Long Live The King

No, we're not talking Elvis here. The King I'm referring to is Stephen, and I've just finished his latest short story collection, Full Dark, No Stars. Whether you love his writing as I do or hate it (possible, I guess, as taste is subjective, although hate is hard to imagine if you've read him), I think you would still have to concede that the characters he creates are relatable, "Ordinary people put in extraordinary situations", quoted from his afterword in this book (and if you're one of those people who skip forwards and afterwords in books, please don't skip his. They are almost as entertaining as the books themselves).

 

 From Publishers Weekly

Eerie twists of fate drive the four longish stories in King's first collection since Just After Sunset (2008). In "1922," a farmer murders his wife to retain the family land she hopes to sell, then watches his life unravel hideously as the consequences of the killing suggest a near-supernatural revenge. "Big Driver" tells of an otherwise ordinary woman who discovers her extraordinary capacity for retribution after she is raped and left for dead. "A Good Marriage" explores the aftermath of a wife's discovery of her milquetoast husband's sinister secret life, while "Fair Extension," the book's most disturbing story, follows the relationship between a man and the best friend on whom he preternaturally shifts all his bad luck and misfortune. As in Different Seasons (1982), King takes a mostly nonfantastic approach to grim themes. Now, as then, these tales show how a skilled storyteller with a good tale to tell can make unsettling fiction compulsively readable.

I loved all four stories, but I would have to say "Big Driver" was my favorite. Not only is the protagonist a woman, she's a writer. I found myself asking, "What would I do?, throughout her nightmarish experience with a serial rapist. A close second was "Fair Extension". About half way through I thought I knew exactly what the outcome would be, but I was pleasantly surprised from both a writer's and reader's standpoint. 

This collection is raw and honest. Let it never be said that Mr. King doesn't tell it straight.

Updates and Apologies

I felt like such a slacker when I realized I'd only posted once to the blog last week. NaNo has kept me busy. Although I'm a little bit behind where I would like to be, I did manage to pass 10,000 words over the weekend. And I must say I'm having fun not editing. I never thought I would utter those words, but I read a terrific article by Stephen King that really hit home with me. One of his suggestions on writing successfully was this:

Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word. There are no exceptions to this rule. You think you might have misspelled a word? O.K., so here is your choice: either look it up in the dictionary, thereby making sure you have it right - and breaking your train of thought and the writer's trance in the bargain - or just spell it phonetically and correct it later. Why not? Did you think it was going to go somewhere? And if you need to know the largest city in Brazil and you find you don't have it in your head, why not write in Miami, or Cleveland? You can check it ... but later. When you sit down to write, write. Don't do anything else except go to the bathroom, and only do that if it absolutely cannot be put off.

I've followed his advice while writing this week and let me tell you it's fantastic and freeing and lots of other wonderful adjectives that I will not use a thesaurus to look up right now.  You can read the entire article here, and I encourage you to do so.

I also finished reading Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, and all I can say is WOW. Please read this book if you haven't already and tell everyone you know to read it also.

I passed it along to my teenage son. It is so powerfully written and Ms. Anderson really nailed the teen voice.

My fantabulous follower giveaway will be revealed this week so stay tuned for that, and for my fellow NaNoers, in the words of  Commander Peter Quincy Taggart, "Never give up, never surrender!"