He sounds like the guy you might sit next to in a bar who’s going to tell you about his life or loves. But the Steve King who comes across in those introductions isn’t necessarily the same as the Stephen King who’s been married to Tabitha Spruce for over forty years, the man who struggled with alcohol and drug addiction, the multi-millionaire whose life was nearly cut short by a drunk driver just before the turn of the millennium. ‘Never trust anything a fiction writer says about himself,’ King warns in that afterword. ‘It’s a form of deflection.’ Listen to any of the many interviews with King carried out over the years – there are plenty to choose from on YouTube, or available as CDs/downloads – and you can quickly come to spot when an interviewer is pursuing a topic with which the author is uncomfortable. Certain incidents in King’s life have become magnified in importance, as people try to understand what makes a man write stories that are so affecting – whether as gross-out horror, or tugging the heart strings.
What do You think about A Brief Guide To Stephen King?
