Meg: “What would you like people to know about the reality of living with your gift? What are some false ideas people seem to have?”
Bonnie Macleod: “I would like people to understand that not all mediums are ‘guessing’ or trying to profit from them. I also want people to know that at times it can feel like a burden when people say hurtful things. It’s not something I asked for, and it took a long time for me to accept it and embrace it as a part of me. It’s also not a parlor trick, nor is it on demand. I refuse to guess or manipulate just to make someone feel good. Sometimes there just isn’t any message, it’s rare but it happens.”
Kelly: “Lastly, what is your favorite work by Stephen King and why?”
Bonnie Macleod: “I love both 11/22/63 and The Long Walk (1979) equally. They both leave the reader questioning how they would deal with those situations. They make you question exactly how selfless you could be, how strong you could be, and make you realize how easy it is to fall in love with a character in a book and embrace them as family.”
Thank you to Bonnie for insight into such a fascinating world.
The children of The Institute don’t have a choice about their abilities, or, like the victims of the MK-Ultra tests, whether they will be poked and prodded. Yet, Stephen King gives the fictional kids in his novel the ability to fight against what often feels impossible to rise against, a well-oiled and powerful government.
Conclusion
Thank you, fellow constant readers, for joining us on this journey into the heart of Stephen King and the complex, horrific worlds he has created. Truth is often stranger than fiction, and for the Master of Horror, he fused both, dropping memorable characters into plots as vast as killer clowns to time travel in the era of the JFK assassination. As the author himself said, “fiction is the truth inside the lie.” It is this intersection of both his believable, empathetic characters and his fictional, often paranormal horror that makes him the true master.
Acknowledgments
Thank you to Nicole Mele and everyone at Skyhorse!
Thank you to our parents who introduced us to Stephen King through his books and movies.
Thank you to everyone who took the time to be interviewed including Les, Luke, Andrew, Annette, James, Kara Lee, Richard, R. J, Amanda, Sara, Samantha, and Bonnie.
Thank you to our families for all of their love and support. And to the Rewinders, we’ll see you in the horror section.
About the Authors
Kelly Florence (left) and Meg Hafdahl
Kelly Florence is a communication instructor at Lake Superior College in Duluth, Minnesota, and is the creator and cohost of the Horror Rewind podcast as well as the producer and host of the podcast Be A Better Communicator. She received her BA in theater at the University of Minnesota–Duluth and earned her MA in communicating arts at the University of Wisconsin–Superior. Kelly is the coauthor of The Science of Monsters and The Science of Women in Horror, also from Skyhorse Publishing.
Horror and suspense author Meg Hafdahl is the creator of numerous stories and books. Her fiction has appeared in anthologies such as Eve’s Requiem: Tales of Women, Mystery, and Horror and Eclectically Criminal. Her work has been produced for audio by The Wicked Library and The Lift, and she is the author of two popular short story collections including Twisted Reveries: Thirteen Tales of the Macabre. Meg is also the author of the two novels Daughters of Darkness and Her Dark Inheritance, called “an intricate tale of betrayal, murder, and small-town intrigue” by Horror Addicts and “every bit as page turning as any King novel” by RW magazine. Meg, also the cohost of the podcast Horror Rewind and coauthor of The Science of Monsters and The Science of Women in Horror, lives in the snowy bluffs of Minnesota.
Endnotes
Chapter One: Carrie
1. Romano, Aja. (October 10, 2018) “Stephen King: A Guide to His Horror, His History, and His Legacy.” Vox.
2. Abrams, Bryan. (October 18, 2013) “The Carrie Phenomenon: A Brief History of Telekinesis.” Motion Pictures.org.
3. King, Stephen. (2000) On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. New York: Scribner.
4. Lawson, Carol. (September 23, 1979) “Behind the Best Sellers: Stephen King.” The New York Times.
5. (2020) www.stephenking.com
6. Creed, Barbara. (1993) “Horror and the Monstrous.” Routledge: London.
7. Fransson, Rebecka. (2015) “Bloody Horror! The Symbolic Meaning of Blood in Stephen King’s Carrie.” Orebro University.
8. Adams, Zoe. (August 31, 2015) “Diseasing the Female.” Eidolon.
9. Dua, P. (March 2014) “Orbital Vicarious Menstruation.” NCBI.
10. Graziottin, Alessandra. (August 1, 2016) “Perimenstrual Asthma: From Pathophysiology to Treatment Strategies.” Multidisciplinary Respiratory Medicine.
11. Zaslavsky, Claudia. (January 1992) “Women as the First Mathematicians.” International Study Group of Ethnomathematics Newsletter.
12. Ilias, I. (2013) “Do Lunar Phases Influence Menstruation? A Year-Long Retrospective Study.” Endocrine Regulations.
13. Howarth, Jan. et al. (November 28, 2008) “Religion, Beliefs and Parenting Practices.” Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
14. Dawkins, Richard. (2006) The God Delusion. Bantam Books: United Kingdom.
15. VanderWeele, Tyler J. (September 18, 2018) “Religious Upbringing and Adolescence.” Institute For Family Studies.
16. Tashjian, Sarah. (May 16, 2018) “Parenting Styles and Child Behavior.” Psychology in Action.
17. Swearer, Susan M. (May 2015) “Understanding the Psychology of Bullying.” American Psychologist.
18. Zhang, Peng. (May 20, 2016) “Social Anxiety, Stress Type, and Conformity Among Adolescents.” Frontiers in Psychology.
19. Walton, Alice G. (February 21, 2013) “The Psychological Effects of Bullying Last Well Into Adulthood, Study Finds.” Forbes.
20. King, Stephen. (1974) Carrie. Doubleday: New York.
Chapter Two: The Shining
1. (July 2, 2010) “Stephen King: The ‘Craft’ of Writing Horror Stories.” NPR.
2. Beahm, George Andrews. (1998) Stephen King: America’s Best-Loved Boogeyman. McMeel Press.
3. Derin, Jacob. (March 18, 2018) “The Shining: The Hellish World of the Tyrannical Patriarch.” Medium.
Chapter Three: Salem’s Lot
1. Konstantin, Phil. (July 1987) “An Interview with Stephen King.” Highway Patrolman Magazine.
2. Tucker, Abigail (October 2012) “The Great New England Vampire Panic.” Smithsonian.