Let's Talk SHOP

With a new TNT series set to come to television titled, The Shop, it seems appropriate to revisit what the Shop is.

Formal Name: The Department of Scientific Intelligence 

Location: Longmont, Virginia

The Shop is a mysterious government institution that is featured in Stephen King's novel, Firestarter. The Shop is headed up by Captain James Hollister, better known as Cap. It is a heavily guarded scientific institution backed up by a few not-so-nice hit men. Of course, the first handful of hit men turn out to be completely incompetent! (Namely, my already mentioned, a killer named O.J. go figure!)

The Stephen King Universe has an entire section that looks at stories that incorporate The Shop. The book notes,

"Two observations can be made. First, though operating in the prime reality, the Shop seems to share certain facets with the low men in yellow coats from Rolands reality (Hearts in Atlantis). Second, if there are thinnies between the prime reality and any of the others, the shop is almost certainly aware of them." (SK Universe 248)

King says this about Shop headquarters in Fire Starter:

Two handsome Southern plantation homes faced each other across a long and rolling grass lawn that was crisscrossed by a few gracefully looping bike paths and a two lane crushed-gravel drive that came over the hill from the main road. Off to one side of one of these houses was the hill from the main road. off to one side of one of these houses was a large barn, painted bright red and trimmed spotless white. Near the other was a long stable, done in the same handsome red with white trim. Some of the best horseflesh in the South was quartered here. between the barn and the stable was a wide, shallow duckpond, calmly reflecting the sky. 

In the 1860's, the original owners of these two homes had gone off and got themselves killed in the war, and all survivors of both families were dead now. The two estates had been consolidated into one piece of government property in 1954. It was Shop headquarters. (Fire Starter, p.63)

The Shop appears in:

1. Firestarter
2. The Tommyknockers
3. Golden years
4. The langoliers

The Shop Crossovers:

• THE LANGOLIERS (Four Past Midnight)—FIRESTARTER“The Shop” is mentioned in The Langoliers. Presumably the same “Shop” as in Firestarter.

• THE TALISMAN—FIRESTARTER The Rainbird Towers, a New York condominium complex, is mentioned in "The Talisman." Rainbird is the name of The Shop operative assigned to Charlie McGee in "Firestarter." 

• THE TOMMYKNOCKERS—FIRESTARTER: After all the excitement was over in The Tommyknockers, “The Shop” came to Haven to investigate.

The Shop Lives On

EW reported that TNT is developing a new series called, "The Shop."  It is based  on Stephen King's 1980 novel, Firestarter. Twenty years after the events in the novel, Charlie is tracked down and introduced to a group of people who have special abilities.

“It turns out The Shop is very much alive, bigger and badder than ever, and its dark experiments are unleashing terrifying new entities on the world. It’s now up to Talbot, Charlie and the rest of the team to find The Shop and destroy it for good.” (Source: insidetv.ew.com)

TNT Developing THE SHOP

EW reports that TNT is developing a new series called, "The Shop."  It is based  on Stephen King's 1980 novel, Firestarter.  Sporting the tagline, "TNT Drama.  Boom," to emphasize  that the network wants to focus on thrill.

Jim Hibberd explains the story will focus on the evil agency, The Shop, that tried to capture poor Charlie McGee in the original novel.  20 years later, Charlie is tracked down and introduced to a group of people who have special abilities.  (thinking Haven?)

“It turns out The Shop is very much alive, bigger and badder than ever, and its dark experiments are unleashing terrifying new entities on the world. It’s now up to Talbot, Charlie and the rest of the team to find The Shop and destroy it for good.”

Stephen King -- Connecting The Dots

I loved Louis  Peitzman's article at BuzzFeed titled, "These Stephen King Connections Will Blow Your Mind."  They did  not blow my mind -- butstill pretty cool.

Here's a snippet, be sure to check  out the entire article at  www.buzzfeed.com

 In The Tommyknockers, mysterious organization The Shop invades Haven to control the alien presence.

11. The Shop is responsible for the Lot Six experiments, which gave Charlie McGee her powers in Firestarter.

12. And The Shop was involved in the Arrowhead Project, which resulted in the titular supernatural disaster of The Mist.

13. The organization is also mentioned in “The Langoliers.”

14. The same evil forces run throughout many Stephen King works. Take Randall Flagg, for example. He’s the major antagonist in The Stand.

15. But he also pursues Roland Deschain in The Dark Tower series. More on that in a bit.

 

16. Randall Flagg gets namechecked in ‘Salem’s Lot.

17. And he may be the demonic entity in the Stephen King short story “Children of the Corn.”

18. But Randall Flagg actually serves The Crimson King, who is another major adversary in The Dark Tower.

This Guy Is Full of Green Light: Bryant Burnette's Review of "Golden Years" Episode 2

This is the SECOND PART of an article by Bryant Burnette summarizing the Golden Years television show.  As Bryant pointed out in the first post, we should not confuse the television series with the 3 hour hashed movie.

This was originally posted at Burnette's blog, thetruthinsidethelie.blogspot.com

Episode 2 (airdate 07/18/1991)

The second episode was written by Stephen King and directed by Allen Coulter. [IMDb lists Michael Gornick as the director, but don't you believe it; it says "Allen Coulter" on the episode, and that's evidence enough for me.] [P.S. -- IMDb also lists titles for the seven episodes, but those appear to have been concocted by somebody who had no affiliation with the production. Rocky Wood has verified for me via email that the original screenplays, which he has read, have no episode titles.]

Coulter had only been directing about three years at that point, and had episodes of Monsters and Tales from the Darkside to his name; presumably, it was his association by producer Mitchell Galin -- who worked on both of those shows -- that got Coulter hired for this job. He would go on to direct two more episodes of Golden Years, and after that, things eventually heated up for him a bit: he did three episodes of Millennium, and one of The X-Files, and then got himself a job directing episodes for HBO. Eight episodes of Sex and the City, two of Rome, one of Six Feet Under, and, most importantly, a solid twelve of The Sopranos, which makes him one of the key contributors to one of the great television shows in history. Among his episodes: "College," which is generally considered to be one of the very best.

Lately, Coulter has directed six episodes of Boardwalk Empire, and for cinemas, he directed the excellent movie Hollywoodland, which starred Ben Affleck and dealt with the sad life of Superman actor George Reeves.

Here, Coulter's talents are obviously undeveloped, but nascent; it's cool that such an important director cut his teeth on King material.

The plot for this episode:

Dr. Ackerman meets with Dr. Akins, the eye doctor who performed the re-exam for Harlan; Akins tells him all about how he'd been ordered to fake a passing grade, but ended up not needing to, on account of how Williams passed with flying colors. Unbeknownst to the two doctors, the fellow at the next table over in the coffeeshop is recording their conversation; he later takes it to Jude Andrews. Andrews then pays Ackerman a visit, and tells him to spill the beans, whatever beans he's got; and make sure not to leave anything out. Ackerman does just that; Andrews promises that if he finds out Ackerman has held out on him, he'll be back to perform some radical dental work ... with a power drill. Andrews later pays Akins a visit, too, and shoots him through the forehead.

Meanwhile, Gina confronts Harlan about his advancing condition of incipient youthfulness. Harlan at first tries to bluff Gina into thinking it's not as serious as it seems, but it doesn't work, and he admits that a scar -- one he got when he was 67 -- has gone away completely. There is no denying it: physically, he is getting younger by the day. Gina tells him he has to go see a doctor, even if it's only Ackerman.

Harlan goes, and of course, Ackerman reports the details of their meeting back to Andrews. Ackerman tells Andrews that Williams is getting younger, not merely in empirical ways (such as the lightening color of his hair, and the disappearance of his scar), but in less easily-explainable ways; he likens it to the process by which, when he was younger, fewer people every year carded him when he bought alcohol ... except, in Williams' case, in reverse. Speaking of Harlan, he sees Ackerman meeting with Andrews, and -- correctly -- suspects the worst. He goes home, and tells Gina to pack a bag and be ready to go on the run when he gives the word.

Elsewhere in the episode, Andrews visits the place where Reddings' body is being kept. Reddings was one of Toddhunter's assistants; he died, obviously, but not before glowing green for a while and losing certain scars that he had had for years. Terry discovers the body -- which she planned to use against Toddhunter -- is missing, and is none too pleased. She's also none too pleased by a visit she receives from the annoying Major Moreland, who suspects -- both rightly and wrongly -- that chicanery and hanky-panky lie behind Williams' success at his eye exam do-over. Terry promises the Major that she'll inform General Crewes of his concerns.

Harlan visits a beauty parlor and asks them to dye his hair ... white. Back at home, he's feeling frisky, and he and Gina dance. He twirls her around, and seemingly causes a twinge in her back. "I can't keep up with you," she says, sadly.

And that's the episode.

It's a fairly good one. The performances continue to be solid, especially Szarabajka, Sternhagen, and Call. The scenes between Andrews and Ackerman stand out; King clearly relishes writing dialogue for Jude Andrews, who reminds me just a wee bit of Alexis Machine, the character "George Stark" wrote about in The Dark Half.

Bonus points to this second episode for airing on my birthday! I turned seventeen that day. Seems like forever ago. (And stirring up a little agita on the subject seems thoroughly appropriate given the subject matter of the show itself.) 

This Guy Is Full of Green Light: A Review of "Golden Years" EPISODE 1

This is from my friend, Bryant Burnette's blog, "The Truth Inside The Lie."  I liked it a LOT.  Bryant takes the time to build an episode review for each of the Golden Years, something I have not seen. . . well, anywhere.  And I read a lot of Stephen King.

Thanks, Bryant, for letting me repost this.  Be sure to check out his blog -- I always enjoy the "Bryant has issues" posts!

This is the first post, covering episode 1.

Alright, Bryant, take it away. . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

You may or may not be familiar with Golden Years, the four-hour movie written by Stephen King that is available on DVD. I get the sense that it is not terribly widely-seen. I might not be right about that, though; my senses have been known to fail me.

Either way, even if you are familiar with the movie, the odds are pretty good that you have no idea it is an abridged version of the original version: a seven-part series that aired on CBS in the summer of 1991. The first episode was a two-hour broadcast, so all in all, eight hours of the series were aired.

The version available home video is shorter by about 135 minutes; in other words, the equivalent of three hours' worth of the broadcast episodes were cut out, including the original cliffhanger ending (which was replaced with an alternate ending intended to provide at least scant closure).

I had not intended to post this article yet. However, I'm working -- slowly; too slowly -- on another post that covers all of the Stephen King-based episodes of television that have been produced (ranging from The Twilight Zone to The Dead Zone to Haven), and as a part of that I wanted to include some brief plot summaries of what happened in each episode of Golden Years. Problem was, I couldn't remember, nor could I find episode summaries anywhere else. Granted, I didn't look all that hard; but still.

This led to me rewatching the episodes so that I could type up brief plot summaries. 

 

I apologize in advance for not covering the differences between the home-video cut of the "movie" and these episodes; that'll happen at some later date, down the line. But since that version is easily obtainable, any King fan ought to readily be able to watch that version. Therefore, detailing the changes seems less crucial than detailing a bit about what happens in the original episodes themselves.

Here goes!

Episode 1 (airdate 07/16/1991)

You might be wondering: how, dear douche sir, are you so privileged as to have access to the original episodes, whereas the rest of us do not?

Glad you asked. I've got a VHS tape that has all of the episodes on it from when I taped 'em way back in the summer of 1991, as I was getting ready to enter my senior year of high school. It's one of my prize possessions, and I had somebody burn the episodes onto a DVD a few years back. So, yeah, that's my less-than-humble story for the day. Hey, look, I'm single and overweight and likely to remain both as I approach forty; I gots ta take my little victories where I can get 'em at this point, y'all.

The first episode was scripted by King and directed by Kenneth Fink, and begins with Harlan Williams riding his bicycle to work. He is a janitor at Falco Plains, a military-run scientific research facility in New York State. Williams is approaching his 71st birthday, and his job is in jeopardy because he recently failed the eye exam portion of his annual base-administered physical. Major Moreland, an unctuous bureaucrat, wants to fire him, but Williams insists on his right to retake the exam, so he narrowly avoids the canning that has obviously been headed right for him.

He is less successful in avoiding the explosion that is heading right for him: he is injured in the blast emanating from the laboratory of Dr. Richard Toddhunter, who is attempting to find a way to regenerate human tissue for use in helping wounded soldiers return to the battlefield quickly. Toddhunter is responsible for the explosion, having ordered his two assistants to proceed with his experiment despite having a warning red light on one of the lab's sensors.

Harlan's husband, Gina, is visited by Terry Spann, Falco Plains' head of security. Spann brings Gina to the base's hospital, where Gina finds her husband laid up in a bed, but apparently none the worse for wear. Later, however, she will notice that his eyes are glowing green; this is apparently a side effect, but nothing to be concerned about. Gina seems less than convinced by this assertion; she's probably right, what with the series having been written by Stephen King and all.

Meanwhile, Spann and the base's leader, General Crewes, question Toddhunter about his involvement in the blast. They suspect he's not being terribly truthful with them, but they don't have much in the way of proof.

Before long, a new contingent of bureaucrats arrives on the scene with questions of their own. They are led by Jude Andrews, a high-level operative of The Shop (the same dangerous black-ops scientific research agency that served as the villains on Firestarter). Seems Spann used to work for The Shop, too, and was Andrews' partner. When asked how close they were, Terry says they were as close as it got: "We used to kill people together," she says grimly.

Doesn't take long for Andrews to up his body count once on the case. A Lieutenant who overheard the dying words of one of Toddhunter's assistants could implicate the mad doctor, and that, apparently, would run contrary to the agenda of The Shop. So Andrews kills the man and reports back that he has done so. Reports to whom? We do not know.

Harlan, meanwhile, retakes his eye exam, and passes with flying colors. And that's not the only weird thing: Gina notices that his hair is turning from white to brown again...

Nobody circa 2012 is likely to mistake Golden Years for top-flight television, and if they do, you should probably not trust them very much. The production is a bit on the low-rent side, no doubt about it, although the television landscape was a very different animal in 1991 than it is today.

The apt comparison is to judge Golden Years against other tv dramas from 1991, and on that score, I think it holds up reasonably well. The acting is mostly fine; Keith Szarabajka is good as Harlan (and is aided by old-age makeup that still looks great in 2012), as is Frances Sternhagen as Gina. Felicity Huffman is a good, solid, sexy, severe Terry Spann, and I've seen a few other people note that she seems almost to be a template for Dana Scully, who was still two years in the future on The X-Files. It's a skin-deep comparison, but I can see how the comparison gets made.

I also like Ed Lauter as General Crewes. R.D. Call makes for a menacing Jude Andrews, although his American accent seems to be a bit too slippery for him to keep hold of consistently ... which is really odd, considering that's he's American. Not sure why he sounds like a Brit trying to keep a rein on his American "r"s, but that's exactly what he sounds like. Despite that, he's really good.

Less good: Stephen Root, who plays the annoying Major Moreland, and Bill Raymond, who plays Dr. Toddhunter. Both are kinda campy and over the top, but since that seems to be on purpose on account of the roles having been written that way, let's cut them both some slack, shall we?

Bryant's Review of episode 2 will appear tomorrow.

THE STAND JOURNAL 1: Drawn To The Stand

I am back to The Stand.  Hello old friend!

I dived  head first into The Dark Tower, and read with eagerness the first two books.  I started the third when we decided to take a family trip.  Given the options: The Stand or The Wastelands, my daughters chose  The Stand.  (Yes, those were the options.)  They like the movie, why not the book?

Since then, I have been listening to The Stand everywhere I go.  I should  go  back to The Wastelands, but I can't break away.  The story engrosses me even still.  I read the abridged version recently -- via Mr. Gardner.  I am thrilled he did the reading again.  If anything, his performance is even stronger and crisper. 

Reading The Stand this time is like being reunited with old friends.  I feel this  way when I read Pillars of the Earth for the 100th time!  Stu, Larry, Fran and many long forgotten small characters reappear in all their glory to live out the story one  more time. 

I have not read the unabridged version since high school.  There are scene's I really don't remember -- I must have skimmed!  (Okay, I know I did.)  For instance, the scene with Franny's mother was brand new to me. 

King does something I appreciate: He casts characters who hold  moral positions different from his own in a positive light.  He doesn't always stereotype   In particular, he shows a depth of understanding when discussing abortion and the pro-life position.  I believe King is strongly pro-choice, so I cringe when a character goes to discuss the pro-life position   Are we about to get a straw-man argument?  Is he just out to make pro-lifers look dumb?  Well, that's not what King does at all.  He allows a sympathetic character to lay out the view without feeling the need to insert a counter  argument. 

Peter Goldsmith says,

“I think abortion’s too clean a name for it,” Peter Goldsmith said. His lips moved slowly over each word, as if they pained him. “I think it’s infanticide, pure and simple. I’m sorry to say so, to be so ... inflexible, set, whatever it is I’m being ... about something which you now have to consider, if only because the law says you may consider it. I told you I was an old man.”

It's not a scientific case study, just an old man's opinion. But it takes guts for a writer to allow a character to hold a view contrary to their own without painting that character a nut case.

Small nods to the larger Stephen King universe are more evident to me this time.  When I read the novel the first time, it was the first King book I ever thumbed my way through.  I was unaware that King connected his books.  In particular, I was struck by the use of The Shop -- which comes from Firestarter.

Stephen King has an unusually strong grasp on people and characters.  I often find myself agreeing with observations he makes about people -- but surprised that such observations came from what was at the time a young man.  Larry does a lot of introspection.  It is a powerful scene when his mother reveals to him that he's just a user.  Now what's neat is having read the book already, I know that Larry will overcome that trait.  He will take his stand for what he believes is right.  A sign of a good novel is that characters evolve and grow.  That is certainly true of Larry.

Also when it comes to Franny's parents, King does a remarkable job portraying a couple in grief.  Peter has moved on, but is sympathetic to his wife -- who is lost despair and selfishness.  The scene where Peter holds a mirror to his wife's behavior and shows her what she's really like is quite good.  I suspect it would have come across melodramatic had it been included in the mini-series.  But it the writing carried it and did what screen could not have.

Firestarter, The Movie

The Hunt

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I finished Firestarter a couple months ago and decided to watch the movie. Turns out, getting a hold of this would become a small - albeit stupid - personal quest. "I'm not going to Amazon this," I told my wife. It was a major motion picture, big budget and heavy promotion; I shouldn't have to turn to the internet to dig up a copy. Besides, I didn't want to wait on the United States mail.

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Hollywood Video, which was going out of business, didn't have a copy. Neither did other local video stores. Walmart didn't have it. "Oh!" One clerk said after looking it up, "we don't carry that, and we won't." Why? "It's out of print." My eyes widened. really? Out of print! Our family headed out for vacation, and I reluctantly admitted I'd have to give in and buy it off the internet. However, I found a used bookstore in Hemet California which had a massive DVD section.

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Lost In translation

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I really liked the book. Firestarter the movie is a very faithful rendition of this story. Scene for scene I could point to where they were in the book. The chase scene at the beginning, the farm, the Shop, even the horses were all there. However, something doesn't connect here.

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You know, you can buy a translation of the Bible that is a literal "word for word" translation into English, but a Greek or Hebrew scholar will tell you something is still lost in translation. That's what happens here: Something is lost in translation.

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John Carpenter said just that. Carpenter had considered directing the film. He told Fear magazine (quoted in Creepshows), "The problem with King's novels are that sometimes they're a bit funky. The plot doesn't translate to the movies that well. Fire starter was one project that I was involved with for a while. I thought that one could have been good because there you have a very clear understanding of what's happening. Unfortunately it didn't work out in the end." p.38

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What happened?

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Specifically, the acting and scenes feel wooden. I said to my wife, "It feels like a soap opera." George C. Scott's performance is dry, lifeless. he is not a convincing Indian, either. Drew Berrymore portrays an overly emotional Charlie; where the book gave us a kid who was very much in charge.

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When the farmer takes Charlie and Andy to his farm we are introduced to his wife. Only, she doesn't come across to me as the farmers wife. She's just a lady dressed up in the right gear, but she doesn't feel like she belongs. That seems to run throughout the movie. People are playing roles, but they don't feel like they belong. From The Shop to lead characters, it isn't smooth.

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Some of the horror from the book was cut. For instance, suicide by garbage disposal was missing. I note this only because King used that slice of horror right at a point the book was starting to sag a little. It beefed up the middle of the book. By cutting that detail, the scenes of captivity at The Shop just drag on.

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King said about the movie, "The parts were all there, but the total was somehow much less than the sum of those parts." (Creepshows, p.39)

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Tony Magistrale has an interesting chapter in his book Hollywood's Stephen King. In a chapter about the Lost Children, he discusses the real lead character in firestarter is John Rainbird. If that is the case, I don't think George C. Scott's performance pulled it off.

Fire Starter Journal 6

Wow, this book may be a little slow in the middle, but the last few chapters are a bang. I mean, really good. Typical King, he spends lots of time building up to an incredible ending. And, King did something nice, something he didn't give us in Carrie -- an emotional conclusion. With Carrie, you were kinda left wondering "what happened?"

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Both books are very much the same:

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1. Both Carrie and Firestarter have a girl at the center.
2. Both are coming of age stories.

3. Both experience serious betrayal. Carrie at school / Charlie by John Rainbird.

4. Both are driven to a destructive conclusion. Carrie, to destroy her high school / Charlie to destroy agents of The Shop. Actually, High School is a lot like The Shop.

5. Both Carrie and Charlie have abilities usually dulled out by the likes of Rod Serling. For Carrie, it's telekinesis / for Charlie it's a pyrokinetic ability.

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Firestarter might have a better ending than Carrie, but it doesn't have a seriously messed up character like Carrie's mom. I think that role was meant for John Rainbird, but for some reason he just doesn't work for me. I was glad to see him go.

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I have just a few pages to read and I'm really enjoying it. The thick of the plot is done, King is just sweeping up the floor and tightening up loose ends. Again, I like it when he does this. Often with King novels we are left to wonder what happened with a lot of the lose ends.

Firejournal 5

Moving into the final section of the book is really a joyful thing -- and a relief. King once tied readers down in Gerald's Game. Pinned with Jessie, the reader spent hours in a dark room as she struggled for freedom. He once pinned us in a car as a crazed dog circled it. In Firestarter, he locks the reader up in the deep inner rooms of The Shop.
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The Shop is not really a happy place to spend time. Full of not so bright hit men and equally moronic head-honchos. Hey, I've got to say once again how much I like the idea of a hit man (a guy who literally has blood on his hands) named OJ. The executives at the Shop spend their time trying to figure out ways to keep their government funding. Meanwhile, they fall prey one by one to Andy McGee's mind powers.
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An interesting note here, King has a character put his hand down a garbage disposal. Wonderful! In fact, the line that the hand was more pointed than a sharpened pencil stuck with me. But, I just saw this show on Food Network where they cut stuff up. And here's the deal: At least on that show, they said that you couldn't hurt your hand on a garbage disposal. I haven't tested this myself, and maybe the way they work has changed in the last 28 years.
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Office politics are also a beast at The Shop. Backstabbing and ego play center stage in this novel. If you work near John Rainbird, don't think those computer files are safe just because you password protected you computer. Hey, The Shop is a nasty enough environment to qualify it for a John Grisham novel (think The Firm). Big Brother and Orwell's 1984 continues to have heavy play in the book. Everything in the Shop is taped (at least in Charlie and Andy's rooms), giving even an indirect nod to the "tele-screen" in 1984.
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McGee's ability to "push" and "shove" people mentally is really the star of the book. Of course, the McGuffin, as Hitchcock would say, is Charlie's power to start fires, but it's Andy who drives the story. In fact, not only does Andy push and shove the folk at the shop, at one wonderful point in the book, he realizes he is going to have to "push" Charlie.
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King certainly spends his time building characters and making the reader more and more claustrophobic. By the time King is ready to knock down his final set of carefully placed domino's, the reader is anxious to see them go. Can he make this book end with a bang? I'll bet he can.

THE SHOP

Fire Starter has peaked my interest in the mysterious government institution "The Shop." The Shop is headed up by Captain James Hollister, better known as Cap. The Shop is a heavily guarded scientific institution backed up by a few not-so-nice hit men. Of course, the first handful of hit men turn out to be completely incompetent! (Namely, my already mentioned, a killer named O.J. go figure!)

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The Stephen King Universe has an entire section that looks at stories that incorporate The Shop. The book notes, "Two observations can be made. First, though operating in the prime reality, the Shop seems to share certain facets with the low men in yellow coats from Rolands reality (Hearts in Atlantis). Second, if there are thinnies between the prime reality and any of the others, the shop is almost certainly aware of them." (SK Universe 248)

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Formal Name: The Department of Scientific Intelligence

Location: Longmont, Virginia

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King says this about Shop headquarters in Fire Starter:

Two handsome Southern plantation homes faced each other across a long and rolling grass lawn that was crisscrossed by a few gracefully looping bike paths and a two lane crushed-gravel drive that came over the hill from the main road. Off to one side of one of these houses was the hill from the main road. off to one side of one of these houses was a large barn, painted bright red and trimmed spotless white. Near the other was a long stable, done in the same handsome red with white trim. Some of the best horseflesh in the South was quartered here. between the barn and the stable was a wide, shallow duckpond, calmly reflecting the sky.

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In the 1860's, the original owners of these two homes had gone off and got themselves killed in the war, and all survivors of both families were dead now. The two estates had been consolidated into one piece of government property in 1954. It was Shop headquarters. (Fire Starter, p.63)

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The Shop appears in:

Firestarter

The Tommyknockers

Golden eyars

The langoliers

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The Shop Crossovers:

This is from http://www.malakoff.com/sklnklst.htm.

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THE LANGOLIERS (Four Past Midnight)—FIRESTARTER“The Shop” is mentioned in The Langoliers. Presumably the same “Shop” as in Firestarter.

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THE TALISMAN—FIRESTARTER The Rainbird Towers, a New York condominium complex, is mentioned in "The Talisman." Rainbird is the name of The Shop operative assigned to Charlie McGee in "Firestarter."

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THE TOMMYKNOCKERS—FIRESTARTERAfter all the excitement was over in The Tommyknockers, “The Shop” came to Haven to investigate.

Firejournal 3

I'm about halfway through this book, and still loving it.

Fire Starter does have a lot of flashbacks, which King really likes (anyone remember Wizard and Glass?) Here's the frustrating thing with flashbacks -- we already have a clue how it's going to turn out! So for a suspense novel like Firestarter, it feels like the flashbacks slow things down a bit. Especially when the flash back contains extended escape scenes.

I like the illusions to "potty training" in regards to teaching Charlie not to use her fire powers. Also, Charlie's own terror at what she can do is a nice touch.

The Shop: There needs to be a note sometime on The Shop. I'm sure this government agency has been referenced before. They seem to do a lot of science experiements for DOD, but are also pretty incompotent when it comes to catching people. I think maybe The Shop should fire Cap, O.J. and the rest of their team and rent out some CIA badboys.