Interview: Rocky Wood

Rocky Wood is a highly-respected researcher on the works of Stephen King and the co-author on two of the most comprehensive resources on of the horror author: the Complete Guide to the Works of Stephen King and Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished. The former, a mammoth 6400 page study on every work King has produced, was regarded by King himself as 'a valuable resource'. He has also had articles in Lighthouse IV and V and Dark Discoveries.

When did you first discover Stephen King? What drew you to him?
I saw Carrie at the movies in New Zealand in early 1977. Funnily enough, I think it was the first time I’d seen a horror movie in a theatre. I decided to find the book and read it but there weren’t any copies at the few bookstores Wellington had in those days. They did have Salem’s Lot and The Shining, both of which I devoured and the rest, as they say, is history.

What is your favourite book of King’s and why?

The Stand. This novel is (the source of) a major debate in the King community with opinion equally split between his Dark Tower series, It and The Stand. I believe The Stand transcends them all – it is a tale of epic proportions, pitting good and evil; is beautifully written; and there is a masterful balance across a pantheon of wholly believable characters that stay in one’s forever. That’s not to say I don’t have reason to love a number of King’s works, each for different reasons – The Green Mile, The Dead Zone, Bag of Bones and so on.

Does having such a thorough knowledge of King’s works wreck the magic of the author for you?

Not at all. I seem to be able to split reading King for enjoyment from doing so for research without consciously thinking about it. I always read a King book or short story the first time for myself, and the pure experience. Knowing King’s work as intimately as I do allows me to respect the workmanship he puts into everything he does. In my case, that enhances the experience.

Stephen King’s works have been covered a number of times. Why did you decide to write books on King and what do you think you bring that is fresh to the debate?

When I was at University I did freelance journalism to help pay my way but gave it up once I got into the corporate world. Back in 2000 I decided to bring writing back into my life. I’ve always believed you should write about things you have a passion for and King was obviously one of those (I also didn’t think I could easily break into rugby writing) and, as a corporate type, I like to think my time writing would pay in some way. Therefore one should have a market. In this case, King has a ready made market of fans and even publishers, particularly in the US.

I think I’ve brought a number of new angles to the King discussion. Firstly, I have made it a mission to be very accurate – I have gone back and re-checked materials and sources from the originals, often correcting errors that have become gospel. I believed it was time for an up-to-date totally comprehensive encyclopedia on King’s works so I created one – ‘The Complete Guide to the Works of Stephen King’, now in its third edition and rolling in at over 6400 pages! I also believed there had been little focus on certain areas of King’s work – his penchant for published revisions of his work; the masses of unpublished material and so on. I also determined to act as a sort of archaeologist and actually dig out previously unknown King material. I’ve already ‘rediscovered’ a couple of dozen King pieces that had been ‘lost’. I’ve even found copies of pieces King himself had forgotten he’d written and provided him with the only copy he now has. I’ve even exposed hoaxes and confirmed that certain pieces that some thought might be by King were not. So, I’m not repeating the work of others or analyzing the way anyone else might – I’m actually in the process of discovery. Just this last October I was in Maine and dug up nine or so pieces of previously unknown King non-fiction.

What goes into releasing a guide on another author’s work? How do you prepare for the book and what do you need to be mindful of?

Firstly, I think you need to determine to be accurate. Secondly, you must determine to secure all original research materials – including the original publication forms of the author’s work. Structure is important – to present the material in a usable and readable manner requires thinking out the end result before you start. You need to be prepared to work hard and be committed to the long-haul - this is time-consuming stuff. You need to be prepared to chase research leads to the ends of the earth (without the Internet and e-mail this might be nigh impossible) and, in my view, you have to try to get inside the author’s head.

Has Stephen King endorsed any of your books and if so how does that make you feel?

No, King doesn’t normally do that, nor would I ask. While I am very supportive of King’s position in the literary firmament (and the recognition he is finally receiving) I would like to feel reasonably independent. It is fair to say he has been very helpful, as has his personal assistant, Marsha DeFilippo. They have given me access to materials most researchers have not had and SK was incredibly kind to allow me to include a chapter from a novel that will never be published in my new book, ‘Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished’, along with a poem that had only previously appeared in an obscure literary magazine. I guess that means he has been fairly happy with the quality of the material I’ve published. When the Guide came out he dropped me a note calling it ‘a valuable resource’. That made my day!

Why did you decide to release the Complete Guide to the Works of Stephen King on CD? What does this collection contain that isn’t found anywhere else?

My fellow authors, David Rawsthorne (from Lithgow) and Norma Blackburn (Newcastle) and I realized early on that the material was too large for a book (or even a series). Because there are 6400 pages a CD was the only easy way to present the material to fans and researchers. By going with PDF files for each chapter we were able to introduce links and search capabilities (the Index of Characters is hundreds of pages long but can be searched on keywords, such as ‘blue eyes’, or name and so on). So we really think this is the best format for the Guide.

There is no other resource that covers every character, place, business and thing mentioned in every King story (no surprise there). There is no other resource that documents the links between every King story and every other one. We also include errors (bloopers, if you like) and word for word the revisions King included from one form of a story to the next (one story has four different published forms, and many have three). It is also the only resource one can go to that actually consolidates together information about every King story, right
down to the most obscure.

Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished is about to be published by Cemetery Dance. How did this come about and how did you get the rights to King's stories?

I pitched the project to Cemetery Dance because they’d done a number of King projects and, while not a large mainstream publisher, are far from a small press. What with two magazines and a few dozen book projects per year I felt they would be interested. They picked it up right away. The publisher, Rich Chizmar, and his team have been a joy to work with. After I completed the first draft of the manuscript for SKUU I wrote to King basically thanking him for the access he’d provided to the material and pretty much saying sales would be enhanced if he would consent to allow an unpublished piece to appear in the book (after all, ‘unpublished’ is the theme). I proposed four pieces – the poem, two high school pieces I ‘rediscovered’ and sent him (he hadn’t seen them for nearly forty years) and a chapter from ‘Sword in the Darkness’. I put it to him that that the chapter included some of his best writing, it showed that the King of Carrie and onwards existed in 1970, and it would be a loss to the reading world if the piece stayed buried in an archive box. He agreed to the poem and the chapter (saying the high school stuff was too embarrassing, although he did have great fun writing them). That was an exciting day!

Tell us a bit about King’s unpublished novel which appears as part of the Uncollected, Unpublished collection?

Sword in the Darkness was written in 1970, in King’s last few months at the University of Maine. The novel’s basis is that a criminal gang plans to start a race riot as cover for an evening of burglaries and robberies. The problems with it are that it is not particularly well written (machine gun chapters, plodding plotlines) and there are far too many characters, which are easily confused. But, reading it, one glimpses the King who only four years later would publish Carrie. The novel can never be published – it is simply not up to King’s standards and the race riot format (while very valid at the time) could well be misconstrued these days. Yet some of the characters had real truth (Edie Rowsmith, a school teacher whose back story is the core of the chapter we’re publishing, for instance) and patches of the writing are excellent.

Do you think you will work on your own material or are you happy to focus on non-fiction?

Right now I’m sticking with non-fiction. I’ve never really attempted fiction. My mindset is very ‘fact-based’, so I am comfortable researching and presenting facts and reasoned, research opinion. Actually, I do regard this work as my own material, even though it is about King. The information I’ve provided is unique, I think I’ve added new angles to the debate. Quite a bit of the material are my opinions and dissertations on King’s work and the King phenomenon. If good fiction is the truth within the lie; then certainly good non-fiction should confront and reveal the deeper truths about its subject matter. At the same time, even non-fiction should entertain.

Are you able to make a living off writing non-fiction? What else do you do to survive?

I don’t think I could make a living from it at this stage. There are limited markets for non-fiction and the per-word rates are not that attractive. In real terms I was being paid more to write in 1980 than I am now! But that’s not why I do it. I am passionate and about and interested in my subject. Writing is a great relaxation for me. And, I get to present my opinion, something my friends will tell you I’ve been doing all my life! I expect to be remunerated for the work, of course, but not to get rich from it.

Oh, and the bank manager is kept happy through my corporate job.

What has studying King’s works taught you about writing dark fiction?

I subscribe to King’s theory that story is above everything. The story is the skeleton upon which characterization, theme and all else must sit in horror – without the story all else is close to intellectual masturbation. I despise the analysis freaks – always looking for theme, context, sub-context and so on. My god – some poor fools have written academic dissertations arguing King is a racist or a homophobe using highly selective quotes and certain characters from his massive body of work. Story, story, story – all else follows.

Reading King across his entire career also demonstrates the value of being a craftsman. As a writer King is always trying to improve, to innovate, to challenge himself. In my work I take King’s suggestions in ‘On Writing’ to heart – I revise heavily, I try to ‘omit needless words’ and avoid adverbs. And his fiction has taught me that humour is vital to making a work interesting, I use it in my non-fiction.

What can people expect from Rocky Wood in the future? What are you working on now?

I am completing a manuscript commissioned by a publisher (deadline: April), which is also about King’s work. It hasn’t been announced yet but I can say it is a book dealing with a rarely discussed area of the King-dom and contains a lot of original research and material (I just spent three weeks in Maine on a research trip). I have assisted in compiling another major reference work (also yet to be announced) for which I also write the Introduction. I have a couple more King books in me before I lay off that subject. We will always update the ‘Guide’, so that’s a weekly, if not a daily task. King will continue to be prolific and innovative (he and John Mellencamp are working on a stage show right now) so I am sure I will be kept on my mental toes for some time yet.

As my writing and research time frees up a little I want to do some book reviews and consider some other book-length non-fiction projects. I’m loosely tied in with some people in the movie industry so I might consider helping with screenplays. As to fiction I suspect I don’t have a novel in me but I do have a couple of short fiction ideas I might play with.

For more information on The Complete Guide to the Works of Stephen King check the Horrorking website. Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished is avaliable through Cemetery Dance.

Next week in the Horrorscope interview series: Lee Battersby