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.

I’ve been looking forward to getting back to Misery. I’m having more and more trouble remembering in what years I read these books the first time. I believe this was during junior college, going back and forth from the campus to the used bookstore during those long weekends when everyone went home and I had nowhere to go.

I kind of forgot how much reading I did back then to pass the time. No TV for one of those years. No cellphones and no Internet in the room. I just had to occupy myself once schoolwork was done. I consumed a lot more books during that time than I can recall. Misery was one of them and like with many books I bought back then, I traded them in on a few pennies of store credit off the next purchase and next read.

My wife picked up the current copy I have from a used bookstore. I got a number of Stephen King books one Christmas as I was starting this Stephen King Revisited adventure.

I was younger, so some aspects of the story didn’t resonate with me as I suspect they might now. I still have the crux of the story, but don’t recall all the details, twists, and turns as I’m sitting here.

I do remember a sense of isolation around the book. I’m sure I brought that with me to the story, but there was enough in the book to play on that lonely feeling and I suppose the feeling of being trapped and tormented. I didn’t pick up on all the subtext about addiction or the sometimes troublesome relationship between popular authors and their most obsessed readers that I now know are in there. I was just reading a story.

I’m curious what feelings the story might reawaken. I wonder if I’ll feel or connect with something different at this phase of my life. Being a full-time writer now may be part of that, I suppose. We’ll see

It’s time to open the pages of Misery.

My next post will be After Misery 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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