The End of the World As We Know It - An Interview W/ Bev Vincent
Bev Vincent is an accomplished writer and essayist, as well as an aficionado regarding all things Stephen King. His next short story, entitled “Lockdown”, will appear in the upcoming anthology The End of the World As We Know It - New Tales of Stephen King’s The Stand, releasing August 19th.
MAD: Mr. Vincent, it’s a pleasure to speak with you today for Horror to Culture! Thanks for taking some time with us. Among being an accomplished writer and essayist, it’s safe to say that you are a bit of an expert on the life and works of the legendary author Stephen King. Having written The Road to the Dark Tower (2005), and Stephen King: A Complete Exploration of His Work, Life, and Influences (2022), can you please tell us how your scholarly approach to covering Stephen King came about?
BV: I’ve been writing about King’s works for nearly 25 years now. It all started when Rich Chizmar asked me if I’d take over the column of King news, reviews and commentary that appear in each issue of Cemetery Dance. I’d been very active on alt.books.stephen-king on USENET (an early analog to Reddit), so I decided it would be fun to write for the magazine. I’m an avid researcher (in my other life, I have a PhD in chemistry and wrote a 500+ page thesis!) and I’ve been keeping articles and reviews and interviews related to King since the 1980s, so I have a trove of material to rely on.
I never thought I’d be able to write a book about King’s entire career, which keeps expanding year-by-year, but I was invited to write The Stephen King Illustrated Companion by Barnes & Noble, so that was my first attempt at addressing his works and life. Because of page limits, I had to select only a small number of his works to dive deeply into. What was cool about the first version of that book was that King allowed us to go into his archives and reproduce a lot of really cool stuff no one had ever seen before, and a lot of it was in the form of removable documents, which gave the book a real tactile experience. Later, I suggested expanding the book and that culminated in Stephen King: A Complete Exploration of His Work, Life, and Influences, which looks at the origins of all of King’s book (up until 2022) and what was going on in his life when he was working on them. I’ve never been interested in writing straight biography—other people have already done that—but what fascinates me is how biography is often interlinked with creativity.
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MAD: You actually have two books devoted to The Dark Tower, with the other entitled The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly: Eight Secondary Characters from the Dark Tower Series (2005). How did you approach such an epic and voluminous body of work, in order to bring it all together in a cohesive fashion?
BV: My other book about the Dark Tower series is called The Dark Tower Companion from 2013. The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly was a chapbook published by Cemetery Dance that contained character profiles that I couldn’t fit into The Road to the Dark Tower because of space limitations.
When I heard that King was going to finish the Dark Tower series by writing books five to seven back-to-back-to-back, it occurred to me that this was something I could explore at depth that spanned (at the time) his entire writing career and had interconnections with many of his non-series books. I proposed the book that would become The Road to the Dark Tower to King and then had the audacity to ask if I could read the final three books in manuscript so I could have Road finished in time to be published when book seven came out. Happily, he said yes.
Then it was a matter of reading, re-reading and reading those seven books again, along with related works like “Little Sisters of Eluria,” Salem’s Lot, Insomnia, “Low Men in Yellow Coats” and Black House. I approached Road like I was a tour guide taking readers on a walk through the series, pointing out things I’d noticed during my studies that maybe they hadn’t observed. My assumption was an audience of people who had already read the series.
The Dark Tower Companion came about because the DT universe had expanded by then. There was an eighth book, graphic novels and a serious effort underway to bring the series to the screen. I thought there was an audience of people who had read the graphic novels (or saw the cinematic adaptation that we hoped would be out soon) but hadn’t read the novels. So it was more for people who had questions: who is so-and-so and what is the real significance of things like ka or ka-tet. As someone who did not regularly read graphic novels, I was curious about that process, so I interviewed all of the people involved in the Marvel adaptations, and I had long talks with Ron Howard and Akiva Goldsman about their plans for the movies, as well as an interview with King.
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MAD: Your next work will appear in the highly anticipated short story anthology The End of The World as We Know it – New Tales of Stephen King’s The Stand (releasing on August 19th). I already have my pre-order ready! It must be exciting to be part of a collection that also features new work by Poppy Z. Brite, Paul Tremblay, Joe R. Lansdale and so many other talented writers, all set in the world of The Stand. Can you give us any further insight into the new release, and how it came about?
BV: Yes, it’s very exciting. I can’t wait for people to get to read this thing that’s been in the works for a while now. It all started for me when, a little over two years ago, I received an email from Brian Keene, who I’ve known for decades (and collaborated with on the project Dissonant Harmonies). He and Chris Golden had been talking on the phone one evening and came up with the idea for a collection of stories set in the world of The Stand that would portray some of the other things that were going on in America—and around the world—during and after the supervirus pandemic. They decided to pitch the concept to an agent and asked if I would be interested in contributing. At that point they were collecting names of interested parties to include in their pitch.
Once they had the green light to proceed, prospective contributors were asked to briefly pitch their stories to make sure there wasn’t significant overlap and to make sure the stories fit with The Stand’s continuity, stipulating that we were writing in the 1990 version of the story. I pitched my basic idea—just a few lines long—for what eventually became my story “Lockdown,” and they both liked it. Shortly after that, I spent a week on vacation rereading The Stand to create a day-by-day timeline to make sure I stayed in continuity. I shared this with Brian and Chris so they could use it during their editorial process.
It's been great fun seeing this come together. After working on the anthology Flight or Fright with King, I appreciate all the work they went through putting this massive book together, and the final result is impressive, to say the least.
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MAD: If you don’t mind, I wanted to open this interview up for some of the other contributors at HORROR TO CULTURE (as we’re all massive King fans). Daniel Sokoloff of Death Wish Poetry Magazine wants to ask you, in regards to the new Stand anthology: “Were any aspect of the novel or world off-limits? I love The Stand for the scope of its characters’ trajectories, as well as its reflection of the various faces of (then) modern America. Do you think the portrait is still relevant today?”
BV: We couldn’t write stories from the point of view of the major characters in The Stand. However, we could have those characters appear from the perspective of new characters. Say someone was at a Boulder Free Zone Committee meeting. Naturally, they’d be able to see Stu and Frannie and Larry and the others on stage and even talk about what they were saying. That didn’t happen to the best of my recollection, although one story has a fleeting reference to a couple of original characters that I hope readers will catch. And every rule is meant to be broken, so one writer came up with a creative way to write about one of the major characters. There were no restrictions on geography. I remember commenting to Brian and Chris when I pitched my story that I hoped there would be stories written about things that happen outside of the US, and I’m pleased to see that some writers did just that. I wanted to see how they addressed the question of what someone abroad might dream. Did they have their own Mother A and Flagg or were they also impelled to come to Boulder or Las Vegas?
Given that we were working on these stories during the late stages of our own pandemic, it seemed to me that King’s novel was very relevant. I was inspired by how people in our world responded to advice on how to avoid the contagion. In some countries, they took the concept of bubbles and lockdown very seriously and in others, not so much. I wanted to explore how people in a fairly unique location, none of whom might be immune to Captain Trips, might respond to the threat.
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MAD: What are your feelings about the two previous television adaptations of The Stand (1994 and 2020, respectively)? There’s another film adaptation already in the works?
BV: Although it shows its age a little on a modern rewatch, and it was somewhat throttled by the nature of broadcast TV at the time, I think Mick Garris’s adaptation is still worth checking out. It gets the story and the characters mostly right. I wasn’t as big a fan of the 2020 version. Some of the changes in how the characters were portrayed didn’t sit well with me. The best part, I thought, was the final episode, which took the story beyond the novel to show Frannie and Stu en route to Maine. King had always known that was part of the story, but it didn’t fit in the novel, even when he was able to restore things that had been cut in the first version of the book. So I was glad that we got to see that vignette. As for another film adaptation—I’m not preparing popcorn quite yet. Every year, new adaptations are “announced,” but only a small fraction of them make it to filming. I honestly can’t see even a three-hour movie doing the book service, but we’ll see!
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MAD: What were your thoughts on the recent film release, The Life of Chuck? I thought it was a lovely adaptation, and Mike Flanagan has done such a great job with all of his King-related projects.
BV: I loved the movie and I look forward to watching it again. I remember writing about how unique the short story among King’s works. My wife, who doesn’t read much King and hadn’t read the story, loved the movie as well. It’s the kind of film that you can talk about for days after seeing it.
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MAD: Speaking of Flanagan, what is your level of anticipation for the new adaptations of The Dark Tower, The Running Man, and The Long Walk? Being in my top 5 King books, I’ve been waiting for The Long Walk for about 20 years now!
BV: Even though I’m getting on in years, I’m still patient when it comes to new adaptations. I don’t see a movie as a necessary part of the lifecycle of a novel. If a book is never adapted, I don’t feel the loss, if you know what I mean. I have my own movies playing in my head from reading the books. So, I’ll happily go see the adaptations when they appear (unless it’s the 19th Children of the Corn film!) but I am willing to wait for them, knowing that, as I said earlier, they might never come together. That said, I think Mike Flanagan is the guy to do the Dark Tower. I was really impressed by what Akiva Goldsman and Ron Howard told me about their plans, but it was a hard sell and ultimately they had to move on to other things. Flanagan’s in the driver’s seat now.
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MAD: Will you be watching the new series IT: Welcome To Derry when it releases, and do you think the character of Pennywise still has a lot of life left as a property?
BV: I have to watch The Institute first! But, yes, I’ll definitely watch Welcome to Derry. I have to confess that the teasers didn’t get me very fired up because they seemed very similar in tone and content to the recent two-film version of It. But that’s just a couple of minutes out of many hours of material, so I’m prepared to sit back and enjoy the ride.
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MAD: This might be a long shot to ask, but seeing as you are on speaking terms with Stephen King, do you have any new information to relay on the highly anticipated 3rd part in the Jack Sawyer Trilogy, or the possibility of a TV adaptation of The Talisman? As of a couple years ago, it was reported that The Duffer Brothers (Stranger Things) was set to produce a new series.
BV: We know from social media that King has finished writing the third book in the series and that it has a lot of connections to Mid-World. We don’t know a title beyond “T3” or when it will be published, but I hope we’ll see it in 2026. And now that the Duffer Brothers are done with Stranger Things, we’ll see if they turn their attention to The Talisman. They teased it by showing a copy of the book on a table in the final episode of last season, so it was still on their radar then.
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MAD: Once again, another contributor at Horror to Culture, Adrian Amiro-Wilson of The Horror Art Film Society would like to ask: “Do you have an absolute favorite King novel, and what are your thoughts on some of his new releases over the past five years?”
BV: I’m not a favorites kind of guy. I have no idea how people can pick a favorite of anything or how they can possibly rank books or movies from 1-10. My mind simply doesn’t work that way. When I’m asked to name a favorite, I usually say either ‘Salem’s Lot, because it’s a terrific, scary book but it was also my introduction to King’s work, or Bag of Bones, because it’s a first-person narrative of a writer and it feels almost like King is telling a story around the campfire. It feels personal.
The last five years includes some wonderful books. I read Billy Summers and Fairy Tale to my wife because I thought she’d enjoy them, and she did, especially the latter. In retrospect, the story “Rat” from If It Bleeds was eerily prescient about the pandemic we were about to experience. There are some terrific new stories in You Like It Darker, including “Danny Coughlin's Bad Dream” and “Two Talented Bastid,” as well as the chance to revisit Vic Trenton from Cujo. And, as someone who primarily reads crime fiction, I enjoy the Holly Gibney books.
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MAD: Do you have any advice for other writers out there who might be struggling to find their voice, or their audience?
BV: For me, the only way to find my voice was to write and write and keep writing. It’s something that I have to do almost every day. I treat it like a second profession (I have a day job, too). Keep writing, keep submitting, consider feedback when it’s offered, but know that the person offering it may be coming at your material from their own perspective and not necessarily yours. I still get rejected more often than I’m accepted, especially for short fiction. I almost always have at least a dozen stories in submission at any given time. Some stories I’ve had accepted recently were originally written nearly 20 years ago. A few were written in the 1980s! Don’t be so desperate to see your name in print that you undersell your work.
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MAD: What’s up next for you, after the upcoming anthology release?
BV: I always have short stories in the pipeline (I think I currently have five pending publication). There are three other things coming along that I can’t reveal yet but about which I’m very excited. Follow me at https://bsky.app/profile/bevvincent.bsky.social and https://www.threads.com/@bev.vincent or visit my website (bevvincent.com) if you’re interested in finding out about them as the publishers make their announcements.
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MAD: Bev, thanks so much again for taking some time with us today and answering some questions surrounding the new release, which once again, is out August 19th. Are there any closing words you’d like to leave the readers with today?
BV: Readers are the best people in the world! Where would we writers be without you? Shouting into the abyss! I hope everyone enjoys TEOTWAWKI (my ungainly “acronym” for the Stand anthology.) Thank you for your interest in my work.
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Michael A. Dyer is the host of the HORROR TO CULTURE podcast, vidcast, and website.
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