My take on:

Just After Sunset by Stephen King. I have to say, after finishing this book last night, I am torn. It is either his best book ever, or one of his worst. I will tell you why. The style of writing in this book is a far cry from his early short story collections such as Night Shift. It is, stylistically, different than his last collection of short stories, Everything's Eventual. If you are looking for the King of old you will be disappointed. If you are willing to go into this with an open mind you might be pleasantly surprised.

He is willing to admit that he hadn't thought much of the short story in a while, until he was asked to edit the Best Of series Short Fiction. He did and spent the next year reading a great deal of short stories, mostly from literary journals. He went one to describe how he had never thought of his early works to be 'literature' in any form, but a paycheck if they sold (and sometimes they didn't sell) He took this collection as a personal challenge and there are several very memorable stories in this collection.

After reading it I was struck that he wrote this because he wanted to, not because he had to. Not unlike when Eric Clapton put out a blues album after much success in pop music. He said he did it because he had made his money and he was going to do what he wanted to. If the fans wanted to follow him, that was great, and if they didn't that was their choice.

Now I am on to read Tom Piccirilli's Edgar nominated book, The Cold Spot, which after reading the opening chapter (opening paragraph actually) I am excited to read.

In other news, I am still working on Chapter 10. I came to a spot that needed more thought than forcing myself to type at a keyboard did justice to so I took a break after 750 words yesterday. I hope to finish 10 today and get a wet edge on 11, if my children allow me. Still no word on the editor front this week. Must just be a slow week for them. I think a lot of people are having this problem.

Have a great Thursday.