I recently read an article by Alison Ford for The Guardian entitled, “Stephen King and his Wife Pledge $3m to Maine Library,” and it of course took me back to growing up on the popular horror authors books and short stories. I discovered Stephen King and his books when I was around 13, when I found his book “Salem’s Lot,” at a flea market.
Today, 13 years old is a little young to read a Stephen King horror novel, but then it was just the thing. Horror wasn’t about blood and gore like it is today. Horror was about telling a scary enough story that you were afraid to sleep with the light off when you put your book down for the night. This is something Stephen King has known,and done for many, many years now. To a 13 year old who was an aspiring writer even then, the words of that first Stephen King novel were almost like being there.
The crisp and compelling descriptions of not only the “villain” in the book but the scenes themselves was enough to cement my want to be a writer and a love of horror and reading for all time. Stephen King has been the unknowing mentor to many young writers-to-be, and surely will be for many years to come.