Finders Keepers Cockadoodie Brat

Stephen King recently noted:

If you liked MISERY, you're probably going to like FINDERS KEEPERS. Some fans are just cockadoodie brats. 

Molly, aka The Thing of Evil, is also a cockadoodie brat. Can't say more. She's in the room. And listening...

King makes visit to Exeter High School

EHS Principal Sean Kiley and Stephen King
share a lighthearted moment following King’s visit to Kristina Peterson’s class on Friday.
PHOTO CREDIT: www.seacoastonline.com 

Sea Coast Online reports that last Friday Stephen King mad a special  visit to Exeter High School.  He was expected to skype with Kristina Peterson's class, which has focused the last semester on King's novel "The Stand."  Of course, students wanted to talk with the artist who destroyed the world with a super plague and then brought down the battle between good evil.

Now hold on!  They spent a semester studying The Stand?  Seriously -- I went to the wrong High School!  How cool is this!  I'm going crazy here with how awesome that is.

Principal Sean Kiley said that ten minutes earlier than originally scheduled, King rolled right onto the High School  grounds and spent three hours on campus. 

Kiley said about King, "He is as famous as he is humble, and agreed to be here today for nothing more than a roast beef sandwich and a diet Pepsi. Today at Exeter High School was a special one. King inspired faculty, staff, and students alike."

The first hour was given to a private hour long session with students in Peterson's classroom answering questions about The Stand.  I like King's summery of the book, he told students, "if you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything."

He then gave 90 minutes to answering questions and reading from his upcoming novel "Joyland."  

The Sea Coast article closes with, "In response to a student question, King summed up what Exeter High School holds to be true, 'if you can read and write, you can own the world.'"

The full article is at www.seacoastonline.com

Gaiman: Advice from Stephen King

Here is Neil Gaiman's commencement address at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.  Gaiman is an author and comic book writer.  He also recently interviewed Stephen King and gave us news that King is working on Joyland.

I really liked this!  Watching a speaker address graduates is always interesting because they usually dig a little deeper within themselves.  Gaiman does a lot of that here.  He discusses not writing just for the money, a theme of Stephen King's -- and the joy of having a job where  you just get to make things up.  He brilliantly advises grads to "make good art."

The best advice he was ever given was 20 years ago from Stephen King.  He says that King liked Sandman and noted all the attention Gaiman was getting.  Gaiman was at a great place in his career, good things were happening, and King advised: "This is really great.  You should really enjoy it."  Only, Gaiman shares, he didn't take time to  enjoy it.   He plunged deeper into work.  He failed to acknowledge earlier how much fun writing is.

My favorite quote:

"You get work however you get work, but keep people keep working in a freelance world (and more and more of today’s world is freelance), because their work is good, because they are easy to get along with and because they deliver the work on time. And you don’t even need all three! Two out of three is fine. People will tolerate how unpleasant you are if your work is good and you deliver it on time. People will forgive the lateness of your work if it is good and they like you. And you don’t have to be as good as everyone else if you’re on time and it’s always a pleasure to hear from you."

Okay, so you sort of have to hear him say it to really get it.

The heart of his speech:  Make good art!

Sorry

Someone posted this quote from Stephen King's first published novel, Carrie at King's fan facebook page.  I like it a lot:

"Sorry is the Kool-Aid of human emotions. It's what you say when you spill a cup of coffee or throw a gutterball when you're bowling with the girls in the leage. True sorrow is as rare as true love."

Right on!

I have a friend who says "sorry is the state of a used car."  We teach our kids to avoid the word sorry,except when spilling milk.  The right state of heart is, "Will you forgive me?"  Takes a lot more guts to say that.