I like Stephen King. Used to dismiss him as a volume-driven schlock-merchant, mostly, I realize now, just to be in tune with the crowd until I read his non-fiction book on the horror genre and realized he is on a par with or arguably better than Poe or Lovecraft.

He does follow sort of a formula...sucks you into identifying with the characters through grounding 'em in the details of contemporary life, things we are all familiar with. then he pitches you the anomaly...and if you buy into it (and I always do), he sets the hook and jerks you way offside...

I admire him for NOT resorting to cliched rubber monster horror. IMHO, he really only did that in The Fog. To good effect. And, I think, just to show he could.

Released on Friday, January 10, 2003 at Peet's Coffee on State Street in Los Altos, California USA.