Horror 101: Doctor Sleep

Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep was published in 2013.  It is a sequel to The Shining and it follows the character of Danny Torrance—now called Dan—who works in a hospice and uses his psychic gift to comfort dying patients.  Dan has followed in his father’s footsteps in that he has become an alcoholic, but when he relocates and begins working at the hospice, he stops drinking.  

Abra Stone is a little girl who has an extremely powerful psychic gift—stronger than Dan’s—and she unintentionally forms a bond with him that grows as she gets older.  Abra’s gift puts her on the radar of the True Knot, a wandering group of quasi-immortals led by Rose the Hat who feed on the essence of individuals with psychic powers.  The essence is called “steam” and Rose the Hat is convinced that she can kidnap Abra and she and the Knot can feed off of what she considers to be an unlimited supply of Abra’s steam. Shenanigans ensue.

As I’ve said before, I’m a SK stan and for the most part, I love his work.  Doctor Sleep is no different.  I read it on a train ride to Beijing in 2014.  It’s a fast read and an engaging story.  King said in his notes about the novel that he got the idea of the True Knot—a very nasty group of individuals—from being on the road and seeing a procession of RVs at random points on the trip.  That stuck with me.  When I come home during the summer, I go on road trips and ever since reading Doctor Sleep, I’m wary of any RV I see. Seeing a group of them traveling the interstate I’m on makes me outright nervous.  If I see a cluster of RVs at a rest stop, I keep on driving whether or not I need to stop.  I’m not psychic and I don’t believe I possess any gifts that would be of interest to anyone, least of all psychic vampires, but I’m not about to take that chance.

Love this book.  Check it out.

Horror 101: An Appreciation (1/?)

For the past five or six years, I’ve been extremely lazy with my October postings.  You might argue that I’ve been lazy with any and all postings unrelated to my Shorties, and I would not disagree.  I’ve reposted my Halloween appreciation post regularly, but now in 2019, I need to do something different.  Also it’s nice to actually blog about something else instead of a Shortie update (which I don’t mind at all; I’m having a blast writing “Switchblade Romance” and I hope that you, Dark Dilettantes, are having a ball reading it).

So this year, I want to get back to my blogging roots.  I’m a horror head, and have been for most of my life.  When I was a child, I watched all the classic scary movies and most of them scared the shit out of me.  You would think I’d put as much distance between horror movies and myself after that, but naaaah!  Something about those movies (and eventually books) spoke to me on a primal level and ever since then, I’ve been nose wide open when it comes to any and all things horror.

Dark Love IV: The Outer Limits

After a not-so-brief interruption, my homage to old-school television continues with The Outer Limits. 

The opening monologue is classic:

 There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image, make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat: there is nothing wrong with your television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to – The Outer Limits. 

This was a mostly science fiction anthology show that aired from 1963-1965 on ABC.  The first season combined sci-fi with a little bit of horror and followed a Monster-of-the-Week (MotW) format.  What separated The Outer Limits from The Twilight Zone was its straightforward storytelling style and sometime focus on dark forces that came from within the human condition and "outside"of our galaxy.  In that, TOL is very much Lovecraftian. 

Dark Love III: Bus Stop

My analysis continues.

Bus Stop isn’t a supernatural or horror anthology TV show.  It was a mainstream series that focused on a bus stop in the fictitious town of Sunrise, Colorado.  However, there are two episodes that stand out.  One is “A Lion Walks Among Us,” an adaptation of Tom Wicker’s novel The Judgment.  This particular episode was aired exactly one time, and due to the violence it contained, it led to a congressional hearing on television violence, the firing of the network president, and the cancelation of the show.  The executive producer also lost his job. 

Dark Love II: Night Gallery

Next on the slate in my continuing homage to Stephen King’s deconstruction of sci-fi/fantasy/horror fiction and television is Night Gallery. Night Gallery is Rod Serling’s second go-round with network television.  You undoubtedly remember the first, The Twilight Zone.*  

Dark Love, Part 1: Thriller

I’m a diehard, card-carrying, flag-waving, T-shirt-sporting fan of Stephen King.  I’ve been a fan since I sprouted breasts, which may explain a few things that I don’t care to elaborate.  Anyway, I own and have read all of his books, and my favorite book of all time is IT, read in 3 blistering, manic days when I was but a girl of 15.  This man has had the biggest, most hugest influence on my life as an author.  I absolutely adore him and that’s the black-ass bottom line.

In 1981, Mr. King wrote a nonfiction book titled Danse Macabre, which is a series of essays on the history, nature, quality, and substance of horror in media from 1950 to 1980 (and it is in need of a SERIOUS update, Mr. King).  He references novels, TV shows, and radio programs that he recalls from his early years and their place in our pop culture collective unconscious.  The book is heavily cited, and considering the influences the citations had on his work, I eagerly backtracked to get my hands on as many of the stories, books, and shows he referenced.  Thank God for the internet.

A Constant Reader's Love for the King

Stephen and I met when I was barely thirteen years old, under the guise of a novel called Misery. I convinced my mother to buy the paperback and once I read the first paragraph, I was hooked.

And so began the strongest, most dedicated love affair I have ever had with a man. From that first literary kiss, my writer’s heart belonged to him. Stephen and I have been together over twenty years and he is the only man that has never let me down. He makes love to me in the purest way possible: mentally. His novels draw me in and hold my attention from the first word to the last. And he can do it multiple times in one night. I can depend on him to satisfy me, thrill me and entertain me. I can count on him to make me think, dream and imagine. I can count on him to bring the noise with whatever he writes and put it down when he does write it. I can rely on him to keep me up nights as I hang on his every word.

I love this man. He is quite simply, for me, the greatest author that ever lived. And I’m not prone to hyperbole in the literary sense. I have a great appreciation for many, many writers and poets; Frost, Fitzgerald, Hurston, Eliot and Matheson to name a few. But I LOVE Stephen King. I can’t think of enough ways to say it, but I don’t have to say it. My library speaks for me. I own every book he’s ever written and every short story and novella that he has published and/or produced.

I can say that Stephen King has a direct, powerful influence on my growth as a writer and author. Reading his novels is like studying under a master. Absorbing the words and allowing them to play on the canvas of my mind is a most sensuous experience. Multiple readings make the experience richer and varied, as I allow myself to probe the deeper meanings behind his work. It is him and it is me, and it is unity.

I am the Constant Reader of whom he sometimes speaks. I am the person he writes for. And like he has always been to me, I shall always be faithful to him. Stephen, no one will ever feel for you the way I do. No one will do for me what you’ve done for me. You’ve given me passion and focus and the need to be as gifted a writer. For all that, I love you Stephen Edwin King. I love you then, I love you now, and I shall always, always love you. Thank you for gracing my life with your books. Thank you for showing me how to dream. Thank you for the legacy you gave me. I am better and greater because of it.

Love,

Amaya