Video Break #28

My Latest Interview

I would like to thank Marcia from Marcia's Book Talk for taking time out to give me an interview on her blog. If you would like to read it, just click the link below.

http://marciasbooktalk.wordpress.com/2012/05/31/interview-with-author-carroll-bryant/

Bookbaby #16

Carroll's Journal #28 (My Town)

Okay, so I thought it would be a good idea to show you around my little town of Piketon. I never lived here before six years ago when I moved here to enjoy my early retirement. The only reason I did move here was because my parents didn’t live too far away. I thought it would be nice to live near-by for awhile since I spent most of my life gallivanting around like some prima-Donna. A year later, they moved back to Chillicothe. Go figure.

Now, I wasn’t born here either. I was born in Columbus and raised primarily in Chillicothe. (And in Columbus) This, of course, in-between our constant moving around the country/world. I have also lived in Georgia (Conyers County), Florida (Tampa, Indian Rocks beach, Largo, Pinellas Park, Palm Harbor, Daytona) as well as in Europe. (France, Italy) Just to name a few places. And I do mean, a few.

Enough of the jibber-jabber. Let’s get this tour started, okay?

First off, here is the post office. Nothing special as you can see. It’s just a post office. I go here a few times a month as needed.

Next, we have the car wash. This is where I like to wash my car because it is hardly ever used. It’s a quick in and quick out. I like a clean car on the inside. Don’t want my passengers sitting in filth. Behind it, if you notice, is the old water tower.

Which leads us to the picture of the water tower. It’s pretty tall. It can be seen from space. LOL Okay, maybe not from space. It would be cool it could though, right? Haha

Next we have the Family Dollar store. I go here to get my spices and a few other household items. Also, Brittany used to work here. This is where I first met her. Say what you want about a small town, but they sure do have some sweet little honeys running around. LOL

Which leads us to the high school. Not much in appearance on the outside, it’s old. (Really old) But it gets the job done. It’s the learning on the inside that counts. Not that many of them are learning anything these days. Maybe some. Not all.

And that leads us to this building, the Government building. The Mayor’s office is here as well as the police station. Be careful though, they can be crooked when they want to be. They were really bad when I first arrived, but I have been able to keep them in check. And yes, that means they are not big fans of me. I watch them like a hawk. I have had many a few run-ins with them and their criminal behavior. But I got them in line now. They have been really good in recent months about not violating people’s rights. (So far as I know) And they better keep it that way if they know what’s good for them. LOL

Next up, the Duchess Shoppe. They are famous around these parts for having some cute girls working there. LOL Okay, maybe they ain’t “famous” but it is true, they have had some really pretty girls working there and you know what they say about business: The visual doesn’t hurt the service. Sales with a smile. - Or something to that effect.

Next to that we have the Taco Bell. I love these people here. They feed me well. Great bunch of folks. My favorite place to grab some fake Mexican food. LOL

Speaking of good food, let us not forget the Subway shop. They know how to stack the sandwiches for me. (And they do) All of them know me and they also feed me well. They skimp on nothing.

Next we have the Ice cream shop. They are the best! And that Chester’s chicken is better than KFC. Very tasty. They make a mean banana-split. (Mean as in awesome!)

Next up, the garage. This is where I take my car when I need oil changes, radiator flush, or any other small item of car repair that might pop up here and there. They also sell me tires as well as fix my flats when I need them to. (And I have needed them to from time to time) One of the guys also helps me with charging my car battery when I leave my lights on. (Once every other month) LOL

Here we have the liquor store and pizza place where I visit often. I love my whiskey and pizza. LOL Being side by side, it makes for a quick visit. I like to get both at the same time. LOL Nothing is better for a good drunk than a hot pizza! And yes, they know me by name too. Haha

I want a wiener-mobile! LOL (Just thought I would throw this in.)

This is a video I attempted to take of me in front of the Post Office. As you can see, I screwed it up. Better luck next time, Ralph. Also note the flag, see how windy it was?

I hope you enjoyed looking around my town. Maybe I will do this for the place where I mostly grew up, Chillicothe. They have a beautiful park there called “Yoctangee Park”. I would love for you all to see it. (And you will - someday) LOL

I would also like to add that my manager is now somewhere in Florida. (I think) He left Yesterday and I can’t even begin to explain the hole in my heart right now. No matter how prepared you think you are for losing someone close to you, you never really are is what I am trying to say here. Your friendship is valued my brother from a different mother. The past what, 12 - 15 years? Has been great with you as my friend. Of course, you are still my friend, just saying that not having the option to come visit whenever I want or seeing you as much and hanging out will be hard to deal with. My mind is still numb from your departure. I know you will keep in touch, but things just won’t be the same around here without you anymore. I hope you find what it is you’re looking for, dude, only you know what that is. You’re the best in every sense of the word.

Funny Video

Thanks To American Vets

From one vet to all the other vets out there of the United States Military, including my manager, and for the current men and women serving their country, I wish to say, "Thank you for your service."

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY AMERICA!

Legends: The Beatles

“There are two kinds of people in this world,” My grandfather told me. “Elvis fans and Beatles fans. And nothing in between.”

I was an Elvis fan. But that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate what The Beatles brought to the musical table. They took what Elvis was doing, and made it different. Without Elvis, would there have been The Beatles? The world may never know. However, between the man and the band, the music was plentiful and the music charts were full. The truth is, while I really did not get inspired by The Beatles, I was inspired by Lennon and loved what Paul McCartney was doing as a solo artist with his 70’s string of hits. (Band on the Run, Jet, What the Man Said and Let Me Roll It To You) Those are some really good tunes right there. The music Lennon was putting out was also top of the line. (Mind Games, So This Is Christmas, Give Peace A Chance)

Known also as the “Fab Four” - The Beatles were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960 and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. The group's best-known lineup consisted of John Lennon (rhythm guitar, vocals), Paul McCartney (bass guitar, vocals), George Harrison (lead guitar, vocals) and Ringo Starr (drums, vocals). Rooted in skiffle and 1950s rock and roll, the group later worked in many genres ranging from pop ballads to psychedelic rock, often incorporating classical and other elements in innovative ways. Their enormous popularity first emerged as "Beatlemania"; as their songwriting grew in sophistication, by the late 1960s they came to be perceived by many fans and cultural observers as an embodiment of the ideals shared by the era’s socioculture revolutions.

As a five-piece line-up of Lennon, McCartney and Harrison on guitar and vocals, with Stuart Sutcliffe (bass) and Pete Best (drums), the band built their reputation playing clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg over a three-year period from 1960. Sutcliffe left the group in 1961, and Best was replaced by Starr the following year. Molded into a professional act by manager Brian Epstein, their musical potential was enhanced by the creativity of producer George Martin. They gained popularity in the United Kingdom after their first single, "Love Me Do", became a modest hit in late 1962, and they acquired the nickname the "Fab Four" as Beatlemania grew in Britain over the following year. By early 1964 they had become international stars, leading the "British Invasion" of the United States pop market. The band toured extensively around the world until August 1966, when they performed their final commercial concert. From 1966 they produced what many critics consider to be some of their finest material, including the innovative and widely influential albums Revolver (1966), Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), The Beatles (1968) and Abbey Road (1969). After their break-up in 1970, the ex-Beatles each found success in individual musical careers. Lennon was murdered in 1980, and Harrison died of cancer in 2001. McCartney and Starr remain active.

The Beatles are the best selling band or musical act in history, with estimated sales of over one billion units according to Guinness World Records. They have had more number-one albums on the UK charts and have held the top spot longer than any other musical act. According to the RIAA, as of 2012 they have sold 177 million units in the US, more than any other artist, and in 2008 they topped Billboard magazine's list of the all-time most successful Hot 100 artists. As of 2012, they hold the record for most number-one hits on the Hot 100 chart with 20. They have received 7 Grammy Awards from the American National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score and 15 Ivor Novello Awards from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors. They were collectively included in Time magazine's compilation of the 20^th century’s 100 most influential people.

Through it all, The Beatles released over 12 albums, a television film, “Magical Mystery Tour”. And did a cameo for the animated movie “Yellow Submarine” which featured a cartoon version of the band and a soundtrack with eleven of the group's songs, including four unreleased studio recordings which made their debut in the film. Released in June 1968, it was well received by many critics for its music, humor, and innovative visual style. A soundtrack album followed seven months later.

On 8 May the Spector-produced “Let It Be” was released. The LP and its accompanying single, "The Long and Winding Road", were the band's last. The Let It Be documentary film followed later that month, and would win the 1970 Academy Award for the Best Original Song Score. Film critic Penelope Gilliatt calls it, "a very bad film and a touching one ... about the breaking apart of this reassuring, geometrically perfect, once apparently ageless family of siblings." It was the opinion of several reviewers that some of the performances in the film sounded better than their equivalent album tracks. According to Unterberger, Let It Be is the "only Beatles album to occasion negative, even hostile reviews", though he describes it as "on the whole underrated", praising in particular the McCartney contributions "Let It Be", "Get Back", and "The Long and Winding Road", calling "Two Of Us" a "highlight" and adding that "there are some good moments of straight hard rock in "I‘ve Got A Feeling" and "Dig A Pony" McCartney filed suit for the dissolution of the band on 31 December 1970, and the partnership legally ended on 9 January 1975.

Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, and Starr all released albums in 1970, beginning solo careers for each that sometimes involved one or more of the others. Starr's “Ringo” (1973) was the only album to include compositions and performances by all four ex-Beatles, albeit on separate songs. With Starr's collaboration, Harrison staged The Concert For Bangladesh in New York City in August 1971. Other than an unreleased jam session in 1974, later bootlegged as A Toot And A Snore in ‘74, Lennon and McCartney never recorded together again.

Two double-LP sets of the band's greatest hits, compiled by Klein, 1962-1966 and 1967-1970, were released in 1973, at first under the Apple Records imprint. Commonly known as the Red Album and Blue Album respectively, each earned a Multi-Platinum certification in the United States and a Platinum certification in the United Kingdom. Between 1976 and 1982, EMI/Capitol released a wave of compilation albums without input from the ex-Beatles, starting with the double-disc compilation Rock N Roll Music. The only one to feature previously unreleased material was The Beatles At The Hollywood Bowl (1977); the first officially issued concert recordings by the group, it contained selections from two shows they played during their 1964 and 1965 US tours. The band unsuccessfully attempted to block the 1977 release of Live! At the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany; 1962. The independently issued album compiled recordings made during the group's Hamburg residency, taped on a basic recording machine using only one microphone.

In April 1974, the musical John, Paul, George, Ringo and Bert, written by Willy Russell, and featuring singer Barbara Dickson opened in London. It included, with permission from Northern Songs, eleven Lennon-McCartney and one Harrison composition, "Here Comes The Sun". Displeased with the production's use of his song, Harrison later withdrew his permission to use it. The Broadway musical Beatlemania, a nostalgia revue, opened in early 1977 and proved popular, spinning off five separate touring productions. In 1979, the band sued the producers, settling for several million dollars in damages. "People were just thinking The Beatles were like public domain", said Harrison. "You can't just go around pilfering The Beatles' material." Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978), a musical film starring the Bee Gees and Peter Frampton, was a commercial failure and "artistic fiasco".

In December 1980 Lennon was murdered. In a personal tribute, Harrison re-wrote a new but yet to be issued song "All Those Years Ago" in his honor. With new lyrics, McCartney and his wife Linda contributing backing vocals, and Starr on drums, the song was released as a single in May 1981. McCartney's own tribute, "Here Today", appeared on his Tug Of War album in April 1982. In 1987 Harrison's Cloud Nine album included "When We Was Fab", a song inspired by the Beatles era.

When the band's studio albums were released on CD by EMI and Apple Corps in 1987, their catalogue was standardized throughout the world, establishing a canon of the twelve original studio LPs as issued in the United Kingdom, as well as the US LP version of Magical Mystery Tour (1967), which had been released as a shorter double EP in the UK. EMI also deleted all but the Red and Blue compilations from its catalogue. The remaining material from singles and EPs not issued on these albums was gathered on the two-volume compilation Past Masters (1988).

The Beatles were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 1988, their first year of eligibility. Harrison and Starr attended the ceremony with Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, and his two sons, Julian and Sean. McCartney declined to attend, citing unresolved "business differences" that would make him "feel like a complete hypocrite waving and smiling with them at a fake reunion." The following year, EMI/Capitol settled a decade-long lawsuit filed by the band over royalties, clearing the way to commercially package previously unreleased material.

In their initial incarnation as cheerful, wisecracking moptops, the Fab Four revolutionized the sound, style, and attitude of popular music and opened rock and roll's doors to a tidal wave of British rock acts. Their initial impact would have been enough to establish the Beatles as one of their era's most influential cultural forces, but they didn't stop there. Although their initial style was a highly original, irresistibly catchy synthesis of early American rock and roll and R&B, the Beatles spent the rest of the 1960s expanding rock's stylistic frontiers, consistently staking out new musical territory on each release. The band's increasingly sophisticated experimentation encompassed a variety of genres, including folk-rock, country, psychedelia, and baroque pop, without sacrificing the effortless mass appeal of their early work.

In The Beatles As Musicians, Walter Everett describes Lennon and McCartney's contrasting motivations and approaches to composition: "McCartney may be said to have constantly developed—as a means to entertain—a focused musical talent with an ear for counterpoint and other aspects of craft in the demonstration of a universally agreed-upon common language that he did much to enrich. Conversely, Lennon's mature music is best appreciated as the daring product of a largely unconscious, searching but undisciplined artistic sensibility."

Ian MacDonald, comparing the two composers in Revolution In The Head, describes McCartney as "a natural melodist - a creator of tunes capable of existing apart from their harmony". His melody lines are characterized as primarily "vertical", employing wide, consonant intervals which express his "extrovert energy and optimism". Conversely, Lennon's "sedentary, ironic personality" is reflected in a "horizontal" approach featuring minimal, dissonant intervals and repetitive melodies which rely on their harmonic accompaniment for interest: "Basically a realist, he instinctively kept his melodies close to the rhythms and cadences of speech, coloring his lyrics with bluesy tone and harmony rather than creating tunes that made striking shapes of their own." MacDonald praises Harrison's lead guitar work for the role his "character-full lines and textural colorings" play in supporting Lennon and McCartney's parts, and describes Starr as "the father of modern pop/rock drumming .... His faintly behind-the-beat style subtly propelled The Beatles, his tunings brought the bottom end into recorded drum sound, and his distinctly eccentric fills remain among the most memorable in pop music."

The Beatles made innovative use of technology, expanding the possibilities of recorded music. They urged experimentation by Martin and his recording engineers, while seeking ways to put chance occurrences to creative use. Accidental guitar feedback, a resonating glass bottle, a tape loaded the wrong way round so that it played backwards—any of these might be incorporated into their music. Their desire to create new sounds on every new recording, combined with Martin's arranging abilities and the studio expertise of EMI staff engineers Norman Smith, Ken Townsend, and Emerick, all contributed significantly to their records from Rubber Soul and, especially, Revolver forward. Along with innovative studio techniques such as sound effects, unconventional microphone placements, tape loops, double tracking and vari-speed recording, they augmented their songs with instruments that were unconventional for rock music at the time. These included string and brass ensembles as well as Indian instruments such as the sitar in "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" and the swarmandal in "Strawberry Fields Forever". They also used early electronic instruments such as the Mellotron, with which McCartney supplied the flute voices on the "Strawberry Fields" intro, and the clavioline, an electronic keyboard that created the unusual oboe-like sound on "Baby, You‘re A Rich Man".

The Beatles' influence on popular culture was - and remains - immense. Former Rolling Stone associate editor Robert Greenfield compares the band to Picasso, in that they were "artists who broke through the constraints of their time period to come up with something that was unique and original". Greenfield comments, "In the form of popular music, no one will ever be more revolutionary, more creative and more distinctive". From the 1920s, the United States had dominated popular entertainment culture throughout much of the world, via Hollywood movies, jazz, the music of Broadway and Tin Pan Alley and, later, the rock and roll that first emerged in Memphis, Tennessee. The Beatles not only "ushered in" the British Invasion of the US, they also became a globally influential phenomenon.

Their musical innovations and commercial success inspired musicians worldwide, and many artists have acknowledged their influence, or have enjoyed chart success with covers of Beatles songs. On radio, their arrival marked the beginning of a new era; program director Rick Sklar of New York's WABC went so far as to forbid his DJs from playing any "pre-Beatles" music. The Beatles helped to redefined the LP as something more than just a few hits padded out with "filler", and they were a primary innovator of the modern music video. The Shea Stadium show with which they opened their 1965 North American Tour attracted an estimated 55,600 people, then the largest audience in concert history, which Spitz describes as a "major breakthrough" and "a giant step toward reshaping the concert business." Gould observes that the emulation of their clothing and especially their hairstyles, which became a mark of rebellion, had a global impact on fashion.

According to Gould, the band changed the way people listened to popular music and experienced its role in their lives. From what began as the Beatlemania fad, he writes, grew to be perceived by many fans and cultural observers as an embodiment of the ideals shared by the era‘s socioculture revolutions. Gould further claims that as icons of the 1960s counterculture, they became a catalyst for bohemianism and activism in various social and political arenas, fuelling movements such as women’s liberation, gay liberation and enviromentalism. According to author Peter Lavezzoli, after the "more popular than Jesus" controversy in 1966, the Beatles felt considerable pressure to say the right things and "began a concerted effort to spread a message of wisdom and higher consciousness."

It's been a hard days night

 

Source: Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles

This work is released under CC 3.0 BY-SA - http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Bookbaby #15



Picture Page Sunday #14

Psychedelic Kind - By Carroll Bryant (A Poem)

There are days when the sun comes out
And I'm refreshed by the gentlest of winds
There are days when I am so bummed out
And I'm touched by a kiss of the sweetest sin
And some days are just so boring
And some days go by so fast
And some days become my future
And then those days become my past
And some days seem to comfort me just fine
But if you want to get to the nitty gritty, baby
The days I like? ... I like the psychedelic kind

There are girls I meet and to me they're sweet
And I'm beguiled by the gentleness of love
There are girls that just seem to excite me
And I'm touched by the thought and their care enough
And some girls just seem too easy
And some girls just take too long
And some girls just seem too lonely
And some girls don't get it anymore
And some girls seem to simply blow my mind
But if you want to get to the nitty gritty, baby
The girls I like? ... I like the psychedelic kind

You can hang me by a thread that dangles from your heart
You can lay me in the shadeness of the trees
You can take me by your hopes and dreams
You can put me to my knees
You can hunger for the breath I breathe
Stay with me and never leave
Any situation suits me fine
But if you want to get to the nitty gritty, baby
The ways I like? ... I like the psychedelic kind

And some things can get so rotten
And then those things come back around
And then everything's forgotten
And then nothing gets me down
And then anything and everything's just fine
But if you want to get to the nitty gritty, baby
The things I like? ... I like the psychedelic kind

But if you want to get to the nitty gritty, baby
The world I like? ... I like the psychedelic kind

Video Break 27 Miley Cyrus

I might still be missing California just a little bit. Maybe.

Influences #12: Stephen King

I have to say, in all honesty, one of the people who inspired me to want to write books was probably Stephen King. Reading “Gone With The Wind” got the ball rolling, sure, and Poe and Byron, they contributed to my poetry while others triggered my need to write songs. Wrap it up in one big burrito and you have to add King as another prime ingredient to the whole enchilada.

I know to this point I have only released a few books with my fourth one set to be released in August or September, and thus far, they have been “hippy books” (Children Of The Flower Power, which takes place in his home state of Maine, by the way.) or “pedophilic in nature” (Last Flight Out) and now, with the release of my third book this month, “science-fiction” (Of The Light). Even my next one, (Year Of The Cat) is more of a detective, thriller, romantic/mild erotica, type.

However, while my 5^th book will be book two of my five book sci-fi series, my 6^th book will be a bit on the horror side. (The Wolfen Society) Or vampire. I also have another horror book waiting in the wings for me to someday release. (The Presence of Evil)

But for Stephen King, he knows horror better than anyone, I think. And I seriously doubt that I could have gone full circle in my writing if it weren’t for reading his books. And I truly believe that he inadvertently pushed me into going from poetry and music and into writing novels. While I really would never consider myself a horror writer, his works certainly opened a new world for my imaginary mind.

Born Stephen Edwin King on September 21^st, 1947, he is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies, and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books. As of 2011, King has written and published 49 novels, including seven under the pen name Richard Bachman, five non-fiction books, and nine collections of short stories. Many of his stories are set in his home state of Maine.

King has received Bram Stoker Awards, World Fantasy Awards, British Fantasy Society Awards, his novella “The Way Station” was a Nebula Award novelette nominee, and in 2003, the National Book Foundation awarded him the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American letters. He has also received awards for his contribution to literature for his whole career, such as the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement (2004), the Canadian Booksellers Association Lifetime Achievement Award (2007) and the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America (2007).

King's father, Donald Edwin King, who was born circa 1913 in Peru, Indiana, was a merchant seaman. King's mother, Nellie Ruth (née Pillsbury; March 13, 1913 – December 28, 1973) was born in Scarborough, Maine. They were married July 23, 1939, in Cumberland County, Maine.
Stephen King was born September 21, 1947, in Portland, Maine. When King was two years old, his father left the family under the pretense of "going to buy a pack of cigarettes," leaving his mother to raise King and his adopted older brother, David, by herself, sometimes under great financial strain. The family moved to De Pere, Wisconsin, Fort Wayne, Indiana and Stratford, Connecticut. When King was eleven years old, the family returned to Durham, Maine, where Ruth King cared for her parents until their deaths. She then became a caregiver in a local residential facility for the mentally challenged. King was raised Methodist.

As a child, King apparently witnessed one of his friends being struck and killed by a train, though he has no memory of the event. His family told him that after leaving home to play with the boy, King returned, speechless and seemingly in shock. Only later did the family learn of the friend's death. Some commentators have suggested that this event may have psychologically inspired some of King's darker works, but King makes no mention of it in his memoir “On Writing”.

King's primary inspiration for writing horror fiction was related in detail in his 1981 non-fiction “Dance Macabre” in a chapter titled "An Annoying Autobiographical Pause". King makes a comparison of his uncle successfully dowsing for water using the bough of an apple branch with the sudden realization of what he wanted to do for a living. While browsing through an attic with his elder brother, King uncovered a paperback version of an H.P. Lovecraft collection of short stories entitled “The Lurker In The Shadows” that had belonged to his father. The cover art, an illustration of a yellow-green Demon hiding within the recesses of a Hellish cavern beneath a tombstone, was, he writes, the moment in his life which "that interior dowsing rod responded to.” King told Barnes & Noble Studios during a 2009 interview, "I knew that I'd found home when I read that book.”

King attended Durham Elementary School and graduated from Lisbon Falls High School, in Lisbon Falls, Maine. He displayed an early interest in horror as an avid reader of EC‘s Horror Comics, including “Tales From the Crypt“(he later paid tribute to the comics in his screenplay for “Creepshow“). He began writing for fun while still in school, contributing articles to Dave’s Rag, the newspaper that his brother published with a mimeograph machine, and later began selling stories to his friends which were based on movies he had seen (though when discovered by his teachers, he was forced to return the profits). The first of his stories to be independently published was "I Was a Teenage Grave Robber", serialized over three published and one unpublished issue of a fanzine, Comics Review in 1965. That story was published the following year in a revised form as "In a Half-World of Terror" in another fanzine, “Stories Of Suspense”, edited by Marv Wolfman.

From 1966, King studied English at the University of Maine, graduating in 1970 with a Bachelor Of Arts in English. That same year his first daughter, Naomi Rachel, was born. He wrote a column for the student newspaper, The Maine Campus, titled "Steve King's Garbage Truck", took part in a writing workshop organized by Burton Hatlen, and took odd jobs to pay for his studies, including one at an industrial laundry. He sold his first professional short story, "The Glass Floor", to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. The Fogler Library at the University of Maine now holds many of King's papers.

After leaving the university, King earned a certificate to teach high school but, being unable to find a teaching post immediately, initially supplemented his laboring wage by selling short stories to men’s magazines such as Cavalier. Many of these early stories have been published in the collection Night Shift. In 1971, King married Tabitha Spruce, a fellow student at the University of Maine whom he had met at the University's Fogler Library after one of Professor Hatlen's workshops. That fall, King was hired as a teacher at Hampden Academy in Hampden, Maine. He continued to contribute short stories to magazines and worked on ideas for novels. It was during this time that King developed a drinking problem, which stayed with him for more than a decade.

On June 19, 1999 at about 4:30 p.m., King was walking on the shoulder of Route 5, in Lovell, Maine. Driver Bryan Smith, distracted by an unrestrained dog moving in the back of his minivan, struck King, who landed in a depression in the ground about 14 feet from the pavement of Route 5. According to Oxford County Sheriff deputy Matt Baker, King was hit from behind and some witnesses said the driver was not speeding, reckless, or drinking.

King was conscious enough to give the deputy phone numbers to contact his family but was in considerable pain. The author was first transported to Northern Cumberland Hospital in Bridgton and then flown by helicopter to Central Maine Medical Center, in Lewiston. His injuries - a collapsed right lung, multiple fractures of his right leg, scalp laceration and a broken hip - kept him at CMMC until July 9. His leg bones were so shattered doctors initially considered amputating his leg, but stabilized the bones in the leg with an external fixator After five operations in ten days and physical therapy, King resumed work on “On Writing” in July, though his hip was still shattered and he could only sit for about forty minutes before the pain became worse. Soon it became nearly unbearable. King's lawyer and two others purchased Smith's van for $1,500, reportedly to prevent it from appearing on ebay. The van was later crushed at a junkyard, much to King's disappointment, as he dreamed of beating it with a baseball bat once his leg was healed. King later mentioned during an interview with Fresh Air’s Terry Gross, that he wanted to completely destroy the vehicle himself with a pickaxe.

During this time, Tabitha King was inspired to redesign his studio. King visited the space while his books and belongings were packed away. What he saw was an image of what his studio would look like if he died, providing a seed for his novel “Lisey’s Story”.

In 2002, King announced he would stop writing, apparently motivated in part by frustration with his injuries, which had made sitting uncomfortable and reduced his stamina. He has since resumed writing, but states on his website that: "I'm writing but I'm writing at a much slower pace than previously and I think that if I come up with something really, really good, I would be perfectly willing to publish it because that still feels like the final act of the creative process, publishing it so people can read it and you can get feedback and people can talk about it with each other and with you, the writer, but the force of my invention has slowed down a lot over the years and that's as it should be.”

On February 16, 2010, King announced on his website that his next book will be a collection of four previously unpublished novella‘s. The book is called “Full Dark, No Stars”. In April of that year, King published Blockade Billy, an original novella issued first by independent small press Cemetery Dance Publications and later released in mass market paperback by Simon and Shuster. The following month, DC Comics premiered American Vampire, a monthly comic book series written by King with short story writer Scott Snyder, and illustrated by Rafael Albuquerque, which represents King's first original comics works.

King's next novel, “11/22/63“, was published November 8, 2011, and the eighth Dark Tower volume, The Wind Through The Keyhole, was published in 2012. King's next novel is the upcoming sequel to “The Shinning” (1977), titled Dr. Sleep, scheduled to be published in 2013, and King is currently working on “Joyland” a novel about "an amusement-park serial killer", according to an article in Sunday Times, published on April 8, 2012.

 


Source: Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_King
This work is released under CC 3.0 BY-SA - http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/