Philippa Dowding's Blog - Posts Tagged "stephen-king"

Jeesh, has anyone else recently read the short story "1922" by Stephen King (Full Dark, No Stars)? I was literally shaking, I'd forgotten how powerful his short stories can be. It's been a long time since I've read him, probably the last piece was The Stand (also gave me nightmares). The scene from 1922, when the sheriff turns up the first time, is one of the most chilling moments I can remember in short fiction. I couldn't have put it down if I wanted to (I really did want to). I'm working on a series of creepy middle grade stories these days, and so I thought I'd turn to the master. I studied a lot of Edgar Allan Poe in grad school, I seem to remember a paper on his "toolbox of horror," or something like that. I even wrote a story, my first short story, using some of his techniques which I think I'll post somewhere someday soon. But my stories are NOWHERE near as creepy as King's. I'm a little thankful actually that I'm writing middle grade work, I simply couldn't write anything as disturbing as he does. My word, how does he sleep at night??? In his Afterword, King does say that he had a hard time writing some of the stories in the book. Phew.