nowhere.’ He also recounts that story, along with a lengthy discussion of the death of rock and roll on
radio, in Between Rock and a Soft Place (see our Opinion—Radio, Music, Film and Television
chapter). The views expressed in that essay became a large part of what led him to buy the radio
station.
The author cum radio station owner closes by recounting a conversation he had with a stranger
who had heard the station (WZON in Bangor, Maine) and liked it: ‘Guy walked up to me on the street
the other day, maybe forty. “I like your station,” he said shyly. “The song about the outlaw [I’m pretty
sure he meant “Gunslinger Man,” by The Long Ryders] is great. It reminds me of Credence (sic).” He
looked wistful and rubbed the top of his head. There was a lot of skin up there to rub. “When
Credence (sic) was playing, I had a lot more hair,” he said. “Well, are you still rockin” I asked.
“Yeah,” he said. “Then I guess it doesn’t matter,” I said. “So’s Fogerty. So am I. You keep rockin’
and I’ll keep rockin’.” “Good deal,” he said. And for me, that’s just what the Rock Zone has been: a
damn good deal.’
This piece appeared in the October 1987 edition of Castle Rock: The Stephen King Newsletter.
Back issues are generally available from King resellers.
‘Ever Et Raw Meat?’ and Other Weird Questions (December 6, 1987)
King opens: ‘It seems to me that, in the minds of readers, writers actually exist to serve two
purposes, and the more important may not be the writing of books and stories. The primary function of
writers, it seems, is to answer readers’ questions. These fall into three categories. The third is the one
that fascinates me most, but I’ll identify the other two first.’
The first category is, ‘The One-of-a-Kind Questions.’ As example King references the title of
this piece: ‘From Raymond R. in Mississippi: “Ever et raw meat?” (It’s the laconic ones like this that
really get me.)’ The second category: ‘The Old Standards’ of which he goes through several,
including: ‘Where do you get your ideas? (I get mine in Utica.)’; and ‘How do you get an agent? (Sell
your soul to the Devil.)’ The final category covers ‘The Real Weirdies.’ An example: ‘Having an
answer for “You writing any good books lately?” is a good thing, but I’d be lying if I said it solves
the problem of what the question means. It is the inability on my part to make sense of this odd query,
which reminds me of that Zen riddle—“Why is a mouse when it runs?”—that leaves me feeling
mentally shaken and impotent. You see, it isn’t just one question; it’s a bundle of questions, cunningly
wrapped up in one package.’
As is the case with a good deal of King’s non-fiction writing this piece is very humorous. It is
also important as it deals with the author, his fans and their relationship. He closes: ‘Do I mind these
questions? Yes...and no. Anyone minds questions that have no real answers and thus expose the
fellow being questioned to be not a real doctor but a sort of witch doctor. But no one—at least no one
with a modicum of simple human kindness—resents questions from people who honestly want
answers. And now and then someone will ask a really interesting question, like, Do you write in the
nude? The answer...: I don’t think I ever have, but if it works, I’m willing to try it.’
This piece was published in the December 6, 1987 edition of The New York Times Book
Review; and reprinted in both the June 1988 edition of The Twilight Zone Magazine and the July
1988 edition of The Writer magazine. That year it was also published as a limited edition broadsheet
from Lord John Press as Letters from Hell; and under that title in Castle Rock: The Stephen King
Newsletter for December 1988. It has since been reprinted in several textbooks196 and in King’s
Book-of-the-Month Club collection Secret Windows. That book is readily available from the usual
King resources; and the magazine and textbook appearances are not difficult to obtain through online
sources. The original Lord John Press broadsheet sells at quite high prices.
My Ten Favorite Fantasy-Horror Novels (1987)
This piece and My Ten Favorite Fantasy-Horror Short Stories or Novellas (see directly
below) consist of nothing more than a list of King’s ten favorite works in these categories. His ten
favorite fantasy or horror novels: Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury; The Doll
Who Ate His Mother, by Ramsey Campbell; The Body Snatchers, by Jack Finney; The Haunting of
Hill House, by Shirley Jackson; The Ceremonies, by T. E. D. Klein; Burnt Offerings, by Robert
Marasco; I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson; Interview with the Vampire, by Anne Rice;
Donovan’s Brain, by Curt Siodmak; and Ghost Story, by Peter Straub.
A note from the editors after these two pieces includes some quotes by King. King’s list is in
alphabetical order and ‘of course excluded H. P. Lovecraft on the basis of your chronological cutoff
point.’ He wishes that he could include more but: ‘I’ll stand by these...and probably hang by them.’
This piece appears only in How to Write Tales of Horror, Fantasy, and science-fiction, edited
by J.N. Williamson, published in hardcover by Writer’s Digest Books in 1987; and reprinted in a
1996 trade paperback.
My Ten Favorite Fantasy-Horror Short Stories or Novellas (1987)
Following on from My Ten Favorite Fantasy-Horror Novels (see directly above) King’s ten
favorite fantasy or horror short stories: In the Hill, the Cities by Clive Barker; Sweets to the Sweet
by Robert Bloch; Small Assassin by Ray Bradbury; Slime by Joseph Payne Brennan; The Companion
by Ramsey Campbell; The Lottery by Shirley Jackson; Children of the Kingdom by T. E. D. Klein;
The Pale Brown Thing by Fritz Leiber; Prey by Richard Matheson; and Nightcrawlers by Robert R.
McCammon.
This piece appears only in How to Write Tales of Horror, Fantasy, and science-fiction, as
noted above.
SK Criticized for References to Blacks: Stephen King Replies (March 1988)
This is King’s reasoned reply to a fan letter in which it is alleged: ‘In just about every one of
your books, somewhere in the storyline, there is some derogatory comment about a black person.’ His
response, Stephen King Replies, is part of the larger article, containing both the letter and this piece,
SK Criticized for References to Blacks.
King has this to say: ‘Yes, I have used the standard racial epithets in my books. But they are
always used by idiots and bigots, and have been employed in the belief that a realistic depiction of
racial incidents expose (sic) rather than promote (sic) racism. Those who believe I hold prejudices
against blacks, for instance, might reflect on this: if I hadn’t created black protagonists in a number of
books (Dick Hallorann in The Shining, Mother Abigail in The Stand, Mike Hanlon in IT, for
instance), there could be no charge of prejudice because the subject would never come up.’
One sentence, serving as his definitive word on the subject, closes the article: ‘In the meantime,
those few readers who have come to the conclusion that I’m a racist have read one fiction and
translated it into another in their minds.’
This piece appeared in the March 1988 edition of Castle Rock: The Stephen King Newsletter.
Back issues can easily be obtained from the usual King sources.
An Evening at the Billerica (Massachusetts) Library (April 1988)
This is a transcription of a wide-ranging and interesting lecture King gave in 1983 at the
Billerica, Massachusetts Library. The speaker claims he does not know how to lecture—‘the most I
can do is chautauqua, a fine old word that means you babble on for a while about the thing that you do
and then you sit down and let people get on to the serious drinking.’
He says this about his relationship as writer to the reader: ‘I want to be your friend. I want to
come up to you and put my arm around you and say, “Hey, you want to see something? It’s great. Wait
till you see it! You’ll really like this thing.” Then I get them really interested and lead them up the
street and take ‘em around the corner and into the alley where there’s this awful thing, and keep them
there until they’re screaming! It’s just fun. I know how sadistic that must sound but you have to tell
the truth.’ He ranges over why he writes horror; why fans read it; subtext in horror books and movies;
that horror fiction follows a conservative formula (‘It has that effect of reconfirming values, of
reconfirming self-image and our good feelings about ourselves’); his ‘Last reason for reading horror:
it’s a rehearsal for death’; a list of the many things that scare him; and the inspiration for Here There
Be Tygers (prosaic as it turns out to be).
This piece was first published in Bare Bones: Conversations on Terror with Stephen King,
edited by Tim Underwood and Chuck Miller, in 1988 limited and trade hardcover editions, and later
reprinted in both the United States and the United Kingdom. It also appeared in the Book-of-the-
Month Club collection of King works, Secret Windows. Both appearances include the speech,
followed by material from the subsequent question and answer session. The latter book is easily
obtainable, while the former appears at abebooks.com and King resellers.
Titles Unknown (May 11, May 18, May 25 and June 1, 1988)
These four pieces appeared in editions of The Register, a newspaper King’s brother-in-law
Christopher Spruce ran for a short period in the Bangor, Maine area. Despite intense efforts by the
authors and major collectors no copies of any of King’s five contributions (see also The Ultimate
Catalogue below) have ever come to light. King’s office does not have copies and no libraries in
Maine archive it. Apparently the best that can now be hoped for is that copies are found stored in
some obscure location and offered at eBay or similar sources. If any reader is able to track them
down, please contact the authors via the publisher.
The following is relevant text representing what is known of these articles, which appeared in
Castle Rock: The Stephen King Newsletter for July 1988 (at the time Tabitha King’s sister Stephanie
Leonard was ‘Editor-Publisher’); from Leonard’s Editor’s Column:
‘...Christopher Spruce, Castle Rock’s managing editor, recently bought a local weekly paper,
The Register. As they have often done for the daily paper, the Bangor Daily News, the Kings have
written a number of pieces for this paper as well, and probably will continue to do so...Articles of
possible interest to Castle Rock readers so far include columns by SK on drunk driving (May 11);
tabloids (May 18); cocaine (May 25) and Elvis (June 1) and by TK on How to take a UFO photo
(May 18) and reviews of the movies “Shakedown” and “Colors” (May 11), Willow and Friday the
13th, Part VII (June 1).’
SK Clarifies Gardner Reference (May-June 1988)
King sometimes pokes fun at the so-called serious novelist (mostly those who take their own
work way too seriously), especially in comparison to more down-to-earth types. King and co-author,
Peter Straub slipped a couple of such references into The Talisman for sharp-eyed readers. He
explains: ‘I was amused by Bob Fenster’s letter in the last issue of Castle Rock, and thought readers
would be equally amused by a combined clarification and amplification. Bob notes correctly that two
of the characters in The Talisman, Smokey Updike and Sunlight Gardener, have suspiciously literary
names. Peter Straub and I were having a little fun by naming two of the principal heavies in the book
after two supposedly “serious” novelists...working out these childish jealousies really feels
amazingly good sometimes.’ The ‘serious’ novelists were John Gardener and John Updike.
He also writes about what appears to be another literary allusion, by John Gardner in his James
Bond novel Nobody Lives Forever: ‘Bob Fenster is also probably correct in guessing that in Nobody
Lives Forever, the treacherous Steve Quinn and his lovely wife, Tabitha, got their names from the
not-so-treacherous Steve King and his lovely wife, Tabitha. His conclusion that Gardner’s use of
familiar names was the second shot in a war of words, however, is probably wrong’; and goes on to
point out that Gardner was not the serious novelist that King was poking fun at, rather he was aiming
at the deceased John Gardener.
This piece appeared in the May-June 1988 edition of Castle Rock: The Stephen King
Newsletter. Back issues are easily obtained from King resellers.
The Ultimate Catalogue (June 1988)
King starts with the subject of chain letters, whose popularity has since dwindled (only to be
replaced by chain e-mails!) While, ‘The heyday of the chain letter seems to have passed, but they
have been replaced by an 80s hybrid, I am speaking, of course, of the Great American Catalogue. The
way these things snowball has always seemed a little errie (sic) to me...but there’s nothing magic
about it. These catalogue folks simply swap their mailing lists around...and the result is a modern
chain letter.’
We all know how annoying it is to receive unreasonable amounts of junk mail, as well as useless
and ridiculous catalogues. King uses the remainder of this piece to poke fun at some of the more
ludicrous items for sale, inventing a fictional catalogue for a company called Life Force Technologies
—the ‘ultimate catalogue’: As example: ‘My absolute favorite, however, is the Trochillidae (Latin
for hummingbird, we are informed) on the cover. It looks like a chair which sits on sled-runners, but
it is actually a helicopter powered by Hydrogen Peroxide. It comes with a disposable motor weighing
three pounds each which delivers 110 horsepower. The Trochillidae, which would come in handy
any time you are being pursued across the Chamberlain Bridge by KGB agents or trying to escape
hired killers from SMERSH at the Mall, weighs 125 pounds, has a flight-range of 150-300 miles, and
costs a mere $35,000. Presumably, one could use it for night-flights, if one went aloft equipped with
one’s Dark Invader snooperscope... I felt a lot more at home—and a lot more comfortable—with the
stuff you find in the envelope from Sears and Roebuck.’
This piece first appeared in a June 1988 edition of The Register, a newspaper King’s brother-
in-law Christopher Spruce ran for a short period in the Bangor, Maine area. The actual date is
unknown, as the authors have been unable to track down any back issues of this newspaper to locate
this piece, or the other four pieces that appeared there (for more detail see Titles Unknown in May
and June 1988, earlier in this chapter). The article was reprinted in the June 1989 edition of Castle
Rock: The Stephen King Newsletter, which is easily secured.
Nightmares in the Sky (1988)
Debate has raged in the King community about whether Nightmares in the Sky is actually ‘a
King book’, with many experts forming the view it is not, others adamant it is. This coffee table-sized
publication is a collection of photographs of gargoyles, mostly by ‘renowned photographer’ F-stop
Fitzgerald, with ‘text’ by Stephen King. Whether or not King’s ten thousand word essay, written in
Bangor, qualifies this volume as ‘a King book’, it is one of his most important non-fiction pieces.
He opens by explaining how Marc Glimcher197 convinced him to write the piece, which
comprises eight sections. Here, King is in the self-disparaging mode which often marked his (humble)
opinion of his own work through the 1970s, 1980s and even into the following decade. Fortunately,
he has since come to a realization that his work is somewhat better than the simple ‘typing’ he
intimates here when saying, ‘… some might claim I’ve got a hell of a nerve even suggesting that what
I do bears any resemblance to art.’ He claims, ‘I’m only saying that what I write comes from my gut
instead of my head, from intuition rather than intellect.’ And, another interesting comment: ‘… my
head is in some way an odd trash-compactor of cultural garbage’.
Of gargoyles generally King tells of walking Madison Avenue in New York, and later cruising
83rd Street while peering through the sun-roof of a limo to get a closer look, then again down
Madison Avenue, before delivering a tiny classic: ‘[I] could almost swear there were less along that
thirty-block stretch than when I walked it the first time...the mind is a monkey...and mine keeps trying
to think that there really were thousands that first time, and most of them either hid or flew away when
they saw me coming back for a second look. / It’s utterly ridiculous of course, but suppose.../ Well,
suppose they don’t like people watching them.’ He then wonders if the remaining gargoyles are the
dead ones. As to the rest, ‘But isn’t that what we’re really afraid of? That a really close examination
will prove our worst nightmares to be reality? That those monstrosities are alive? ’
Turning to the pictures in the book King argues the subjects are indeed alive; not in the sense of
living, breathing creatures, but in the way the sky might be said to be alive, or in the manner of a
beautiful vase or other work of art. After a short history of the purpose of the gargoyle (a fancy
opening for a drain-pipe) he broadly concludes ‘that the gargoyles you will come upon in this book
may continue to perform their original function: to drain away that which might otherwise cause rot or
erosion. Their horrible stony faces offer unique catharsis; when we look upon them and shudder, we
create the exact reversal of the Medusa myth: we are not flesh turned to stone, but flesh proving it is
flesh still....’
It has been noted elsewhere that King never refers in his essay to the photographer (in contrast,
he specifically refers to Harry Connelly, the photographer in his Life photo-essay, Diamonds Are
Forever, covered in our Baseball—Faithful, Head Down and the Red Sox Obsession chapter).
Perhaps he did not know, as he writes, ‘The photos you will now look upon are undoubtedly the work
of artists....’
He concludes with typical power: ‘Look closely, because we see these ominous lares of the
human psyche so seldom. They are there, these nightmares, but they are in the sky. Look closely,
because even when you don’t see them.../... they are watching you.’
A number of King critics have praised this volume. Tyson Blue wrote, ‘… its quiet beauty and
grotesquerie is sure to haunt readers who venture into its strange and aerial world.... ”198; and
Collings says King’s ‘essay is of considerable interest and the photographs, particularly in the
haunting tone they create, are both excellent and appropriate.’199 The essay is undoubtedly one of
King’s more important non-fiction pieces, perfectly summarized by Stephen Spignesi: ‘...[it] contains
autobiographical musings, thoughts on writing and fear, reflections on TV and movies, and some
genuinely intuitive ideas about morality and mythology. ’200
Nightmares in the Sky was originally published as a hardback in a US printing of some 250,000
copies, so large in fact that the book was widely remaindered; and in a UK edition. One presumes the
print run was a result of King’s publisher at the time, Viking Penguin, having expectations that the
simple inclusion of King’s piece and name on the cover of what is effectively a photo-essay book
would alone create significant sales. Although a paperback version has been mooted, the mediocre
sales of the hardback appear to have put paid to that proposal. The lesson here is that King’s fans will
pay good money for his fiction, and entire volumes of non-fiction, but not for one piece of non-fiction,
in this case packaged up at the 1988 retail price of $24.95. An excerpt from this essay (titled Stephen
King’sNightmares in the Sky) appeared in Penthouse for September 1988, two months before the
book was released.
Fitzgerald’s work has appeared in a number of books, including Pillars of the Almighty, Weird
Angle and Dead Kennedys: The Unauthorized Version. Nightmares in the Sky can be readily
purchased from online and secondhand booksellers, usually for an insignificant sum.
What Stephen King Does For Love (April 1990)
The fiction editor of Seventeen, Adrian LeBlanc asked King if he wanted to say anything about
books and reading for the magazine, telling him their readers saw a difference between reading for
pleasure and reading for school. ‘Talk about a heavy blast from the retro-boosters. Man, that took me
right back to high school, to the guilty pleasures of period-four study hall—where I could read what I
wanted—and the horrors of period-seven English, where I had to read what they wanted. In those
days, all printed matter was divided into those two groups, as far as I was concerned. My stuff and
their stuff.’
King closes with heartfelt advice to the young readers of the publication: ‘I think it is these
opposing lines of force, these paradoxes of heart and head, that have created the ocean between the
continents of Wanna Read and Gotta Read. I think the passage between the two will always be stormy
and the ferry service always intermittent. One of the greatest pleasures of my life was reading
Hamlet, discovering it was great, and discoveringit on my own. You may make similar discoveries
of your own as the years pass. In the meantime, read what you have to read for love. Do more than
enjoy it; swim in that heady brew, fly in that intoxicating ether. Why not? The heart has its own mind,
and its business is joy. For me, those two things—joy and reading—have always gone together, and
another of my life’s great pleasures was discovering that sometimes they mature together. When that
happens, all the final exams are held in the happiest of all places: one’s own heart.’
This piece first appeared in the April 1990 issue of Seventeen magazine; and was reprinted in
the Book-of-the-Month Club collection, Secret Windows. Some libraries archive Seventeen; or check
the usual used magazine sources. The book is available from abebooks.com and King resources.
Stephen King’s Desert Island (July 1990)
Here King ponders the question: ‘If you were stranded on a desert island, what one book would
you take with you?’ He says, ‘The most peculiar thing about this question is that it seems—at first
glance, anyway—to be perfectly reasonable. I have responded to it six or seven times before thinking
about the question rather than the answer, and realizing what a really weird question it was.’ While
not actually answering the question, he describes a fictional scenario—what he would do while
marooned on a desert island in the South Pacific—eat fresh mangoes, swim in an untouched pond, lie
on the beach, etc.
Like many other writers, he would choose to write even if he weren’t publishing. This article,
though humorous, is a case in point: ‘So maybe the real question would be this: “What would you
write if you were marooned on a desert island?” And the answer—for me at least—would be,
“Everything I could.” And I wouldn’t stop eating those great-tasting mangoes or allow myself to be
rescued until I had it right.’
This article appeared in the July 1990 issue of Condé Nast Traveler, published by the same
company as The New Yorker. Back issues are unavailable and used issues of this magazine appear to
be quite rare. Check the usual used magazine resources, eBay and specialist King sellers.
Memo from Stephen King (1990)
This short piece discusses a rejection letter King received for one of his early novels. He talks
about a science-fiction novel (probably The Long Walk) he’d submitted in partial format (three
chapters and an outline) to a publisher and received a rejection note that read simply, ‘We are not
interested in science-fiction which deals with negative utopias. They do not sell.’
It appears in an anthology, Rotten Rejections: A Literary Companion, edited by Andre Bernard,
and published in a 1990 hardcover by Wainscott, New York-based Pushcart Press. Copies appear at
secondhand book sources.
Scare Tactics (November 1990)
This item is an extremely brief excerpt (printed as part of the Personal Glimpses section of the
magazine) from a King interview collected in Bare Bones: Conversations on Terror with Stephen
King: ‘One of the reasons I write horror is because it’s a kind of psychological protection. It’s like
drawing a magic circle around myself and my family. My mother always used to say, “If you think the
worst, it can’t come true.”’
It appeared in the November 1990 edition of Reader’s Digest and there is debate as to whether
it is actually ‘by’ Stephen King, or simply a quote. Some libraries archive Reader’s Digest; and the
usual used magazine sources will have copies.
My New Years201 Resolution (Or Look What Dave’s Got Us Doing Now!) (Winter 1990)
This is a very short piece (only a few sentences) in which King lays down three New Year’s
resolutions: writing The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands; paying his HWA (Horror Writers
Association) dues on time; and sharing his toys (‘even the ones I really like.’)
It appeared in the Winter 1990 edition of The Overlook Connection, a free newsletter/catalogue
for Dave Hinchberger’s small press/bookstore/Stephen King-specialty store based in Georgia. Back
issues of this newsletter are next to impossible to obtain.
How I CreatedGolden Years... and Spooked Dozens of TV Executives (2 August 1991)
King begins by explaining he was offered his own anthology-type TV program in which he
would introduce a different story each week. While this offer was made several times, he wanted to
write his own story—and eventually came up with the idea for Golden Years. After the network
executives showed interest: ‘Well, I said through my agent, don’t think of this as a miniseries; think of
it as a regular series that just happens to run only one year. But at that point, rational discussions
pretty much broke down. TV executives, it seems, find it as impossible to understand the concept of a
regular series that ends as I am to understand the ramifications of Einstein’s theory of relativity. Yeah,
they said, but what if it’s a success? Then we do it again next year, I replied. You mean we continue
the story? they asked, sounding puzzled but a little hopeful. No, I said. We tell a different story in the
same way. All new characters. All new situations. All new plot. All new conclusion. But TV people,
I learned, are extremely uncomfortable with any concept that includes the idea “all new,” and so the
proposal lapsed.’
Eventually, due to the success of the miniseries adaptation of King’s novel IT, the original
concept, Stephen King’s Golden Years was picked by and aired by ABC, although dumped mid-
season202 (Kingdom Hospital suffered a not dissimilar fate). He closes this piece, written before the
season flopped, with the highest hopes for the series and for that type of lengthy, serialized story: ‘I’m
hoping people will like Golden Years well enough to bring it back for a full run. What is a full run,
anyway? Well, I still believe there’s a place on TV for long, complex stories—electronic novels, if
you will—that exist in that medium alone and have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Who knows;
maybe they will be some of the bestsellers of the 21st century. I can hear the literary critics screaming
now.’ As it happens, Golden Years may have been ahead of its time, as serialized drama now has a
much larger place in the television market. When King tried again with Kingdom Hospital in 2004, he
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