Lilja: Tell me a bit about yourself. How did you get what many would consider the dream job of being Stephen’s assistant?
Marsha DeFilippo: I first worked for Stephen in 1986 on a temporary assignment to type the manuscript for Eyes of the Dragon. Although it had been published as a limited edition previously, he needed it on computer disks for the Viking publication. It was supposed to take me a month to do, but I was enjoying the story so much that I finished the typing in two weeks. Not very smart for someone on temporary duty! Stephen was impressed with my typing skills, though, so kept me on to type the manuscript for The Tommyknockers. Two years later when his assistant, Stephanie Leonard, decided to return to college, I was contacted to see if I would be interested in a part-time position. The timing was right and the job developed into a full-time position.
Lilja: What does an assistant to Stephen King do? Is it a dream job or is it just like all other jobs? Can you describe a typical day at the office?
Marsha DeFilippo: I do a bit of everything as Stephen’s personal assistant—answering phones, fan mail, administering and moderating the website, making travel arrangements, acting as a publicist, working with the various publishers and film/television production companies when Stephen is personally involved, interview/appearance requests, etc., etc. It can become routine, but overall it’s the best job I’ve ever had. The longest I’d ever worked at another job was three years, and I’ve been here over fifteen (not counting the temp assignment). There’s no such thing as a typical day at the office!
Lilja: What question do you get asked most often? I guess questions about The Dark Tower are getting fewer and fewer now that they are all written and only the last two parts are unreleased?
Marsha DeFilippo: You’re right, now that The Dark Tower books have been finished, the shift has gone to, “When will you make a movie of The Dark Tower series?” The next most frequently asked question probably is, “When will you finish The Plant?”
Lilja: Here is what King says about those two questions in the FAQ on his official site:
Question: Are you going to do a Dark Tower movie?
Answer: I’ve always resisted that idea because movies have a way of freezing characters and places in the audience’s mind, whereas in books everybody has their own different idea of, for instance, how Roland or Susannah looks, but if you do it as a movie, immediately that kind of gets frozen in place and you say, “Oh, Billy Bob Thornton is what Roland Deschain looks like.” Or you say, “Brad Pitt, that’s what Eddie Dean looks like.” You know what I’m saying, or you can say, “Calla Bryn Sturgis from Wolves of the Calla looks like maybe the Universal back lot,” and I’ve always resisted that. The issue with The Dark Tower books is there’s so much story, so many incidents, that it couldn’t be done in one movie alone. It would have to be done at least as a trilogy, the way The Lord of the Rings movies were done, or it would have to be done as a TV series, probably on HBO because of the violence, the way The Sopranos was done. I haven’t entirely ruled that idea out, but for the next two or three years while the books have their initial run, I think that if you want the story of Roland, you’ll have to get it at your bookstore rather than the local movie theater.
Question: Are you going to finish The Plant?
Answer: Time will tell.
Lilja: Have the things you do changed over the years? I guess Stephen has gotten more fans (or at least more fans that contact you) since the Internet became everyone’s toy?
Marsha DeFilippo: It does seem that the majority of fan mail is now received through the website, although we do still receive quite a bit at our office. We didn’t have computers or fax machines when I first started, so the biggest change, as for most people, has been on the technological side. Because of the technology we now have, there is little impact on what we do at the office, even though Stephen and Tabitha do not spend as much time in Bangor since their children have grown up and live elsewhere.
Lilja: I know that there are many fans who contact Stephen by regular mail or e-mail, but are there many fans that show up at the office or at his home? How do you handle these incidents?
Marsha DeFilippo: The summer months are when this happens more frequently, as this is the most popular time of year for visitors. It’s not a problem at their home as long as fans respect their privacy and remain on the public street or sidewalk. Unfortunately, there are the ones who ignore the Private Property/No Trespassing signs and knock on their front door. They are told politely that this is not okay and asked to leave.
Lilja: Have there ever been any “dangerous” fans showing up? What happened?
Marsha DeFilippo: For the most part, there are no disturbances that require any further intervention, but if necessary, the Bangor Police Department can and has been called upon. In at least two instances, arrests have been made.
Lilja: What is the strangest thing a fan has sent to Stephen?
Marsha DeFilippo: Define strange :-)
Lilja: I guess I mean something that Stephen (or you) never expected to get in the mail or delivered. Something that made you gasp and caused your chin to fall on the floor.
Marsha DeFilippo: It was before I came to work for Stephen, so I didn’t experience it firsthand, but some very disturbed person sent a box with dead kittens.
Lilja: Do you read all the books so you can answer questions from fans, or do you ask Stephen?
Marsha DeFilippo: When I first started working for him I had not read any of them and I still have not read all of Stephen’s works. For the most part, I answer the questions either by having read the book or looking in other resources we have to see if I can first find the answer myself, and then, depending upon his schedule and the question asked, I will sometimes ask Stephen if he can answer it.
Lilja: There has been a list for signing up to get a book signed by King. I have heard that it doesn’t exist anymore. Is that correct? I know a lot of fans are wondering about it.
Marsha DeFilippo: Stephen recently decided that he will now only sign books at book signings.
Lilja: How do you feel about the fact that Stephen is (I won’t use the word retiring since that seems to have been misused by quite a few people) slowing down in his publishing? Are you afraid you will lose your job?
Marsha DeFilippo: I’m not worried about losing my job because of Stephen’s retiring/slowdown. There will still be plenty for us to do. We haven’t noticed much slowing down so far, though.
Lilja: And last. What is Stephen working on now? Is there anything you can talk about?
Marsha DeFilippo: Kingdom Hospital is occupying most of his time right now, but beyond that there’s nothing I can mention yet.
****
Michael Whelan
Posted: June 23, 2004
Michael Whelan has created hundreds of paintings seen on book covers, calendars, magazines and record albums. He is a fourteen-time Hugo (World Science Fiction) Award winner and three-time (the maximum) winner of the Howard (World Fantasy) Award for Best Artist. The readers of Locus magazine, the number one professional and fan resource publication for the Fantasy and Science Fiction genres, have awarded Whelan “Best Professional Artist” twenty-one years running.
Michael has also had three art books published, the most recent being The Art of Michael Whelan. He has also illustrated the first book in The Dark Tower series, The Gunslinger, and the last one in the same series, The Dark Tower.
Lilja: Hi Michael, and thanks for taking the time to speak with me! What is your relation to Stephen King? Were you a fan before you illustrated The Gunslinger? Are you a fan now?
Michael Whelan: Yeah, I’ve been a fan since I read Carrie, all those years ago. I had been asked to illustrate a limited edition publication of Firestarter when Steve wrote that, and I enjoyed the book and the assignment a lot. I’ve read just about everything of his in print, with the exception of IT. For some reason, I haven’t gotten around to reading that one. When it came out I bought it in hardcover, but it has never ma
de its way to the top of my bedside reading pile. One of these days…
Lilja: Do you know Stephen on a personal level?
Michael Whelan: Not really. We’ve talked here and there, but not for long or about much besides the books and their illustrations. We sat together on a dais at a World Fantasy Con banquet many years ago and talked a bit, but as you can imagine there wasn’t much time for casual chatting.
Lilja: How did you get the chance to illustrate The Dark Tower I - The Gunslinger?
Michael Whelan: I heard that Steve liked what I had done for Firestarter, so he mentioned me for the first Gunslinger novel. Back in 1981, I think it was. I confess it wasn’t in my heart to do the book, at least initially. At the time I was pretty depressed with my mother’s death and other things too wearisome to go into here…and speaking of “weary,” our daughter Alexa had been born just a few months before and I was so tired from lack of sleep; I’m sure that affected my mood as well. The book seemed so bleak and stark that it was hard for me to get into the mood of it at first, but when I got into it, as a way to exorcise those emotions, it became easier. By the time I had read the whole thing I was hooked.
Lilja: And now you’re doing the last book in the series. Was that the plan all along or did King approach you later on asking if you were interested?
Michael Whelan: I was hoping to get to do another one all along. Being an ardent fan of the series, my impressions of the main characters and elements of the books have evolved…and I felt another try might get closer to my more-informed internal views of everything. Of course, I had been following the series as avidly as the rest of the fans, so I was very excited to hear from Robert Weiner and Donald M. Grant that Steve was going to “finish off” the series in one fell swoop, so to speak. Then he asked if I’d consider illustrating one of them; I was one happy guy. Later, Steve called me and said, “Well, here it is, twenty-odd years later, and we’re still both alive, so what do you say to doing the last one?”
Lilja: What was the biggest difference between illustrating The Gunslinger and The Dark Tower?
Michael Whelan: Well, there’s me, and there’s the story. I’m two decades older—a little more tired, damaged and cynical than the guy who illustrated that first book. I hope I’m a little wiser as well. What that has to do with my artwork is impossible for me to gauge. Anyway, the obvious big difference is that I approached the reading of the last book with the “stone greed” (as King puts it) of a true DT junkie. It was easier to illustrate the first book because (as it was written then) it was a more linear story, not so interwoven with all the later themes and running plotlines which have since come to be. Plus, at the time, I assumed that I was illustrating the one book only, not aware that the story would come to span two decades and seven-plus books. Maybe my memory is playing tricks on me, but I don’t recall knowing at the time that there was going to be more to Roland than The Gunslinger. Anyway, there’s a lot more pressure working on the concluding segment of any series, especially with one so long, complicated and anticipated.
The story…well, the story has twisted and turned in all kinds of ways that I didn’t see coming. The books following The Gunslinger have added vast dimensions (literally!) to the story. All the running themes and plotlines which weave through the tapestry of the narrative make illustrating it a more touchy business. Then there’s the additional characters, who, like Roland, have gained so much depth and meaning in the course of the narrative. Like I said before, all these things added together made the illustrating of the last book a much more involved process.
I admit I was daunted by the enormity of the project. Eventually I had to tell myself to just draw what I felt would be fun to see and let ka sort the rest out.
Lilja: How many color/black-and-white illustrations have you done for The Dark Tower VII? Did you end up with any illustrations for the book that weren’t used in the finished book?
Michael Whelan: The final total was, I think, thirteen color paintings, twelve monochrome paintings and thirty-four spot illustrations in pen and ink for the book. I won’t know what will end up being used and what won’t until the book comes out. It could well be that the designer for the book (or SK himself) will decide to cut some of the work out that is not up to the rest, and that’s OK by me. I just want the book to be as good as it can be. I’m too close to the book and the work to really judge the relative merits of the work, so if someone at Don Grant decides that a piece should be left out, I’ll defer to their judgment.
Lilja: What happens to those illustrations? Will the fans ever see them?
Michael Whelan: Yeah, I’ll post them onto my website after the last book comes out. Eventually. I’m considering taking some of the work to the WorldCon in Boston this September. Most of the artwork has already been sold.
Lilja: You told me when I got the world premier of one of the illustrations for The Dark Tower VII that that one was the only one you could allow me to show because the others revealed too much of the story. Was this done deliberately? In many of the other books, there are quite few illustrations that wouldn’t say much about the story without the text. When this interview was done, the plan was to have the world premier of the image of Roland at Lilja’s Library, but before I got it all done it had already been displayed at King’s official site…
Michael Whelan: Well, it’s just the way I approach it, I guess. I chose to illustrate scenes that captivated my inner vision, and most of them are events critical to the telling of the story.
I always thought that illustration tends to fall into two broad categories. First, there is the illustration of decoration, something pretty to sell a book by. It may have an appeal in that it dresses up a publication and adds a measure of visual interest to a text, but it usually hasn’t much to say about, or add to, the story. Often that sort of illustration seems as much about itself as it does about the book it appears with. Sometimes it doesn’t say anything about the story, or even worse, is deliberately misleading. (You can’t judge a book by its cover.)
The other type of illustration is that of elucidation…literally, throwing light on the story it accompanies. It gives light to the author’s vision by attempting to make the characters, events, etc. visually real to the reader. It’s a much more chancy business, because it’s easy to make a mistake and misrepresent something that is described by an author. (For example, I’ve often painted an image for a story based on a first draft, only to have the scene/characters changed substantially in the final published work…after it’s too late to change.) More often an artist makes an error in how the “feel” of a scene is interpreted in details not covered in the text, and can cast a quality on a passage that the author either didn’t intend or didn’t think out. At its best, such illustration is a good representation of the author’s vision and even helps to expand it a bit…and is fun and enlightening for the reader.
I think the best illustration works as both types at the same time. It’s pretty rare that it happens though.
Lilja: On your site it says that it took you about a year to do all the illustrations for The Dark Tower VII. Is that the time it takes to illustrate a book with approximately as many illustrations as The Dark Tower VII?
Michael Whelan: For me, yeah—but I’m slow. Of course, during that year I dislocated my arm playing baseball, and I was, as usual, late in getting started because projects before the DT7 ran well over time…so there were some factors that delayed me by quite a bit when you add them all up. But I admit I’m a slow painter and it was a lot of work for me to get done. I usually do one color painting a month, so it was about my usual turnaround time, I guess.
Lilja: How does it work when you illustrate a book like The Dark Tower or The Gunslinger? Do you get to decide what scenes should be illustrated, or does King have a say? Also, do you decide what’ll be the cover, endpapers and so on?
Michael Whelan: Hmm, a three-fer! I rarely do fully illustrated books, let’s get that established first. It’s a very rare thing fo
r me to do anything but the cover. With those commissions, I receive a manuscript, read it, and submit from 1 to 12 concept sketches. One is chosen by an art director and I’m given the greenlight to do the final painting based on the approved concept.
With this book, it was a different setup. I was offered a fee to paint a number of paintings for the interior, one for the endpapers, and a few black-and-white illos for the book. It was purely my decision to paint a separate image for use as a cover image, but they generously paid me extra for the effort. I admit I went a little nuts with the black-and-white spot illustrations, but I thought it would be fun to have a unique one to end each chapter with, so I just kept rolling until they were all completed. I bought a sketchbook and as I read the manuscript I kept doing drawings that seemed good for each chapter until I filled the sketchbook up with the drawings. I enjoyed the story so much it was difficult to stop working on it and begin thinking of doing something else!
When I was initially contacted about the project, I was presented with a legal document that insisted I give Steve first right of refusal on all the images I created. It also said that he had to approve each idea before I could paint it and blah blah, so I said to him, “Steve, what the hell is this?” He was very cool about it and said, “Forget about it, just do whatever you want. I’m sure it’ll be great.”
Lilja: How does the illustration process work? Let’s say that you have the scene that should be illustrated, what happens now?
Michael Whelan: You may find this hard to believe, but I threw away any established procedures when I did the work for this one. My only guide was my immediate response to a particular scene. That immediacy was my guiding principal. Some of the illustrations are in oils, some in acrylics. Some I drew out in charcoal first, some were painted directly with no preliminary work.
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