The Eighth Loser

I originally submitted this to my friend Rich Chizmar of Cemetery Dance Publications to be included as a guest essay for his Stephen King Revisited project. But after talking to him and getting his blessing (and since he's still a long way from revisiting IT), I decided the timing was right to share it with you…

Book review: The Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King

It's not an exaggeration to say that buying my first Stephen King book was a rite of passage that helped mark the end of my childhood and the start of adulthood. I wish I could remember the exact circumstances behind that purchase. I do know that I'd gone from camping out in kids' section of our local Waldenbooks to wandering…

Old friends, we meet again

In case you missed the post where I professed my love for the printed word, I'm a reader. The voracious kind. Insatiable. I have stacks and stacks of books checked out from my local library that will eventually be returned unread because I just cannot physically read that many (oh, but I long to). My own collection has exploded beyond the…

Starting at square one

I'm not the sort to remember quotes from the books I read, but every so often, one will strike a chord and it'll stick with me for years. One such passage comes from my literary idol, Stephen King*, in his autobiography-slash-how-to manual On Writing. I can't remember it word-for-word (and am gonna have to look it up now), but he basically says that…