Bare Bones – Conversations with Stephen King – HBDJ 1^st/1^st  

 Bare Bones.  Conversations on Terror with Stephen King. Edited by Time Underwood and Chuck Miller..  Copyright, 1988.   McGraw Hill Book Company.  First edition with complete number line 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9.  Price on dust jacket:  $16.95

In Bare Bones Stephen King lays bare the inner workings of his teeming imagination – the source of all those nightmares that Americans find so addictive.  He candidly discusses his life:  his abandonment by his father, what influenced him as a child and young man, his problems with alcohol and drugs, his innermost, deepest fears.  And he talks about his career:  how he got started writing, how he works and writes, which of his novels he likes best (and which one he was ashamed to have published), how he feels about the movie versions of his bestselling books, and what he plans for the future.

Editor’s Note:  This set of interviews was conducted between 1979 and 1987.

From the dust jacket back:

“I think it was two years ago – my youngest son was about six and I was thirty-four – I was ready to go on a promotional tour …. And my wife asked him, ‘Owen, do you where Daddy’s going?’ and he said ‘Yes, he’s going off to be Stephen King.’”

“I’ve always written horror…because it’s a kind of psychological protection.  It’s like drawing a magic circle around myself and my family.  My mother always used to say, ‘If you think the worst, it can’t come true.’  I know that’s only a superstition, but I’ve always believed that if you think the very worst, then, no matter how bad things get (and in my heart I’ve always been convinced that they can get pretty bad), they’ll never get as bad as that.  If you write a novel where the bogeyman gets somebody else’s children, maybe they’ll never get your own children…”

“People ask what scares me.  Everything scares me.  Bugs are bad.  Bugs are real bad.  Sometimes I think about taking a bite into a great big hoagie, you know, and …full of bugs.  Imagine that.  Isn’t that awful?  Elevators.  Getting stuck in elevators.  Having that door just open on a blank wall.  Especially if it’s full and you can’t even really take a breath.  Airplanes.  The dark is a big one.  I don’t like the dark.  Dark rooms – I always leave a light on in the bathroom when I’m in a hotel and I always say to myself, well, this is because if I have to get up in the night and go to the bathroom I don’t want to stumble over the cable that goes to the TV.  But really it’s so the thing under the bed can’t get out and get me.”

-- Stephen King interviewed in Bare Bones

Book and jacket are in excellent condition; previous owner emboss on title page.

Buyer to pay $3.50 for Media Mail shipping which includes delivery confirmation.

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