What if Stephen King was born in a state besides Maine?

There's a pretty decent POD. Instead of being indentured to her parents, to use Six' phrase, she's hired as part of the domestic staff by one of the du Ponts and is able to live in housing on one of those northern Delaware estates. As a kid, Stephen King is able to roam the estate and the back roads of northern New Castle county in the Brandywine, Red Clay Creek and White Clay Creek valleys. He becomes familiar with the once-industrial, now-decayed village of Yorklyn on DE route 82. Yorklyn becomes the prototype for Thanatopia, DE (I just made that up): an out-of-the-way 19th century mill town on the fall line where...strange, shall we say, occurrences happen...
 
I would argue that King could still end up writing about small town America even if he doesn't grow up there. Lovecraft, who wrote about towns like Kingsport, Arkham, Innsmouth, and Dunwich, would most likely still be a major influence on his writing, after all.
 
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