My husband and I have what you might call “a mixed marriage.” Not because he’s Southern-born, while I’m a Prairie Girl, and not because we’ve been known to vote for different candidates. The division goes deeper than that. The fact is, I like DIY and Home Improvement projects and my husband is a Round Tuit-ist. I’ll bet you know a Round Tuit-Ist (or, if you’re just reading this in 2059, you may be one). Round Tuit-ists are very nice people. They love to listen to your ideas. And, if you need a hand, they are happy to help. “Absolutely, as soon as I get around to it”, they say. And you will grow old and gray, waiting for them to get that Round Tuit Which is why, when it came to painting the kitchen, I knew it would be difficult for my Round Tuit-ist. Part of him really wants to help, or at least for me to find something else to talk about besides the kitchen. But he’s never really ready to start a project. He’s not sure we have exactly what we need or if the area is sufficiently prepped. In other words, he hasn’t found his Round Tuit….
It’s October, one of my favorite months for stories, even though most October stories have a tie to the supernatural. So it only seems right to start off with a story by one of the writers most associated with scary stories: Stephen King. At its essence, marriage is a closed corporation. It’s a private entity with its own personality and the principals own all the stock. Sure, often children are born to a marriage and spouses share parts of their lives with others but these people are beneficiaries, not stockholders; if children leave and friends fall away, the corporation continues unless death or divorce intervene, keeping secrets known only to the principals. At least that’s the premise of Lisey’s Story. And those untold secrets are what makes a marriage powerful, even when one of the principals dies. Lisey Landon is still learning about the strength of her marriage years after her husband, Scott, died. Scott was a successful novelist and the public face of their marriage. His passing left her with a sizable amount of cash, a barn full of books, and some very insensitive academic types that believe their knowledge of Scott Landon’s work gives them superior rights…
There are stories that pass through your brain and leave, unnoticed and unmissed. Others are like summer romances that hold you until there’s a change in the weather. And there are stories you find by chance that stay with you forever. I’ve been rereading Bag of Bones for fifteen years now and I believe I’ve fallen in love to stay. That’s good because love is a driving force in this book, along with death and in a New England summer. Stephen King turned into a writer sometime while my back was turned. A first, he was a commercial success and a critic’s nightmare come true. I couldn’t stand his early prose, so I ignored him. Then one August day I was combing the shelves, craving a good ghost story. (Ghost stories and haunted houses are DOCs of mine.) This book was on the shelf and I was desperate enough to try anything, even a book by Stephen King. It hit like a tidal wave. Mike and Joanna Noonan have the marriage we lesser mortals crave. They like and understand each other and she knows when to deflate his ego. Not that Mike needs much deflating. He’s one of King’s Everymen,…