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. And I love Stephen King’s stories. I think there is something to be learned through this process.

You can also go back to the beginning and read Before Carrie or any of my other posts up through this one and beyond by checking out this link to the Master List of all my #StephenKingRevisited posts.

The nonfiction cowritten journal style Faithful is quite a transition from the “final” three Dark Tower books in a row. Back into some nonfiction and some baseball with Faithful.

I read an essay about Owen King’s little league team going deep into the championships at the end of Nightmares and Dreamscapes. This one essay which I believe appeared in The New Yorker made me feel better about jumping into this book once it came up.

I am a fan of his nonfiction work. His collaborative work is growing on me a little as I read through all these works.

My favorite nonfiction baseball book is A View from my Seat by Armand Rosamilia. I’m hoping I’ll enjoy Faithful almost as much as Rosamilia’s journey with the minor league team the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp.

I remember the year/season this book covers. I was in the middle of getting my Masters Degree. I was finishing my last year of that degree, and my wife had moved over to South Carolina ahead of me for her new job. I drove up to see her every other weekend as I finished up that last year of teaching in Georgia. It was an unusual time for us.

The post season was going on and Boston was down in the championship. Stephen King was in the stands and as I got to the house where I was staying, they interviewed him. He had sort of a fatalistic view as his team was about to be eliminated.

Then, they started to come back. They came back from the brink, won that series, and powered through the World Series for the historic win.

It’s fascinating that he and Stewart O’Nan were working on notes for this book that year. I’m interested to see how that effort turned out.

My next post in this series will be After Faithful which will be linked on the Master List of all my Stephen King Revisited posts.

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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