Secret Windows: Essays and Fiction on the Craft of Writing

by Stephen King, Peter Straub (Introduction)

One day, while in his laundry room, Stephen King squeezed behind his dryer, looked out of a window, and realized that he was seeing a garden that he'd never noticed before. This is what great writers do, he thought. They look out of an almost forgotten window at an angle that renders the common extraordinary.

Secret Windows: Essays and Fiction on the Craft of Writing is an exclusive Book-of-the-Month Club anthology of hard-to-find non-fiction pieces, little-known interviews, short stories, and articles about writing for those looking for direction on how to find their own "windows" - or for anyone wishing to be touched by Stephen King's humor and wisdom.
Included in this collection are unpublished early fiction (very early; King was twelve when he wrote "Jumper" and "Rush Call"); a pre-Carrie article with tips for selling stories to men's magazines ("The Horror Writer and the Ten Bears: A True Story"); advice to his son on writing (with the look-twice title "Great Hookers I Have Known"); recommendations to teen readers in a Seventeen article ("What Stephen King Does for Love"); a long chapter from his wonderful treatise on the horror genre ("Horror Fiction" from Danse Macabre); and even a first-time-in-print short story, "In the Deathroom" (just for fun).
Intended as a companion to Stephen King's 2000 book On Writing, Secret Windows: Essays and Fiction on the Craft of Writing captures the author's mind in action-spontaneous, subversive, quirky, yet morally and ethically serious. Together, they comprise virtually the sum of the thoughts on writing of the dominant force in American fiction for the past three decades.

-CONTENTS-
• Introduction by Peter Straub
• Dave's Rag: Jumper, Rush Call
• The Horror Market Writer and the Ten Bears: A True Story
• Foreword to Night Shift
• On Becoming a Brand Name
• "Horror Fiction" from Danse Macabre
• An Evening at the Billerica Library
• The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet
• How It Happened
• Banned Books and Other Concerns
• Turning the Thumbscrews on the Reader
• "Ever Et Raw Meat?" and Other Weird Questions
• A New Introduction to John Fowles's The Collector
• What Stephen King Does for Love
• Two Past Midnight: A Note on "Secret Window, Secret Garden"
• Introduction to Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door
• Great Hookers I Have Known
• A Night at the Royal Festival Hall: An Interview by Muriel Gray
• An Evening with Stephen King: March 30, 1999
• In the Deathroom

Genres: Nonfiction, Writing, Horror, Essays, Short Stories, Biography, Anthologies

433 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Stephen Edwin King was born the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. After his father left them when Stephen was two, he and his older brother, David, were raised by his mother. Parts of his childhood were spent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father's family was at the time, and in Stratford, Connecticut. When Stephen was eleven, his mother brought her children back to Durham, Maine, for good. Her parents, Guy and Nellie Pillsbury, had become incapacitated with old age, and Ruth King was persuaded by her sisters to take over the physical care of them. Other family members provided a small house in Durham and financial support. After Stephen's grandparents passed away, Mrs. King found work in the kitchens of Pineland, a nearby residential facility for the mentally challenged.

Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. From his sophomore year at the University of Maine at Orono, he wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper, THE MAINE CAMPUS. He was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. He came to support the anti-war movement on the Orono campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the war in Vietnam was unconstitutional. He graduated in 1970, with a B.A. in English and qualified to teach on the high school level. A draft board examination immediately post-graduation found him 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums.

He met Tabitha Spruce in the stacks of the Fogler Library at the University, where they both worked as students; they married in January of 1971. As Stephen was unable to find placement as a teacher immediately, the Kings lived on his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry, and her student loan and savings, with an occasional boost from a short story sale to men's magazines.

Stephen made his first professional short story sale ("The Glass Floor") to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. Throughout the early years of his marriage, he continued to sell stories to men's magazines. Many were gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies.

In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching English at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels.

Reviews

[Johann (jobis89) · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Well, that’s what writers do. They create ghosts and watch them walk around the room.”

If, like me, you would happily read Stephen King’s shopping list and if you’re a completionist, then Secret Windows should be on your wish-list. Any opportunity that arises where I can get inside King’s head, I will GRAB with two hands.

Secret Windows was initially suggested as a kind of sequel to On Writing. I wouldn’t necessarily put it into that bracket. It’s more like a random collection of different essays, short stories and introductions he has written for books, like John Fowles’ The Collector and Jack Ketchum’s The Girl Next Door.

And that was my only real issue with this one. I’ve already read both of those introductions, as I’ve read those books. I’ve already read his introduction to Night Shift. And I’ve already read Danse Macabre, so I’ve read his piece on horror fiction. Oh, and a story from Everything’s Eventual - In the Death Room - is included in here too. And guess what? I’ve read that one before as well!

So technically I had already encountered maybe 60% of this book before. But for me, it was worth it for the other 40%. I love when King talks about his writing process or his books, and there’s a few little speeches or Q&As included in here that just had me fangirling to the max.

There was also a novella titled The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet which was pretty good, if a little long-winded, and weirdly reminded me of the novella Rat in If It Bleeds. But hey, guess what, during my research I found that it’s actually in Skeleton Crew - one of the few Kings I haven’t read yet!

But Secret Windows is worth it for the typical King anecdotes. There’s an essay entitled “Great Hookers I Have Known” where he discusses great opening lines. He mentions that all of his kids are writers, but he thinks Joe will grow up to be the one who makes a living from it, and I enjoyed seeing that that was his prediction, even back in 1987 (this year is my approximation as Owen was 10 years old!)

Not one I’d recommend for a casual King fan, but worth a place on any die-hard Constant Reader’s shelf. 3.5 stars.

[Mohamed · Rating 5 out of 5]

فيلم مقتبس عن رواية النافذة السرية لستيفن كينج
الفيلم بطولة الرائع جوني ديب و ماريا بيلو
يتحدث عن كاتب ناجح يتعرض بعد انفصاله عن زوجته لمطالبة شخص غامض بحقوق الملكية الفكرية و متهما اياه بسرقة روايته
فيلم من الأعمال العظيمة بحق

الشكر موصول لأستاذتنا الغالية نيرة على هذا الترشيح الجميل

[Dona's Books]

Part of my kill-my-tbr project, in which I'm reading all my physical, unread books, which number around one thousand!

Reading with my peepers so this might take some time!

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of various bits of Stephen King's writing offer up some of his writing advice. Included are a few short stories - the first being one of his stories written as a child, which was a heartening piece to read because you realize that yes, he wrote just as badly as I did back when I was that age. The second was "The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet," which I originally read in Skeleton Crew, and is an interesting commentary on writing and writers and madness in general. The third was "In the Deathroom," which I read as part of Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales, which had very little to do with writing and may have been included as being "the first time in print!" (it was originally released as part of an audiobook collection) rather than anything to do with the craft of writing, which unfortunately made it a poor fit for this collection.

Also included were over 100 pages from Danse Macabre, which felt just as long to read as they did the first time around (I found that book super boring). My favorite bits were the introductions to other books and the transcribed talks he did at various venues. Because these are all pulled together from various sources, I found that it became a little repetitive (King offers the comparison of English teachers being like Pavlov's dogs more than once, and also relays his quip answer to the question, "Where do you get your ideas?" as "Utica" more than once).

Of course, I've already read his On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, and that really is the best writing book I've ever read, so this could never measure up to that. Still, it's been a while since I read anything of his and it was a nice reminder of his immense talent. I have to say, I've had this book sitting on my shelf for about eight years now, given to me by a co-worker's husband who is an avid collector, and I breathed a huge sigh of relief that I can now finally return it. I wonder if he remembers that I borrowed it...

[Egor Mikhaylov · Rating 2 out of 5]

Не книга, а франкенштейновский монстр из ошмётков, формально связанных темой творчества и писательского мастерства: расшифровки лекций, эссе, предисловия, рассказы, двести страниц (почти треть книги!) вообще взяты из «Пляски смерти» без изменений. В общем, наполовину the best of, наполовину b-sides, непонятно, кому нужные: поклонники как минимум половину этих текстов уже читали, а новичкам многое будет неинтересно. Занятно разве что смотреть, как из текста в текст меняются анекдоты, которые он рассказывает: два раза он описывает диалог, из которого родился «жребий Салема» (диалоги выходят разные), дважды шутит о том, что как учитель он по-собакопавловски будет говорить, пока не услышит звоночек (тоже немного по-разному). Но это всё попытки найти осмысленность в не вполне осмысленной книжке.

Да, перевод и редактура — в диапазоне от пристойных до ужасных (и далее до стадии «Вебер»), но этим читателей Кинга уже не удивишь.

[Debra · Rating 4 out of 5]

This companion book to On Writing has a great introduction by Peter Straub, King speeches and interviews, his "Horror Fiction" piece from Danse Macabre, lots of discussion about other authors and books of note, and much more. Again, it is so thoroughly enjoyable to "listen" to King talk about what he loves doing best. Enjoy!

[Kandice · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this! Not only because it was an amazing find, but because Stephen King’s forwords, afterwords and addresses to us, his “Constant Readers” are sometimes what I look forward to as much as his newest novel, but because I hadn’t even known some of these existed until I happened upon this in the local used book shop.

I never tire of “Uncle Stevie’s” speeches, lectures, essays and letters. The man can spin a yarn, tell a tale and move my heart! Every single time.

[Joshua Thompson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Peculiar collection of book introductions, interview transcripts, essays and short stories that was a supplement to the Book of the Month Club when King released On Writing. A lot of recycled material.

[Jaro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Second reading

Introduction by Peter Straub
Jumper
Rush Call
The Horror Market Writer and the Ten Bears (1973) (26/5-23)
-Foreword to Night Shift
On Becoming a Brand Name (1980) (forword to Fear Itself)
-Horror Fiction (From Dance Macabre)
An Evening at the Billerica Library (1983)
-The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet (mag version, skelton)
How IT Happened (1986)
Banned Books and Other Concerns (1986) (speech in library)
Turning the Thumbscrews on the Reader (1987)
Ever Et Raw Meat? and Other Weird Questions (1987)
An New Introduction to John Fowle's The Collector
What Stephen King Does for Love (1990)
-Two Past Midnight: A Note on Secret Window, Secret Garden
Introduction to Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door
Great Hookers I Have Known (2000) first printed here
A Night at the Royal Festival Hall (1998) (interview)
An Evening With Stephen King (March 30 1999)
-In the Deathroom (later in everything's eventual)

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I did enjoy this collection, it was not nearly as insightful or engrossing as King's On Writing, still there are some wonderful things in here. This is certainly a volume that anyone who is one of the author's Constant Readers should have on their shelf.

[Eddie Generous · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very cool. More than half I'd read before but there was a bunch I hadn't. Nicely put together. Intriguing, especially the old submission stuff...oh how things have changed.

[Caitlin Ball · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lot of this was re-reading things from other books I've already finished. But some of the material was new to me. I didn't mind the parts that were re-reads because Dance Macabre is one of my favorites. Originally I began writing my reflections as I read, but once it hit three pages I knew I'd better wait and post something shorter once I was done reading. In regard to hookers, the best one I've read (and I've read a lot of books) goes like this: "The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed." There's never been an opening that stuck with me quite like that one. I'm surprised it didn't come up in that conversation.

[Jack · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is marketed as a companion to King's spectacular craft memoir On Writing. That is being way too generous. This particular book-of-the-month club exclusive is by no means up to that standard. This is a collection of random pieces, most of which can be found elsewhere: the foreword to Night Shift, the "Horror Fiction" chapter from Danse Macabre, various notes to introduce books-of-the-month, introductions for The Girl Next Door and The Collectors, interviews, and other such things.

There are a few original items, a couple of short stories ("The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet" is much stronger than "In the Deathroom"), and a couple of essays. If you are a Stephen King fan, the book is worth reading for a bit of an insight into King's life and his process. It is particularly interesting to read about Joe and Owen in light of what they have done since this book was published. It's fun to read a couple of stories from a very young Stephen writing for his brother's neighborhood paper. That being said, if you are looking for something the caliber of On Writing, I'll tell you right now that it isn't here. The closest thing might be the Introduction by Peter Straub, which attempts to analyze King's ability to connect with readers.

Pick it up if you are interested, but understand it is more like the DVD extras on a movie or the liner notes of an album, only as fulfilling as your own interest level.

[Medhat The Fanatic Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a strong and wonderfully-crafted collection of essays.

The first few essays when King was talking about fear, writing, and his fame made me as if King and I were sitting right across each other, outside in the forest, in front of a bonfire whose cackling sounds were whispering music that was contributing to the spooky atmosphere that I so much like.

A huge chunk of the book features a long piece from King's Danse Macabre called "Horror Fiction", where he discussed around 10 tales and novels of horror and spooky science-fiction. I enjoyed the majority of this piece because added and SHOWED the depth that goes into horror fiction, things and characteristics and details that I was oblivious to before this book, and it recognized the genius of multiple writers who some may have been obscured or underappreciated.

Additionally, the short-story "In The Deathroom" was very amusing and suspenseful and kept me interested until the final sentence.

As for the negatives, a couple of stories/novels in the Horror Fiction piece that King discussed kinda went on a tangent and made me bored, and the short-story "The Ballad of Flexible Bullet" bored me to death, so I DNFed it, but I might attempt to reread it in the Everything's Eventual collection.

4.2 stars

[Brooklynne Todd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed all of the different essays and short stories included in this.

[مریم · Rating 3 out of 5]

قاعدتا با این حجم از تنبلی "فارسیشو" "گوش" دادم
پس نظری نمیتونم درمورد بخش دوم کتاب که نقدشه بدم، و حتی نثر اصلی و ظرافتهای نگارشی کتاب
بنظرم داستان قابل پیش‌بینی و کسل‌کننده ای بود، میشد بهتر باشه واقعا جا داشت، ولی الکی کشش داده بود، مخصوصا بعد ازینکه پلات توییستش باز می‌شد یک دنیا کسشر بهم بسته بود که باید قبلش بهم می‌بست، شاید فکر میکرد مخاطب گاوه و یا براش این سبک داستان ها جدیده پس توصیفات مربوط به چند شخصیتی بودنو حالتای روانی طرفو گذاشته بود اون آخر
به شخصه کتابی که داستان پر وصف و توصیفی داره رو دوست دارم ولی اینجا اون اخرا رسما گوش نمیدادم و اهمیتی هم نداشت
برام دو ونیم باشه در بهترین حالت چون پتانسل فیلم خوب شدنو با کلی تغییرات داره ولی کتاب خوب نه

[Robert Beveridge · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stephen King, On Writing/Secret Windows (Scribner's,
2000 and BOMC, 2000)
[originally posted 6Nov2000]

"Most of the things you find in books on writing are bullshit." How can you not like a book on writing that begins so endearingly? Shortly after, King makes a promise to keep the book as short as possible, and for King, he does an admirable job (it weighs in under 300 pages, a short story for this guy). Capitalizing on the publication of On Writing, Book of the Month Club (who are the behind-the-scenes orchestrators of the Stephen King Book Club) contracted with the man to release a companion volume to it called Secret Windows as well.

Much of what King writes in On Writing is simple common sense ("the adverb is not your friend..."), but some of it flies in the face of conventional wisdom. King is a situational writer as opposed to a plotter, and the vast majority of "how to write your novel in days"-style writers' manuals are written by plotters. This alone makes the book valuable to the struggling author; when everyone's told you one thing, and it doesn't work for you, hearing someone validate another way to do things is sometimes the most important thing that can happen to you. And King delivers his advice in simple, straightforward prose, providing examples when necessary (at the very end, he gives us the opening paragraphs of Blood and Smoke's "1408," both in rough and finished drafts, and it's probably the best example of revision I've seen in a how-to-write book). Good, solid stuff, probably the best I've read in recent years, since Natalie Goldberg's first two books.

But even that isn't what makes this book shine. We're all aware that much of what separates great writers from run-of-the-mill hacks is the ability to take one's own events and make mincemeat of them on the page. The first hundred pages of this volume are an encapsulated autobiography of King. It's impressionist, deadpan, as minimal as it can be to give us an idea of where all these books came from (no, he doesn't really get his ideas in Utica). And while all of King's writing is marked with a particular kind of honesty that resonates with the average reader, these hundred pages stand out. If it's possible to be more than completely honest, he's done it.

Secret Windows is a compilation. Most of it's been previously published. There are a few things here that bear re-reading, a few unpublished (and perhaps should have remained that way, such as the early stuff from his brother's homemade newspaper), and one of King's early attempts at a one-voice tale, a style he mastered in Dolores Claiborne, called "The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet." I can't remember whether this made it into Nightmares and Dreamscapes or not (can't find a full listing of N&D's contents online) [ed. note 2013: no], but if not, this story alone, about an editor's slow descent into alcoholic madness, with its catalyst a story by an already-insane writer, is worth the price of admission. It is not an easily-forgotten piece of work.

Taken together, the two make a good pair: a book on how to write and a collection of fiction, nonfiction, and interviews dealing with the craft of writing. The average non-writing Stephen King fan may be left cold, but for the writer (or the writer wannabe who's never attempted; if you liked Misery better than most King novels, you qualify), they're gold nuggets in the river.

On Writing: ****
Secret Windows: *** ½

[Steve Chisnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a sucker for most anything King writes, and this is billed as a companion volume to On Writing. Even so, it's not illuminating for much in the craft of writing. And while most everything has been culled from earlier sources, there are several essays and talks here which are rare or new for me. My favorite reads from the work are "On Becoming a Brand Name," his reflection on fame, and "Horror Writing," a novella-length examination of several great horror novels (originally published in Danse Macabre.

More, these are essays and talks from 30+ years ago now, so there are no real revelations and some of the opinions haven't sustained themselves as King's career matured and his experiences shifted. So reader of this won't find much writing advice, they won't find especially new insights into King's behind-the-scenes thinking beyond the essays I named), and they won't find enough good fiction writing to merit the time spent with them--definitely old-school adventure-gore King on that front.

What you will find? King's homey honesty, his occasional spit-takes on politics and other writers, and a fairly comfortable nostalgia for those early works. For completists and fans, this is unpleasantly relaxing.

For everyone else, you would do better to pick up his excellent On Writing for real craft advice, Danse Macabre for the essays on the publishing world and other writers, and just about any collection of short stories for a better selection of his gifted horror-fun.

[Dylan Perry · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I showed my dad the copy of Blockade Billy I'd bought when it first came out, this little $14 hardcover consisting of two short stories, he snorted and said, "That looks like a cleaning-out-the-drawer kind of book."

Secret Windows is the same.

This is a collection more for the King completionist than the aspiring writer looking for good advice. Peter Straub calls it a companion book to On Writing in the introduction, and this terribly misleading. There was no eureka moment like I had reading On Writing. This is a collection of a few essays, padded out with introduction from other books and interviews from events King has spoken at. Over a 100 pages of this is from a section of Danse Macabre, which I skipped because I want to read that book in its entirety and not a chunk of it here and the rest later. And most of the interviews I had already read in another nonfiction book Bare Bones: Conversations with Stephen King. Skipping those and the 100 pages of Danse Macabre left little new content, though I mostly enjoyed what litter there was.

Secret Windows was not a bad book, per se. As a King collector, I'm happy to have it on my shelves, but I can't help but feel somewhat disappointed.

If you haven't read the interviews or the transcribed talks, you'll probably get more out of this than I did.

3/5

[Richard Gray · Rating 4 out of 5]

NB: This review originally appears on The Reel Bits for my Inconstant Reader column.

When Stephen King isn’t writing fiction, he’s writing about writing. At least that’s the impression that you’d get from SECRET WINDOWS: ESSAYS AND FICTION ON THE CRAFT OF WRITING, a collection of short stories, essays, speeches, and book excerpts he’s written over the years.

Originally published in October 2000 as a Book-of-the-Month Club offering, the now difficult to find volume is a kind of companion piece to On Writing released around the same time. It’s also the third reflection on the craft that King has published, following Danse Macabre (1981) – a chunk of which is replicated here. If you’re a process junkie like me, or even the regular kind of junkie, this book more than lives up to its title by offering a glimpse behind the hidden veil.

Unlike those previous non-fiction outings, SECRET WINDOWS consists almost entirely of existing material. Some of this is a veritable treasure chest for Constant Readers, including some of the earliest published work from the master. Dave’s Rag was a newspaper King printed with his brother when they were kids, and two excerpts from a 12-year-old Stephen Edwin King – Jumper (1959) and Rush Call (1960) – are replicated here. There’s even a facsimile of the paper’s cover. If only all our adolescent exploits would wind up in a limited edition hardcover.

Yet the majority of the pieces come from between 1973 and 1999. Or in context, just before Carrie through to The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. The earliest of these is The horror market writer and the ten bears: A true story, in which a writer on the cusp of success gives advice on how to submit stories to men’s magazines. Only a few short years later, there is a short piece King wrote for a 1980 edition Adelina magazine called On becoming a brand name, in which King reconciles his commercial work with being a working writer. In addition to a potted history of his early career, he gives us a through sense of how he works, concluding “the commercial writer who can tell the truth has achieved a great deal more than any ‘serious’ writer can hope for; he can tell the truth and still keep up with the mortgage payments.”

Which is why it’s also great to see the times when the Constant Writer becomes a Constant Reader. King is an unabashed fan of other writers, as the numerous pull-quotes and Tweets will attest. Here there’s introductions to new editions of John Fowles’s The Collector alongside a compelling argument Jack Ketchum’s The Girl Next Door is one of the greatest pieces of writing on the market. In the winkingly titled Great hookers I have known, King talks about those opening lines to novels that just hook you in. The most disarmingly insightful of these is his piece for Seventeenmagazine, pinpointing those moments for young readers where you shift from a book you ‘must read’ for school to the ones you ‘want to read.’

There’s a den of rare gems and random insights too. I couldn’t believe that I didn’t know it was Warner Bros. who pushed for the title The Shining, which may explain part of his long held dislike of Stanley Kubrick’s film. We get a sense of where King thought he’d be in 20 years time, safe in the knowledge that he’s still writing novels almost twice that amount of time later. (For the record, he picked a pro bowler or Smokey Robinson). Yet even he may not have known how prophetic one passage would be. Originally written in 1983, see if it rings true in 2022:

I think a lot about our informational overload, And there’s also the fact that there are more of us now than ever before, and as a result a communicable disease can be passed very rapidly, from just the flu bugs, the regular flu bugs that go around. At the time of The Stand I was interested in the fact that the flu virus changes – that’s why you have to keep getting different flu boosters. It comes at you one way, and then it shifts its antigen and comes at you a different way, and your old flu shot doesn’t do any good because this is the new and improved flu.

Of course, Constant Readers may already be familiar with a bunch of the content. You’ll probably already know that the book’s title comes from the Secret Window, Secret Garden short story, and the piece included here (Two past midnight: A note on Secret Window, Secret Garden) is a preface to Four Past Midnight (1990), the collection that it comes from. The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet, one of the handful of fiction pieces included, had already been printed in King’s 1985 collection Skeleton Crew. Of course, the chunkiest part of the book is the Horror fiction section of Danse Macabre, itself a potted summary and reviews of King’s favourite stories of the previous few decades.

More than those previous collections, these works give us the greatest insight into how King’s style has developed over the years. Whether they are more formal pieces or casual interviews, it’s always evident that King has never stopped thinking about the craft. While it may not be as interesting to casual readers, this is clearly an essential read for devotees, especially those struggling to track down the individual pieces. Now, the only question that remains is whether a secret writing window lets in a draft.

[Neilie J · Rating 4 out of 5]

As usual, this was totally worth reading. Some of it I'd already heard/read before, but it was fun to read again because King is always so entertaining. His wry humor always gets me even if sometimes I wonder how genuine his humility is. Clearly, he's very intelligent, but often plays himself off in an "aw shucks" kind of way. There were a couple of short stories I'd never read that were good fun, and I enjoyed the forward by King's friend and co-author, Peter Straub.

[nobody · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is for serious King fans only. That said, its a great book for a serious King fan to have. There were some great fiction and nonfiction pieces here, my only issue is I wish they would have put more hard to find stuff in here rather then reprint a quarter of Danse Macabe

[Kelly D. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny enough, I'm not a big Stephen King fan, but I really like his books about writing lol

[Cail Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

So far, I've read "On Becoming a Brand Name Writer" which is incredibly interesting to read right after On Writing, as King gets into very granular detail on the sale of his first two books (I had to Google the first paperback cover of 'Salem's Lot based on his story of getting the cover reveal) Also interesting to note that Warner Bros asked that his original title "The Shine" be re-named to "The Shining." He has sharper edges to him in this piece, his descriptions of people rather mean-spirited at times. He's also only five years into his publishing career and still drinking hard. Strange to time-travel to younger Steve - he was younger than me when he wrote this (about 33, I reckon).

Also, my copy seems almost new (the spine gives off a nice crack when opened) but it looks like a book-shipper dumped his cuppa tea on the pages. I gave the dustjacket a scrub and it's right as rain.

I also read the "Horror Fiction" excerpt from Danse Macabre, which I had a great time with this past evening. I'm kicking myself for selling my old copy the book, which (when I was 25) I assumed I wouldn't be gung-ho enough on horror to read King's whole treatise on the genre. I found his deep-dive into horror fiction fascinating. I read his deep-dives on Matheson, Bradbury, Ramsey Campbell, James Herbert and Harlan Ellison. It was a treat to nerd-out with King on Something Wicked This Way Comes an SUPER timely with Campbell, who I just read recently in a short-story collection and for the life of me, I cannot find his books anywhere.

Now I'm debating reading all of Danse Macabre, but I'd wager I read the best chapter tonight.

I will continue to pick this up and read excerpts — great hangs with Uncle Steve.

[Sebastian Glints · Rating 4 out of 5]

Considering this seems to be a companion book to On Writing and that it might be a collector’s item 25 years after its publishing date, I can’t believe I found a copy in perfect condition in Buenos Aires a few months ago - I was ready to look for a pirate PDF somewhere on the internet. But I guess fortune favored this collector and, while it was in no way cheap, I am still happy that I got to read it in its original form.
It’s very entertaining if you like all things Stephen King - this book has it all except for maybe a visual of his face or audio of his voice. Most of it is non-fiction, and while I don’t think that’s where he shines the most, he still writes brilliantly and I am always engaged with his every word. There are some short stories in there that are quite fun to read as well, so the reader doesn’t forget where his true artistry lies.
If you have been a Constant Reader, especially in a chronological manner as I have been with his works, some of this collection may be repetitive - I had read some of these texts already (like the Foreword to Night Shift, the Danse Macabre chapter or Two Past Midnight) and some of the other texts are about how he works and how he pursues his ideas, and while he describes these in different words, he isn’t saying anything new essentially. Stephen is, after all, our Constant Writer, and I admire him for it.
What I loved the most about the book is that he shows us his intelligent, witty and charming personality through his words when he’s doing non-fiction. And he is very clear in his ideas, putting others in their place when they are being stupid (the transcribed interviews and fan questions are hilarious). Definitely for us fans and maybe for others curious about him outside and inside the fiction realm.

[Lori Schiele · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a rare mixture of fiction and non-fiction--an exclusive anthology of hard-to-find pieces of non-fiction, interviews, short stories, unpublished fiction and articles about writing by the great "King of the Macabre", Stephen King.
As is written on the jacket cover: this book "captures the author's mind in action--spontaneous, subversive, quirky, yet morally and ethically serious."

Unfortunately, I wasn't impressed by it. Whereas I loved his book, "On Writing", this seemed too much of a mishmash of vaguely related things. He spent half of the book talking about writers from the 50s, 60s and 70s--some familiar like Bradbury and Vonnegut, and others that, at least I had never heard of--Shirley Jackson, Ira Levin, Robert Cornier... He spent 17 pages discussing Bradbury's "Something Wicked This Way Comes" and then 18 pages on an author named Harlan Ellison who King even admits isn't truly a horror writer at all...
His constant talk of Apollonian versus Dionysian conflict in the different stories he discusses gets to be too repetitive--and it means nothing if you don't understand the reference (fortunately, I do. If you don't, I suppose you can Google it, if you want). And it takes until page 320 before King actually starts to discuss himself through various interviews he's given over the years, and responds to a number of questions he has received from fans. But much of the things he tells you can be found in the "On Writing" book which is much better written and much more informative--at least for an author like myself.
Finally, at the end, the book includes two original short stories not found in any other books. One was wonderfully King, the other not so much. So, if you are a Stephen King fan and *need* to have every single thing he has ever written, then I guess you will want to try and get a hold of this. But if you are just a casual reader, or a budding author hoping for insight (stick with "On Writing"), then I wouldn't bother.

[Jon Ring · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a pretty good book if you fulfill these two criteria. A) You like Stephen King's writing and B) You write yourself. I don't think anyone else may enjoy this volume very much, but I'm glad Mr. King does take the time to write essays on the art of writing. It helps me in my own endeavors in that area, by pointing out mistakes (he is as heartless as a Dicken's schoolmaster in that regard), and by an exhaustive breakdown of what does work. I saw eye to eye to him on several of the topics, and found his humorous anecdotes gave it a fun brevity that made me devour the volume. I had read some of the essays before, in their original publications but several were new to me and it was interesting to see how the volume flowed together in spite of the differing dates of the compositions featured within. The stories from his youth were interesting in showing that even a master such as him had to start somewhere, and the advice to his son on opening lines I particularly enjoyed. Thank you Mr. King for the insights!

[Stephanie Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a Stephen King fan and collector, this elusive book was a must-have for my collection. It took me a long time to find a copy - and even longer to bump it up to the top of the list on my TBR (I had to wait for the *perfect* moment to read this, of course).

Since I've been reading King's work for about half of my life at this point, some of the stories, essays, and introductions are works I've already come across (and already read). But the important parts for me were the unread sections. Interviews, introductions for books by other authors, older works, and speeches.

Like with King's other non-fiction books, I'm glad I waited to read this until after I became a published author. There were some useful tidbits among these pages. And some of the anecdotes hit harder than I expected! The part about authors getting confused for bookstore clerks at signings and author events - yup, that happened to me! And what could me more thrilling than thinking, "Hey, I'm going through what the great Stephen King went through" ?

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

I recently bought both this and King's "On Writing," and I have a feeling that I'll enjoy the latter a lot more. King has a personable style that I've always liked, and I'm not even a big King reader. I've read Misery, the first two Dark Tower books, The Stand, and Under the Dome, and no matter the character, it felt like I knew them and they knew me. I gave it two stars because while it's very approachable, I felt that I got the gist of the lessons on writing within the first few chapters. Which makes sense: many of the chapters cover the same the ground, and in the interviews, many of the questions are the same. In particular, "The Horror Market Writer and the Ten Bears" and "On Becoming a Brand Name" should be required reading for anyone interested in creative writing. If you're a big King fan, I think you'll enjoy it very, very much.

[Ricky McConnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. If you are a big Stephen King fan you will enjoy this book. He mentions many of the Authors he has read, and inspired his writing. You learn some of the same things from his book titled On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, but there are many things in this book that were not in that book. Some parts of the book were a slow read to me, but overall it was interesting to hear his point of view on things, and read some of the interviews he has given over the years. He tells several stories from his travels and experiences. The book will also give you a long list of books and Authors to read.