This is one of those things.
I remember, vividly, being young and on vacation at the Aquarius Motel in Old Orchard Beach, Maine. My family frequented there in the early summer for many years. On the visit this memory takes place in, one of the days during our week stay was a rainy, dreary day. Not beach-going weather for sure. In the office of the motel was a bookshelf. Being an avid reader, I journeyed to that bookshelf. I looked over the covers lining the shelf and came across one such striking image on a hardback that demanded my attention.
What is there for a boy not to like? Aside from the simple nature of the artwork, there's a green, inhuman hand reaching out of the storm drain, above which proclaims the nature of the being as, simply, IT.
This was my introduction to Stephen King.
I took this book called IT back to the motel room, where I read the first pages detailing a boy chasing his runaway paper boat during a dreary afternoon rainstorm - a dreary afternoon rainstorm not unlike the one that kept my family and I off the beach that day and me finding this book. The fate of the boat is that it ends up down the drain from the cover. Needless to say, I had a pretty good idea of what was already down there before the boat slipped inside, thanks to the cover.
IT could have been anything, but, as we all know, IT's most common form was that of Pennywise the Clown. And we can all guess what happened to that unassuming little boy chasing his boat once he caught up to it.
We'll just leave it at saying the boat wasn't the only thing that floated down there..
Of course the book being so dense, and the time being on vacation so precious as it was, I had to return the massive book unfinished. At that age the name Stephen King meant nothing to me. Little did I know. I never thought to jot the author's name down and find the book again after we got home. So it was many years before I stumbled upon Mr. King's work again.
And when I did, this was what I came upon at my hometown Barnes & Noble:
Like a hammer, a swift deja vu cracked me over the head. I know this book! my subconscious told me. So I bought it.
In case you're wondering: No, I have not read IT. Don't know why, just never got around to getting too deep into the book. Either this or THE STAND is one of the King epic classics I hope to crack this year, but as it turned out the first King novel I would actually read was CELL. That's where my small obsession with King's work began. And when I say obsession, I don't mean the Annie Wilkes type. (If you haven't read King's work that joke was lost on you.)
CELL was a Christmas present I got back in 2006. The back blurb promised a zombie-type apocalypse set in motion via cell phones. That was enough for me.
The opening - basically the sudden (very sudden) destruction of civilization in downtown Boston, all witnessed by main character Clayton Riddell, no more a hero than you or I - had me absolutely hooked. The pages play like a film in your head and the violence - in some cases bizarre, extreme, even crazy violence - is almost to the point of being overwhelming in how the crisis never lulls. Certainly your heart rate will up a few beats reading about these characters being surrounded by explosions, people falling out of windows, airplanes falling out of the sky, more explosions, numerous car wrecks, and, who can forget, the phone-crazies.
I won't spoil the book but it's a fast, fun read. Many King readers weren't impressed with the ending but I found it very fitting. It does play to one of King's weaknesses though in how he always lets characters be right about something that they have no business knowing...how their hunches are always correct. Anyway, don't let that detract you from enjoying CELL. It's one of my favorite King books and I am so excited for the film version coming next year. So far the casting of John Cusack and Sam Jackson mean it's off to a good start (though I didn't picture the character of Tom McCourt as a tall, intimidating black guy who leads The Avengers...but hey, Sam can pull anything off).
After CELL I began collecting King's books. I went to used bookstores, shopped Amazon, eBay, Abebooks, and bought some brand new off the racks. Some were rare finds that I got for great prices. A copy of THE BACHMAN BOOKS, which includes RAGE (the only King work out-of-print due to its subject matter), that I got - and it looked brand new - only cost me $2. Ditto for a pristine copy of THE COLORADO KID paperback - only a dollar fifty.
And after seven years of tracking down every King book, the collection was finished just a little over a week ago when my wife gave me DOCTOR SLEEP for my 31st birthday.
I'll spend years reading all of King's work. Thus far I've finished 16 of his novels. Currently I'm in the middle of DOCTOR SLEEP, number 17. I'm as enthralled with the story and characters as I was reading THE SHINING (another of my favorites). I think SLEEP is one of King's better novels because you can tell the focus is there, he knew what he wanted to do, and he was firing on all cylinders when churning it out. Maybe the pressure of doing a suitable follow-up was good for him. The macabre imagery he puts forth just incites goosebumps. For instance, in one early scene the members of the True Knot gather just outside of New York City to breathe in the "steam" let off by those - possibly hundreds or thousands of those - who have the shining as they are dying in the attack of 9/11...
When I read that scene I felt like someone was strangling me. Then I read that scene again.
I make sure to read other authors in between King, to vary my tastes and because sometimes too much King can boggle down the mind. I find him a wonderful writer but sometimes he can dwell too long on something insignificant. The middle of UNDER THE DOME was tough, mostly because of too many characters and it felt like everything was just at a standstill with no direction for far too long. I also felt that there were way too many descriptions of banners and advertisements. He's got a thing with that. I did enjoy the last 200 pages, though. It was just a chore getting there.
Interesting to note is that while King is my favorite author, I don't look to write like him. What I admire so much is his comfort and confidence in his work. He knows he writes horror and he's fine with that. He's also written such touching stories as THE GREEN MILE and RITA HAYWORTH AND THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION. He writes what he wants too. So do I. I love how he creates hundreds and hundreds of pages of characters and towns and worlds to get lost in. These are real places and people in his books. No stone left unturned. Me? I try to be sparse when I can. I don't like unnecessary words in my work. If I can cut it, I will. I don't like being too wordy. Not to say King always is, but, like I said, no stone unturned. That's what works for him. I'm also not a horror writer. There are suspenseful, dark tones in some moments of my work, but I try to put a little bit of everything into the mix. See what happens.
What comes out often works for me.
And that's what matters.
If I can ever ignite a feeling in my readers that I get, say, like when I read that scene from DOCTOR SLEEP...that's better than any praise in any review a writer could get.
Which excites me even more for my first novel's release this spring.
(And in King news, readers can expect TWO new novels this year: MR. MERCEDES in June, and REVIVAL in November.)
