Authors, need your book published in time for the Christmas shopping season? Contact us RIGHT AWAY and get $125 off at BookLocker! Details and the discount code are RIGHT HERE. 

---

THE FALL, 2025 24-HOUR SHORT STORY CONTEST WILL BE ON SATURDAY, September 20, 2025! Only 500 participants permitted so DON’T DELAY IF YOU WANT TO PLAY!!

---

Unfortunately, the Bangor Daily News links below are behind paywalls. You can only read the first few sentences in each article. 

As I promised on social media this week, I’m sharing my encounter with Stephen King. I wouldn’t have even thought about it until he was ALL over the news just a few days ago.

This week, Stephen King had to issue a major, public mea culpa after he falsely reported that Charlie Kirk had advocated stoning gays to death. One bookstore took immediate action:

Even fiction writers have to do fact-checking and Stephen King failed in that regard. Also, while he’s no stranger to publicizing his political beliefs, what did he think was going to happen when he pulled a comment out of his butt, posted it online, and offended roughly 50% of his fan base? King, that was royally STUPID! There are countless people online stating they’ve boycotting his books and movies.

When we were living in Bangor, Maine, we were alerted by the police (they were going door to door) that a twice convicted child rapist (he raped two very young girls in two completely separate incidents) had moved into a house directly across the street from the largest park in the city. We contacted City Hall because we thought that wasn’t permitted. Weren’t child predators prohibited from living near schools, parks, and daycare centers? That is an assumption of many parents across the country. And, it’s completely wrong. If there is no state law, a city/town must create their own ordinance to prevent that from happening.

We knew children were at risk so we hired an attorney. We paid (if I recall) $11K out of our own pockets for him to write the proposed ordinance to present to the city council. It was modeled after an ordinance that was passed by the next town over.  During our first presentation, we received support from all of the city council members. Many of them wanted to shake our hands after the meeting. However, at the meeting that followed that one, the support had disappeared. We then only had the support of two of the council members. If things didn’t turn around, our ordinance wasn’t going to pass. And, it didn’t.

It’s All About the Money!

We soon learned that there were rooming houses in Bangor, Maine that catered to sex offenders. The owners of the rooming houses got tax dollars to house and feed sex offenders. We also learned that other states were flying and bussing their paroled sex offenders to Bangor, Maine because there were no housing restrictions, and because they would get free food and housing there. Bangor, Maine was turning into a cell pool!

Why did we lose votes? Special interests (including the homeless shelter) were going to lose money if the flood of rapists stopped coming in. Those special interests had the ear of city council members. Even though we paid high taxes in Maine, that was a pittance compared to what the special interests were bringing into the city.

On election day, we had a table set up, and were gathering signatures from residents on our proposed ordinance. I was standing there with the clipboard and Stephen King approached. I knew who he was but I didn’t call him by name, nor gush over him (I’m not that kind of person). I didn’t even indicate that I recognized him. I briefly explained that we were petitioning to have the city council pass an ordinance that would prevent convicted child rapists (Tier 3 – the worst of the worst) from living near parks, schools, and daycare centers.

Stephen King responded, “I’m not signing that!” And, he walked away.

Why would any level-headed human being WANT child rapists to have the opportunity to live in such close proximity to where children congregate? Of course, that means they are able to WATCH numerous children from their own window, and potentially target their next victim. Child rapists stalk and groom their victims!

After we lost the city council vote, we put our house up for sale. It sold quickly and we left Bangor, Maine as quickly as we could. We still had two young children and a teenager at home and that city was no longer safe.

Fast forward two years. We were living in Florida and my phone rang. I didn’t recognize the number but it had a Maine area code so I answered. It was a new Bangor, Maine City Councilwoman. She was calling to thank us for our advocacy work. She explained that the sex offender problem got so bad that the city used the ordinance that we paid our lawyer to create, and they had just passed it!

When we moved to Maine in 1999, it was rated, at that time, as the “safest place to raise a child.” That’s why we chose it. It’s unfortunate that the city put money ahead of children’s safety, and only did an about-face when council members who were influenced by special interests were no longer city council members. I can imagine why some of them weren’t re-elected. I bet you can, too.

RELATED

• Mason’s Vanishing Act
• How Small is Bangor, Maine? Well, I’ll Tell Ya…
• Nature’s Awesome Fall Show!
• C-r-r-r-a-c-k-k-k!
• It’s Beginning to Look…

HAVE A QUESTION ABOUT SELF-PUBLISHING A BOOK?

Angela is not only the publisher of WritersWeekly.com. She is President & CEO of BookLocker.com,
a self-publishing services company that has been in business since 1998. Ask her anything.

ASK ANGELA!

HOW TO REMEMBER, WRITE AND PUBLISH YOUR LIFE STORY

Angela Hoy's popular online class is now available in book format!

Remember Your Past
Write It and Publish It
in as little as 12 weeks!

Angela Hoy's book will get you started!

• Using Angela's MEMORY TRIGGERS, recall memories that have been dormant for years
• Record those memories in chronological order in your memory notebook
• Using the memory notebook as your outline, write your autobiography!
• Also works for biographies and memoirs!

Read more here:
https://booklocker.com/books/4764.html

Angela Hoy lives on a mountain in North Georgia. She is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, the President and CEO of BookLocker.com and AbuzzPress, and the author of 24 books.

Follow Angela: twitter | facebook | linkedin

Angela is the creator of the Original 24-Hour Short Story Contest!
Learn more here: https://24hourshortstorycontest.com/