by Jay Wilburn

The plan is to reread all of Stephen King’s works in the order that they were published. Richard Chizmar of Cemetery Dance had the vision. I’m doing it because I am a writer and I want to improve my fiction. I think there is something to be learned through this process. As Richard Chizmar and Bev Vincent put up their posts on the official site, I will link those in the corresponding ones of mine on this blog, typically with the “After” posts.

You can go back and read the previous After The Gunslinger or go back to the beginning for Before Carrie to follow them all through.

Here is the link the Master List of all my #StephenKingRevisited posts.

Let’s take a look …

The book is made up of four novellas: Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, Apt Pupil, The Body, and The Breathing Method.

I thought at first I had read them separate from the Different Seasons collection because I didn’t remember owning it, but now I don’t think that can be true. It was either high school or junior college when I picked up the book. I read each story except The Breathing Method. I don’t know why I skipped it. I probably read the others because they were movies. I know that’s why I skipped and read The Body first. I’m not positive that Shawshank or Apt Pupil were movies at the point that I read those stories though. I may have read the other two in order and simply never got to the fourth story. I was a very poor scholar at those points in my life and felt no obligation to be consistent or thorough in things like this. I either lost the book with most of everything else I owned in high school or I traded the book back into the used book store near my college with the last story unread.

I’m looking forward to revisiting these stories because I remember them being tight and direct to their endings. The fact that they weren’t supernatural was a different sort of horror for me, I think. They felt grounded, gritty, and real. It felt like these stories were happening right behind the walls where I was reading them.

Let’s start these seasons then.

My next post will be After Different Seasons.

— Jay Wilburn

Jay Wilburn

Jay Wilburn has a Masters Degree in Education that goes mostly unused since he quit teaching to write about zombies. Jay writes horror because he tends to find the light by facing down the darkness. His is doing well following a life saving kidney transplant. Jay is the author of Maidens of Zombie Kingdom a young adult fantasy trilogy, Lake Scatter Wood Tales adventure books for elementary and middle school readers, Vampire Christ a trilogy of political and religious satire, and The Dead Song Legend. He cowrote The Enemy Held Near, Yard Full of Bones, and The Hidden Truth with Armand Rosamilia. You can also find Jay's work in Best Horror of the Year volume 5. He is a staff writer with Dark Moon Digest, LitReactor, and the Still Water Bay series with Crystal Lake Publishing.

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