Miscellaneous

Interview with Stephen King

Stephen King is the unabashed king of the terror tale. For the last 10 years, his stories have consistantly appeared on every best seller list. On many occasions, he has even had two books simultaniously on the prestigious New York Times best seller list. His stories range from the ghastly and the unworldly, to the realm of near truth and the terrifyingly possible.

He has scared the wits out of millions and has firmly established himself in modern American literature. Some of his writings include: Carrie, Salem's Lot, Night shift (a collection of short stories), The Stand, The Shining, Firestarter, Cujo, Dead Zone, Creep Show, Christine and Pet Sematary. Many of his novels have become major motion pictures, with Dead Zone, Christine and Carrie being three of his more popular cinematic offerings.

King lives in Maine with his wife and children. He enjoys the "life of the back woods," as he calls it. King writes about what he knows, consequently, many of his stories are set in his "own neck of the woods."

King is very frank and open, and displays a corny sense of humor. (We share this sense of humor) He enjoys his work and takes a great deal of pride in it. When asked if he was a storyteller, he said he didn't think he could keep an audience spellbound just by telling them a story. But, in his description of the facts behind one of his short stories, The Mangler, as told below, you will see how well endowed he is with the ability to raise the hackles on your neck with only a brief narration.

I understand you don't like to be asked why you write the kind of stories you do. Is this correct?

I have always felt a little bit uncomfortable with that question. It's not a question that you would ask a guy that writes detective stories or the guy that writes mystery stories, or westerns, or whatever. But it is asked of the writer of horror stories because it seems that there is something nasty about our love for horror stories, or boogies, ghosts and goblins, demons and devils.

When did you start writing?

I started writing seriously when I was about 12.

Do you have to be in a special mood to start writing?

I am always in the mood.

Do you have a certain method that you use when you write?

It usually is a set schedule. I write in the mornings, in the bright daylight. But I get most of my good ideas after the sun has gone down and the dark is on the land. (It is this type of turn of a phrase that has made King's writing so poular)

Do you consider what you write "horror stories?"

There are times when I like to think of it as mainstream fiction or literature. But in the back of my mind, in the closet where I keep the truth, I think of them as horror stories. A lot of them I think of as creep shows. (A few years after this interview, Stephen wrote a script for a movie by George Romero. That movie was titled "Creep Show.")

I once read that Salem's Lot is your favorite book. Why?

In a way it is my favorite story, mostly because of what it says about small towns. They are kind of a dying organism right now. The story seems sort of down home to me. I have a special cold spot in my heart for it!

Is the town of Jerusalem's Lot (Salem's Lot) a real town?

Yes and no. It is based on a town in upstate Vermont, that I heard about as an undergraduate in college, called Jeremiah's Lot. I was going through Vermont with a friend and he pointed out the town, just in passing, as we went by in the car. He said, "You know, they say that everybody in that town just simply disappeared in 1098." I said, "Aw, come on. What are you talking about?" He said, "That's the story. Haven't you heard of the Marie Celest where everybody supposedly disappeared? This is the same thing. One day they were there and then one day a relative came over to look for someone that they hadn't heard from in awhile; and all of the houses were empty. Some of the houses had dinner set on the table. Some of the stores still had money in them. It was covered in mold from the summer damp and it was starting to rot, but nobody had stolen it. The town was completely emptied out."

Is that how you get inspiration for your stories, or does it also come from day-to-day events, a phrase you may hear, or even from suggestions you get from fans?

I get inspiration, a lot of times, from very commonplace things that just strike a chord and develop themselves in the subconscious. Sometimes it's something a little bit more sensational than that. As an example, there is a story in the book Night Shift, called 'The Mangler,' about a laundry machine that takes on a sort of malignant life. I worked in a laundry for about a year and a half after I got out of college. It was the only job I could find to support my wife and our first child. There was a fellow there that had no hands or forearms. He simply had hooks. This is one of the things that they don't tell you about when you become management. You have to wear a tie. It was this fellow's tie that did him in.

It was just after World War II and he was working around the machines. The steam ironer and folder is the machine the workers call the Mangler, because that is what it will do to you if you get too close to it or get caught in it. This fellow bent down to pick something up and his tie went into the machine. He reached down with his left hand to pull his tie out and his hand went into the machine. Then he put his right hand around his left wrist to try to pull it out and his right hand got caught. As a result, he lost both hands and forearms and was lucky not to have died. His hands were replaced by hooks. (And people wonder why I don't like ties!)

Thirty years later, when I worked there, he would go into the men's room, during the summer and turn on the hot and cold water and run it over the hooks. He would then come up behind you and lay the hooks on the back of your neck. That's what gave me the inspiration for that particular story. I always think of the machine at the end of the story, which sort of becomes possessed by a demon and escapes from the laundry and goes through the streets, as sort of having escaped because it had "pressing business."

Since you mention Night