Gwendy's Button Box

Both Stephen King and Richard Chizmar are well-known horror writers. Stephen King has been nicknamed “The King of Horror” due to his prolific publishing career in the genre. Many of his novels—such as Carrie, Misery, and It—have been adapted as movies and television series. A native of Maine, much of his early work was set in Castle Rock, Maine. King is known for writing about what happens when the supernatural interferes with and alters everyday life. In addition to being a popular author, many fellow writers cite King as an inspiration and influence for their work.

Chizmar is the publisher and editor of the Cemetery Dance publishing house, considered to be one of the leading publishing houses for suspense and horror. Chizmar is also a prolific horror writer and screenwriter. He has been friends with King and has “known the author for years and covered his work extensively through his Stephen King Revisited project, re-reading and reviewing his entire bibliography” (Breznican, Anthony. “Stephen King Made Author Richard Chizmar a Frightening Offer: Write a Story with Him.” Entertainment Weekly, 16 May 2017).

The two authors’ collaboration for Gwendy’s Button Box came about when King told Chizmar that he’d written a story and was struggling to finish it. Chizmar offered to read the story, something he’d done with King before, and “the next evening a file titled Gwendy showed up, and the body of the King’s email read: ‘Do whatever you want with it’” (Breznican). Inspired by reading King’s draft, Chizmar offered to collaborate: “Before I could chicken out, I wrote him back and said, ‘I’d love a crack at finishing this.’ And we rolled with it” (Breznican). King rarely collaborates with other writers:

Unlike some authors whose bylines become brand names, King doesn’t pump out volumes with the help of glorified ghost writers. He previously collaborated on The Talisman and its sequel Black House with Peter Straub, and co-wrote the Red Sox love letter Faithful with novelist Stewart O’Nan. But otherwise, his books are his books […] So King’s offer to turn Gwendy into a team effort was an extremely rare one (Breznican).

The novella took a month to write.

Chizmar enjoyed collaborating with King and, following the success of Gwendy’s Button Box, went on to write the second installment of the trilogy, Gwendy’s Magic Feather, in 2019. King and Chizmar joined forces once again to complete the trilogy in 2022 with the publication of Gwendy’s Final Task.