I’m just gonna say it plain: Stephen King is a creepy dude. I just started listening to his newest collection: You want it Darker. I’m not going to talk about that title yet. I am going to talk about the fact that barely one story in I am floored and creeped out at the same time. Some writers have that transcendent ability to reach into a reader and grab them by the soul. He has me. I will finish this story. Maybe I’ll end up not liking it–that happens once in a while. I will finish though. I have to now. He’s done so much on each page to remind me that I need to know how it ends. I’m invested. It isn’t about me but it is about people whose story I care about. I don’t see that every writer has that. I don’t know if I have that. 49 years in and I’m still trying to figure that out.
He did. He knows. Now he just writes. He lives in that place I felt for a hot moment where you can channel the stories through you; that place I strive daily to return to. I want to be able to get there and I realize that you get there by submerging yourself in story to the point where you cannot help but be a conduit for stories to break through into the real world. The stories recognize you and welcome your touch.
I will find that space again. I will try my butt off to get back and stay there.