Tag Archives: Stephen King

Revisiting The Shining by Richard Chizmar

Richard's Essays

THAT WAS THEN…

The ShiningTHE SHINING was the second Stephen King novel I ever read, and when I look back at that experience there is one crystal clear memory that surfaces above all the others: this book is almost too scary.

Let me explain. I was sixteen at the time. The son of a strict, but loving father and a doting mother. Baby brother to four older siblings. A mostly normal teenager who just happened to see and hear and feel things a little deeper (okay, a lot deeper) than most of my friends. I already knew I wanted to be a writer one day, and somewhere deep in my subconscious, I think I also knew that writing would one day be my salvation. The same way that books were my escape from the real world, I somehow knew that writing would be my way to understand and cope with that real world. » Read more

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Welcome to the Overlook by Bev Vincent

Historical Context Essays

Now free to write full time, and having produced two books set in Maine, Stephen King decided to move so he could absorb a new setting. According to one version of the story, their destination was left up to chance—a blind finger-stab at a US roadmap.

In 1974, after King finished “The Body,” the family moved to a rented house in Boulder where King planned to write The House on Value Street, a novel loosely based on Patty Hearst’s kidnapping by the SLA. He struggled with it for several weeks and abandoned it after he and his wife spent a getaway weekend at the Stanley Hotel in nearby Estes Park.

They arrived on the night before the Stanley closed for the winter, and were its only guests. The mostly empty hotel struck King as the perfect setting for a ghost story. Only one entrée was being served in the dining room. The chairs were stacked atop every table except theirs. The tuxedo-clad orchestra played for them and them alone. A person could get lost in the endless hallways he wandered after Tabitha went to bed. The hotel bartender was named Grady. The clawfoot bathtub in their room was so deep someone might drown in it. That night, he dreamed of their son, Joe, screaming as a fire hose chased him. Soon, King had the framework of the story in his head. » Read more

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Stephen King Revisited Contest and Mr. Mercedes Still Discounted To $3.75!

News & Updates

Two quick updates today:

1) We’ve selected the first group of winners in our Stephen King Revisited contest and they’ve been emailed to confirm their addresses. Once we hear back, we’ll post their names here on the site. MORE WINNERS WILL SELECTED NEXT WEEK, so read all of the details to make sure you’re entered because this is a FREE contest.

2) For those of you who like to plan ahead or who haven’t read this one yet, Norman Prentiss over at eHorrorBargains.com spotted that the eBook edition of Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King is only $3.75 today on Amazon for some reason, which is a terrific deal for such a new release from a major author:

Mr Mercedes by Stephen King

» Read more

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Richard Chizmar Reading The Shining, Contest Update, Found Photos, and Following Richard

News & Updates

Four quick updates today:

1) Our Stephen King Revisited contest is up and running and we’ll start picking winners THIS WEEK. Read all of the details to make sure you’re entered because this is a FREE contest and the prizes are pretty awesome.

2) Remember, you can follow Richard on Facebook and Twitter for his personal updates and other posts of interest to readers and collectors and Stephen King fans.

3) Richard Chizmar was caught reading on the job yet again today. For the record, he hit Chapter 17, The Doctor’s Office:

Richard Chizmar Reading The Shining

4) In the category of “you never know what you’ll find in an old book,” here are two photos Richard found in The Shining paperback. He has no idea where they came from:

photo in 'Salem's Lot 01photo in 'Salem's Lot 02

Finally, this would be a great time for you to join in and read along with Richard. You can order an eBook and start right now. Here are the eBook store links if you want to download a copy:

Amazon.com
Barnes & Noble
Kobo
iTunes/iBookstore

To be notified of new posts and updates via email, please sign-up using the box on the right side or the bottom of this site.

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Stephen King Revisited Contest! Prizes Include A Signed Stephen King Book And More!

News & Updates

Are you receiving our free Stephen King Revisited updates via email? (If you’re reading this message in your email, the answer is yes!)

If you are not receiving the updates via email, NOW is the time to sign-up because we’ll be giving away some GREAT prizes to randomly selected subscribers next week including a book SIGNED by STEPHEN KING!

Revival by Stephen King(Already a subscriber? Then you’re good to go for this giveaway and there’s nothing else you need to do!)

** THE PRIZES INCLUDE:

* a signed 1st edition hardcover of REVIVAL by Stephen King

* $500 Cemetery Dance Gift Certificate

* a complete set of the Stephen King Doubleday Years Gift Editions (Carrie, ‘Salem’s Lot, The Shining, Night Shift, The Stand, and Pet Sematary), a combined retail value of more than $550!

* a FREE SIGNED LIMITED EDITION of your choice from our website

* a lifetime subscription to Cemetery Dance magazine

We’ll be selecting the winners at random sometime next week, so don’t wait to sign-up for our FREE email updates because you have nothing to lose!

** HOW TO SUBSCRIBE:

1) Visit http://www.StephenKingRevisited.com if you’re not here already

2) Look for the “Updates and Notifications via email” box on the right or at the bottom

3) Enter your email address and click “Subscribe”

4) Check your email for the confirmation email and click on the special link to confirm your subscription. You have to confirm your subscription to be entered into this contest.

All decisions made by Cemetery Dance Publications are final. This contest may end at any time. Winners will be posted on StephenKingRevisited.com after they are notified and confirm they are real human beings and not bots. Rules subject to change.

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Revisiting ‘Salem’s Lot by Richard Chizmar

Richard's Essays

THAT WAS THEN…

'Salem's Lot Paperback‘SALEM’S LOT was the first Stephen King novel I ever read.

I carried the paperback (with the bright red drop of blood dripping from the embossed black fang) everywhere I went. I’d picked it up used at — where else? — Carol’s Used Bookstore in good old downtown Edgewood, and by the time I was finished reading it, the cover was torn off and missing and most of the pages were dog-earred. I still have that copy today.

I was fifteen years old when I discovered ‘SALEM’S LOT. It was shortly after I’d read “The Monkey,” along with the rest of my tenth grade English class, and I was itching to try a full-length Stephen King book. I remember starting the novel on a school day. In the middle of class. My History teacher was not amused. Neither were my parents, a few days later, when I tried to sneak in a couple chapters during Sunday church service. » Read more

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Carrie: The Curious Case of George Chizmar by Richard Chizmar

Richard's Essays

On page 82 of the first edition hardcover edition of CARRIE, we are introduced to a character by the name of George Chizmar:

“George Chizmar, Ewen’s most artistic student, had done a small chalk sketch of gondolas on a canal at sunset and a gondolier in a huge straw fedora leaning against the tiller as a gorgeous panoply of pinks and reds and oranges stained both sky and water.”

I remember being stunned, and more than a little pleased, the first time I read that sentence. I had never before seen my last name (trust me, it’s not a common one) in any work of fiction, so for it to appear in my favorite author’s debut novel was quite a thrill.

Of course, it also led to many years of inevitable questions: did Stephen King name Ewen’s most artistic student after you, Rich? Did he know your father? Your uncle? » Read more

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Revisiting Carrie by Richard Chizmar

Richard's Essays

THAT WAS THEN…

So, I sit down a couple weeks ago and write my introduction to Stephen King Revisited and I go on and on about how King’s books carry so many personal memories for me — where I was when I first read them, who I was, what I was thinking — and now it comes time to discuss the very first King book, CARRIE, and I realize…ummmm, my memory of this one isn’t quite so clear, folks.

Great way to start this journey, huh?

But it actually makes sense when I think about it.

CARRIE was originally published in April 1974. I was eight years old at the time and busy fishing and collecting baseball cards and playing whiffle ball in the side yard with my friends. My only exposure to horror at that early age were comic books and the Saturday afternoon Creature Double Features on television. » Read more

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King, Carrie, and a Religious Revelation by Ray Garton

Guest Essays

“Jesus watches from the wall,
But his face is cold as stone,
And if he loves me
As she tells me
Why do I feel so all alone?” 
— Carrie White

Stephen King’s Carrie was not the first horror novel I read, but it was the first horror novel that did more than frighten and disturb me, the first to reach a hand deep into my life, stir things up, and make me begin to look at things differently.  It made me question … well, just about everything. » Read more

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