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Structure
Interesting Questions, Facts and Information
- There are a total of 30 general entries.
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 Interesting Questions, Facts, and Information
 King, Stephen
English. King got his Bachelor's in English, with a minor in speech. He was also very interested in drama.
The Glass Floor. "The Glass Floor" was sold to "Startling Mystery Stories" in 1967. "I Was a Teenage Grave Robber" was previously published, but it was not sold.
1973. King sold "Carrie" to William Thompson in 1973. He finished it only after his wife dug it out of the trash and convinced him that it was worthwhile.
7. The books published under the Bachman name include "Rage", "The Long Walk", "Roadwork", "The Running Man", "Thinner", "The Regulators" and in 2007 "Blaze".
Dean Koontz. The band was formed many years ago by a group of authors who had become friends. They play covers of popular songs. King plays the guitar in the band.
Rage. "Rage" was released fourth, in between "The Shining" and "The Stand." It was released under the Richard Bachman pseudonym.
both worked in a laundry. King worked at a dry cleaners' before marrying his wife in 1971. Margaret White, the mother from "Carrie" also worked at a laundry.
June 19, 1999. King reportedly later bought the van and smashed it with a hammer on the anniversary of the accident.
a church. It was a church near where King lived. He thought it would make a good location for a horror story.
| "The Stand" was first published in 1978 with 70,000 copies at the first printing. How many copies were printed in 1990 for the uncut edition? | The Life and Times of Stephen King
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400,000. King re-released "The Stand" in 1990, having replaced the portions removed earlier due to publishing constraints.
Maine. King lives in Bangor, Maine. He was born in Maine but lived in Connecticut and Indiana at various times during his youth. He lives in a house that looks as though it was built for a writer of creepy tales, a spooky old brick turreted structure with a tall iron fence surrounding it.
industrial laundry. Although he did have some sales of short stories to a few publications right after college, King worked for an industrial laundry for several months to make ends meet. He tells a few funny, gross stories about the experience in his nonfiction work, "On Writing".
writer. Tabitha King (nee Spruce) has a number of published works of fiction and nonfiction. She and King met in the stacks at the library at the University of Maine.
English. In addition to a Bachelor's degree in English, King earned certification to teach at high school, which he did for a couple of years following the laundry job. King's mother urged him to go to college so he would have something to fall back on in case writing wasn't successful.
The Rock Bottom Remainders. The band, which was started for fun and does not pretend to much talent, is an on again, off again endeavor. Some of its other members are Dave Barry, Amy Tan, and Barbara Kingsolver. It's been said of them (by a member of the group) that they play music as well as Metallica writes novels...
He was hit by a car and seriously injured.. While walking along a road near Lovell, Maine, King was struck by a van whose driver had been distracted by something his dog was doing inside the vehicle. King had orthopedic injuries to his hip and leg which required a number of surgeries to correct. He didn't sue the driver of the vehicle.
Richard Bachman. King adopted the pseudonym to get around the publishing convention that an author should put out only one book a year. He could potentially double his production by using the Bachman identity.
Indications are that King enjoyed the Bachman phenomenon and played with it to suit his fancy. Bachman was reported to have died of "cancer of the pseudonym" in 1985. At that time, five novels were credited to him. Happily for Bachman fans, a sixth novel, The Regulators, was discovered in his basement some years after his "death" and published "posthumously" in 1996.
Reportedly, following Bachman's demise, King commented that he was, "A nasty man...I'm glad that he's dead."
He had a condition that was causing him to go blind.. King has had bad eyesight since childhood. He has a genetic predisposition to a condition called macular degeneration, which can cause blindness, but he doesn't show any of the symptoms of the disorder, and may or may not have it. And he's still writing!
Knightriders. "Knightriders" (1981), about a band of entertainers performing medieval acts from town to town (such as jousting on motorcycles) starred Ed Harris, Gary Lahti, and Tom (Makeup and Special Effects Artist Extraordinaire) Savini. The main theme of the film concerned the internal problems and strife of the troupe, along with the continuous harassment they encountered from local authorities. Steve, along with his wife Tabitha, got the small parts of Mr. and Mrs. Hoagie Man, as he was already on the set collaborating with Romero for the then upcoming "Creepshow". Steve's character was an obnoxious guy sitting in the bleachers eating a sandwich at the fairgrounds.
Stephen King has won a multitude of writing awards for his body of work, including the Hugo Award for the 1982 non-fiction, "Danse Macabre", the O. Henry Award for 1996's "The Man in the Black Suit", the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters (2003), the Horror Writers Association Lifetime Achievement Award (2003), as well as numerous wins and nominations for the Bram Stoker Award, the Horror Guild, the World Fantasy Awards, and the Locus Awards.
Jordy Verrill. "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill" was the second of five separate horror segments of "Creepshow" (1982, directed by George Romero). The film was hosted by the Creep, an animated skeletal apparition which came to life from a comic book, and provided comments on each segment much like the Cryptkeeper in HBO's "Tales from the Crypt". The film also paid homage to the classic horror comics of the 1950s. Stephen's son, Joe, made a cameo appearance in the beginning of the film, as the young boy reading the "Creepshow" comic book. Steve's character, obviously not the brightest bulb in the bin, basically got infected by an alien spore and was turned into a plant.
King wrote the fantasy-themed "The Eyes of the Dragon" (1987) for (and dedicated it to) his daughter Naomi.
The Langoliers. "The Langoliers" (1995, directed by Tom Holland, starring Patricia Wettig, Dean Stockwell, and David Morse), was adapted from the Stephen King novella of the same name, published in "From Four Past Midnight" (1990). The film centered on a group of airline passengers who fell asleep during their flight, and woke up to discover that the majority of the crew and passengers who were on the aircraft had vanished without a trace. A surviving pilot on board was able to land the plane in Maine, only to find that there was no one to be found, and that they were completely alone. King played a business executive conducting a meeting in a dream sequence.
In his semi-autobiographical, semi-tutorial book "On Writing" (2000), Steve related that his first "really good idea" came about in the late '50s while watching his mom stick the old green S&H trading stamps into the stamp-book. Unfortunately, "Happy Stamps" (about a guy doomed to lick over 11 million counterfeit S&H stamps) never did get published.
The Stand. In my opinion, this is one of the best film or TV adaptations of King's work that has been done so far. It was directed by Mick Garris, and featured the talents of a wonderful group of actors, including Gary Sinese, Molly Ringwald, Ray Walston, and Ossie Davis (among others). Kathy Bates, who had earlier won the Oscar for her role in "Misery" (1990), had the small, uncredited part of Rae Flowers. The film was basically a "good vs. evil" story, and separated the survivors of a world-wide plague into one of the two categories. The "good" survivors converged on Boulder, CO., under the direction of Mother Abigail (Ruby Dee), while the "bad" groups gravitated to Randall Flagg (Jamey Sheridan) in Las Vegas, NV. Steve played one of the "good" survivors of the plague in Boulder.
Stephen worked for many years to get "The Stand" to the big screen, but simply could not cut down the screenplay enough to make a film version work to his satisfaction. He finally decided to go with the TV mini-series option.
Big band conductor. This was another good adaptation (I personally liked the mini-series better than the Stanley Kubrick film version, but a lot of people will disagree), again directed by Mick Garris, and starring Steven Weber and Rebecca De Mornay. It's been a while since I read the book version or saw Kubrick's film, but I'm fairly sure the character of Gage Creed was written for the TV version exclusively, although another character of that name can be found in the book "Pet Sematary" (1983). He can be seen during Jack Torrance's (Weber) hallucinations.
Many of Steve's ideas came to him while working in various part-time jobs when he was in his teens or early 20s. He got the inspiration for "Carrie" (1974) while working as a janitor at a high school, cleaning the women's showers. He states he really didn't like the characters (or even the book) very much, and actually almost abandoned the entire storyline. However, he was convinced by his wife to go through with the project, which was obviously a good thing, as "Carrie" became his first published novel, selling over a million paperback copies within its first year.
The Hitch-Hiker. "Creepshow 2" (1987, directed by Michael Gornick, Screenplay by George Romero) also starred George Kennedy, Dorothy Lamour (her last film), and Tom Savini (as the Creep). The "Hitch-Hiker" and "Old Chief Wood'nhead" were adapted from unpublished King short stories (at least I've never seen them in print), and "The Raft" was published in 1985 as part of the "Skeleton Crew" short story collection. The "Crate" was a segment in the original "Creepshow". There was not a lot of screen time for King in this roll, just one quick sequence.
Steve met future wife-to-be Tabitha (also a published author) in 1969 while both were students at the University of Maine.
| What was the name of Steve's character in the film adaptation of "Thinner", his novel about extreme weight loss and the importance of maintaining good relationships with gypsies? (Hint - think Steve's home state) | Stephen King: What a Great Actor!...Not!
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Dr. Bangor. "Thinner" (1996) was directed by Tom Holland ("The Langoliers", 1995) and starred Robert J. Burke, Michael Constantine, and Joe Mantegna. This film was not a bad adaptation (in my opinion), and the book, while not his best work, had a fairly decent storyline. The profession of Dr. Bangor was a pharmacist.
King contributed stories and articles to his brother Dave's small newspaper - "Dave's Rag" - while still in high school.
A bus. This is one I have to admit I have yet to see, but I do plan on renting it one of these days. The series was directed by Kenneth Fink and Allen Coulter, and starred Felicity (TV's "Desperate Housewives", 2004) Huffman, Ed Lauter, and R.D. Call. Steve's character drove for Greyhound.
Steve was watching a movie at a Bangor, ME. drive-in with a buddy when Tabitha went into labor with their son Joe. According to King, he (and everyone else) was informed of this event by an announcement from the manager, which came through the drive-in speakers. Fellow movie-goers congratulated him by honking their horns and flashing their lights as he left.
Cemetery caretaker. This was a film directed by Mick Garris, and starred Brian Kraus (TV's "Charmed", 1998), Madchen Amick (TV's "Joey", 2004 and "ER", 1994), and Ron Perlman ("Hellboy", 2004). "Sleepwalkers" was also based on another unpublished King novel. Other cameos included Mark Hamill ("Star Wars", 1977), John Landis ("An American Werewolf in London", 1981), Joe Dante ("The Howling", 1981), Tobe Hooper ("Poltergeist", 1982), and Clive Barker ("Hellraiser" 1987). This was a very impressive line-up of the genre's representatives, if I may say. Steve had a very small role, with no lines as far as I recall.
Much of the pain that Steve went through after being struck by a van in 1999 was described in the novel "Dreamcatcher" (2001), in which Gary Jones (one of the central characters) was injured much in the same way. King wrote the novel in longhand as a self-prescribed therapy.
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