275 – Caroline Bicks & The Stuff Too Dark for Even Stephen King

When Stephen King tells you to have a guest on your podcast – you listen!

That’s how I came to meet Caroline Bicks, the inaugural Stephen E. King Chair at the University of Maine, and author of the Monsters in the Archive – the first full-length study of the King literary collection.

It’s part memoir, part literary biography, part granular exploration of King’s editorial process – but ALL fun. I’m a nerd on this subject, and I found out plenty that I didn’t know.

As well as discussing our own relationship with King’s early work, we also talk about the stuff that never made it to print. The exploding vampire babies, the Kaiju-sized Carrie and the original ending of The Shining that is so much darker than you could bear.

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned:

• Carrie (1974), by Stephen King
• ‘Salem’s Lot (1975), by Stephen King
• The Shining (1977), by Stephen King
• Night Shift (1978), by Stephen King
• Pet Semetary (1983), by Stephen King
• On Writing (2000), by Stephen King
• North Woods (2023), by Daniel Mason
• Ulverton (1992), by Adam Thorpe

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