Stephen King the King of Horror
And when you think of a good horror story many authors can come to mind. But most will agree Stephen King is the King of horror. But how much do you really know about the man behind the stories that scare us so?
Stephen King was born in Portland Maine. His father deserted the family when he was two years old. His mother raised him and his adopted brother under great financial strain. King started writing stories at a young age while in school he would write stories about movies he had seen and sell them to fellow classmates, until he was caught and made to return the money.
In 1971 King met is wife Tabitha. King taught English at Hampden Academy in Hampden, Maine. During this time, he and his family lived in a trailer. He wrote short stories most were published in men’s magazines to help make ends meet. King was also a alcoholic for over a decade.
One of his first ideas was of a young girl with psychic powers. However, he grew discouraged; feeling it wasn’t any good and threw it into the trash. Tabitha later rescued it and encouraged him to finish it. After completing the novel, he titled it Carrie, sent it to Doubleday, and more or less forgot about it. Later, he received an offer to buy it with a $2,500 advance not a large advance for a novel, even at that time. Shortly after, the value of Carrie was realized with the paperback rights being sold for $400,000 with $200,000 of it going to the publisher. Little did King realize he was on his way to being a very famous horror writer.
At this time King was consistently drunk and that he was an alcoholic for well over a decade. He states that he based the alcoholic father in The Shining on himself, though he didn’t admit that for several years. He sought help, and quit all forms of drugs and alcohol in the late 1980s.
King is also known for his folksy, informal narration, often referring to his fans as friends and neighbors.” He uses this style to contrast with the often gory or scary content of many of his stories.
King has a very simple formula for learning to write well: “Read four hours a day and write four hours a day. If you cannot find the time for that, you can’t expect to become a good writer.”
King also has a simple definition for talent in writing: “If you wrote something for which someone sent you a check, if you cashed the check and it didn’t bounce, and if you then paid the light bill with the money, I consider you talented” That is great news to all us writers out there who wonder if we really have any talent.
In 1996, King won an O. Henry Award for his short story, “The Man in the Black Suit.” In 2003, King was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the National Book Awards.
Fans will glad to know King has a new novel coming Cell is a new novel to be published by Stephen King in 2006 . The book is about Civilization doesn’t end with a bang or a whimper. It ends with a call on your cell phone. What happens on the afternoon of October 1 came to be known as the Pulse, a signal sent though every operating cell phone that turns its user into something…well, something less than human. Savage, murderous, unthinking. And on a wanton rampage. Terrorist act? Cyber prank gone haywire?
It really doesn’t matter, not to the people who avoided the technological attack. What matters to them is surviving the aftermath. Before long a band of them-“normies” is how they think of themselves-have gathered on the grounds of Gaiten Academy, where the headmaster and one remaining student have something awesome and terrifying to show them on the school’s moonlit soccer field. Clearly there can be no escape. The only option is to take them on. CELL is classic Stephen King, a story of gory horror and white-knuckling suspense that makes the unimaginable entirely plausible and totally fascinating. And all Stephen King fans can’t wait for this book to also become a classic Stephen King movie.
