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.

I have found the Hard Case Crime books by Stephen King interesting experiments in writing. The Colorado Kid was very short and very odd. Stephen King has expressed that he doesn’t like endings. His preference would almost be to have stories without them and that is essentially what he did with The Colorado Kid. It is a crime fiction story with no real ending. I didn’t hate it, but it made me wary of the other two books coming up down the line.

Joyland, his second Hard Case Crime book, was excellent. It benefited from brevity. It showed his powerful mix of crime fiction and supernatural elements at their best. I think it might be his most underappreciated novel and possibly in the top ten of his best novels.

Now, I’m excited to see what he has to offer with Later. As of the time I’m writing this, it is the second to last novel in his catalog to date. I’m almost caught up. This is getting to the culmination of this long journey of reading all of Stephen King’s books in order. I have high hopes for this work.

My next post in this series will be After Later 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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