Fallback Fiction – The books we never, ever tire of reading

On Writing by Stephen King
Although fiction is my first and most enduring love, my comfort read isn’t a novel or a collection of short stories. It’s On Writing: A Memoir on the Craft, Stephen King’s slim volume of autobiography and writing advice and craft workshop. My first copy of this work still had the sticker on the cover advertising the writing contest – won by Garret Adams with his short story “Jumper” – that some part of me still wants to enter (perhaps if I come across a diner with a hole in time, like in King’s new novel, I will). Something about King’s succinct approach to act of creating stories, his refusal to stop writing despite the many obstacles dropped into his path, and his zeal for the written word speaks to me and inspires me every time I read it. In fact, as I look back over my word count over the past few months, my struggles with the publication process and the day-to-day grind of finding time, I believe it may be time to go searching on the bookshelf for my yearly, in King’s words, “drink from the waters of life.”

~Bryan Camp