Rocky Wood - Reference Works On Stephen King

Reference Works On Stephen King

In the Stephen King and horror communities, Wood is regarded as a leading expert on Stephen King’s work. He is the co-author of The Complete Guide to the Works of Stephen King (Kanrock Partners, 2003, 2004); Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished (Cemetery Dance Publications, 2006); The Stephen King Collector's Guide (Kanrock Partners, 2007); Stephen King: The Non-Fiction (Cemetery Dance Publications, 2009) and the author of Stephen King: A Literary Companion (McFarland, 2011). In 2012 the Overlook Connection Press issued a fourth edition of Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished, extensively revised and with direct input from Stephen King, resolving many previous mysteries.

Wood has also written many articles on King that have appeared in such magazines as Cemetery Dance, Dark Discoveries, and Lighthouse.

In 2002, he traveled to Orono, Maine and spent three weeks researching the Stephen King Archives at the Special Collections Unit of the Raymond H. Fogler Library at the University of Maine. Wood has undertaken five research trips to Maine in the course of his research on King's work.

His first King book was The Complete Guide to the Works of Stephen King, a 6000+ page encyclopedia on CD-ROM, which summarizes every story, every character, every place, and the entire timeline of King's work. In-depth information on all 270+ fiction works by Stephen King, 26,000 King characters, and 5,000 King places are included, along with adaptations of King’s work to the big and small screens. The Guide is even used by Stephen King's office for research.

In his research, Wood rediscovered previously unknown King stories, including two written in his high school years, of which even the author did not have a copy. King agreed to allow the inclusion of another two previously unpublished pieces, Sword in the Darkness and Dino in Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished. That book covers about 100 King stories that had never been published or appeared only in obscure venues.

In 2005, he returned to Maine for a lengthy investigative trip into King’s non-fiction, discovering over 40 previously unknown pieces, again including lost material from King’s formative years, which he later provided to the author. King agreed to the inclusion of an obscure article, My Little Serrated Security Blanket in Wood's Stephen King: The Non-Fiction, which covers more than 600 individual items. Wood returned to Maine in 2007, 2008 and 2009 to continue his research. In 2008/9 he wrote the 'King of Horror' column for the Australian magazine, 'Black: Australian Dark Culture'.