FIRESTARTER

I Literally just found out that Stephen King wrote a book like mine called 'Firestarter', published in 1980. Now I'm a little stunned (and slightly annoyed with myself).

Since I started selling my books, I've received comments from older readers (by that I mean adults) who say 'Yes, it sounds very much like a Stephen King book.' Honestly, I thought that was just a comment about my writing. I was completely overjoyed that people were comparing me to Stephen King. I mean seriously, Stephen King. No freaking way am I that good a writer. I knew it was too good to be true, because it turns out they were just comparing the story to his story.

At work tonight, someone mentioned Firestarter. At the name, I instantly panicked, the way every author does when they discover their book has already been done AFTER they publish it themselves and spend 2 years writing it. I swear to anyone who reads this, right now, I had never heard of Stephen King's book Firestarter. I've read some of his bigger ones - The Shinning, Carrie, Cujo, etc - but I'd never known this book existed until tonight.

On the one hand, I'm ecstatic because I now have a book to compare it to when someone asks 'what book is it like?' Mention Stephen King and I'm golden. But on the other hand.... will people judge me and say 'Urgh, she totally just copied his book and made it into her own'?

I suppose I shouldn't be worried. I mean how many Fifty Shades look-alikes are there out in stores at the moment? How many Hunger Games-type dystopian sagas are there? Do I even need mention the vampire novels? 

And, if I had to go along the lines of another book, why not a Stephen King masterpiece? Now, all that's left to do I suppose is to get myself a copy of Firestarter :)


(Oh my God, I just Googled it and there's a movie with Drew Barrymore!!! So watching that as well. Hooray!)