I’ve read quite a bit of SK’s stuff, and liked most of it. Never read any of his wife’s books, though, and now I understand that their son is published, too (don’t know his name).
Is Tabitha’s and the son’s stuff any good?
Do they write at all similarly to SK, either in subject or style?
Would they have had any prayer of being published were it not for their connection to SK?
[url=http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1582345856/sr=8-1/qid=1141317423/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-5311134-1187322?%5Fencoding=UTF8]Owen King**. I haven’t read this, but it did get good reviews.
I’m a big fan of Tabitha, particularly her Maine trilogy “Pearl” “One on One” and “The Book of Reuben.” I think she would have been published if she were still Tabitha Spruce.
Fixed coding.
I enjoy Tabitha King’s Maine books as well. One on One was especially wonderful. There is something about her writing that is so heartbreakingly real, even in somewhat unreal situations.
She has a new novel coming out this June that I will probably check out, although it seems a little Stephen King-ish - she completes the last novel by the late Michael McDowell.
I have a vague memory that SK doesn’t particularly care for his son’s writing style, which I’m similarly recalling as being a bit sort of second-person Bret Easton Ellis gritty twaddle.
There, now wasn’t that helpful?
Another hearty thumbs up for Tabitha - I’ve only read The Book of Reuben, and yes, I read it because of her husband, but that was ten years ago and I still remember it like it was yesterday. I need to read the rest of her stuff, it’s very good (and nothing like a Stephen King book, although those are my number one guilty pleasure.)
I also admire Stephen & Tabitha’s marriage: They have stayed together through extreme poverty, sudden wealth & fame, staggering wealth & fame, drug use, Stephen’s near death from a car crash & his recovery, and they have raised three seemingly normal children.
Thanks, Annie and Heir. I did not know about Owen.
The word “seemingly” sounds fairly ominous used in this context.
Well, their father IS Stephen King. They probably have some quirks.
Just protecting myself. In case one of their kids goes nuts and kills 14 people or something.
Good point. The word “seemingly” in any context, when applied to anything in the greater Stephen King locality, is going to sound ominous.
I really enjoyed Pearl*, myself, and now I have to keep an eye out for the other two. Thanks for the heads up. 
*The penny dropped for me, wrt the Tabitha-Stephen connection, when the Game Warden lady told Pearl that she was too old to go to Shawshank.
King’s daughter-in-law is also a writer fairly well known in theological circles. Her name is Thandeka (“just Thandeka”) and she’s the author of several theology textbooks; she’s married (in MA) to King’s daughter Naomi who either is or at one time was a divinity student.
I could definitely accept if my daughter came to me and told me she wants to marry her lesbian girlfriend. I could accept with no problem whatever if she told me her girlfriend was black. I could accept- with admittedly much more difficult time of it- that her girlfriend was 30 years her senior. But the cumulative affect of them all- “Dad, I’ve met my soulmate and she’s getting married- she’s a black woman twice my age and she’s a minister!” would definitely make me do a doubletake. (“Darlin’, why don’t you just tell me she’s a topless dancer and an ex-con with 8 kids and a psychotic mother who’s going to live with you to make things just a little more difficult on your relationship…”)
I am not a SK fan, but what is this about drug abuse?
Stephen spent a good lot of his career coked up, apparently.
Stephen had serious cocaine and alcohol problems in the 1980’s. Family and friends did an intervention, and he stopped everything.
I admire the man, as I admire anyone who grew up in abject poverty and makes something of themselves.
I think it was Cujo that he really doesn’t remember writing at all. There’s a good bit about his addiction in On Writing, which is really quite an excellent little book.
Another person who enjoyed One on One. I should look up some of her other titles.
Mr. Kat and I got that one on CD for a trip, and had a blast listening to it. SK reads it, of course. At one point we had to pull off the nearest exit and find a parking lot because we were both laughing so hard we were crying (little Stevie as the guinea pig for his brother’s big-bang-pow science experiments).
I loved Cujo and loved it even more after reading what King said about the writing of it. I don’t know if the way he linked all those events together was brilliant or sloppy, but it worked for me. One coincidence after another, starting with the cereal (then tossing in a lottery win!) and ending with Donna in the farmyard with that dog.
Last night I rearranged bookshelves. King has four, each about three feet wide, but one shelf is books “about” King. I admired the Simon & Schuster dust jackets and cursed (ha!) the woman who borrowed Thinner and Dead Zone and lost the dust jackets.