Special King Edition!

Hey guys,
It's a day I always celebrate every year because it's the birthday of my favorite writer in the entire universe and a horror legend - STEPHEN KING!

Today is his 68th birthday and I thought I'd take this opportunity to reflect on how much he's impacted my life, and how great of a guy he really is.

So strap in, this is gonna get sappy.

16 years ago on a whim at the library on the army base where I lived, I picked up a book at random. I had recently started reading adult novels at the tender age of 11 and had decided to find some adult horror novels. Long were the days when Fear Street scared me, and I wanted to be scared. I asked the librarian who an adult horror author was, and naturally she suggested Stephen King. He has, and always will be, one of best known horror authors.

Despite the tiny size of this library, they had a pretty great selection of Stephen King books. As any King fan knows, a lot of his novels are very great in length. So as an 11 year old just starting to dabble in adult novels, I picked the smallest. This book was Carrie.

I finished it in a few days. Completely entranced by these rich and devastating characters, I lost myself in Carrie's world and blushed when Tommy asked her to the prom, felt beautiful when she wore her prom dress for the first time, and felt the anger and embarrassment she felt when that famous pigs blood fell onto her head. I had always been a little bit on the outside of school. We moved every two or three years to a new army base and it was tough to make and keep friends. In a morbid way, Carrie spoke to me. And I remember a few times concentrating really hard on inanimate objects trying to make them move with my mind.

Next up I chose Tommyknockers. I was a huge fan of aliens (and always will be) so this was a great second choice. Then it was Gerald's Game (which was perhaps a little too "adult" for my tender 11 years), then it was Misery and so on and so forth.

I was addicted.

Horror had a new name and face for me, and it was Stephen King.

Since then I have collected over 150 King novels - first editions, movie tie-ins, cool cover art, all his new releases, graphic novels etc. I have an entire bookshelf dedicated to him, and every time I step into a second hand book store I dig through the King section for any editions I may not have. But Carrie remained close to my heart, and along with a first edition, I have 4 other copies of that novel.

King has been there for me through sadness and joy, through the times when I was counting pennies to get bus change for work, through wealth and breakups. King books to me are that warm, cozy bed you climb into in the middle of a snow storm. Most people's memories of me are with a Stephen King book in hand. Lugging those giant novels to and from work in the middle of snow storms and rain storms. Sitting on the train lost in the world of Bangor.

For years' my parents would buy me the latest Stephen King novel for Christmas and I would look forward to unwrapping the book and falling into the newest adventure. Of course, now I can pre-order them because I'm an adult and have my shit together. But those memories are so important to me and since the age of 11, King has been intertwined in my life.

He means the absolute world to me, and his stories, other than Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, are the only stories I re-read constantly. I don't even know how many times I've read my favorites like Carrie, Duma Key, Bag of Bones, Dreamcatcher or the short stories I love like Apt Pupil, The Body or The Mist.

Stephen King is an interesting man, he has had a long life of ups and downs. His literary career spans decades with 54 (soon to be 55) novels, 7 of which were under a pseudonym of Richard Bachman, 6 non-fiction books, and nearly 200 short stories. That's fucking impressive.

His first novel, Carrie, was published in 1974. It almost didn't come to light as King (who was a teacher at the time) became so frustrated he threw the manuscript in the trash. Luckily for all of us, Tabitha (his wife) fished it out and encouraged him to continue. In 1975 he published Salem's Lot, a beautiful, haunting and creepy vampire tale. In 1977 he published The Shining and so began a long and celebrated career.

But King himself suffered from a terrible drinking problem that escalated after his mother passed. After years of addiction he manged to get himself sober in the 80's, but it left an impression on his writing. Many of his characters are recovering from addiction, or are in the depths of addiction themselves. In 1999 he was in a horrific accident which almost killed him. He was bed ridden for a long time and he found himself incredibly frustrated and almost unable to write. In fact, he didn't really get his groove back until 2008 with the release of Duma Key.

King is an avid rock and roll fan, and has played in a few bands in his life. Music plays a big role in his novels as well as baseball. King loves his baseball.

He's also just a really great and interesting guy. He's an advocate for many charities, owns a creepy as hell mansion in Maine, and his twitter is filled with Dad jokes. Oh yeah, and he has pet corgis.

So, thank you Stephen King, for a life time of horror novels that changed my world and kept my imagination bright. And here's to a few good more years of new books coming into my hands, and many many years of re-reading the classics.

I am forever your "constant reader" and only hope one day I get to shake your hand and thank you for everything you've done for me. And I promise I won't "Misery" you.