The Stephen King Alphabet

I had so much fun making this chart! I love a good rhyme- although, finding a connection that starts with 'X' that rhymes and relates is TOUGH! 

I don't know that ill ever get tired of playing with Stephen King as a subject. There is so much!

Cheers!

Gillian

The Stephen King Universe Flowchart Update (including the Dark Tower Series)

click here 

As I have mentioned before, when I was in Grade Five, I borrowed a battered paperback copy of 'Carrie' from my friend Tarnya Smyth (who stole it from her mum). I was totally hooked and under the spell of Stephen King and his characters from that moment.

I dedicate this chart to Tarnya Smyth's mum. The same woman who took me to the cinema to see both Desperately Seeking Susan and Risky Business. When I was 12. That is very young to be comprehending cheeky Tom Cruise becoming a pimp while his mum and dad were on holidays, isn't it? I am realising that Mrs Smyth was probably my primary source of sexual education. That's kinda weird.

Anyway. Here it is. 

The updated Stephen King Universe Flowchart including the Dark Tower Series.

I have said this about stuff before, but this time I mean it:

This chart is like my fourth child. Be kind to it. It means a lot to me.

I hope you like it.

AND I hope you aren't screaming at your monitor saying, "Ermagerd! I can't believe she left out '.................'!!! What a dick!!!". 

Trust me guys, I took all of your suggestions, connections and corrections on board and tried to confirm as many as I could. If you suggested something and it's not here, it's because I could not back it up through research. Or, because I disproved it through research. I am still totally keen to hear any further connections that you have to offer! I couldn't have made this chart so comprehensive without the help of all the readers. You Sai King geeks are awesome. 

And you were totally right. As I have said before, The Stephen King Universe Flowchart without the Dark Tower is like Happy Days without Fonzie... Still good, but not nearly as cool.

And if this is your first encounter with The Stephen King Universe Flowchart (now with added Ka Tet!!) then get comfy. Put your reading eyes on. Immerse yourself. You may need an aspirin. 

And guess what? You can totally buy the chart.

click here 

Now, we are doing a small print run to gauge the response. When the charts sell out, we will reprint and resupply. Once they are sold out, we will not be taking any more orders, until the next print run is complete.

AND, don't forget I live in Australia. Thats, like, really far away. From everything. Except New Zealand. So, when I ship your chart, it will take as long as it takes things to be delivered from the bottom of the planet :-) 


Thanks for all the support and the opportunity to share my particular brand of crazy. Enjoy.

A Flowchart According to John Irving

The World According to Garp is probably my favourite book. Ever. I love many, many books, by many authors. But after Garp... I was linked to John Irving. I added him to my collection of special, awesome things that I consider to be mine.

During my early thirties, I made it  my mission to own every single John Irving book ever published. I searched them all out: online, in dusty bookstores, in the huge mega stores (back in the days when there WERE huge mega bookstores... Aaah Kindle. I love you, but you killed the bookstore. You know that, right? I mean, I don't know if you meant to do that. Maybe you thought you could co-exist... like Coke and Pepsi.... But Kindle, you're the Coke and Bookstores are the Pepsi... and NOBODY wants the Pepsi)

I love that John Irving loves Bears and prostitutes. I love that his kooky characters more often than not pass through Vienna and/or New Hampshire. Like Stephen King, a lot of his characters are writers. I love the recurring subjects and themes in his books. Again, connections. There is security and familiarity in connection. Like a strange family, these books are distant cousins, sharing their bizarre, unique tales, with a little bit of Bear thrown in. 

I like the Bears and the details. I remember it all..... Or, I imagine I do....

“Imagining something is better than remembering something.” 

John Irving. 'The World According to Garp'

The Beatles and The Mansons

A few months ago I had a fascinating conversation with a work friend and this chart has been ruminating in my mind ever since. This flowchart is kinda weird. it's a little morbid, and a bit odd. But the subject matter is strangely compelling.

As an avid Beatles fan, I have always been aware of the connections between them and the terrible acts perpetrated in 1969 by The Manson Family. The Beatles, who's predominant message was Love, being tied to a group of dirty hippies who just wanted to spread fear and hate seems so bizarre. Charles Manson actually believed that The Beatles were on the same wavelength as him, when he was the antithesis of everything they believed in. The Anti-Lennon, if you will.

So, that's interesting enough, but throw in the connections with The Beach Boys, The Dakota Building in New York and Doris Day and it just becomes fascinating. 

Yet again, a flow chart reminds me that everything is connected. Good and Bad, beautiful and tragic. Everyone is just a few steps away from everyone else.

x x x 

Long Days and Pleasant Nights.......

UPDATE: The Stephen King Universe Flowchart (including The Dark Tower Series) has been updated and can be found here

GO! GO! GO!

So, Stephen King people. I have a confession to make. You were right. I was wrong. 

HOW COULD I MAKE A STEPHEN KING CONNECTIONS FLOWCHART WITHOUT THE DARK TOWER!!!!

Roland's Ka Tet by Glockgirl

What was I thinking? Such a rookie move. 

I am moments away from completing the 7th and final Dark Tower book (I know, I know, there is still Wind Through the Keyhole, but that's really kind of book 4.5 isn't it? I'm sure someone will correct me :-) I am in the planning stage of the mammoth task of updating the Stephen King Universe Flowchart to include the Dark Tower series. Look at me, giving the people what they want! I have about 10 books/ short stories to add and about 30 new characters. Yeah man.

I can't wait to share the finished chart- it will be huge and crazy and I'm sure it will make some people think I need to go back on my meds (Too late! I already did!) 

It may also make some people say, "OMG, that is sooo, like lame. I went to college. I can read books without a stupid chart." "I know right?" (This is almost and actual transcript of some comments over on another site that featured the flow chart. Hee Hee. I like to think the two commenters were Valley Girls from the Eighties. I wish one of them had said, "No Dark Tower? Like, gag me with a spoon!")

Reading the DT series has reinforced my respect and love for Stephen King's fabulous universe. Dudes, there are totally other worlds than these.....

Stay Tuned. 

How to choose your soap opera husband

Ok, so I may or may not have watched a LOT of Daytime Soaps in my time... 

When I was younger, Days of Our Lives and Young and the Restless were on at about 3 in the afternoon. So we would get home from school and watch them with mum. Eighties sparkly evening wear around the house and enough fake deaths to fill a desert island. Awesome. 

Through my pregnancies and my two staying-at-home-mum tours of duty (fourteen years apart) I have succumbed to their trashy, badly acted siren's song. Ahh, Salem, Genoa City, LA... you are my towns. The Forresters, The Abbotts, The Hortons and The Bradys- you are my families. Dimeras, Kiriakis' and mean old Stephanie... you are my nemesis'. Nemeses....Nemesises. Nemisi... Damn it, you know what I mean!

OK, so here's some relationship advice for all you Soap Opera Character Ladies out there. Pay attention. This is important. You are going to be married at least FIVE times in your life. You don't wanna screw it up.

And before you say anything: 
Yes, Daytime TV sucks. 
Yes, Soap Operas are terrible and ridiculous. 
Yes, I am an educated, empowered woman who reads books and discusses important things. 
And YES, I still watch Days of Our Lives most days.... Oh the shame! 

Do you watch soaps? Don't pretend you don't!

The Stephen King Universe Flow Chart

UPDATE: The Stephen King Universe Flowchart (including The Dark Tower Series) has been updated and can be found here

GO! GO! GO!

When I was in Grade 5 (guess I was ten), my friend Tarnya Smyth brought her mum's battered copy of Stephen King's 'Carrie' to school. We broke it into about 4 pieces and passed them around, all taking turns reading each battered section. I told mum about it and she FLIPPED HER WIG and told me to 'Stop reading that book immediately!!' So I finished it.

Now, I TOTALLY do not recommend  ten year olds reading Stephen King books (messed me up good), but this was when my life long relationship with Mr King began. My love for his books is based around his characters. They are so full. I love Stephen King dialogue. I love his sense of humour. And I love the links and connections between the books. I am the kind of annoying person who likes to know the 'In Joke'. So, of course, I MADE A FLOW CHART!!!

My Top Five Stephen King Books:
1 The Stand
2 The Bachman Books (especially The Long Walk)
3 The Talisman 
4 The Dead Zone
5 11/22/63

*** UPDATE @ 11 JANUARY 2013

CLICK HERE to find out details for UPDATED chart coming soon which TOTALLY includes the Dark Tower :-) See what I do for you guys???

Are you a King Fan?

Six Degrees of Jason Schwartzman....

So, of course, this flow chart does not include every film of actor you may want it to, but it does contain all the connections my brain offered up. I believe I've captured all the connections for the people and films on the chart. Obviously, it is coloured by my preference for comedies and for particular directors. I guess I could have jumped off into a different, more dramatic chart by following a Francis Ford Coppola-Rober Deniro- Martin Scorsese kinda path. But, sorry Marty, you didn't make the cut... except for Taxi Driver... Are you talkin' to me????

Kevin Bacon is so last century. Jason Schwartzman is the new Kevin Bacon. He was the start, and I guess you could connect everyone on the chart back to him. (Including my lovely husband... and me...)

Apologies if the text is a bit small in some areas- I could spend the rest of my life tweaking and altering this chart, but I told myself that TODAY I WILL LET IT GO!

So, I hope someone out there enjoys this as much as I enjoyed making it. I know as soon as I hit 'publish' I will think of another ten connections.... but that's Art isn't it?  It could always evolve further and it's never really finished....

Middlesex. A flow Chart.

So, the universe sent me the most Flow-Chart-Worthy book to read this last week. 'Middlesex' by Jeffrey Eugenides. I had heard of this book, but had a totally whack perception of what it was about. In my mind, it was a gritty working class family tale set in a grungy London underbelly.


Wrong!


How bout a multi generational family tale about a Greek hermaphrodite? Awesome!!


It's like when you hear a DJ on the radio, then you see them and you say, "That is totally not what you look like."


And they say, "Shut up, weird stranger. I should know what I look like. This is it. I'm a Greek hermaphrodite."


This book is fantastic. I read it in about 24 hours. I didn't want to put it down. And when I did put it down, I was worrying about whether it was thinking about me a much as I was thinking about it. 


I don't think it was.


And then I made a flow chart.

I may have a flow chart addiction.....

A Bloggers Flowchart: or how i learned to stop worrying and love the blog

So, this week, Miss Eden has asked her Fresh Horses Brigade to talk about.. well, each other!
Here's my little take on why Bloggers and blogging is awesome, who my favourites are and how I found them. Some of these bloggers don't know I exist. Some of them do. All of them say something I worth listening to and inspire me in my blog and my life. 
And they are all chicks. Is that weird. I do follow some male bloggers... I think. Maybe just one. Wil Weaton. He is awesome and very manly. Blogging doesn't make you a girl.
OK, so let's get into it.....

links: dooce, mighty girl, a beautiful mess, i could make that, food coma, skunkboy creatures, smile and wave, cakies, bluebird vintage, her library adventures, accidental wonderland, hello owl, suger coat it, sheri bomb, hello blogger events, woogsworld, glowless, lady daa doo, sew, cook laugh & live.

Bloggers are amazing. Blogs are amazing. Blogging is amazing. Read them. Do them. Be them.

A Visit From The Goon Squad in flowchart form...

UPDATED: 13 May 2013 to include corrections and additions :-)

I love a good flowchart. I like graphs. And lists. And filling in forms. And parallel remote controls. But I really love flow charts. 

So, when I finished  the novel 'A Visit From the Goon Squad' by Jennifer Egan yesterday, I thought "I need to make a damn flowchart of that!!"

This book was awesome. Music, New York, punk, youth, despair, theft, Powerpoint presentations and a billion interconnecting characters who hook up across decades, continents and time. Ever since I saw Robert Altman's 'Shortcuts', I have loved the seemingly disjointed, that becomes a chain of connections that cross and link back on themselves. Lovetey love, love love. 

I also loved the concepts within the book around the passage of time, of ageing, of wondering who you have become and who were you in the first place.  

And how awesome is a book with a whole chapter written as a Powerpoint presentation? I'll tell you how awesome- Totally.

If you haven't read the book, I hope you can just appreciate my Character Map as a piece of art. I think the links and connections between us all are beautiful. I would love to  map my friendship group- how we all came to know and love each other, who links to who and in how many ways. then I would love to map Brisbane- the ultimate small town. I love knowing that I have met people who I could have met through one or two totally different people. I have been thinking in Six Degrees of Separation for years... even before Kevin Bacon was the key....

In the mid-late nineties, I became obsessed with a flow chart I created that developed into a concept called The Seinfeld Theory of Reality... One day I will Blog about that... If I feel like exposing even more of my crazy...

Have you read 'A Visit From the Goon Squad'? If not, why not?!?

x Gillian