How Stephen King Is Channeling The Late Peter Straub To Write The Talisman 3

One of the more underrated Stephen King novels is “The Talisman,” published in 1984, a fantasy book that he co-wrote with another well-known horror writer, Peter Straub. Although “The Talisman” has never received a live-action adaptation of its own (although Netflix is apparently trying), the book still has plenty of hardcore fans. 

In 2001, Straub and King published a sequel titled “Black House.” Today, King is writing a third “Talisman” book, but this time he’ll be writing it on his own: Straub passed away in 2022 at 79 years old. In a 2023 interview, King explained, “Before he died, Peter sent me this long letter and said we oughta do the third one, and he gave me a really cool idea and I had some ideas of my own.” Now, in a new podcast interview on “The Kingcast,” King has elaborated on how the process of writing without Straub has been going. 

“This book has been exciting to work on for a lot of reasons, because man, Peter’s not here to work on the book with me,” King said. “That bothers me, the way that the loss of Scott Wampler, you know, bothers you.” Wampler was the podcast’s former co-host alongside fellow film journalist (and /Film contributor) Eric Vespe. Wampler passed away in May 2024, and this episode of the show marks Vespe’s first episode alongside his new co-host, journalist Anthony Breznican.

King continued, “Scott was a good guy, and Peter was a really good guy. And I’ve been channeling him like a motherf***er while I’m working on ‘Talisman 3.’ I find myself using his verbs. People don’t necessarily walk into a room, they ‘bustle’ into a room, because that’s a very Straubian word, and I’m using as much of that as I can.”

“And of course, the major thing is that, you know, I miss him,” King explained. “I hit myself for not working on it with him at the time. You know how you always say, ‘Oh, there’ll be time,’ and sometimes time runs out. And that was the case with that. But man, it’s just great to be back in the territories of Mid-World.”

By “Mid-World,” King was referring to the fantasy world established in his “Dark Tower” book series, a world that fans suspected (and would later have confirmed with “Black House”) was connected to the territories of the “Talisman” books. This is part of why “The Talisman” and “Black House” are often considered must-reads among “Dark Tower” fans; reading the “Talisman” books makes reading the “Dark Tower” series a richer experience, and vice versa.

“I mean, they’re the same thing. By the end of ‘Black House,’ it’s pretty obvious that The Territories are Mid-World and the Mid-World is The Territories. And it’s just so great to be back there that I was bursting to say something,” King said. He also followed up on his comments about a third “Talisman” book in that 2023 interview, confirming that the premise of the third “Talisman” novel was very much the “seed” the idea Straub sent him: 

“Peter sent me this thing, and he sent me a book that was called ‘Redheaded Peckerwood.’ And it was about Charles Starkweather, and it’s kind of like an artistic book. Starkweather was a guy who went on a rampage in 1958 with his girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate. And Peter wanted to use that in a certain way that I remember a little bit about. And it came clearer to me once I started to work on the book. So that was just like a take-off point, you know, Starkweather and Fugate.”

The main hurdle King seems to be dealing with is trying to remember everything in the email Straub had sent about his ideas for a third book. He explained how the email was sent back in the “early days” of the internet, and King forgot to save it. “I’m just sort of retrieving it from my ever-declining memory,” he said. As for how he’s handling the writing process without Straub around? King explained further:

“I’m trying to channel his voice as much as I can, and I’m a pretty good counterfeiter, you know. If I want to write like Lovecraft, I can write like Lovecraft … There’s certain tics of style, but mostly, what I’m doing is I’m taking a core idea that Peter had and trying to include ‘The Dark Tower’ and ‘The Talisman.’ It very much stands on the shoulders of ‘The Talisman’ and ‘Black House.’ So some of the characters from ‘Black House’ are in it; actually, some of the characters are in it from ‘The Talisman.'”

“It’s been so exciting to be back,” King concluded. “And it feels a lot like home … to hear that mode of speaking again, and behavior … it’s been good.”