INTERVIEW: Stephen J. Spignesi

For Stephen King fans, the name Stephen J. Spignesi should be quite familiar. He’s written a slew of books about Stephen King, and has been noted as an authority on King and King’s body of work.

As I’ve said before, one of my favorite things to read is books about Stephen King. Go figure. Anyone who wants to know more about King and his work should take some time reading books by Stephen J. Spignesi. His passion for King and his work shine through his research. In The Shape Under The Sheet, Spignesi writes, “Stephen King’s work became something beyond entertainment for me; I realized that I was privileged enough to be witnessing the creation of a true American literary giant.”

One thing I appreciate about Spignesi is that he is factually correct – something not true of every book/work about Stephen King! I have often reached for The Shape Under The Sheet to fact check things before posting on the blog, or to fact check other authors who might say something that seems. . . iffy.

Spignesi is author of books like the massive Encyclopedia, The Shape Under The Sheet and the outright fun The Essential Stephen King , The Lost Works of Stephen King and The Stephen King Quiz Book. He has also written books about the Beatles, the Titanic, assassinations, recipes, the Beatles, ER, and even Native American History for Dummies – and so much more! He has also written fiction as well.

INTERVIEW

Talk Stephen King: Thanks for agreeing to answer some questions. Tell me a little about yourself.

Stephen J. Spignesi: I was born in a manger on a cold winter’s…oops…sorry about that.

I was born in New Haven, Connecticut and have pretty much lived here all my life. I graduated from Catholic grammar and high schools and then went on to graduate from the University of New Haven where I now teach. For 25 or so years I helped run a family jewelry business while also writing full-time. The business closed in 2001 and in 2005 I started teaching full-time while still writing around a book a year.

I’m the eldest of four siblings, a lacto-ova vegetarian, and I collect TV series on DVD (someday you can ask me about my collection, which I take great delight in). I always put copies of my manuscripts and published books on my Kindle, and I have a grey cat named Chloe who I love dearly. I also believe Wintergreen Altoids is one of the most under-appreciated candies of all time, and I can’t stop wondering what ever happened to Pudding Pops.

TSK: Please tell us a little about your novel. Most of us know you for your non-fiction.

SJS: I’ve written one novel so far that’s been published. (I’ve got five or six in manuscript currently making the rounds of publishers.) It’s called Dialogues and came out in hardcover from Random House in 2005, and is now in mass market paperback from Bantam. I teach it every semester to my Composition and Literature students. Rather than ramble on, here is what the publisher said about the book:

In this electrifying debut, Stephen Spignesi reinvents the psychological thriller with a chilling tale of mounting intensity. Ingeniously crafted and crackling with suspense, here is a puzzle within a puzzle, at the center of which stands a hauntingly enigmatic young woman whose story will challenge everything you think you know....

Six people have been murdered in the animal shelter in which they worked. One unlikely woman stands accused of the crimes. Her name is Victoria Troy, and she is the most improbable of cold-blooded killers. A lover of animals, petite, brainy, and gifted with a sharp sense of humor, she too worked in the shelter, in an anguishingly difficult job. What could possibly have provoked her to murder six of her own coworkers--some of whom were her friends.

Who is Tory Troy? It is up to Dr. Baraku Bexley to find out. An astute psychiatrist hired by the court to determine whether Tory is mentally competent to stand trial, Bexley must explore her complicated background and her unusual convictions as he interviews her in the Connecticut psychiatric hospital in which she is confined--and also talks to others who have known her.

What Bexley learns about this gifted young woman comes almost solely from these interviews...but is that enough to explain the divide between the person Tory seems to be and the terrible crimes she’s accused of committing? Others find her difficult to fathom too: her lawyer, her nurse at the hospital, her mother, one of her former teachers; but all seek the same objective, to learn the truth no matter where it leads--or what secrets it may reveal about Tory, about the nature of evil, about us all.

Fiercely engaging and morally provocative, Dialogues is a rush of adrenaline that will keep you riveted from the first page to the last.

With the daring immediacy that a novel-in-conversations can deliver, Dialogues will confound, conflict, and possibly convert readers to the heroine’s hauntingly disturbing point of view. Here is one of the freshest first novels of the year. In a mental hospital in Connecticut sits Tory Troy, a young woman facing six particularly grotesque charges of felony murder. Tory--bright, blunt, and empathetic--has spent the past year as a certified animal euthanasia technician; it was in the Waterbridge Animal Shelter that the police arrested her. As readers, we come to know her through the dialogues conducted with the doctor the court has appointed to assess her competence to stand trial--and through further conversations with the nursing staff, her mother, her one-time English professor, her lawyer, and others. Her singular perspective on the world--intricate, contrarian, deeply felt--makes Tory a fascinating but enigmatic guide to the darker regions of the human soul. In a novel that is distinctive not only for its subject matter but also for its unorthodox and riveting structure, author Stephen Spignesi leads us into Tory’s world and leaves us there to find our way out. Each dialogue reveals something new or confounds our assumptions about her. Each time we believe we understand what has happened, difficult questions and insights arise. Gathering pace as the case reaches the courtroom--and then far beyond it--Dialogues will leave us both breathless and deeply moved.

TSK: You’ve written a LOT of books. What’s your favorite?

SJS: There’s more than one, actually. I’ll give you my Top Ten (in no particular order):

Dialogues

The Titanic forDummies

The Lost Work ofStephen King

The Essential StephenKing

The Woody AllenCompanion

Here, There andEverywhere: The 100 Best Beatles Songs

The Odd Index

The “ER” Companion

The Weird 100

Grover Cleveland’sRubber Jaw

TSK: When people find out about your work on Stephen King, do some people give you that look that says, “You read him?”

SJS: I sometimes get an “I can’t stand that stuff!” type of response, but I perceive that to mean a general dislike for horror. I also commonly get an “I love/hate his movies” response. When I explain that I write about his written work and his significance as an important American writer, suddenly they get interested. I’ll get asked questions and I have a few standard answers about the best of his work.

A very common approach that I use is to ask them if they’ve seen either The Shawshank Redemption or The Green Mile. Of course they have, and of course they loved them, so when I then tell them, “Stephen King wrote them,” they’re immediately amazed and usually won over as to my thesis of taking him seriously as a writer.

TSK: A lot of us have read with interest your books about Stephen King. In fact, my copy of The Essential Stephen King is worn to tatters! What books does Stephen Spignesi read about Stephen King?  Were there any particular works that have been helpful in studying King?

SJS: I’m a big fan of the others who have written about King, particularly George Beahm, Bev Vincent, Michael Collings, Rocky Wood, Anthony Magistrale, and Tyson Blue. I’ve read almost all of their books about King and loved them all. They’ve all been helpful in the sense of giving me insights into how other experts perceive King’s work, but my books about King are so thematically-focused that ultimately the books of others serve mainly as background research rather than influences.

Some memorable titles that stand out for me include George Beahm’s literary biography of King, as well as his Stephen King Country (not to mention his monumental look at the art of Stephen King, Knowing Darkness) ; Michael Collings’ literary analyses of King (his Starmont volumes); Bev Vincent’s Road to the Dark Tower and Illustrated Companion, and Tony Magistrale’s book about The Shining. Kevin Quigley has also been doing some really interesting King-themed chapbooks that I greatly enjoyed. Also, I’d be derelict if I didn’t mention one of the books (along with Beahm’s The Stephen King Companion) that started it all, Douglas Winter’s The Art of Darkness.

TSK: In your book The Essential Stephen King, you listed IT as the number one novel. Does this mean it is your personal favorite work of King’s as well?

SJS: Yes, it does mean that IT is my personal favorite. However, The Shining and Misery come in at an extremely close second for tie as personal favorites.

TSK: If you were writing TESK today, would IT still hold the top spot, or would it have to step aside for another work?

SJS: That’s a good question. I haven’t changed my mind about the placement of almost every other work on the list, so essentially I’d have to ask myself if anything he’s published since 2000 been of such excellence that it would kick IT out of the top slot. The answer, for me, is no.

I would, however, move things around a bit to get 11/22/63, Lisey’s Story, Duma Key, Under the Dome, and probably Cell into the Top 20, or maybe Top 25. If you study my ranking, you’ll note that novels are all in the top 50 or so, so those major works would have to be included. All the new Dark Tower books would fall under the one single Dark Tower ranking, which is number 10.

All bets are off, though, when Doctor Sleep is published. Considering the excellence of The Shining, I am greatly looking forward to it, but am very curious as to whether or not it will equal the literary merit of The Shining, which is the most taught King novel at the high school and college level. I taught The Shining when I taught my “New Gothic Horror of Stephen King” course at UNH. Hardly any of the students had read it, but they were all blown away by it.

TSK: Speaking of TESK’s rankings, did you get any reader feedback on slipping The Stand down to the lowly, humble second spot?

SJS:  I got some feedback, but I think most of my readers realized and understood that I was trying to focus on literary merit and the quality of the two most important elements of fiction: plot and character. IT excels in both those categories, especially plot. King writes two parallel novels — 1958 and 1985 — and switches back and forth, and the reader never gets lost. I think it’s his magnum opus.

Fan popularity wasn’t allowed to factor into my decision. My co-author and best friend Mike Lewis and I used similar criteria to rank the 100 best Beatles songs in our Here, There, and Everywhere. Musicality, Lyricism, Production, and Performance were the four criteria. Again, fan popularity did not matter. We get a lot of complaints about our ranking for that book. Fans get upset when their favorite isn’t on the list. It doesn’t matter to them that a song may be musically inferior (three chords) or lyrically simplistic (bland, one-dimensional lyrics), etc.

I always try to concentrate on the quality of the work. For many readers, The Stand is more fun, and I understand that and can relate to it. But I feel IT is a better novel and thus, its number one rank.

TSK: Both you and Stephen King have written quite a lot about the 60’s. King through fiction, you through non-fiction. What is so important about the sixties?

SJS: It was a seminal decade in the history of the United States and the world. It redefined everything: civil rights, voting rights, LGBT rights, and women’s rights. Art and popular culture were, in a sense, reinvented, and politics, freedom, and commerce all took on new meanings. Feminism was born, as were movements in support of Hispanic rights and African/American rights. The antiwar movement railed against the Vietnam War and we lost JFK, Martin Luther King, Bobby Kennedy, and others. It seems as though Americans woke up in the Sixties. Thus, it is fertile territory for an artist, no matter what area or element of the decade you want to study and write about.

TSK: You gave four years of your life to The Shape Under The Sheet. Did you feel like it was “complete” when you were done, or did you just decide “I’ve got to stop someday!” What was the signal for you that the work was whole?

SJS: The latter: I knew I had to stop. I knew the book would never come out if I didn’t set a stop date. King has never stopped publishing, so you have to set your sights on a specific year and say, “Okay, this is when it will be published; thus, I have to stop researching and writing here.” Which is what I did. Also, the publisher was getting a little anxious, considering the book had been announced. Plus, I had other books I wanted to write.

TSK: You indicated with The Shape Under The Sheet that you wanted to give the constant readers (and I guess the world) an “ultimate reference.” Of course, that was published over 20 years ago now. Any plans to update the volume – turn into volumes?

SJS: It’s highly unlikely I’ll ever be able to update the book. My life has changed drastically with teaching full-time and also maintaining a book-a-year schedule. The research alone would require a massive commitment of time, and frankly, there isn’t a publisher who would be able to pay me to do it. It would be great fun to do it, but I can’t see how everything could conspire to allow me the time and funds to do it. Maybe if I hit Powerball…

TSK: I loved all of The Shape Under The Sheet! One of the really unique points was the information gleaned from your interview with David King. What is he like?

SJS: Dave is a consummate gentleman. He had rarely (or possibly never before) spoken about his brother and their childhood and he went out of his way to provide me with items from their youth and to talk about the family.

Can you imagine what it must be like to be Stephen King’s brother? Anyone who finds out who your brother is, is going to immediately ask millions of questions (and possibly favors) and it has to be extremely difficult to be yourself, instead of “Stephen King’s brother.” Yet, Dave lives a quiet life, has a wonderful family, and is utterly normal. To this day, I am extremely grateful for all his help with Shape.

I know you’ve interviewed or spoken with Robert McCammon. What is his take on Stephen King? Is he offended or excited when fans and constant readers note the similarities in their work?

SJS: Rick is, likewise, a gentleman and a total professional. Some writers do not like to acknowledge influences on their work, or their particular genre. When I asked Rick if King had influenced his own writing, his answer was along the lines of, How could he have not? which is gracious, self-effacing, and yet completely recognizes the massive — and that is the appropriate word — influence King has had on both genre fiction and American fiction.

But McCammon is a brilliant writer in his own right. King has influenced us all, but the cream of the crop, the great American writers who have their own voice and something to say, like McCammon, have written works of art that are theirs and theirs alone in terms of artistic sensibility. Art is everywhere and artists everywhere are influenced by other artists.

Going back to the Beatles, think about how many bands and songwriters today have been influenced by the Fabs. The list is endless and ongoing. And look at King: he himself has acknowledged being influenced by Poe, Twain, Dickens, John D. McDonald, Richard Matheson, Don Robertson, and many others. This is what art is all about. And there’d be no Dark Tower series at all if King hadn’t read and been influenced by Robert Browning, right?

TSK: I know that you “study” Stephen King. When you read a King novel for the first time now, are you simply enjoying it, or does the research continue?

SJS: All of the above. When I read King, I cannot help but notice the literary skeleton of the story, the man behind the curtain, the shape under the sheet. I read him as a fan, a King researcher, and an English teacher. It’s an all-consuming experience.

TSK: What do you think of the King movies? Got any favorites?

SJS: The Darabont collection — The Woman in the Room, The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, The Mist — is extraordinary. Other standouts for me include The Dead Zone, Kubrick’s Shining, Misery, Stand By Me, Carrie Dolores Claiborne, Apt Pupil, and 1408. I’m also a huge fan of the short film Paranoid by Jay Holben (based on the King poem from Skeleton Crew) and the Golden Years TV series.

TSK: You said you are a Woody Allen fan. I loved Radio Days! What Woody Allen movies are you passionate about. . . or does being a Woody Allen fan mean by definition you like all of them?

SJS: I am a HUGE Woody Allen fan. I think he is a filmmaker and writer of, and for, the ages. And I’m not just talking about his films. I’m talking about his stand-up comedy routines (which I transcribed verbatim off his albums), his books, his plays, his essays, and more. He is the classic artist. His short stories and essays in Getting Even, Without Feathers, Side Effects, and Mere Anarchy are literally laugh-out-loud funny.

As for favorite movies, my number one is Manhattan, followed by Annie Hall, Hannah and Her Sisters, Midnight in Paris, Whatever Works, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Love and Death, Stardust Memories, and Mighty Aphrodite. I even love Wild Man Blues, the documentary about Woody touring Europe with his jazz band.

I love Woody one-liners (Did you hear about Cyclops? He got a middle-eye infection.”). I am currently in the ongoing process of replacing my VHS copies of his movies with DVDs. I also hope to someday update my now out-of-date Woody Allen Companion. As far as I know it’s the only book to completely deconstruct every comedy routine he performed and every short story he had written up to that time. Woody is a genius, a brilliant writer, and a supremely accomplished artist. And I like his glasses.

TSK: Wow, I could go on writing questions all day, because I really do enjoy your work on King! I’ll stop here, but is there anything you would ask if you were given permission to interview Stephen J. Spignesi?

SJS: Yes, there is something I’d ask Mr. Spignesi:

In your book, The Odd Index, in the chapter “39 Acts of Select Mayhem in 2 Three Stooges Films,” you write “Moe dials Shemp’s eyes, thinking his face is a phone.” Do you see a deeper subtext in the fact that the metaphorical instrument of abuse is a communication device — that Moe uses Shemp’s face as a phone?

To which I would answer:

The Three Stooges were notable for their allegorical, metaphorical, and symbolic use of communication devices in their work. In a scene in Brideless Groom, Shemp’s fiancée compresses his head in a letter-press, an older type of printing press.
 In Punch Drunk, the Stooges drive a truck with a PA system playing music through a wall at a prize fight at which Larry had been hired to play the violin ringside. Larry’s violin is smashed by Curly who, it turns out, goes nuts anytime he hears violin music.
 In Three Sappy People, the Stooges answer a phone call intended for three psychiatrists Ziller, Zeller, and Zoller and then assume the doctors’ identities. In They Stooge to Conga, Curly impersonates a telephone repair man to spy on spies.
 In Goof on the Roof, the Stooges attempt to install a television antenna on their friend’s roof and they ultimately destroy his house. Oftentimes, the mishaps involving communication devices result in eye jabs, punches, pokes, and other forms of retaliatory punishment, usually inflicted by Moe upon the other Stooges.
 What is this saying? That communication errors can result in “damage,” both metaphorical and literal? That effective transmission of whatever the message might be can assure a placid response? The semantic and semiotic impact of these scenes manifest a sociocultural paradigm that…what’s that? You meant a question about Stephen King? Oh. Sorry. Okay. I’m done.

THANKS STEPHEN! 

Swan Song Journal #2: Direction

I go running at night for two reasons:
1. I want to lose weight.
2. I am in love with Swan Song.

The book is difficult to predict.  I am honestly kept guessing at each page.  I have no idea what will happen with any of the characters.

When I read  The Stand, it became obvious via the dreams that the forces of good would be gathered to one place, and the forces of evil to another.  Swan Song is not so immediately clear.  The AOE (Army of Excellence) is certainly growing ever more powerful.  And there are two elements McCammon certainly intends to bring together; the ring and the girl.  Swan has the power to give life, while the ring hast he power to give direction.  Together, they may be the key to bringing healing on the earth;  and possibly to defeating the AOE.

Though I've heard others complain about this; I like the ease with which McCammon introduces  and then dismisses characters.  It gives the story a feeling of bigness; grandeur.

None of that is a spoiler -- because I have no idea what is ahead.

War:
There are certainly a lot of battles in Swan Song.  I like that a lot.  The action is fast paced.  There are moments when McCammon introduces us to characters  that seem like they could have come from The Stand.  Alvin Mangrim wants to rise high in Colonel Macklin's army, even though Roland is suspicious of him.  What's more, Mangrim cut off the head of one of Macklin's most wanted  enemies.  Somehow, I'm thinking -- Trashcan man!

The AOE is completely evil.  Colonel Macklin wears a Nazi uniform and a wood hand with nails  sticking through it, just to be clear that he will show no mercy to anyone.  I suspect who he should really fear is the boy, Roland.

Elements I really like:

• The ring.
• The Shadow soldier.  (An imaginary friend who keeps Colonel Macklin cool under fire)
• Swan's ability to give life.  How far will that go?
• The mark of Cain.  A strange growth that crusts over some survivors like a hard shell, closing them in.
• The flies crawling out of the man of a thousand faces so go and search the earth for the woman with the ring.  That is really great!  The flies are really his eyes, an extension of himself.

Concerning the flies, get this passage:

More flies penetrated his face. More images whirled through him: a woman scrubbing clothes in a lamplit room, two men fighting with knives in an alley, a two-headed boar snuffling in garbage, its four eyes glinting wetly. The flies crawled over his face, being sucked through the flesh one after the other.

Swan Song Journal

You read that right.  I'm journaling a non-King novel. Why? Swan Song goes beyond the scope of most books, requiring more than one entry. I've been reading the book for quite a while now on nights that I go running alone.  I have to admit that I've fallen in love with the book.

"I thought this was a Stephen King blog."  It is.  And if you only want discussions about Stephen King -- then don't read Stephen King.  Because King's own work is wound with commentary on other works.  So our discussion of King and the world of Stephen King should be wider than King's own stream of novels.

That was a long way of saying -- I've been reading Swan Song and want to talk about it.

I wrote a short article years ago on the similarities between Swan Song and The Stand.  I read both books in high school.  But I read the Stand many more times after that.  But Swan Song was given a single reading, and I was left with only impressions of where the book had taken me.  What I realized when I began reading Swan Song again is that I had no idea where  the book was going.  That's strange, since I usually know at least who is going to die and major plot twists. Except for a few scenes, my mind was a blank slate.  How could that happen?  I remember reading it.  I knew enough to have made a mental list of ways the book is like The Stand.

It comes down to this: I read Swan Song in study hall.  Do  you remember study hall?  I mostly don't.  I read IT in study hall, too.  And the Langoliers.  Might I -- gasp -- have skimmed major portions of the book?  The novel was popular at my school; as popular as any book could be.  My friends and I were mostly interested in girls, monsters, girls, writing books and did I mention girls?  Yeah, I'm ready to say now what I wasn't willing to admit to myself much earlier -- I had to have skimmed a lot of this book.

Is McCammon King?

How much is Robert McCammon like Stephen King?  He's not.  Not at all.  And, though there are amazing similarities between Swan Song and The Stand, the truth is, Swan Song can stand on its own heap of pages.  McCammon has his own narrative voice; his own plotting and a pace that is unique to  himself.

Like King, McCammon uses name brands, develops strong characters, and gives the reader two major "camps" -- the good guys and the bad guys.  Swan Song is a larger book; not in page count, but in scope.  McCammon pulls away more often than King did to show what's going on with others affected by the destruction.

One strange thing:

The book has a strange format, in my opinion.  Each book opens with a page that lists the chapter titles.  But then, the chapters themselves do not bear those titles.  This is true in both the paperback and audio edition.  So to know the chapter title you are on, you have to go back to the opening section and count down.  I'm really not sure why this is.

I like chapter titles, as it gives a portion of text a sense of perspective and purpose for both writer and reader.

What I Like About Swan Song:

Anticipation: McCammon is able to keep the reader guessing as to who is going to survive.  I remember turning the pages of the Stand in total disbelief when King killed off some major characters.  I was hooked after that, because anything could happen.  I have the same feeling with Swan Song.

At one point a woman sees a skull when she looks at Josh.  Previously seeing the  skull meant that person was going to die.  This feels like it came right out of a Twilight Zone's episode titled, The Purple Testament. However, the woman who sees this precursor to death shining on Josh's face dies; leaving the reader wondering if Josh is indeed marked for death.

Children: There are both good and bad children in Swan Song.  Swan herself (Sue Wanda) is nine, heading quickly into ten; while evil Roland is a young teenager who sees himself as the "King's Knight," ready to defend and obey the Colonel.  There is a scene in which Roland is required to cut off the Colonel's hand.  It's great.  I mean, really fantastically freaky.

And he sucked in his breath and brought the cleaver down with all of his strength on Colonel Macklin’s wrist. 

Bone crunched. Macklin jerked but made no sound. Roland thought the blade had gone all the way through, but he saw with renewed shock that it had only penetrated the man’s thick wrist to the depth of an inch. 

“Finish it!” Warner shouted. 

Roland pulled the cleaver out. 

Macklin’s eyes, ringed with purple, fluttered closed and then jerked open again. “Finish it,” he whispered. 

Roland lifted his arm and struck down again. Still the wrist wouldn’t part. Roland struck down a third time, and a fourth, harder and harder. He heard the one-eyed hunchback shouting at him to hurry, but Macklin remained silent. Roland pulled the cleaver free and struck a fifth time. There was a lot of blood now, but still the tendons hung together. Roland began to grind the cleaver back and forth; Macklin’s face had turned a pasty yellow-white, his lips as gray as graveyard dirt.

The brutality in Swan Song is pretty strong.  Mccammon cuts away at key moments, leaving it to the mind to fill in; usually.  But sometimes he sticks around, telling the story as the reader thinks, "I can't believe this guy is going there!"

 I'll save more for the next journal entry. Suffice to say, I am swept away once again into the world of Robert McCammon.  I'm loving it.

Reading The Other Guys

Waiting for Revival has me reading a few other horror writers.  The journey is both fun, and frustrating.  It's frustrating because I know how King writes.  I'm used to the way he builds characters, brackets thoughts, and slowly moves a plot.  Other writers have their own style.  It's fun because the journey can feel very new.

Of course, I read "non-King" all the time.  But I don't read much horror other than Stephen King.  I typically love Follett, classics, Dickens, Poe, Grisham, Clancy and more.  But what about Little, Mccammon, Koontz, Rice and other horror writers?  Well, the truth is, I don't read them much.  I DID; before I went into "King immersion."

Anne Rice used to be a particular joy to read.  Then her books kept getting -- well, bigger and bigger.  I wondered, "Does this lady have an editor?"

So here's what I've  been reading:

1. Dean Koontz, Lost Souls.  

I got this for the car, and actually, it's hard to follow.  Not because of the story, but because the narrator is dry as a pinewood coffin.  The plot moves quickly -- like lightening.  And, I didn't realize when I bought the audio book that I was picking up mid-series.  In fact, it's book FIVE.  Imagine stepping into the Dark Tower with Wolves of the Calla.  Might leave you with some questions, right?

At first I was thinking, "Why isn't he doing more to introduce these characters?"  Well, he did; in the other four novels.  So, Koontz is about to go on pause.  But not because I'm not enjoying his writing.  In fact, one of my favorite Dean Koontz books is Midnight.  (And the one about the dog. . . but I can't remember the books name.)

2. Robert Mccammon, Swan Song.  

I've been listening to this one also while I run.  I need to run more.  The book is fantastic every time I read it.  There's a tunnel scene which I actually think is much scarier than the one in The Stand.  But the two probably should not be compared too closely.  (I know, I have a blog post that does just that.)

Mccammon has a style that is very similar to King's.  A lot of character building, scene set up and a slower plot pace than, say, Koontz.  Mccammon also does something that is reminiscent of Stephen King; he mames some key characters early on.  OH MY!  There is a scene in which a boy has to cut off a man's hand with a meat cleaver.  Let's just say, it's horror at its very best!

And he sucked in his breath and brought the cleaver down with all of his strength on Colonel Macklin’s wrist. 

Bone crunched. Macklin jerked but made no sound. Roland thought the blade had gone all the way through, but he saw with renewed shock that it had only penetrated the man’s thick wrist to the depth of an inch. 

“Finish it!” Warner shouted. 

Roland pulled the cleaver out. 

Macklin’s eyes, ringed with purple, fluttered closed and then jerked open again. “Finish it,” he whispered. 

Roland lifted his arm and struck down again. Still the wrist wouldn’t part. Roland struck down a third time, and a fourth, harder and harder. He heard the one-eyed hunchback shouting at him to hurry, but Macklin remained silent. Roland pulled the cleaver free and struck a fifth time. There was a lot of blood now, but still the tendons hung together. Roland began to grind the cleaver back and forth; Macklin’s face had turned a pasty yellow-white, his lips as gray as graveyard dirt.

. . . it goes on like  that for quite a bit.

3. Jay Anson, The Amityville Horror

I've been reading this before  bed.  Go figure.  It's a mix of scary and stupid.  The scary thing is, this stuff might have actually happened.

The stupid part is the way the story is told.  It feels like children telling a ghost story.  "And then, there was black stuff that came out of our faucet.  And then she started levitating off the bed.  And then the window shut on the girls hand.  And then there were flies all over the window and a voice said to get out.  And then there was a marching band that George heard in the living room, but when he chekced there was no marching band.  And then there were spooky eyes peeking in on us but when we ran outside there were only pigs tracks in the snow."

Anyway, there were some real murders that happened in the house.  My interest was rekindled after seeing a documentary on Netflix titled, "My Amityville Horror."

The only reason Amityville is in any way scary is you think, "This might have happened.  Who  knows!  Demons are real.  And there were real murders that happened in that house!"  Not to mention, the place  just looks haunted.  Who wants a house that looks like it's looking at you?

4. William Malmborg, Text Message.

I've enjoyed this book quite a bit so far; though it reads very much like Richard Laymon.  The books moves very fast.  I would say it's a page turner, but I'm reading it on my phone (seems fitting for a book called Text Message.)

. . . so tell me what non-King horror books you've been reading.

Not Stephen King!

Ever notice the number of authors who get compared  to Stephen King?  Or how often we hear, "He/She's the next Stephen King."  Of course, no one writes like Stephen King.  Each writer has their own approach and style.

It is true that people  who enjoy reading Stephen King generally enjoy some of the same other  authors as well.

Here are 6 authors I think in some way fall in the Stephen King box.  Each is wonderful in their own right and has their own unique way of telling a story.

1. Dean Koontz  (My favorite novel: Watchers)
2. Robert McCammon (Swan Song)
3. Brian Keene (The Conqueror Worms)
4. John Saul (I have not read John Saul)
5. Anne Rice (I never finished a Rice novel -- that was written under her name)
6. Richard Laymon (Resurrection Dreams)

Who else gets  lumped in the "like Stephen King" category?

McCammon Graphic Audio Books

Robert McCammon's website has posted news that The Wolf’s Hour and The Hunter from the Woods. are being turned into "graphic audio books."

Billed as "a movie in your mind" the site explains: "GraphicAudio produces audiobooks that combine a narrator with cinematic music, sound effects, and a full cast of actors." (Check it out at www.robertmccammon.com)

McCamon is a fantastic author!  He's also very familiar with Stephen King's work.  He was interviewed by author Stephen Spignesi for his massive work, "The Shape Under The Sheets."  You can check that interview out HERE.

THANKS TO BRYANT BURNETTE.  Check out his blog at Ramblings Of A Honk Mahfah

Honk's Review of McCammon's BAAL

I enjoyed Bryant Burnette's post at Ramblings of a Honk Mahfah of Robert McCammon's book Baal.  The novel was McCammon's first.  My favorite McCammon book is -- just lip sink with me -- Swan Song.  McCammon's book Boy's Life and Usher's Passing are both interesting.

Check out Bryant's blog, Ramblings Of A Honk Mahfah.

A Brief Review: "Baal" [by Robert R. McCammon]

by Bryant Burnette 

When I discovered Stephen King in the summer of 1990, I quickly became obsessed by the man's work. I eagerly bought and read all of his books I could get my hands on. When I'd done so, I then re-read them all, and next began looking around for something similar. I have very fond memories of spending a lot of time in a used bookstore called The Book Rack, which is where I got most of my King books. So when it came time to try to find similar books, The Book Rack was my first stop. Looking around those shelves, I found Peter Straub (whose work already interested me, thanks to The Talisman), and to Dean Koontz, and to Clive Barker, amongst others.

However, of all the other writers who I turned to as methadone in the lack of new heroin from Stephen King himself, I enjoyed Robert R. McCammon the most.

Some of this, undoubtedly, had to do with the fact that (as I learned) he was an Alabama native who had gone to school at the University of Alabama, in my hometown of Tuscaloosa. That was only part of it, though; I also felt then that McCammon was simply the most imaginative of the authors I adopted while looking to supplement my King fixation.

I bought all of McCammon's books, and read all of them, from the epic Swan Song to the only slightly less epic The Wolf's Hour to the superb Boy's Life. McCammon published a dozen novels plus a collection of short stories between 1978 and 1992, but after Gone South -- published in '92, the year I graduated from high school and began attending the same college McCammon attended -- he stopped publishing for a full decade.

During that decade, I sorta just mentally lost track of his works. My devotion to King never wavered in all that time, but I stopped reading Straub and Barker simply because other interests crowded them out; as for Koontz and some of the others, I lost all interest and got rid of my collections of their books.

I kept all of my McCammon books, though, and in and of itself, that is meaningful; I went through a lot of phases in terms of what books I collected, and at various points between then and now I have found it necessary to undertake great purges, divesting myself of all of my Star Trek novels, or all of my Star Wars novels, or all of my (mostly never-read) classics. A serious Heinlein phase came and went, and so forth.

But I never got rid of a single one of my Robert McCammon books. Not one of 'em. They got packed away in boxes, and never made it onto shelves, and never got re-read ... but they survived each move where other books did not; I never gave even the slightest thought to dumping my McCammon. It was almost as if I knew I'd be returning to them someday.

And here someday is.

Since I'm already revisiting the works of Peter Straub, I thought it might be acceptable to revisit some of those other authors whose work I was led to by King. So you will see reviews of Clive Barker pop up here, and reviews of the novels of Tabitha King (which I've always wanted to read but never have) ... and reviews of McCammon's work as well. The main reason is simply because I feel like rereading them, and since my discovery of his work is inextricably linked -- in my mind, if nowhere else -- with my discovery of Stephen King, it seems like fair game for this blog.

Let's get started with a look at McCammon's debut novel, 1978's Baal.

Baal is a mixed bag of a novel, and it's one of several -- his first four (Baal, Bethany's Sin, The Night Boat, and They Thirst) -- that the author no longer allows to be reprinted. He apparently feels that they are a poor representation of his works, and in the case of Baal, at least, that's hard to argue with.
Baal is a sloppy novel, one that -- arguably -- doesn't introduce its main character until nearly a third of the way into the narrative. (I say "arguably" because it's possible to see Baal himself as the novel's main character, in which case he's there from near the beginning.) The prose is very weak in places, and the novel suffers from a seeming reluctance on McCammon's part for one particular character who has a lot of knowledge about Baal to explain to certain other characters what is going on. On the one hand, this is okay, since we're in possession of most of that knowledge ourselves, making it unnecessary for it to be repeated; on the other hand, when a knowledgeable character tells an unknowledgeable character things that we already know, it keeps everyone -- reader and protagonists alike -- on equal footing, which is valuable from a narrative standpoint. Also in the demerits column: a plotline set in the Middle East becomes extremely interesting at a certain point, and the narrative shifts to a completely different locale and to a completely different set of concerns when that happens, and the transition from one thing to the next is, to say the least, unsatisfying.

For all of those flaws, though, this is an imaginative and involving novel. One of its sins is that it simply isn't long enough; this feels like it wants to be a true epic of the type McCammon later crafted in Swan Song, but is instead merely the standard 350 or so pages. That's a demerit, too, but one that is wrapped inside a plus: if a novel feels short, that means the story is involving, because why else would I want to read more of it?

The setup: a young woman in the sixties is raped by a stranger in an alley, and unlike the vast majority of rapists, this one's flesh burns hand prints into his victim's skin. Nine months or so later, out pops a baby, which is, of course, a demon. Both parents die, and the baby ends up in a series of orphanages; when he's old enough to talk he begins calling himself Baal, and creeps everyone out. If this reminds you at all of The Omen, it's probably no accident; but McCammon delivers a few scenes that are as good as anything in that semi-classic Richard Donner movie, and the story ends up going in very different directions.

As soon as possible, Baal escapes from the orphanage into the world, taking similarly orphaned disciples with him, and when we next encounter him, a number of years have passed; he's all grown up, camped out in Kuwait, and spawning a truly frightening cult. Coming out as it did during the Carter administration, the Middle East sections must have been effective at the time, and they are still rather effective over thirty years later.

Eventually, an elderly theology professor -- ostensibly the novel's protagonist -- finds out something of the nature of this "man," and becomes allied with a mysterious man who is hunting Baal. The rest of the novel plays out as the forces lined against Baal try to end the threat he poses. If I told you this all ends up, in quasi-Frankensteinian fashion, near the North Pole, would you believe me? Well, it does, so you should.

All in all, this is a novel that I probably ought to be harsher toward. And yet, I like it. The scenes in Kuwait are oppressive and effective, as are the scenes in Greenland and further north; these things ought not to mix at all, and kinda don't, and yet their individual powers are significant enough that I give this novel kudos where kudos are perhaps not entirely deserved. Obviously, McCammon himself has no great love for the novel. I think it still works, though; I'd forgotten almost everything about it in the two decades since I first read it, but as I reread the book, I'd get to certain sections and remember them in advance. "Oh," I'd think, "this the part where _____," or "here's when _____ bites the dust."

It's an amateurish novel in some respects, but a powerful one, and one that was obviously written with great passion, and glimmers of genuine talent.

If you've never read McCammon's work, this is perhaps not the best place to start, but it's well worth circling back to once you've digested some of his more mature works.

Audio of McCammon's SWAN SONG

For many of us, one of the mysteries of the universe has long been: Why is the unabridged Stand not on audio?  Seconded only by: Why isn't Swan Song on audio book?  Thanks to audible, Swan Song on audio is now a reality, read by Tom Stechschulte.  Swan Song is also available as a Kindle download.

People are already making the connection to The Stand in the comments section of audible.    One poster writes, "If you loved The Stand, you HAVE to get this book. If you don’t mind the hairs standing up on the back of your neck, get this book. If you’re looking for an epic good read that you can’t put down, get this book. It will scare you and keep your nerves tied up from start to finish. It's one of those books that you don't want to end."

I think McCammon doesn't like the comparison -- but I think it is a natural one. The two books are not at all "the same", but they have similar themes and tone.

Get it here at AUDIBLE.

New Robert McCammon video interview

McCammon Releases ebooks

Open Road Media has released nine of Robert McCammon's books as ebooks.  Exciting news!  Now, about that Swan Song audio. . .

Here's the press release:

Open Road Media is pleased to announce the publication of nine terrifying tales by New York Times bestselling master of horror Robert R. McCammon, including Swan Song, his first novel to win the coveted Bram Stoker Award. From the late 1970s to the early 1990s, McCammon, an Alabama native, contributed significantly to the reemergence of the horror genre by crafting intense, character-driven narratives that blended elements of magical realism, science fiction, fantasy, and Southern gothic literature. McCammon’s wonderfully ambitious Swan Song tells the story of a post-apocalyptic world in which a girl with psychic abilities struggles to evade a mysterious force intent on destroying all remaining traces of beauty and hope. The novel is regarded as a horror classic in the same league as Stephen King’s The Stand. Recently Amazon.com called it “a monster of a horror book, brimming over with stories and violence and terrific imagery—God and the Devil, the whole works.”

You can get Swan Song on Kindle here at Amazon.


THE FIVE on King's Summer Reading List:

From robertmccammon.com

King briefly included Mccammon's new book "The Five" in his June 3, 2011 summer reading list.  King wrote in Entertainment Weekly, “The Five isn’t just Robert McCammon’s best novel in years; it’s his best novel ever. Terrifying, suspenseful, unputdownable, and full of rock and roll energy. It’s also uplifting, a book you’ll finish feeling better about your world, your friends, and your music. Here’s one you’ll beg friends to read.”

Five McCammon Novels Worth Adapting
And while we're on the subject of Robert Mccammon, I really enjoyed the article at Shock Till You Drop titled "Five Robert McCammon Novels Hollywood Should Be Adapting." 

After listing the five novels he thinks should be headed to the screen, Ryan Turek shares, "These are just my own personal selections I'd like to see brought to the screen. Frank Darabont has been trying to get an adaptation of "Mine" off the ground for years. "Swan Song" and "Baal" might be a fan faves, but I don't know if a filmmaker can properly pull these off."

Swan Song And The Stand

This was originally posted 10/10/09. I'm reposting it with some corrections and some new quotes. In other words. . . this is the complete and uncut version of this article! I love both these novels!
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A King Like Review Of SWAN SONG:
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In The Library Policeman, Liberian Mrs. Lortz give realtor Sam Peebles a hefty dose of reality. In response to his suggestion that her signs might be a bit harsh -- over the top -- she responds by telling him what kids really read. "According to the poll. . . Their favorite novel was a paperback original called Swan Song. It's a horror novel by a man named Robert Mccammon. We can't keep it in stock, Sam. They read each new copy to rags in weeks. I had a copy put in Vinabind, but of course, it was stolen. By one of the bad children." Four Past Midnight, The Library Policeman, p. 431 (HB)
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Now, that's pretty close to a good review -- in the world of Stephen King. If a prudish librarian doesn't like the book -- it's must be good. She probably wouldn't like Dracula, either.
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Swan Song and the Original Edition of The Stand:
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Swan Song, by Robert Mccammon, is often compared to Stephen King's The Stand. Of course, when it was written the world only knew of the old version of The Stand. King had not yet shown his full hand on this masterpiece.
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Swan Song Stands On It's Own!
I should point out that Swan Song stands on its own. It is not a rip-off of The Stand. It moves in its own directions. Mccammon is no hack! There's an interesting blog entry titled, "Swan Song is Not Like The Stand." The author writes, "I was perusing McCammon’s Facebook page and one of his fans posted a question asking (I’m paraphrasing) the author why he never really discussed Swan Song. McCammon answered that it was because when the novel was originally released there were critics who lambasted the novel for being similar to King’s."
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I agree with his sentiments as further stated: "McCammon’s novel is a quality read and is good enough to stand up on its own; it is unfortunate that McCammon should feel shameful for writing such a great book and always have to go on the defensive every time Swan Song is brought up in conversation. The criticism should instead be directed towards the critics who were so unimaginative that they could not differentiate between the scenarios of McCammon’s to those of Stephen King."
http://readingwriting.wordpress.com/2010/01/09/swan-song-is-not-like-the-stand/
Comparing The Two
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By comparing the two novels, I am not saying they are the same! I am not suggesting either author took ideas or themes from the other. I am simply pointing out some common things between the novels. Like comparing Salem's Lot to Dracula.
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It is interesting for me to note how personally intertwined these books are for me. In fact, when I first posted this article, I noted that both The Stand and Swan Song have sympathetic black female characters. Some of you rightly pointed out the error of my way! Sister Creep isn't black! That startled me. How had I made that mistake? Well, the answer was simple: I had recently read The Stand, and Mother Abigail was on my mind. Sister -- Mother . . . somehow she was a street-smart mother Abigail in my imagination.
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Both novels are long, sweeping novels of good and evil. The primary difference I noted was the way in which each author got rid of the bulk of society. Mccammon used nukes. King used the "super-flu." Years ahead of Swine Flu or SARS, he imagined a world wide plague that would devastate the countryside.
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By the way, note the importance of women in both novels. In Swan Song it's Sister Creep, and, of course, in The Stand it's Mother Abigail. God is also a main character in both novels!
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Of interest: King does not use nukes to end the world, but they do play a critical part in the plot. It is Trashcan man who brings the nukes to Vegas, and God himself who pushes the button.
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King never moves into high places. He doesn't concern us too much with the government (except when Stu is taken captive). The story is told simply from the views of the main characters. But Mccammon takes is right into the oval office and Air Force One. I like the president in Swan Song.
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Brian Schwartz at You're entitled to my opinion writes, "It’s not hard to see the influence of Stephen King. There are too many parallels between The Stand and Swan Song. That does not diminish the power of this story, its characters, or the barren wasteland that is America after it is nuked. While the stories are similar, the characters are remarkably different. Besides, a tale can be retold in a number of ways and be enjoyable." http://brian1984books.blogspot.com/2006/05/swan-song-by-robert-mccammon.html
I do wonder if Mccammon was inspired by The Stand. So which one's better? Why bother -- both are worth multiple readings.
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Craigs Book Club rightly notes, "Epic in scope, Swan Song approaches 1000 pages. This may turn some off, but the pages are full and not a word is wasted. Fans of The Stand may scoff at the similar plot, but I can say that, even as a fan of The Stand myself, I was able to lose myself in this horrible world and forget all about Stephen King's."
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Available Editions:
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Strangely, I went to look for a hardcover copy of Swan Song, since the paperback was experiencing a pretty ugly death. But Pocketbooks offers no hardcover that I can find. Turns out there is a hardcover edition from Dark Harvest. Back in the day, it was $21.95. Now, it's looking more like $147 to $943 -- IF you can find it.
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In fact, a book this good begs a questions:
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1. Where's the audio edition?
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2. Where's the movie? (mini-series) The Stand mini-series will soon become dated. Maybe it's time to give Mccammon's novel a shot (instead of remaking The Stand).
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Differences:
Again, Brian at yourentitledtomyopinion, pointed out some itneresting differences between the two novles in the area of landscape. He has done some great work reviewing these two books.
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he writes: What sends The Stand above and beyond the others is the deconstruction of society that unfolds in the first third of the book. In Matheson’s tale, some of that deconstruction is told in flashback. In Swan Song, society is wiped out in an instant by a nuclear blast. King’s book starts with men lazing about a small town Texas gas station. As the flu spreads, we read as Americans first become suspicious that what is happening is more than your average flu epidemic. That suspicion turns into fear as the Army begins quarantining cities and killing those who resist. Finally, with their ranks decimated by the flu, the military gives way to the mobs who also eventually succumb to the virus."
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and:
"Another striking difference in The Stand versus other post-apocalyptic fiction is the quiet beauty of the post-apocalyptic world. McCammon’s world is scorched. Matheson’s is haunted. Cormac McCarthy paints an even bleaker picture in his book, The Road where the world is dead and covered in gray ash."
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http://brian1984books.blogspot.com/2006/05/swan-song-by-robert-mccammon.html
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See also: Swan Song Is Not Like The Stand: http://readingwriting.wordpress.com/2010/01/09/swan-song-is-not-like-the-stand/
Please feel free to add in the comments section any similarities you see between the two books.

Washington Post Review: The Passage

Here is a pretty good review of The Passage. Has anyone read this yet? Ron Charles at the Washington Post sure liked it! For King fans, this one paragraph is almost irresistible:
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Imagine Michael Crichton crossbreeding Stephen King's "The Stand" and "Salem's Lot" in that lab at Jurassic Park, with rich infusions of Robert McCammon's "Swan Song," "Battlestar Galactica" and even Cormac McCarthy's "The Road."
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Of course, the problem is that I can't imagine that at all! The Stand and Salem's lot? With swan Song? I guess you have to see it -- or read it -- for yourself.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/08/AR2010060804591.html