February 2025 Wrap-Up

Writing

I’m finishing off the last story of the collection, and at the start of March, it’ll be edited and ready for publication.

Wordcount: As of Friday, February 28th, In Plain Sight, Unseen is at 51,534 words. The cover reveal is coming soon!

Reading

Red Country by Joe Abercrombie

Not really enjoying this, nor did I enjoy The Heroes. Get it together Joe!

The Road

My friend gave me his copy of this because I never read any Cormac McCarthy. It is an excellent story but I don’t enjoy the way he writes - lack of punctuation etc.

Stephen King

I have decided that I will be journeying to The Dark Tower.

The extended Reading for The Dark Tower series that I will be reading, and the order I will be reading in is as follows:

• The Little Sisters of Eluria (collected in Everything’s Eventual)

• The Gunslinger (Dark Tower book 1)

• The Drawing of the Three (Dark Tower book 2)

• Night Surf (collected in Night Shift)

• The Stand

• The Eyes of the Dragon

• The Talisman (currently reading, p210)

• Wastelands (Dark Tower book 3)

• Wizard and Glass (Dark Tower book 4)

• Salem’s Lot

• One For the Road (collected in Night Shift)

• Jerusalem’s Lot (collected in Night Shift)

• It

• Insomnia

• Everything’s Eventual (collected in Everythings Eventual)

• Low Men in Yellow Coats (collected in Hearts In Atlantis)

• Black House

• Wolves of the Calla (Dark Tower book 5)

• Song of Susannah (Dark Tower book 6)

• The Dark Tower (Dark Tower book 7)

• At this point, I will read Wind Through the Keyhole if I can be bothered.

Revival

I’m sure I told you I was reading this last month. Well, I finished this novel quite quickly, and I believe it to be a magnificent achievement, and it is Lovecraftian. You must read it.

Carrie

I picked this up while I was waiting for my order of the previously mentioned Dark Tower books. I’m sure you know all about it, but it was my first read-through. It was very good and very sad.

The Mist

This would have been part of the list of Dark Tower stories above, but I’d already started it after Carrie. I would recommend it, but the 2007 movie ending was better.

The Gunslinger (Dark Tower book 1)

I have read this book before, during lockdown I think, so this was a reread for me. I definitely needed it as well, I remembered a lot less of it than I though I did. Something I did remember was the opening line, ‘The man in black fled across the desert, and the Gunslinger followed.’ Bosh.

The Little Sisters of Eluria

The journey to The Dark Tower begins.

We follow one of the protagonists of the series as he arrives at a seemingly desserted old west town called Eluria. It doesn’t take long before he is attacked by the slow mutants and wakes up in a strange place where we meet The Little Sisters of Eluria. Because it is a short story I won’t go any further.

The Drawing of the Three (Dark Tower book 2)

I tried to read this after The Gunslinger a few years ago and only managed 40 pages before abandoning it. As Roy Keane would say about footballers, ‘King did his job.’ Meaning that he wrote a story, and it was okay. I hope the split personality of Odetta doesn’t persist throughout the series, and I don’t know what those doors appearing on the beaches were all about.

Eyes of the Dragon

This was an easy read, which was expected because it was written for his 12-year-old daughter. There were a few conveniences that helped things along, but it was a good introduction to Flagg, who I know appears in The Stand and the Dark Tower series.

Watching

As well as starting to read Stephen King, I am still on my binge of adaptations of his works.

11.22.63

This is a time travel story where the protagonist goes back to 1963 to stop the assassination of JFK. This is a wonderful series, and I hear the book is a masterpiece.

Night Flier

This is his other vampire story. I won’t read it until I’m done with The Dark Tower, but the film was good, and I’m surprised people don’t talk about it.

The Stand (1994)

This was better than the latest adaptation.

The Dead Zone

This was ok.

The Dark Half

I though this was a very clever story. I won’t get to reading my copy until after the dark tower, but I liked it. It is the second story of King’s that Ive come across that is a clever use of the doppelganger trope.

Trucks

Not the best acting, but I quite enjoyed the film.

Dolan’s Cadillac

Meh.

Mercy

Meh.

Firestarter (1984)

This was very good. I will watch the latest adaptation of this soon to compare. I’m looking forward to reading this novel when I complete my journey to The Dark Tower. I read The Institute when it was a new release and I enjoyed it, and it is very similar. Apparently, The Institute is being adapted to a series which I will consume like a black hole hoovering in space debris.

Thinner

I think this book was originally published under the Richard Bachman pen name, but in the opening credits of the film, it says ‘Stephen King’s Thinner.’ I quite liked the film but I acknowledge it isn’t great.