For the A to Z challenge today I’m going to post about my favorite author Stephen King. I know it has become kind of un-cool in the writing world to admit that Stephen King is your favorite author and one of your biggest influences, but I don’t really care.
The first book I ever read by Stephen King was “Christine” from then on I was hooked. His use of description and character development is unmatched at least in my opinion. When I read “The Stand” in High School it really inspired me to want to write. More importantly it molded my love of post apocalyptic fiction. To this day it's my favorite book and I've read it probably 5 times.
The fact is many of his books get me so involved and vested in the health of the characters that I don’t want them to end and I especially don’t want the characters to die. Yes, he’s had some stinkers, but consistently he puts out great books year in and year out. I just recently read "Dr. Sleep" and in my opinion it’s another winner. I loved how Mr. King intertwined the use of addiction, the spiritual aspect and the conclusion of "The Shining" all into one.
I think that most of his books take tropes that we are all bored to death with and spin them around in an original way until they are interesting and break the mold of the genre. For example the book “Cell” takes the subject of zombies and presents them in a different way. The ideas that involve the hive mentality and transmission through the cell phone call are really cool.
I also think that some of Mr. King’s strongest works are his short stories. Think about all of the great shorts he’s written from “The Body” to “N” to “The Man in the Black Suit” to “Children of the Corn” the list goes on and on and on. I think that short stories in general are an underrated medium, especially for Horror and Sci-Fi. You can tell that I feel this way from the three short stories I have published on Amazon.
Saying all of that, Mr. King does have some weaknesses. He sometimes gets bogged down and is over-wordy and he has a real issue with endings. Take a book like 11-22-63 which is a great read, but the ending seems to go on forever and Cell has a pretty Meh ending as well.
Horror Question of the Day: Besides Stephen King who do you think is the darkest, scariest, most talented horror writer?
News: Everything about my novel “Wormwood” is complete except for the manner of release. I am currently having an agent negotiate a contract for me with a publisher, but depending on how that goes I may end up self-publishing. I want to try and share all aspects with you guys about why I chose which direction and as soon as all of the business end of publishing is worked out I will relay the whole story to you here on the Nuclear Blog.
The first book I ever read by Stephen King was “Christine” from then on I was hooked. His use of description and character development is unmatched at least in my opinion. When I read “The Stand” in High School it really inspired me to want to write. More importantly it molded my love of post apocalyptic fiction. To this day it's my favorite book and I've read it probably 5 times.
The fact is many of his books get me so involved and vested in the health of the characters that I don’t want them to end and I especially don’t want the characters to die. Yes, he’s had some stinkers, but consistently he puts out great books year in and year out. I just recently read "Dr. Sleep" and in my opinion it’s another winner. I loved how Mr. King intertwined the use of addiction, the spiritual aspect and the conclusion of "The Shining" all into one.
I think that most of his books take tropes that we are all bored to death with and spin them around in an original way until they are interesting and break the mold of the genre. For example the book “Cell” takes the subject of zombies and presents them in a different way. The ideas that involve the hive mentality and transmission through the cell phone call are really cool.
I also think that some of Mr. King’s strongest works are his short stories. Think about all of the great shorts he’s written from “The Body” to “N” to “The Man in the Black Suit” to “Children of the Corn” the list goes on and on and on. I think that short stories in general are an underrated medium, especially for Horror and Sci-Fi. You can tell that I feel this way from the three short stories I have published on Amazon.
Saying all of that, Mr. King does have some weaknesses. He sometimes gets bogged down and is over-wordy and he has a real issue with endings. Take a book like 11-22-63 which is a great read, but the ending seems to go on forever and Cell has a pretty Meh ending as well.
Horror Question of the Day: Besides Stephen King who do you think is the darkest, scariest, most talented horror writer?
News: Everything about my novel “Wormwood” is complete except for the manner of release. I am currently having an agent negotiate a contract for me with a publisher, but depending on how that goes I may end up self-publishing. I want to try and share all aspects with you guys about why I chose which direction and as soon as all of the business end of publishing is worked out I will relay the whole story to you here on the Nuclear Blog.
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