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! 

The Stephen King Companion: Four Decades of Fear from the Master of Horror

First the confession:

I dropped out of the Bazaar of Bad Dreams.  Stopped with Bad Little Kid.  This is not a complaint about Stephen King.  This is my difficulty with reading books of short stories.  Not short stories.  Books of short stories.  On audio.  Each time I start to feel slightly committed -- if those feelings ever come -- the end jumps out at you and it's all over.

Batman and Robin have an Altercation was awesome.  But there were others there that I just didn't get.  A man and woman have an argument.  The woman dies.  That's all.  On to the next story.  . . . HUH?  What was this story about?  Reading books of short stories makes me feel like a golf ball hit full swing in a tile bathroom.

I feel bad.  Like I did when I gave up on Insomnia.  Am I still a constant reader if I drop out on the latest book?  Of course.  I just don't do as well with those short stories.

By the way, a word of parting on Bazaar -- I really like the introductions King does to each story.

The Stephen King Companion:

Setting Bazaar aside, I've started reading the new George Beahm book, The Stephen King Companion.  I think this would be companion book number 3 for Beahm, but I'm losing track.  He is also author of America's Best Loved Boogeyman and several other King books.

The book does two things in the early biographical portions --
First, Beahm does an excellent job introducing new biographical material that was previously absent from other works.  Drawing on PBS' investigation into King's past, we learn about King's father, Donald King, and where he went after he left the family.

Second, most of what Beahm introduces thus far is not really new.  Meaning: He doesn't seem to have gone and done new interviews -- he is pulling already published materials together into a single source.  That's okay, because I like it.  But I am starting to cringe at the sheer number of times The Stephen King Encyclopedia is mentioned.  I read that book, and loved it!  And I'm enjoying Beahms book.  But (BUT!) this is starting to feel like an updated version of the Encyclopedia with a new format.

WAIT -- I was wrong.
It would be easier to just erase the above.  The danger in blogging as I read is that I complain and then get proven wrong.  There's plenty of new stuff here.  Just read a great (GREAT) interview in the book that is with one of King's childhood friends.

Whining aside, the book really is very good.  Beahm is my favorite King biographer, and his insights are always sharp.  Besides, he holds a special place in my heart because he once confessed (I think in the first Stephen King Companion) that he just couldn't get into the Talisman.  I felt such sweet comfort when he said that.

Strange, isn't it, that I would go from reading Stephen King to reading about Stephen King.  I'm sure I'll return to the Bazaar, but for now, George Beahm has me pretty engrossed.

By the way, the introduction by Stephen Spignesi was worth the price of admission.

Charlie Fried's (SUPER COLLECTOR) Scrapbook, 1

(updated)

A while back I bought a grab bag from Betts Bookstore. It was a box of strange, wonderful things. My favorite thing -- perhaps the thing that has given me the most pleasure -- is a simple scrap book. 

It belonged, I am sure, to Charlie Fried. Fried was a "super-collector," meaning he owned LOTS of unique Stephen King items.  He was the subject of an interview in Stephen J. Spignesi's THE ESSENTIAL STEPHEN KING.  Spignesi titled this portion, "10 Questions With Stephen King Super Collector Charlie Fried."

Spignesi described Fried as the definition of the term "low profile."  He also noted that he had one of the five most important Stephen King collections in the world.  "I think the term supercollector was coined for him," Spignesi wrote.  Fried called King the "ultimate storyteller."

After his death, Fried's collection was broken up and sold through Betts Bookstore. Including, I guess, his scrapbook.  I'm in no way a "supercollector."  But I'm a fan of the supercollector!  Is it strange, one of my favorite Stephen King items is just Charlies ragtag notebook.  I find it endearing, fun and kind of sweet.

Fried's scrapbook is a little bit of absolutely everything! I like it because it's personal, it's not a book, it's pictures he took and essays he wrote. . I'm inviting you to come with me as I dig through Charlie's scrapbook. This will be fun! It will also be a lot of pictures, so the page might load slow for a while. . The scrap book is kept in a simple notebook with permanent binding. (hard to describe) The items are kept in simple page protectors. Good stuff!

A newsletter from Betts bookstore.

Charlie's review of The Mangler. I'll type and put it up as a post soon, because it's quite good.

Charlie's notes: "My visit to Bangor Maine -- or the pleasure of hearing Stephen King read to about 3,100 plus people." This is actually the first page of the notebook.

Ad for "An evening with Stephen King." Attached are Charlie's tickets at the bottom of the page. "All seats $5." Friday, Sept. 15, 7:30 pm, Bangor Auditorium. "Spend a memorable evening with one of America's favorite storytellers reading from a selection of personally chosen material." Hosted by Tabitha King, proceeds will benefit The Bangor Public Library Capital Campaign.

A map of Bangor. Charlie pasted a paper to it and identified places in Stephen King books.

What It Means To Be A Stephen King Fan

1. It means first editions really do matter to the way the universe runs.  REALLY.

2. It means family members should understand that first editions are not for reading.

3. It means, most years at least, you should not plan to see me in November.

4. It means I'm scared of clowns.

5. It means I get excited when I pass a 1958 red and white  Plymouth Fury.

6. It means books with Stephen Kings signature inside are really important to the rotation of the planet.

7.  It means I have a love/hate relationship with specialty publishers.

8. It means I have seen a lot of really good movies.  But most of them are about prison.

9. It means I have seen quite a few really bad movies.  In fact, it means I've seen more bad movies than good. 

10. It means I own multiple copies of the same book.

11. It means I imagine terrible things that could come from ordinary objects. 

12. It means people assume some things about me that are not totally true because I read Stephen King, and they assume some things about him that are not totally true.

13. It means I can totally disagree with someone politically and still read their books and admire their art.

14. It means I wonder why bookstores bother to sell other authors.

15. It means I cringe a little when you hear the name Mick Garris.

16. It  means I own some strange collectables -- like a blue matchbox Christine -- that you wouldn't otherwise.

17. It means I often quickly shut the CD off when my kids get in the car because -- well, there's THOSE words I don't want them picking up.

18. It means feeling both overjoyed and a little burdened when you hear a new novel is over a thousand pages.  "YES!  I get to read all that!"  and, "Oh man, I've got to read all of that."

19. It means I've read both versions of the Stand multiple times. And if you're a Stephen King fan, you do know what "both versions" means.

20. It means I'm happy when I find books  by Bev Vincent, Stephen Spignesi, George Beahm.

21. It means I own a cellphone, but I'm suspicious it already turned me into a zombie.

22. It means I have pretty strong opinions about which novels are the best -- and I'm right, you're wrong.  That's how it is.

23. It means I wish I owned The Stand leather bound edition, but I'm not sure why, because no one would be allowed to touch it.

24. It means I can spot a Stephen King reference in movies and television pretty quickly.

25. It means that I have at least tried to read Insomnia.

26. It means I'd like to read Dean Koontz, but am afraid I'll get really interested and then not have time to read Stephen King.  This is a problem.  And then there's Mccammon, and Grisham and Follett.

what does it really mean?  It means I've read a lot of good books.

You're turn.

Ranking King's Television Adaptations

We love to rank Stephen King's works, don't we?  Which is the "best" novel?  (The Stand)  Which is the worst?  What's the top ten best short stories?  And so on.  Stephen Spignesi wrote an entire book ranking the work of Stephen King.  In the end, it's all pretty subjective.

vulture.com posted an article, "All of Stephen King’s TV Work, Ranked." Gilbert Cruz explained,

Dome also presented Vulture with the perfect opportunity to follow up on last spring’s ranking of all 62 Stephen King books; to come up with this definitive second countdown, we spent countless hours watching and rewatching the many episodes, shows, movies, and miniseries produced from his novels and stories, as well as a few things he wrote directly for the small screen.

Again, my favorite comments comes from the stinkers! Get this from Trucks, " Starring Timothy Busfield and a musical score that at several points sounds like the work of an intermediate piano student who’d just bought his first keytar, this two-hour movie about trucks that come to life and attack humans should make us all apologize to Maximum Overdrive for having ever called it such terrible names (at least that cheesefest had the good humor to give one of its trucks a memorable Green Goblin face). The King-like lesson to be learned here? There is always something worse."

Receiving a respectably high rating on the list was the 2002 television version of Carrie, which made it to #10.  Cruz notes, "Patricia Clarkson does a more frigid, less campy take on Carrie’s mother, and Angela Bettis comes closer to the homely-looking, beaten-down Carrie White of King’s original conception. Not as stylized as De Palma’s and not as expensive as this fall’s version is likely to be, Carrie nonetheless gets right to the core of the story."

Here is the top 10 from the list:
10. Carrie
9. The Twilight Zone: “Gramma”
8. Salem’s Lot — 1979
7. Nightmares and Dreamscapes
6. Kingdom Hospital
5. The Dead Zone
4. Salem’s Lot
3. Storm of the Century
2. The Stand
1. It

What would make your  top 5  for Stephen King TV ?

Mine:
5. The Tommyknockers
4. 2002 Carrie
3. 1979 Salem's Lot
2. IT
1. The Stand

-- ? -- Under The Dome.

Mangler's Inspiration -- MANGLED

photo credit bangordailynews.com

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

Stephen King website charnelhouse notes,

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

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

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

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

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

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

Interview with ANDREW RAUSCH

I am really excited to have the opportunity to interview the very prolific an energetic Andy Rausch.  Husband, Father, writer and producer. . . this guy is one busy fella.  

Andrew J. Raush is the author of The Suicide Game, Riding Shotgun and was the screenwriter for the movie Dahmer vs Gacy.  He is also author of Turning Points In Film History, Making Movies With Orson Wells, The Films Of Martin Scorsese And Robert De Niro.

He is also author of The Stephen King Movie Quiz Book, and editor of The Wit And Wisdom Of Stephen King.

INTERVIEW

Talk Stephen King: Hey, thanks for agreeing to this interview. Tell me a bit about yourself.

Andy Rausch: I'm 39, married and have five children. I love writing, and I write every day, from screenplays to novels to non-fiction books to film criticism. I read a lot, and I watch a lot of movies. I don't know, I'm pretty boring. Not really much to say here.

TSK: You've done everything from producing to casting to acting. What is your favorite part of the filmmaking process?

Andy Rausch: Nothing beats the first time you see the final film. It's a rush, even when the film is bad.

TSK: What is the most challenging aspect of filmmaking?

Andy Rausch: Dealing with fifty different people, all of whom have their own ideas of how the scenes should be shot and how the dialogue should be spoken. There are many egos at war on a movie set. Lack of sleep is pretty challenging, too.

TSK: Do you have an all-time favorite movie?

Andy Rausch: My ten favorite films in no particular order are: Pulp Fiction, GoodFellas, The Godfather Part II, Sunset Boulevard, Yojimbo, Rolling Thunder, Citizen Kane, Casablanca, The Thin Red Line, and Solaris. I enjoy chop-socky movies, chick flicks, spaghetti westerns, samurai pictures, horror, you name it.

TSK: You've written two books about Stephen King. Is he your favorite writer? What other writers do you read consistently?

Andy Rausch: Stephen King is in a three-way tie for my author along with Elmore Leonard and Kurt Vonnegut. I also read a lot of Max Allan Collins and Richard Stark.

TSK: Do you have a favorite work by Stephen King?

Andy Rausch: I love Pet Sematary. It was the first book that really scared the shit out of me. I was only eleven or twelve at the time, but it scared the bejeezus out of me. I've read it several times since, and have loved it just as much every single time. I'm also a big fan of The Shining. And Blaze. And Cujo... The list goes on and on.

TSK: What is your favorite Stephen King movie?

Andy Rausch: The Shawshank Redemption, hands down. I'm also a big fan of Kubrick's The Shining. I know that's blasphemy to King fans, but I really love that film. Stand By Me is pretty damned good, too. But if I'm being truthful, I have a soft spot in my heart for just about all of the King adaptations—even the crappy ones. Not the sequels, though. Most of those are garbage.

TSK: So long as we're dealing with Stephen King movies, I might as well ask: What King movie do you absolutely hate?

Andy Rausch: Hmm, tough one. How about the original Children of the Corn? And maybe all of its sequels. They're all pretty terrible.

TSK: The new Carrie trailer just came out. Did you see it? What do you think of this project?

Andy Rausch: I think it will be a good movie, but I think it's completely unneeded. The original is a very good film and the TV remake wasn't bad, either. Do we really need another Carrie film?

TSK: I see you've done some acting. If you could play any character from a Stephen King book on the big screen, who would you portray?

Andy Rausch: I'm no great actor, although I was relatively proud of my performance as a drug dealer in Evil Ever After, which virtually no one has seen... Usually I'm the guy in the horror film who gets one scene and then promptly gets killed. I got my heart ripped out and eaten in Zombiegeddon; I died a pretty gruesome death in Evil Ever After; I think I got killed by a scythe in The Ancient... So sure, if I had my choice I'd play someone like Jack Torrance in The Shining, but if I'm being realistic I would probably be that guy who shows up and dies immediately; the character whose name we don't even know!

TSK: Are there any King books that you think would adapt well to the big screen but just haven't made it yet?

Andy Rausch: Again, I'm really fond of Blaze. I know that one tends to get lost in the shuffle, but I think it's really great.

TSK: You seem to focus your writing energy on quiz books or compilations. This seems like it would be quite a different process from writing a novel. How long does it usually take you to put these projects together?

Andy Rausch: I've written almost 20 books. I'm currently working on my 18^th and 19^th books. Five of those are quiz books. I really hate to be pigeonholed as a quiz book writer, even though it's my fault for having written so many of them. Quiz books are kind of the ghetto genre of literature, maybe two steps below Harlequin romance novel. As for the compilations, those were interview collections, and I wrote those because I really enjoy meeting people whom I admire. For my book Fifty Filmmakers I got to meet all kinds of directors, from Budd Boetticher to Frank Darabont, and that was an amazing experience. I interviewed 79 directors for that and then whittled that down to the 50 that appear in the book.

I've also written some more serious books that I'm really proud of. I wrote a book called Turning Points in Film History that was used as a textbook in college film classes. Usually you have to be a professor to write something like that, so I really lucked out with that one. Another book I'm extremely proud of is The Films of Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro. Both of those were difficult books to write and they required tons of research.

Every book is different. I once wrote an entire book in six weeks. But then the Fifty Filmmakers book took eight years to complete. I worked on my first novel for seven or eight years. It really just varies. It could be six months or it could be six years, depending on the book.

TSK: What made you decide to write quiz-style trivia books?

Andy Rausch: Well, my buddy and mentor Stephen J. Spignesi had published a couple of extremely successful Stephen King quiz books. I was still trying to break into publishing at the time and I thought, I could write something like that. I was still trying to find my footing and was unsure at that time about my abilities as a writer. But I thought, I know I can do this. So I wrote The 100 Greatest American Films: A Quiz Book, and it sold to the first publisher who looked at it. I really didn't want to write anymore quiz books, but the publisher offered me a contract for two more quiz books, Hollywood's All-Time Greatest Stars and The Greatest War Films of All Time. I was still new to all of this, and I thought, well, I may never get the opportunity to publish another book. A bird in the hand, you know? So I wrote those books. Then years later I got suckered into writing a fourth quiz book, Obsessed with Hollywood, and that book made me a ton of money. You would not believe how much money I made from that book, and it was funny, too, because I initially considered turning the project down. So that's how all of that happened.

           

The Stephen King Movie Quiz Book was mostly written way back around 2001, but I had never published it. It would have been my second book, but my publisher hadn't been interested in the idea. So I tucked it away. Then, years later, I came across the manuscript and thought, Why hadn't I pursued publishing this one? So I convinced a writer pal of mine, Ron Riley, to watch the last ten or so films and write quizzes for them. He did it, we found a publisher for the project, and the rest, as they say, is history.

TSK: Which of the books you've written is your favorite?

Andy Rausch: My novel, The Suicide Game, which was published last year by Taylor Street Publishing, is my favorite. It took me nearly a decade to write it, and it is a much more personal experience than writing non-fiction. My favorite non-fiction book is Making Movies with Orson Welles, which I wrote with Welles' cinematographer, Gary Graver. That was a great experience and I had the good fortune of becoming close friends with Gary and his wife, Jillian, before they passed away.

TSK: Which of the films you've worked on is your favorite?

Andy Rausch: Dahmer vs. Gacy, which I wrote. That one just turned up in Maxim magazine this past month. That was pretty cool. Working with producer Chris Watson and director Ford Austin was a great experience.

TSK: Since you participated in the Welles book, I'll ask you this... I've always been fascinated by the 1938 War of the Worlds fiasco. Do you think anything like that could ever happen again?

Andy Rausch: No. Today we have so much information—maybe too much information—at our disposal at any given moment. I think you could maybe fool a few people here and there, but convincing that number of people that aliens are attacking seems unlikely.

TSK: What projects do you have coming up?

Andy Rausch: I'm currently working on books about both Ed Wood and Tony Scott, who passed away a couple of months back. I'm also preparing to write a screenplay based on my book Making Movies with Orson Welles. It will be about Gary and Orson's friendship and the making of The Other Side of the Wind.

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Books By Andrew J. Rausch:

• The 100 Greatest American Films: A Quiz Book
• Hollywood's All-Time Greatest Stars: A Quiz Book
• The Greatest War Films of All Time: A Quiz Book
• Turning Points in Film History
• Fifty Filmmakers: Conversations with Directors from Roger Avary to Steven Zaillian
• Obsessed with Hollywood
• Making Movies with Orson Welles (w/ Gary Graver)
• Reflections on Blaxploitation
• The Films of Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro
• I Am Hip-Hop: Conversations on the Music and Culture
• The Suicide Game (novel)
• The Wit and Wisdom of Stephen King
• The Stephen King Movie Quiz Book
• Dirty Talk: Conversations with Porn Stars
• Riding Shotgun (novella)
• The Godfather of Gore Speaks (w/ HG Lewis)
• Gods of Grindhouse

Movies (incomplete list, but the better ones)

• Zombiegeddon, executive producer, actor
• Minds of Terror, executive producer
• Slaughter Party, executive producer
• Evil Ever After, executive producer, actor
• Dahmer vs. Gacy, screenwriter
• Dead in Love, executive producer

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

The REVISED Stephen King Companion

In 1995, George Beahm offered a massive revision of his 1998 Stephen King Companion.  The changes are so significant, I think it counts as an all together different book.  The cover boasts "80% new material."  I think that's conservative!  Some formatting is the same, but the content is vastly different from the original work.

As with the original, I like this offering very much.  It does not hold for me the charm of the original, since I only recently purchased it, so much of it was already outdated.  What took me so long?  Well, first I didn't know it existed.  then I doubted it could really be all that "new." 

Internet -- Companion Book -- what's the difference?

My friend, Bryant Burnette, put his finger on the real joy of these books about Stephen King in his recent response to a post.  Burnette wrote, "In the internet age, it is easy to forget -- or to never know in the first place -- just how difficult it could be for fans to learn about their favorite artists. It doesn't make either of us sound old to point that out; it just makes us sound like we accurately remember what the world used to be like before the Internet made information-gathering so much easier. (For the record: it's better WITH the Internet; there was a lot of charm to be had in finding books like Beahm's, but I'll take the way we do it today every time!)"

Even in the age of super-high-speed Internet, I still love the companion books.  All of them!  How are they different from websites?  Well, websites release the most current news, one blurb at a time.  There is something special about sitting and reading article after article by various authors about Stephen King's work.

Okay, What's Inside?

The format is the same as the original.  However, besides that, it is largely a brand new book (brand new in its time, that is).  One of my favorite parts is the short book by book summery and analysis by Michael R. Collings.  Unlike the previous companion, which presented this information in alphabetical order, this book is chronological. 

The book has so many sections written by different authors, it appears Mr. beahm served primarily as an extended editor.  I like this, as it allows different people to speak in the area of their expertise. 

There is an interview with Clive Barker that was previously not included in the original book.  Beahm explains that he had conducted the interview in hopes of getting it int he original Companion book, but it came together too late.  Beahm explains:

Naturally, interviewing Barker was a priority for the original version of the Stephen King companion, but his schedule was such that when we finally conducted the interview -- by phone, long distance from Virginia to London -- the Stephen King Companion's contents had been finalized, and the following interview could not be squeezed in, making an already big book even bigger.  

 What was cleaned out of this edition appears to be primarily contact information that would quickly become outdated (addresses, phone numbers and so on).  It actually makes the book feel more professional!

There is also a nice interview with Start Tinker of Betts Bookstore.  Beahm and Tinker would later work together to produce a book titled "Stephen King Collectibles."

As with the original Stephen King companion, I have no complaints!  I thoroughly love this offering, and only wish Beahm had continued to give us Stephen King companion books.  One about ever five years would be nice!

Building A Unique S.K. Collection, Part 1

The advice for anyone getting into Stephen King collecting is to start with first editions. That is a great place to start. I'm still hunting my first edition Carrie, Salem's Lot and Gunslinger!

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As you get a little deeper into collecting, you'll discover it is not hard to develop a collection that is absolutely unique. Why? Because there is so much Stephen King stuff out there! No two collections, even the super duper collections, are not the same. No one has everything Stephen King! In fact, I found myself wondering if Stephen King really has a complete Stephen King collection.

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If you look, you can find stuff that's special.
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Some suggestions:
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Here's some things I think are great for collecting and make your collection a little more unique.
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1. Some first editions really are worth their weight in gold. Carrie is one of those, and it doesn't seem to be THAT hard to find. I see a lot of ex-library copies out there. However, I am not a fan of the ex-library stuff. There is a Salem's Lot first edition with a famous mistake on the dust jacket regarding Father C. That's worth a blog post of its own, though. The price of first editions starts dropping with The Shining.
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2. Obviously, anything signed is desirable! His signature seems to increase the value of a book at least 100%. Under The Dome went for $75 special edition -- but a hefty $200 for the signed edition.
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3. Books signed by others. Anything signed by the author is a little more special. No, I don't know why! I like it, but I have yet to figure out why I think it's so cool. I have a signed Michael Collins book. Also a special edition of Talisman, signed by Peter Straub. The artist editions of the Dark Tower books are also pretty cool, and come signed by the author. I have a Dark Tower 7 signed by Whelan.
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4. I like to collect old magazines with King's stories in them. Of course, some the really early stuff I don't collect because. . . uh. . . they're in nudie mags! However, there is still a lot out there. King has written so many short stories and articles that have been published all over the place!
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I like to hunt down the original Dark Tower stories in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. I was also excited to find a copy of X-Men Hero's Of Hope which included a contribution by King.
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5. Any special edition books are great. They're not all that hard to find, but they are far more valuable than mass produced first editions. So, the Talisman/Black House double edition in slip case is obviously a good find (and not that expensive). Some stuff is just impossible. Try finding a Cemetery Dance edition of From a Buick 8! I can't. Or how about the zipper edition of Skeleton Crew? What I'm saying is that when you have a chance to get a special book, snatch it up if the price is right.
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Lately Cemetery Dance has offered King books in special edition. Blockade Billy came with its own baseball card, which is neat. And they also have a great edition of Full Dark No Stars, which came with a slip case. So far, everything from Cemetery Dance has been very nice. I still wish Cemetery Dance would put out a special two volume edition of The Stand / Swan Song. Hehe.
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You can also hunt those red leather books. I have about five of them. Honestly, once I had a few, I decided not to continue hunting them. Other than the binding, there's nothing really all that awesome about them. I did spot an entire set -- the whole thing! -- on ebay. I meant to go back and bid, but I forgot. When I showed up 5 minutes too late, the huge lot had gone for $30. OUCH! I wept.
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6. Promotional stuff. Things like the Dark Tower Wizard And Glass booklet that was released with the Desperation/Regulators. Posters and all kinds of things the publisher sends book stores to hype a book.
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7. Introductions. I don't collect introductions by King, because there are so many out there! I don't have enough book shelves to do that. His introductions are always a lot of fun! I love his chatty style of talking right to the reader.
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8. Audio books. Earlier advice was that the audio books would have no value. That's still pretty true! There is little point in collecting the audio books. However, that's not universally true. The Stand and The Mist are both worth the hunt. Ebay often has The Stand on tape going for around $100-200.
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9. Odds and ends. You know, Magnets, book bags, book covers, documents, letters (letters by King can be very expensive). I have a bunch of court documents from King's lawsuit in the Lawnmower Man case. I got it in a huge grab bag of stuff from Betts bookstore. That thing was loaded with strange stuff! You can find a toy metal Christine, or a Christmas tree ordainment of King's House (that's a little strange, if you ask me!)
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10. Old publications about King. By that, I mean all those publications that were out before the Internet became our primary means of information. Stephen King had a pretty neat newspaper, called Castle Rock.
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Fan publications are always cool to find, though they may not have much actual "value" in terms of dollars. I enjoy them! There was a publication called The Red Letter. I don't know much about Red Letter, except that it was small and pretty interesting.
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There was also a publication called SKIN. It stands for Stephen King Information Network. It was in publicationf rom 1994 to 1995 and produced eighteen newsletters. Read more here: http://talkstephenking.blogspot.com/2009/09/history-of-skin.html
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11. Books about Stephen King. These are just all out fun. He may not like how many books have been written about him, but some of them are awesome! Try Bev Vincent's "Stephen King Companion" which has tons of reporductions fo original manuscripts. Also, Lilja's Library is a great print version of the website, including his reviews and interviews.
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I like just about anything by Stephen Spignesi, Michael Collins, Douglas Winter, and George Beahm. Beahm's biography "Stephen King, America's Best Loved Bogeyman" was very good. In fact, I wish he'd update it.
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Are Stephen King books a good investment?
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I think you should not buy Stephen King books as an investment. Of course, I don't buy gold, either!
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Here's the deal: Collect what makes you happy! If you're collecting only to resell, I don't know that the market is big enough for that. I suspect the super collectors end up selling their collections for a loss (but I don't know that!).
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Because I don't collect to resell, I open everything! That means, when something comes to me shrink wrapped, I open it up! Hey, I bought it to enjoy, not to sit wrapped up like it belongs in a store. I never feel bad cutting that shrink wrap off! Well, with the exception of Desperation/Regulators with the book light attached to it. So maybe the best way to say it is that collecting for profit is not a good route for me.
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So tell me, what do you like to collect? What pieces where you most excited to find?

Not So Familiar, Part 2

On the heels of my strange list of books I'm not as familiar with, I would like to offer another unusual list. These are works I'm not familiar with because I haven't had opportunity! But, simply, these are works I'd like to read.
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1. The Plant. Who cares if it's like Little Shop of Horrors, I'd like to see Kings version.
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2. All of the original version of the Cannibals. It was so unlike Under The Dome, I was interested in where it was going.
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3. The Aftermath. This was the first full length novel King wrote. It is the story of an atomic war that has destroyed a large part of the world's population. Unfortunately, I can't read it because the manuscript is deposited in the Special Collections archive of the Raymond Fogler Library at the University of Maine at Orono, and access requires written permission from King. George Beahm, who has seen the novel, has said that it is very much like a Bachman book.
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4. I Was A Teenage Grave Robber. This is King's first published short story. Don't know where you'd find a copy -- and if I did find a copy, the sad things is that I wouldn't read it. No, that's the kind of stuff that gets saved. I griped at my wife when she read by first edition hardback of The Dark Tower. "I had to know how it was going to come out," she protested. Still, the cover got a wrinkle. Concerning "I was a Teenage Grave Robber" -- I don't know that it's ever been reprinted anywhere. Reminds me, hate to say, of a certain film originally titled "Grave Robbers from outer space" or renamed, "Plan 9 from Outer Space."
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5. Sword of Darkness. I first became familiar with this work from The art of Darkness, by Douglas Winter. However, the best description of the work appears in The Lost Work of Stephen King, by Stephen J. Spignesi. He describes this as the longest of Kings unpublished novels. And again, he rates it as "impossible" to get a copy. It is a 150,000 word, 485 page novel about a race riot in a big city called Harding. Spignesi says that it is really about a boy named Arni Kalowski (and yes, Spignesi says right off the bat that this guy is a prototype for Arnie Cunningham in Christine.) Anyway, I would love to read this.
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I'll stop here. So this is really a top 5 list. I do highly recommend Spignesi's book. Interesting even to read about books he rates as "impossible" to find, now published. (Blaze comes immediately to mind). So, with Stephen King, there is always hope that someday this stuff will be published.