First lines: Secret Windows

Let’s see: a post about Jim Steinman, one about Meat Loaf, wouldn’t that mean that another Stephen King one should follow right about now? And by the needle work of Freyja, here it is!

Secret Windows: Essays and Fiction on the Craft of Writing contains a wide range of short stories (mostly available in other volumes), speeches talks, essays and book introductions, all of them related to the art of writing. It was released by the American Book-of-the-Month Club as a companion of sorts to On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, which was released about the same time.

And actually, it’s kinda appropriate that I finished this book just now. The last few days I’ve considered taking part in NaNoWriMo, which would mean that I’d try to write a 50K word novel in November. But as I have no ideas worth pursuing at the moment, and I’m going to spend a couple of days in Germany next week which would eat some valuable time, I guess I’ll be putting that off some more.

(I also considered participating in NaNoReMo 2008, but believe it or not, there isn’t a single copy of Lolita to be found in Amersfoort.)

But yeah, as I’ve mentioned before, taking up some creative writing is something that I plan to do ever so often. And every time, I find some lame excuse not to put in some effort. Maybe I should put it on my to do list for next year. The thing is, I seem to need a deadline, or as we’d call in Dutch, a stick behind the door. This freewheeling is getting me nowhere.

But back to the book. I’ll have to confess that I didn’t actually exactly finished the whole book. It contains a lengthy excerpt (over 100 pages) from King’s book on the horror genre, Danse Macabre, which I skipped completely. That is the only one by King that I started in and didn’t finish, on account of me nog giving a rats’ ass about how horror works in movies and literature. Eventually, I might give it another try, but right now, I can’t be bothered.

It’s first line is from the introduction written by King’s colleague, friend and “Talisman” co-writer, Peter Straub:

Book read
Stephen King — Secret Windows: Essays and Fiction on the Craft of Writing
First line
Let us deal with a potential embarrassment, or what may seem at least a conflict of interest right away.