I’m still reading the book Misery by Stephen King. It’s horrifying. I mean it’s Stephen King, but still he manages to shock me. Something fun about reading this is that I bought my grandma the same book. She actually got me into Stephen King.
All of our family holidays happen at Grandma Kathy’s house. She opens up her home and us kids have always taken full advantage–we go up to the attic and snoop. I guess it’s not really snooping because we just looked at all the things on the shelves out in plain sight.
I remember seeing a book that had a girl with long wavy hair, surrounded by fire. It creeped me out, but I kept looking at it. I remember thinking that those creepy books must have been my uncles, since he used to live up there. Later I realized they were grandma’s.
My grandma read these books. Whaaaat.
This was one of the many things that made me realize how badass Grandma Kathy is. She used to read Stephen King with my cousin, who had lost her mom. They bonded over these creepy, horror stories. I was fascinated by this.
So I asked to borrow a couple of books. Pet Cemetery and Firestarter. I read Pet Cemetery first. And wow my world was rocked. I was captivated by the writing and horrified by the story. But I couldn’t stop reading. Just as I can’t stop reading Misery.
What I’ve been thinking about lately is…how can I become a captivating writer? I don’t think I want to write such gruesome tales, but that way that he has of drawing the reader in..how do I do that?
I suppose that’s a question authors have been asking themselves since the beginning of time. That’s just the question of: how do I become a good writer?
Now I’m coming back to the idea of this whole blog: practice. Practice I can do. For now.
Until the new school year and surviving the pandemic with 20 or so 6 + 7 year olds consumes my time and thoughts. Just thinking about it kept me up last night and gave me stress dreams. I suppose I better keep practicing while I can!
