Tabitha King, wife of horror master Stephen and co-author of the recently published Southern gothic gem “Candles Burning” set on Pensacola Beach in the 1950s, doesn’t believe in ghosts.
“In literature, the ghost is almost always a metaphor for the weight of the past,” explains King, phoning from the home she shares with her iconic husband in Bangor, Maine. “I don’t believe in them in the traditional sense.”
Candles Burning” weaves the story of young Calley Dakin, a Southern girl who inherited the gift of communicating with the dead. It’s a modern-day supernatural tale, set in New Orleans and Pensacola and spiced with the colorful eccentricities of the South.
The no-nonsense writer-who speaks with an accent reminiscent of Kathy Bates’ interpretation of Stephen King’s strong-willed character “Dolores Claiborne”-co-penned the tome using notes from the man she calls her “collaborator,” horror writer Michael McDowell, who died from an AIDS-related illness in 1999.
Unlike the novel’s seven-year-old protagonist who finds refuge with her mama in a haunted B&B; on Via De Luna Drive near Fort Pickens, King doesn’t see dead people.
“I didn’t feel Michael other than in the book,” she says matter-of-factly. “His spirit didn’t contact me or anything. However, it was his voice as I read.”
In a candid interview, King chats about “Candles Burning,” the dark side of fame and her real-life ghosts-like almost losing her husband after his near-fatal car accident in 1999.
Q: Could you have ever imagined that you would co-author a Southern gothic novel?
King: No (laughs). I never imagined collaborating with anybody. I’ve seen my husband do it and I know many writers who are able to do it, but it takes a special person to collaborate. You have to be generous. And you have to be willing to give a little to the other person.
Q: How about collaborating with your husband?
King: I couldn’t write with my husband. Neither one of us could give way. We both would be far too hardheaded to work together. Michael, on the other hand, collaborated with a number of people throughout his lifetime and he was generous in that way. I hope that he would be amused by what I did with the book.
Q: With ‘Candles Burning,’ did Michael McDowell have all of the characters and locations mapped out?
King: There was a good-sized piece of the novel written and notes on the rest of it. Michael was undecided about the ending.
Q: Was it difficult for you to maintain the integrity of his original vision?
King: No, having a freehand allowed me to put my fingerprints all over the book. There’s not a single page that I haven’t touched. So, it was a genuine collaboration in that sense. It’s like having someone who didn’t finish baking a cake and you need somebody to frost it. Well, I didn’t frost it. I baked the whole thing from scratch.
Q: Were there any reservations about having the book set in real locations versus creating fictional locales?
King: I thought about that, but Michael had made them real towns and places. I had to do some research to try to create the sense that I actually knew these places (laughs). I never did get to New Orleans before the hurricane but I felt I was able to do adequate research.
Q: Were you able to check out Pensacola Beach?
King: I did come to Pensacola and Pensacola Beach and, again, before that year of hurricanes that were so damaging to the area. I was very sad to see all of that happen. Pensacola is gorgeous and the island was gorgeous. It’s just a shame.
Q: How important were the Pensacola geographic and scenic nuances when crafting the novel?
King: All of those places are important in creating the past-in making the past real. Places are extremely important when writing a long story because place shapes a character.
Q: You haven’t written a novel in 10 years. Are you apprehensive at all about touring with this book and reading in front of people?
King: No, I’ve been doing it for too long and I’m too old (laughs). You can’t embarrass me. You can’t startle or disconcert me. I’ve been around too long.
Q: I’ve read that you and Mr. King have a home in Florida near Sarasota. True?
King: We spend a substantial portion of the winter on Casey Key in Sarasota. We started doing that right before my husband was hit by a van in 1999. He was badly hurt and we came back while he was still recovering. He has almost fully recovered from that accident and from the serious illness he had a couple of years ago, when he had double pneumonia.
Q: From what I’ve heard, that period was extremely difficult.
King: Yeah, he was in the hospital for 21 days. I told him that he can’t have those crises anymore. I can’t cope with it emotionally. But he has really come back. He walks and actually started playing tennis again, which he thought he would never be able to do. A few days ago, he told me he was going to get his motorcycle out.
Q: Did writing ‘Candles Burning’ help you deal with what was happening with your husband?
King: Yeah, writing is always a restorative process. It’s like paddling a kayak. When you’re writing, you can’t do anything else. You’re in the space you’re in. So, in that way, it’s enormously centering and restorative.
Q: Is it difficult to be a writer when your husband is so popular?
King: We’re very different writers and different people. We have different needs. I like being anonymous. His notoriety and fame can present serious problems. Most people don’t understand that being in the public eye is emotionally exhausting. It takes a lot out of you.
Q: So, you’ve seen the dark side of fame?
King: Yes, absolutely. There’s a heavy price for fame. It can be a very bad thing. But we’ve been really successful, in many ways, at living a relatively ordinary life. Some of that is because we’ve stayed in Maine. But, yes, I know how bad-and how extraordinary-it can get.
