. 

"Yes, we've got the van, and I'm going to take a sledgehammer and beat it!" King told the Bridgton News of Bridgton, Maine. (chicagotribune.com)

The Crapper

This is from Tom Barton's short piece on King's speech in Savannah:

King, who was in his mid-20s at the time, was in the Steel City on a book tour, promoting his first novel "Carrie." Part of his job, he said, was to appear on morning TV shows (AM Pittsburgh), along with jitterbugging grandmas, to plug his book to the locals.

That evening, King said, he had a command performance at a dinner that the local newspaper hosted at a fancy restaurant. Unfortunately, the author was suffering from homesickness and a far worse malady -- an intestinal disorder that forced him to make an emergency trip to the joint's opulently appointed restroom.

This was a place that had its own restroom attendant. King remembered him as an ancient man who appeared to be about 108 years old.

Unfortunately, there was one necessity that this restroom lacked: Doors to the stalls. So as King was sitting on the toilet, the attendant approached the young author, carrying pen and paper.

"He said, 'You're Stephen King, aren't you? I saw you on AM Pittsburgh. Can I get your autograph?' I gave my first autograph sitting on the crapper."

Emily Shultz Spent Stephen King's Money

This is one of my favorites.  In 2006, Emily Shultz wrote a book titled Joyland.  A lot of people bought the wrong book!  

Schultz writes at her website:

I'm Emily Schultz. My first novel came out eight years ago. It was called Joyland. Last year Stephen King released a print-only novel with the same title. That was cool, until a few King readers bought the e-book version of my novel by mistake and started leaving negative and confused Amazon reviews. I asked Amazon to change their search results to keep people from buying the wrong book but never heard back. 

Apparently there were a lot of confused readers as this week I got a—for me—big royalty check for those mistaken books. I'm not so upset anymore. Sure, it's more a pleasant surprise than a fortune, and I'm stuck with those reviews, but I thought a blog detailing how we're spending the Stephen King money would be a nice way to end this funny and strange story.  

So what do you do when Stephen King's money starts to roll in?  Well, obviously, if you're a writer, you write about it!

Schultz has started a delightful blog titled, "Spending The Stephen King Money"  With each purchase she records, she also asks the question, "Would Stephen King like it?"  This includes: furniture from Ikea, a haircut for Brian, the deductible for bumper repair, books, Dinner for two at a place called "Junoon" . . . and more.  She notes that she bought a new Apple computer, and asks if Stephen King would approve. 

 King told Entertainment Weekly that he is “I’m delighted for her."  And, what's more, "I’m going to order her book.”  So there's a real sale!  And, from none other than Stephen King.  Schultz said in turn that she would be buying King's book. Of course, she'll be buying King's book with King's money.  A nice way to go!

What's your favorite (REAL) Stephen King Story?

Richard Bachman, We Hardly Knew Ye

This is a guest article by Brandon Engel 

Not only did Stephen King establish himself as a successful commercial author at a young age, but he also helped to elevate the general public’s appreciation for horror literature — which was historically thought of as a vehicle for low-brough material. And while it would be enough for most people to become famous once, King just wasn’t satisfied.

It’s been suggested that, during the early stages of King’s career, publishers were apprehensive to release more than one title from an author in a year, fearing that the public would not be receptive. They didn’t want writers to over-saturate their own market. King saw this as an opportunity to increase his artistic output and confront his fear that his commercial success was attributable to luck more so than his ability as a writer. And thus, Richard Bachman was “born.”

King released a series of novels under the pseudonym Richard Bachman: Rage (1977), The Long Walk (1979), Roadwork (1981),The Running Man (1982) and Thinner (1984).
 

The first name came from Donald E. Westlake’s pen name Richard Stark, and the last name came from Randy Bachman of the classic-rock band Bachman-Turner Overdrive.

King wanted to really stack the odds against Bachman: the books weren’t marketed very aggressively, and he even went as far as to have a fake photograph printed on the dust jacket of his books. King wanted to see if he could replicate his earlier success, and confirm that he had achieved his professional stature because of the artistic merits of his work. Unfortunately though, King’s experiment was halted prematurely, and all because of the sleuth work of a bookstore clerk in Washington D.C. named Steve Brown.

Brown had been reading his copy of Thinner, and noticed uncanny similarities between the “voices” of Bachman and King. Brown paid a visit to the Library of Congress and found the copyright documents for all of Bachman’s books. One of the earliest copies was made out to Kirby McCauley, who was King’s agent. This was hardly conclusive though, as McCauley worked for several other clients. It took a little more digging, but the copyright information retrieved from the first published Bachman book named King as the copyright holder.

Brown copied all of the documents, and mailed a letter to King explaining his research, and inquired if he could write an article about his findings. Brown was insistent that if King didn’t want the information disclosed, he would keep quiet.

A few weeks later, King called Steve Brown at the bookstore where he worked, and agreed to do an exclusive interview with him. Brown interviewed King by telephone over the course of three evenings, and the article was ultimately published by the Washington Post. While the Bachman penned Thinner had been performing reasonably well in the marketplace, it performed 10 times as well once the secret was out that King had written it.

There was a press release issued, which stated that Bachman had died. What was the cause? Reportedly, "cancer of the pseudonym."

King was disheartened to have had his secret spoiled, especially because he had intended to release the novel Misery as a Bachman novel. He had believed that novel would establish Bachman as an enormous success unto “himself.” It was hopefully some consolation to the writer that Misery was an enormous success, and inspired the critically acclaimed 1990 film directed by Rob Reiner.

King referenced the whole double-identity incident in his 1989 book The Dark Half, about a troubled writer’s splintering ego, with the sinister pseudonym taking over. The book was sardonically dedicated to "the deceased Richard Bachman." In 1996, King attributed his book The Regulators, which was the companion novel to Desperation, to Bachman, and in 2007, Bachman also received writing “credit” for the novel Blaze, which was a revised manuscript of King’s from decades ago.

About the author: 

Brandon Engel is an entertainment blogger for DirectTVcomparison.com whose chief interests include gothic horror literature and vintage horror films.

 Among his favorite writers are H.P. Lovecraft, William Peter Blatty and, of course, Mr. King.

Does THINNER Work?

I'm loving James Smythe's "re-reading Stephen King" series. His most recent entry is the Bachman novel, Thinner.  Smythe subtitles the article, "The last time Richard Bachman and Stephen King were thought to be different writers, and King's signature is becoming ever clearer in its story."  That is quite true.

Smythe's article can be found www.guardian.co.uk

Smythe writes,

What made a book Bachman rather than King? Was erring closer to King's usual output here some deep-level subconscious version of self-sabotage? Of wanting to be found out? Of wanting to be able to claim these books as his own again?

Smythe notes that King had previously done a nice job with unlikeable protagonists, including Carrie and Jack Torrance, but Smythe can't find anything redeemable about that Halleck --and that "makes reading the novel relatively tough."

Is it tough for the main character in a story to be truly rotten?  I don't know.  I'm watching House of Cards on netflix, and there's not much redeemable about the main character!  Thinner is dark for other reasons.  Smythe discusses the supernatural elements of Thinner as being more King than Bachman.

What breaks the book for me?  Plotting.  It doesn't work.  Thinner twists and turns with plot twists that aren't always logical.  More bluntly, Thinner feels forced to me.  The ending in particular feels like an end that King wanted to get us to.  Twilight Zoneish as it may be, it didn't feel natural to the flow of the story.  King is forcing the plot, not letting the story itself take its natural turns.

That said, I might ask: What would a more plausible ending to Thinner be?

CLUB STEPHEN KING: Richard Bachman Check

I enjoyed this article from my friends at club Stephen King about Richard Bachman.  The website is in French, but both google  and Bing will translate it just fine.  So here's something cool  I didn't know:

In 1994, nine years after his death, when his widow was preparing to move, she discovered a box of manuscript in the basement.It contained a number of novels and short stories, more or less finalized. The most complete was a novel called regulators . Claudia took the manuscript to the former editor Richard Bachman , Charles Verrill, who found that the book was a continuation of his previous books. After a few minor changes and with the permission of the widow Bachman (now Claudia Eschelman) Regulators was published in September 1996, and in October of the same year, the novel skin and bones became a Paramount film Pictures. [At the same time that the output Regulators , Stephen King published Desolation novel protanogistes comprising the same, but a different story. Similarly, the book covers are set side by side full artwork.] 

A limited edition of Regulators was published by Dutton and each copy has a check signed by Bachman before his death.

Check out  the entire website, it's a lot of fun.  club-stephenking

Planning A Conspiricy Theory

I really feel quite left out.  Now that Room 217 is out, the book The Shining Revealed and the documentary The Shining Code – I’m starting to wish I was a conspiracy nut.  I want to see Jesus in pancakes, believe the pyramids were built by ancient aliens and be convinced the moon landing was a hoax directed by Stanley Kubrick.

I’m so bad at the conspiricy angle that even when Stephen King confirms he was really talking about another subject – I still don’t see it.  For instance, he said Needful Things was really about the eighties.  About Ronald Reagan.  Really?  Needful Things was actually about Ronald Regan and the eighties?  I would disagree wholeheartedly – if it wasn’t for the fact that it’s the author himself saying this.  So I guess if Kubrick said, “Hey, the Shining is actually about the moon landing,” I still wouldn’t believe!

You know, surely there are other King movies that I could dig a conspiracy out of.  The best prospects are: Pet Sematary, IT and Richard Bachman.  I know Richard Bachman is not a movie --  but the prospects for conspiracy theories are ripe.

So here's some thoughts:
1. It is really about how McDonald's is destroying the world, eating little kids alive.
2. Christine is actually a tale about the power of self help.  Thus the car, though beaten down, is able to restore itself.
3. Cujo is about spiritual warfare.  The mother and son take refuge in the sanctuary of the car, while the demons seek to attack from all around.

And, I offer this from talkstephenking.blogspot.com

RICHARD BACHMAN -- THE REAL STORY

On Writing contains Stephen King's most complete autobiography to date. It is an outstanding look at himself, his growth as a writer, and the things that influenced him.

I found myself wondering recently, "Will anyone ever write Richard Bachman's biography?" Will the real story every get told?

But wasn't Bachman just a pseudonym?

Well, if you believe Mr. King he was. But can we be sure? Really? The story we were given by Mr. King was that he wrote under the name Bachman because he desired to write genre's other than horror -- and the publishing world was already full of Stephen King books. But that tale has holes in it.

First, If "Richard Bachman" is just a pseudonym, then who is the man in the photo on the back of Thinner?

Second, If Bachman didn't exist, why was it necessary to give him a wife and a death date?

Don't laugh at that first one. Really, wasn't this photo taken before computers were the rage? Before faces could be generated? So. . . who is that man? Does he walk in stores and people say, "Hey! You're Richard Bachman, aren't you?"

No! No one ever sees this fellow! No one points to him on the street. He doesn't have to hide is face in public or sneak into the movies. People don't point and say, "Hey, that's the guy who wrote The Running Man."

Why not? Why has only one picture of this man appeared? I ask this delecatly, but could Richard Bachman have existed outside the mind of Stephen King?

What if. . .

What if Richard Bachman really was the author of The Long Walk, Running Man and other paperback novels. But they didn't sell very well. He had trouble breaking through.

Dickie wasn't only a writer, he was an avid Stephen King fan. Bachman carefully hid little hints about King in his books. Not direct links, but unnerving things. Things that only King would notice.

Perhaps he even stalked Mr. King. One of those fans who gets a little too close for comfort. But Bachman was the type who just wouldn't go away! Who knows all the details. Who knows what Dickie did to make the author miserable, but we can all be sure of this: Stephen King himself told the world that Bachman was "not a very nice guy."

But as Bachman added more and more links between his work and the world of Stephen King, people began to wonder if perhaps Stephen King was actually Richard Bachman. Bachman was, after-all, a recluse. At first King denied it. How irritating to have someone elses work put out as your own. But then someone saw the way to kill two birds with one stone. They could get rid of pesky Richard Bachman, make Bachman a load of money -- enough to disappear for the rest of his life --, and add a new chapter to the Stephen King phenoma. (Okay, that was three birds with one stone).

So a deal was struck. Bachman disappeared, King took credit for the work and the money began to roll in. What had been little paperback throw away's became best sellers. Richard Bachman got a heafty monthly check, and Stephen King got rid of that pesky writer who kept creeping in on his world. Bachman demanded one more thing: Credit on the movie The Running Man. He didn't want Mr. King to suck up all his fame.

Benefits For Bachman:

Why would Richard Bachman agree to attributing his work to S.K.? Just a few thoughts:

1. To raise interest in his work. What author doesn't want to be read?

2. To raise the value of his books. His novels went from being worth a few dollars to worth hundreds of dollars each!

3. To sell even more copies. What were the chances of Bachman appearing over-seas? Or of his work even getting a second printing? Slim! But with King's name attached, the world took notice. And Bachman could cash the check and smile wide. . . on whatever island he chose to hide on.

4. To give his work a lasting impact. The paperback novels would not simply slip into obscurity, but would now live on. Of course, they must be attached to the famous author.

5. To attach himself directly to the world of Stephen King. If I am correct, Bachman was a fan of King. He slipped references of people they both knew into his work. In fact, he went all out in his novel the Regulators. Probably annoying to the famous author, Bachman would leap at the chance to have his work identified as the work of Stephen King. Soon Bachman's own name would drop into smaller print, and Stephen King's own name would appear above his.

The Problem:

There is a problem, isn't there? Bachman just wouldn't go away! Once his name was out there, he knew he could do better. In 1995 he did the unacceptable: He wrote another book! And he was back to his old ways. Spying on Mr. King, snooping through his things, and worse. How shocked was King when he got a manuscript from Bachman that contained characters and tie ins with King's own work Desperation. What had Dickie been up to?!

A decision had to be made. Would they publish the Regulators, or expose the big secret? King and publisher agreed to print one last novel. But, King had his own slice of revenge waiting for Dickie. Are you ready? This was brilliant!

In 1997 King expressed his concern that Bachman's book Rage could inspire violence in our culture -- so he asked that the book be pulled. There was truth to the concern, but it was "one for one." Bachman wrote a book . . . so Bachman would lose a book. And bam! On the word of Stephen King, Bachman saw his novel disappear from book stores.

The message was clear as day: No more novel's, Dickie, or I'll make your already published stuff go bye bye. And with it. . . those nice checks from the publisher.

Bachman must have brewed over this. What could he do? King had him over a barrell. He couldn't come out and reveal the secret. The best revenge on King woudl be. . . another novel. One King couldn't deny. One that King had already mentioned the existance of.

So Richard threw himself into writing his next novel. A retarded man kidnaps a baby and falls in love with it. He worked slowly, editing his own work and rewriting several drafts. Ten years later, in 2006, another disturbing call was placed to the famous author: "I've been at work again. Do you think you can help me out, or should I seek my own publisher?"

The decision was made to keep up the pretense.

Can We Really Trust The King?

Some of you are saying, "But I trust Stephen King's version of events." Well, when it comes to biography, King has been known to admit to fibbing. King cites John Irving and says, "never believe a writer when he he seems to be offering you autobiography, because we all lie." (Stephen King goes to Hollywood, Jeff Conner, 1987)

For those of you who want to believe the King story and accept that Mr. Bachman never existed, I say: FINE. I understand your doubts. But someone's picture is on the back of Thinner. . . and they've never come forward. The only proof needed to show Bachman never existed is for the man in the photo to step in front of a camera. But he'll never do that. Why? Because it WAS Richard Bachman!  (You try to find that insurance agent)

Answer: yoda.arachsys.com

The Stand Journal 6: Obituaries by Richard Bachman

Reading The Stand and loving it.  Chapter 38 is unique and worth comment.  It really opens the novel up even further, giving the story a sense of realism.  It's just a series of short stories about people  who died after the plague.  Not people who died because of the plague, but people who survived the super-flu but died of other causes.  These are like short stories set inside the world of The Stand.

I would call this portion of The Stand the "Obituaries."  King starts out by telling us that after the Superflu, there was a second epidemic that struck the United States in particular, taking another 16% down to the grave.

This part might have  been written by Mr. Bachman.

Here is a short list:

Sam Tauber, a five year old who is the only survivor in his town.  He wanders the streets horrified, and finally dies by falling in a well.

Irma Fayette of Lodi California.  She is so scared of being raped  that she does herself in at the first  sight of a man.  King concludes he story with the line, "No great loss."  This little section is very well written, and keeps the reader in suspense until the last lines.

George McDougall of Nyack, NY, takes up running as a hobby. Only, he runs himself to death.

Then there is Mrs. Eileen Drummond of Clewiston, FL.  She gets herself quite stoned and falls asleep with a cigarette in her hand.  She burns her house down -- and herself.  King again notes, "No great loss."

Arthur Stimson in Reno, NV, stepped on a rusty nail.  The result of a gangrenous wound.  He tries to cut his own foot off, but passes out and dies.  (I told you Bachman would like this)

My favorite is Judy Horton from Milltown, KY.  A beautiful self absorbed girl is thrilled when everyone dies -- especially her husband family and child.  She does mourn for a couple days for her child, but not really!  As the only one alive, she finds herself unable not to gloat about it.  She puts the bodies of her dead family down in the meat freezer.  Sh then visits the meat freezer up to four times a day.  "She told herself she was just checking.  What else could it be?  Surely it wasn't gloating?"  Well, guess who got herself locked in the meat freezer with her dead family!  There's something very Poe-ish about this.

There's the man who electrocuted himself trying to start his generator, and the Junkie who snorted  pure heroin.

None of these do anything for the characters in the novel itself.  This chapter serves the purpose of simply broadening the story.  It's also super morbid.

Richard Bachman Pays Tribute To Stephen King

photo credit: www.daveart.com

Brian Stubits at CBS sports has a great article about Richard Bachman.  No, not that Richard Bachman !  Try the Hockey player.  But the Dallas Stars goaltender is taking advantage of his name’s connection to the world of Stephen King.  Check out his new mask by artist Dave Gunnarson.

The mask sports a rendition of the Kubrick version of The Shining– including the ghostly image of the two dead girls.

Here is some of Gunnarson's description from his website DaveArt.com.

To make it even more scary we decided to use only one color all over the mask, and it is all painted in a scary mix of calm paint and an uncomfortable feeling all over the mask. It is all created with old school airbrush paint mixed with oil paint tech. 

The left side has just an evil sinister feeling, and if you look close into the star you find the same carpet as in the hotel! On the right side we present the rage.

Of course, Stubits asks the question we all immediately want to shout out – HEY!  Why not pay homage to a story Richard Bachman wrote?  How about: The Running Man, or Thinner . . . wait, I just realized why.  Because the helmet is of the MOVIE – and those movie’s were not , uhhhh . . . they were not. . . beautiful.  So why The Shining?  Probably because it’s just that cool!

photo credit cbssports.com.

Brian Stubits article is HERE.

Thanks to Bryant Burnette

RAGE article by James Smythe

I’m LOVING Stephen King enthusiast James Smythe’s articles as he rereads King’s works in chronological order.  This week is particularly good – RAGE.

Smythe points out that Rage is the only King novel you can’t buy in a local bookstore.  That’s because King had it pulled from publication.  He chronicles some copy-cat events, including 14-year old Michael Carneal’s December 1997 rampage.

Smythe writes:

Carneal wasn't the first: Jeffrey Lyne Cox held a class of students hostage at gunpoint in 1988, inspired by the novel; Dustin L Pierce did the same in 1989, down to the detail of imprisoning his algebra class; in 1996, Barry Loukaitis killed his algebra teacher and two others, before holding the rest of the class to ransom. At his trial, Loukaitis even said that he tried to model his life after Decker. All three had read the book, and they were young and impressionable. (Crucially, though less sensationally, they were also all bullied and tormented at school.)

Smythe makes personal connections to the novel, discussing his own struggle with being bullied.  He concludes by telling us,

“In the best possible way, I hate Rage: I hate it because I hate Decker, and he is the book in its entirety.”

The full article is great! Check it out HERE.

Does Bag Of Bones Hint At A Bachman Return?

Speculation has been buzzing for a while now that Richard Bachman might have left more manuscripts behind. 

We all know that Bachman made an appearance in the Bag Of Bones photo releases. Just check out those book shelves.

Tonight, in episode 1 of Bag Of Bones, Mike Noonan is told, "There's even talk of a newly discovered Bachman book."

Kevin Quigley at Charnel House said back in November, "For those of you who thought Bachman's posthumous novels had dried up with Blaze, worry not! It looks like the old dairy farmer still has some afterlife in him yet."

Quigley quoted King as saying: "I would like to write a Bachman novel that had some of that Charles Willeford feel. The dark side of American life ... I would like to start a book about a crazy private eye, a guy who is really on the dark side. I see the scene: this guy sitting in his office in an unnamed American city, the sky grey, the rain grey and hitting the window. That is it ... But I know the rest of it would follow pretty nicely with that hard-boiled voice like Raymond Chandler. Think of Philip Marlowe, only a total fucking degenerate.” (Charnel House)

I also liked Jo Noonan's comment, "have fun with Annie Wilkes" when the guy announced he was his number one fan.

Might Bachman Strike Again?

Kevin Quigley at Charnel House has this interesting post:

In a recent interview with Scotsman.com, King admitted to at least considering writing a new Richard Bachman novel:

..."I would like to write a Bachman novel that had some of that Charles Willeford feel. The dark side of American life ... I would like to start a book about a crazy private eye, a guy who is really on the dark side. I see the scene: this guy sitting in his office in an unnamed American city, the sky grey, the rain grey and hitting the window. That is it ... But I know the rest of it would follow pretty nicely with that hard-boiled voice like Raymond Chandler. Think of Philip Marlowe, only a total fucking degenerate.”

Quigley notes: "For those of you who thought Bachman's posthumous novels had dried up with Blaze, worry not! It looks like the old dairy farmer still has some afterlife in him yet."

NICE!

In Sons of Anarchy, King's character was named Bachman.

Twilight Zone Magazine Bachman Ad

My February 1985 issue of the Twilight Zone magazine landed in my mailbox today. I do love ebay!

.

I will post more on the articles inside, and the King/Straub interview. I love going through old magazine's and seeing what was happening at the time. As I thumbed through aging pages, something cool caught my eye. It was an ad. Later that year, 1985, King would be exposed as Richard Bachman. But in February, the general reading public had not been let in on the secret. The ad is for Thinner.

.

That's interesting, because Bachman had run under the radar until Thinner. His books were not met with much publicity. In fact, they were usually released as simple paperbacks.

The Problem With Writing

I really enjoyed King's afterword to Full Dark No Stars. He was unapologetic about offering such dark stories. The reader might have found them hard to read in places, he informs us that he found them hard to write in places.

.

The problem with writing, King suggests, is honesty. Bad writing is dishonest writing. Characters don't do what people would really do. More than that, the characters don't talk the way people really talk. King feels he has pretty realistically shown people for who they are. Even if it caused the stories to be darker, he feels they are honest stories, and thus it is good writing.

.

I read a lot of Stephen King, and he is usually pretty faithful to the truth as he would see it. That is, there might be times that I feel his characters mimic the people in his own circles more than people in the real world; but that is rare and the attempt at brutal honesty is always appreciated.

.

Do Demons Cuss?

King's honest writing style is all the more appreciated as I dig through a very popular Christian novel. The plot is great; and the characters... well, not so great. Because they don't talk the way people talk. You can't put that in a "Christian" novel. The result is a drop of dishonesty. For those who might argue with me on this point, I would ask if you can really take us into a nest of demons, drop in to their conversation and discover... wha-la! Demons don't cuss! That is like headline news stuff. Demons don't use foul language at all. Of course, in this book, neither do the humans. The result: The characters, while enjoyable, come out seeming a little cardboard.

.

This is true of a lot of writing aimed at certain groups. When someone writes to a chosen audience instead of simply letting the story tell itself and then find its audience -- the result is censorship. The author cuts out the stuff that he knows his/her audience won't like! Would demons curse? I think they would. Would Christians buy the book?

.

By Richard Laymon -- Not Really

This is a struggle in my own writing. I have a perfectly good novel that my family likes a lot. I've written and rewritten it. But it's not what I want to write. I found great freedom recently when I finally decided to gut out a novel that had been on my mind for years. This thing dogs me. But it's bad! Really bad. I tried to write it clean -- no cussing, no bad stuff. But the result is obvious to me, and thus would be obvious to anyone reading; it is dishonest.

.

Know how I found freedom in writing? It's as simple as this: I wrote my story title, and then under it wrote "By Richard Laymon." Ha! Richard Laymon is about the nastiest writer I've encountered. In fact, I don't know if he's really an honest writer so much as a shock-jock! Some of that stuff in a Laymon book is just disgusting. But by putting Laymon's name at the top of my story, I felt free to let story tell itself, without my editorial comments.

.

Loyalty:

I suspect the reason so many people are very loyal to Stephen King is not because every book is truly a masterpiece, but because each one is at least honest. And when King lets the story take control, no one -- not even the writer -- knows what will happen.

.

King has told us about times stories took a different turn than he expected. Paul Sheldon turned out stronger than King thought he was. If Paul had been a puppet in King's hands, he would have died in the clutches of Annie Wilkes. In his original plan for The Shining, everyone died! King said there was blood everywhere. But that's not really the direction the story dictated, and thus King in the end was honest to the story, not his own vision of it. This might be why he is so offended when others take his story (The Shining) and play with it. Imagine King saying, "Hey, I didn't play with this stuff! I was a simple scribe. Don't you get dishonest with my material." (But I'm putting words in his mouth, so forgive me if that seems dishonest, eh!)

.

Bachman

I wonder if the reason King felt such freedom as Richard Bachman is because he had become. . . Stephen King. He was expected to write a certain way, aim at a certain audience, and do certain things. But as Bachman, he didn't have to play nice.

Full Dark Journal 2: 1922

I just finished reading 1922. I liked it a lot.

.

1922 is the kind of story King would never write just for reviews. It's the kind of thing that gets written just to please one's self, and the constant reader. But it won't win you a lot of friends among the literary snobs. They might still see him as nothing more than the literary equivalent of a big mac. Of course, the constant reader has learned that the meat in a Stephen King big mac is rat meat.

.

This story has a lot of rats. Note the picture above; you can't say you weren't clued in. Lots of them. Disgusting, nasty, horrible, biting, rats. Aggressive little devils. And the queen of the rats rules her minions to do her bidding. It's really quite brilliant, if not disgusting. I'm trying hard not to give away too much, except that this is truly the stuff King fans love; and have been wanting for quite a little while.

.

The story plays out like a Shakespeare tragedy. Or, perhaps even more importantly, it is a longer version of Poe's Tell Tale Heart.

.

I do not know why the book is titled Full Dark No Stars; but I will venture an opinion having read just one of the four novella's. The book is brutally dark. This is not just a dark story, it is so dark that there is not even starlight. Total blackness. Hopelessness. No redemption what so ever.

.

Regarding the all important "hundred acres" (no, it's not a Winnie The Pooh reference), the story is very much about the little man verses big business. In that way it's like a Bachman novel. Roadwork and the Running Man.

.

Anyway, here's the bottom line; if you get paid to review books, don't bother with this one. If you read books for the joy of a good story; and if you read King because you love his sick, twisted stories -- then you should rush out and read 1922.

King book among most sought after

The Christian Science Monitor has an article titled, "Top 100 most sought-after out-of-print books in 2010." #9 is Rage. I have a copy of this (the paperback). Of course, it was also published in The Bachman Books. However, after a series of school shootings, King asked his publisher not to print the book anymore. Imagine a book banned by Stephen King himself!

.

I'm not sure how bookfinder came up with their list, but I can think of several more "sought after" King books. Not to deny at all that Rage is worth the hunt! But here are a few more. . .

1. The Stand leatherbound.

2. A true first edition salem's Lot (with misspelling on dust cover)

3. A copy of The Plant.

4. First edition Gunslinger.

5. First edition Carrie.

6. Audio of The Mist read by Frank Muller.

7. From A Buick 8, Cemetery Dance

8. Salem's Lot deluxe lettered edition.

9. My Pretty Poney, Whitney Museum

10. Six Stories, Philtrum Press

.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2010/1006/Top-100-most-sought-after-out-of-print-books-in-2010

The full article is here: http://www.bookfinder.com/books/bookfinder_report_2010/

Richard Laymon Treat

King Connection:

I'd like to introduce you to George Stark. . . his name is Richard Laymon. Seriously, if anyone writes with the nasty evil I imagined Stark from the Dark Half writing, it's Laymon.

.

Plastered all over Richard Laymon's paperback novels is a single quote from Stephen King: "If you've missed Laymon, you've missed a treat." He's been called: "Stephen King without a conscience."

.

Dead Men Do Tell Tales

Laymon was seriosly messed up - or he was -- he's dead now. The quote from King is pretty short, so I would be interested in what else he had to say about Laymon. His website notes, "Richard Laymon died on February 14, 2001. Many readers are not aware of this fact - especially new Laymon readers. Since 2001, new releases have been sold by Ann Laymon, Richard's wife, and consist of previously unpublished manuscripts that Richard left behind at his death. These previously unpublished manuscripts are: To Wake The Dead, The Lake, Glory Bus."

.

Does that remind any of you of this storyline -- "In 1994, while preparing to move to a new house, the widow Bachman discovered a cardboard carton filled with manuscripts in the cellar. The carton contained a number of novels and stories, in varying degrees of completion." http://www.squidoo.com/RichardBachman

.

I notice a lot of people really like Laymon -- none of them women. Or, to be more fair, I simply have not seen evidence of female fans. He's gotten popular in America only after his death. He was a real hit in Europe; England mostly. Turned out his American publishers really botched the editing of his second novel, The woods Are Dark, and the results were lasting and negative.

.

Since his passing, Leasure books has been serious about putting him out there in the U.S. And by the looks of it, quite successfully. Too bad Richard isn't around to see his success with his home country.

.

Personal:

Laymon was married and had a daughter. His daughter rewrote his second novel, The Woods Are Dark, reporting to have restored the novel to Laymon's original intent. To accomplish this she used several manuscripts, churning out a real labor of love and one good book.

.

Laymon was a native of my home state, California. As a result, he often writes about places I've been. I've actually been to some pretty bad parts of Los Angeles late at night; but I think I was mroe scared reading about a midnight trip through LA in Laymon's book Body Rides. Beast House is in San Fransisco. Beast House is a place where terrible murders took place, later turned into a museum. (Sadly, closest I ever got to anything like that in SF was the Wax Museum.)

.

Laymon was friends with Dean Koontz, whose introductions appear in some of Laymon's books.

.

Characters:

I read one person who said, "I love Laymon because I always remember his characters." I can't say that! All of Laymon's characters are, in my opinion, pretty shallow. He is creating bodies to be stabbed or chopped or shot or beaten or mutilated in some other way.

.

Gore

The gore factor is definitely worth noting. Laymon loves gore! He dishes it out liberally. Sprinkled in with that gore is subjects that make me a little uncomfortable. Rape's are frequent in some of his books. There is sex -- lots of it. Bondage and a mixture of sex and the creepy. You know what Laymon reminds me of? Old detective novels. I don't mean Sherlock Holmes, either. Anyway, suffice to say: There is lots of gore and lots of sex. Often sex and violence mix together.
.
Books By Laymon:
Laymon was extremely prolific (like anyone else you know?). He not only wrote a pile of novels, but short stories, books of short stories, and his own biography. Here's a list of his novels (from wikipedia). It is interesting that none of his books have been made into movies.
.
The Cellar (1980) (First book in the Beast House Chronicles series)
Your Secret Admirer (1980) (writing as Carl Laymon)
The Woods Are Dark (1981)
Nightmare Lake (1983) (writing as Carl Laymon)
Night Show (1984)
All Hallow's Eve (1985)
Beware (1985)
The Beast House (1986) (Second book in the Beast House Chronicles series)
Tread Softly (1987) - aka Dark Mountain (writing as Richard Kelly)
Flesh (1987)
Midnight's Lair (1988) (writing as Richard Kelly)
Resurrection Dreams (1988)
Funland (1989)
The Stake (1990)
One Rainy Night (1991)
Island (1991)
Darkness, Tell Us (1991)
Blood Games (1992)
Alarums (1992)
Dark Mountain (1992)
Endless Night (1993)
Savage: From Whitechapel to the Wild West on the Track of Jack the Ripper (1993)
In the Dark (1994)
Quake (1995)
Bite (1996)
Body Rides (1996)
After Midnight (1997)
The Wilds (1998)
The Midnight Tour (1998) (Third book in the Beast House Chronicles series)
Cuts (1999)
Among the Missing (1999)
Come Out Tonight (1999)
Once Upon A Halloween (2000)
The Traveling Vampire Show (2000)
Friday Night in the Beast House (2001) (Fourth book in the Beast House Chronicles series)
Night in the Lonesome October (2001)
The Halloween Mouse (2001) - children's book
No Sanctuary (2001)
Amara (2002) aka To Wake the Dead
The Lake (2004)
The Glory Bus (2005) aka Into the Fire
The Woods are Dark Restored and Uncut (2008)
.
Words
.
Reading Laymon made me say (possibly out loud), "Ah! I've always wanted to write like that! I just didn't know you could." The way Laymon structures sentences is striking. Generally his sentences are short. They are descriptive; especially if they involve murder or sex. His chapters, likewise, are short. Laymon usually chooses dialogue to carry the story over narration.
.
Favorites:
From reading interviews with Laymon, it appears one of hsi favorite novels to write was Island. Since it was a journal, Laymon liked the idea of the narrator not knowing what would happen next.
.
My favorite novels: So far my favorite novels have been: Resurrection Dreams, Beware and Body Rides.
.
So tell me, what do you think of Richard Laymon?
.
Here's a couple of fun links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ku1ABLqgEDw&feature=related
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Laymon
Richard Laymon Kills: http://www.ains.net.au/~gerlach/rlaymon2.htm

Not So Familiar, Part 1

While I've read a lot of Stephen King's work, I have a lot to catch up on. My recent dig through Roadwork was like reading the work of a completely different person. I know it's published under the Bachman name, but it was written by Stephen King; unlike, say, Thinner -- which was written by Bachman. What is mean is that Thinner was the first book King wrote knowing he was writing as Bachman. The others were older stuff later put under the Bachman name.
.
Anyway, I'm getting quite the wake up call as I dig through the world of Stephen King. I began reading -- the first time -- in the early 90's. So The Stand revised, Needful Things, Four Past Midnight, Gerald's Game, and Dolores Claiborne are all very familiar to me. But with Insomnia, I dropped off for a long while. When I returned to reading King, I started with the early stuff. This, of course, leaves a whole body of work I know nothing really about.
.
So, this is a crazy list, but here are 10 works by King I don't know much about -- but I do intend to learn!
1. The Regulators and all things Bachman.
3. Insomnia. Sorry, I don't know much about this one.
4. Rose Madder.
5. Hearts in Atlantis. I haven't even seen the movie!
6. The Talisman. My recent omission of this book as an "epic" is evidence that I just haven't dug in yet.
7. Black House.
8. Lisey's Story. I did try to read it -- and will go again soon. The magic just hasn't happened for me yet on this one.
10. Duma Key. Again, i started this. But (this is crazy) mid novel my kids lost one of the disks. Or I think it was the kids! Anyway, I was enjoying it very very much, but somehow got distracted and didn't return soon enough. Now I'll have to start over.
11. Wizard and Glass.
.
I'm kind of excited by this list. There is so much more to discover and enjoy. I realized with Roadwork that I don't understand Bachman yet. I enjoyed Running man a lot, but the rest of the books aren't making a deep connection yet.

Early thoughts on Roadwork

I started listening to Roadwork the other day. There are some things I really like about this book. For instance, I am still fascenated with King's method of keeping a story set in the time it was written. This gives us a freeze frame of what the world was like. Roadwork is set in the far gone world of 1973. I was born that year! Of course, King mentions not only prices, but cultural events of the time.

The book does start with a wonderful introduction. I didn't know this existed! The only work I'd really read on Bachman by King was either in interviews, or the introduction to the Bachman books. But this introduction was quite different, and refreshing.

Concering the book, this is not an easy novel for me to read. I don't know why, but the story and character have not yet captivated me. King usually bounces around from character to character, or at least from scene to scene. However, Roadwork focuses in tight on Dawes (called "he" throughout) in an almost unrelenting narrative. It feels like we're watching someone from a security cam as much as King is telling us a story. Here's the problem: Watching security cams is not really much fun.

I did some digging around today to find out more about this book. Turns out, a lot of people like this. And, Stephen King called it one of his favorites of the Bachman set. That surprised me. So I'll push on. Maybe it will grab me. So far my experience with the Bachman books has not been good -- except for Running man. Perhaps I like the more upbeat works; or the scary stuff.

Is this anyones favorite book? Anyone a fan of Roadwork? Enlighten me. What am I missing here?

Mystery Of The Long Walk

I've been collecting first edition Richard Bachman books of late. These usually go for anywhere from $50-75. I found an interesting copy of the Long Walk recently. It is a first edition, rebound for school use ($30, ebay). The interior librarians markings indicate that it was entered into the school library in 1981. Of course, it wasn't revealed that King was Bachman until 1985, when he was writing Misery to be released as a Bachman.

.

Now this is interesting because:

.

1. I didn't know Bachman was popular enough to be appearing in schools.

2. This book is unusually dark, not something I would expect to find in a school..

.

Required Reading?

.

This is a softcover book that's been turned into a small hardcover. With this kind of binding, it is not the kind of book schools simply drop in its library book shelves. Schools do this (at least my school did) for distribution to students as required reading. They don't have the money to turn every paperback on their shelves into a hardback. But for class required reading, these cheap paperback books were rebound as hardcovers by our school so that they wouldn't get destroyed by students carrying them around in their million pound backpacks. (Remember those?)

.

Just causes me to wonder: Was The Long Walk required reading at Memorial High School in Newark, California? That would be irony, wouldn't it! King gets banned from schools, but Bachman slips in as required reading!

.

Even if it wasn't required reading, it's still noteworthy that at the very time King was being kicked out of school libraries, Bachman was walking right in the door! And the really nutty thing, I would consider Bachman much less "school" worthy than most King books. However, dark Mr. Bachman seems to strike a chord with high school students. He is, after all, Stephen King "on a really bad day."

Favorite Novella

Stephen King's upcoming book in November "Full Dark, no Stars," is once again an offering of four novella's. This time they all have the theme of retribution and one of the novellas is about Hemingford Home. We all remember Hemingford Home (Nebraska) as the residence of Mother Abagail in The Stand. On the S.K. message board, Bev Vincent points out that in the novel IT, Ben Hanscom lived there as well.
.
This will be the third book of four Novellas:
Different Seasons
Four Past Midnight
Full Dark, no Stars
.
Novellas are strange creatures. They're not novels -- exactly. So they don't get published as single volumes, unless they become famous (or you have to read them in school). Steinbeck wrote lots of them. When they're famous, they're just called short novels.
.
I'm looking forward to Full Dark, no Stars. What a delightful offering after the massive Under The Dome.
.
Favorite King novella's:
The Mist
The Langoliers
The Body
Blaze
The library Police
The Sun Dog
Graveyard Shift
The Running Man
Umney's Last case
.
(Is The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon a novella?)
.
Now, just as a note, I liked the movie Secret Window a lot more than the book. I thought it was much tighter and pulled things together that were left hanging in the print version.
.
Ever notice that most of the Bachman books are novella's? Of ocurse, the Regulators was the longest, and Thinner a normal length novel.
.
Favorite novella's -- not by Stephen King
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Stevenson
Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck
The Pearl, Steinbeck
The old man and the sea, Hemmingway
A Christmas Carol, Dickens
The Hound of the Baskerville's, Conan Doyle
Frankenstein, Shelly
Animal Farm, Orwell
.
Not so favorite novella's for me include "Heart of Darkness." Every English teacher in the world can now be mad at me. . . but that's it! I can't stand Heart of Darkness. There, I said it.
.
The sweet thing for Constant Readers is that King is good enough to give us four novella's all at once. And honestly, I enjoy the novella much much more than the short story.

The Stephen King Problem

If someone was schooled personally in the art of writing by the King himself -- would you read their novels?

Joe Hill has a new novel out. I'm pretty interested in it -- as I was interested in Heart Shaped Box. But here's the problem: I don't have time to devote to more reading! See, it's a Stephen King problem.

Now some of you jumped on the Stephen King wagon back with Carrie or The Shining. But not me. I started reading around Needful Things -- and it was on again off again since. So, there's LOT's I haven't read. Further, I'm knee deep (about 900 pages) into Under The Dome. Not to mention, I try to read Dickens, Follett, and other writers. And during the day I am always immersed in commentaries as I study for sermons.

So my problem is a Stephen King problem. Honestly, he's written far more than I am capable of reading. There's just not time to read that new Joe Hill novel.

Writers worth watching (and reading -- if you can break away from King)
1. Richard Laymon (All his stuff is freaky)
2. Joe Hill
3. Anne Rice
4. Dan Simmons (Drood)
5. Cormac McCarthy (the Road)
6. Harlan Coben
7. Richard Matheson
8. Ken Follett (Pillars of the Earth, World Without End)
9. John Grisham (the older stuff)
10. Richard Bachman