The Girl Who Loved Stephen King

Lockdown continues, but so does the beautiful sunshine. This is perfect weather for the next two stories, which are real summer horrors. They are, in many ways, nothing alike, but I've placed them together because they feel like trial runs of some of King's later heavy hitters. Both of them have a slightly unfinished quality, which could be intentional, but may result from them belonging as part of a much bigger whole. Night Surf Night Surf , collected in Night Shift , is set in the aftermath of a world-sweeping illness called Captain Trips, and if that sounds familiar, it's because it's the same name given to the population-ending virus from The Stand, published eight years later. In this short story, the flu-like illness is pretty much the same, except that victims heads swell to bizarre proportions just before death, which is something I don't recall from  The Stand. It's an interesting snippet which doesn't feel particularly finished, and wouldn...

In a busy first week of lockdown, I've been setting remote learning for my students, answering millions of (usually ridiculous) questions, chasing my tiny tornado of a toddler, and ploughing through the first big group of King's short stories. I'll admit that I hadn't realised just how many short stories King had published before Carrie came out in '74; I even had my copy out and ready when I started compiling my list of his works and organising it. It wasn't to be. King was pretty prolific even before Carrie  made him a household name. If you don't include Jumper  and Rush Call , by my count he'd written eighteen stories and one essay before his big break. Rather than dedicating a blog post to every story, I thought I'd put them together into groups which felt connected, not necessarily by theme or subject matter, but by a feel of the writing. Occasionally, where a story really speaks to me, I'll give it its own post. Cain Rose Up From t...

I'll start this post by saying that really, I suppose I ought to have started with Jumper and Rush Call, stories that King wrote with his brother when he was just twelve and submitted to the local paper. I will get to them, but as the book they're found in is on order, I thought I'd start with the first paid  piece King wrote. For those of you shouting 'where's Carrie ?', you might be surprised to know that there are a good twenty short stories for me to get through before I revisit that delicious little beast. The Glass Floor tells the story of Charles Wharton, who, after the suspicious death of his sister, visits the creepy home where she died to interrogate her husband. We quickly discover that her death was, of course, as creepy as the house it happened in. King himself describes The Glass Floor  as 'clumsy and badly written', but with a payoff ending. I think this is harsh. While the story does feel a little awkward in places, there are still...

On the 23rd March, 2020, the UK was officially placed on Coronavirus lockdown. All across the country, people wondered what they would do, stuck indoors with only their immediate family for company. Some found themselves anxiously remembering what happened to the Torrances in  The Shining.  So, what should one do when on lockdown? How does one avoid getting mallet happy? My name is Beth, and I hate being bored. After an hour stuck indoors, I am cranky. After three, I am bordering on homicidal. After a day, I could give Jack Torrance a run for his money. I knew, as soon as the announcement was made, that I needed was a new, time consuming hobby, something to distract me from the overwhelming urges to run outside and mingle, or throw my husband from a window. The Stephen King Challenge was born. All of Stephen King's published works, his books, short stories, poems, essays, and screenplays, in chronological order (or as close to it as I could get). I would hazard ...