Fun Size Bytes (from @Tj)

If you haven't read The Talisman, go get a copy and read it. I'm serious. I'll wait.

Like Michele I’ve read a shitton of Stephen King, and anyone who says he isn’t a good writer is completely full of shit.

That isn’t to say I’ve enjoyed everything he’s written or that he isn’t repetitive with some of his book’s themes.

And the movies are awful. Blech. Avoid them. (Except the short stories… such as The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption which were both good short stories and movies.)

BUT… my friends, if you have not read The Talisman Stephen King and Peter Straub you really need to rectify that shit.

I haven’t read it since high school but I remember it as being much more of a action/adventure than a “horror” book (most of his are… there’s very little actual blood and guts… but a lot of suspense!)

I once heard that the reason Peter Straub collaborated on it with him was that King had gotten to a certain point with the story and couldn’t get any further. He shared the story with Straub and gave it to him, and Straub “finished it”. I don’t know if that’s apocryphal or not.

Also, if you care about writing at all, I highly recommend King’s On Writing which is part autobiography and part “how to write.”