I
love books. Reading a book, with a cup of tea and a soft blanket on a cold or
rainy day is a special sort of comfort. Especially now that I have so little
free time for reading, I appreciate the time I get to read more than ever.
There are millions of books out there, and I keep being drawn to the same
author. The books are often slightly disturbing, but oddly well written and
interestingly stylized. Plus whenever I finish one book by this author, there’s
always going to be another one to pick up because it seems he has an endless
supply of creativity and work effort. I’ve heard that he writes a minimum of
eight pages a day, and that’s how he does it. I’ve also heard that he has a
house on Casey Key, and is sometimes spotted in Sarasota. He has a corgi named
Mollie (or, as he calls her, “Thing of Evil”), and has written an autobiography
which tells all about his thoughts on writing. If you haven’t guessed yet, the
author I’m talking about is Stephen King.
King inspires me for a couple of
reasons. Besides the fact that his writing is absolutely phenomenal, and I will
never get sick of his books, his realm for creativity is out of this world. As
an artist, and a story artist at that, I know how hard it can be to come up
with a well-rounded, high concept story. Yet, King pops these stories out like
baby bunnies and they’re all (or at least the ones I’ve read so far) brilliant.
For example, I’m listening to “Dolores Claiborne” on tape recently while I
animate. This book, while being extremely creepy and disturbing, is completely
flawless. If I had never read Stephen King’s books before, and I read the
description of this book, I would have thought it was not a book I would enjoy
and frankly boring. Here’s the description: “In
Stephen King's detailed, suspense novel, Dolores Claiborne, Dolores explains to
a stenographer and the police how and why she murdered her husband 30 years
ago.”
Sounds sort of boring, eh? An old woman talking about a murder that happened a
long time ago, and we already know how it ends right? She goes to jail for
admitting to murder obviously. This story being boring could not be farther
from the truth. It’s King’s creativity and story execution that make it this
way. This is a riveting story being told by an old woman and written in a way
that you could swear you were there in that interrogation room with her
listening to this gruesome, heart wrenching tale unfold.
The
other things that inspire me about Stephen King are his dedication, and work
ethic. King makes sure that each day he is putting in effort to further his
creative works. He is getting old now, almost 70. He has written so many books!
According to Wikipedia: “King has
published 54 novels, including seven under the pen name
Richard Bachman and six non-fiction books. He has written
nearly 200short stories, most of which have been collected in book
collections.”
This
man could EASILY retire. He could so quickly say, “enough is enough” and stop
writing his books. He doesn’t, however. In fact, he is rumored to write eight
pages a day minimum, as I mentioned before. He loves what he does, and is
dedicated enough to his practice that he doesn’t want to stop writing and
retire! He wants to keep telling his stories and writing his novels. I am so
inspired by that. He is a great great
man, and one of the classic authors of our time. I sincerely hope I get to meet
him one day; the artist who has most likely provided me with books to curl up
under a blanket with, for the rest of my life.
