{"id":15450,"date":"2024-10-20T15:45:36","date_gmt":"2024-10-20T20:45:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.steveblaising.com\/content\/?p=15450"},"modified":"2026-01-28T12:38:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T18:38:14","slug":"halloween-advice-from-stephen-king-dont-die-without-4-charms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.steveblaising.com\/content\/halloween-advice-from-stephen-king-dont-die-without-4-charms\/","title":{"rendered":"Halloween advice from Stephen King: Don’t die without 4 charms"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Days before Halloween in 1979, my wife, Dallas Morning News reporter Judy Williamson<\/a>, met famed author Stephen King at Dallas Love Field. It is one of the few interviews he has ever granted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Stephen
Stephen King interview by Judy Williamson\/Dallas Morning News\/October 1979<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

King met her on a layover while promoting his fifth book, T<\/em><\/span>he Dead Zone<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Judy learned was more shocking than the plot twists in his scary novels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

King directly and indirectly suggested four charms for a successful career and, believe it or not, a cheery life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Charm #1<\/mark> Work your imagination<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Against a rain-splashed window in the only restaurant at Dallas Love Field, a small coffee shop, Stephen King shared a hint about writing success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I write my nightmares out. I am here to scare you.”<\/strong> Stephen King\/Judy Williamson\/Dallas Morning News, October 1979<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Writing, for King, is a creative act of working out fears and nightmares.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judy summarized King’s rough childhood, noting that his father left him and his family when he was two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His mother worked as a caregiver for the mentally challenged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While his early education was rough in a 1-room schoolhouse, he earned a degree in English at the University of Maine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But his mother lit a spark when young Stephen showed her a comic book. “I bet you can do better,” she said. “Write one of your own.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He remembers . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“…an immense feeling of possibility at the idea, as if I had been ushered into a vast building filled with closed doors and had been given the key to open any I liked.”<\/strong> Stephen King\/On Writing: A Memoir of the Ceaft. p. 28<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Charm #2<\/mark> Work with perseverance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Early in his marriage with two young children, King worked two jobs as a high school teacher and 12-hour shifts in a commercial laundry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In between work and family, he wrote late into the evenings…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“…with an elementary grade desk propped on his knees, in a dimly lit furnace room.”<\/strong> Judy Williamson\/Dallas Morning News\/October 1979<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Even after great success with Carrie<\/em>, The Shining<\/em>, Salem’s Lot, <\/em>and The Stand<\/em>, Stephen King told Judy that he prefers a low profile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also said he only takes off two days a year from writing: Christmas and his birthday. Why not Halloween?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was his habit in 1979. It still is 45 years later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“I have to work every day because I have to keep it fresh. If you take a few days off, it all starts to look kind of tacky–like an old campaign poster that’s running in the rain.”<\/strong> Esquire Magazine\/Summer 2024\/p. 70.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Charm #3 <\/mark>Work through pain<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On June 19, 1999, Stephen King was run over by a van while walking in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He suffered . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n