Hi Stephen,
Throughout my life I have been very near to you and found you to be quite the inspiration to better things in my life. I don't say this as a wild fan but as a person who has lived a full life living in Maine, growing up and joining the military, retiring from the military and now exploring some ideas to being the next Stephen King.
I moved to Maine at the age of 7 and lived there until I was 15 and being the most influential times of a person I miss those years of my life and will forever. When I said you have been near me most of my life I was not lying. I went skiing with a friend when I was 12 and found myself in a convenient store in Bangor Maine and you were standing behind me with a 12 pack of Genesse Cream Ale. I let you go in front of me because I was in shock that Stephen King was standing next to me. I asked you if you were Stephen King and you said "All day long kid!" You had a huge black beard and looked like a lumber jack.
I lived on US Route 1 in Abbott Maine when "Pet Sementary" was released and I remember my Mom telling me how much that hit home to her when she was reading it and the logging trucks used to race down those streets.
I used to get sent to a gifted and talented school for art in Dover Foxcroft Maine and had to take a bus from my primary school, Piscataquis Community High School, to this special school in Dover. On the way to my gifted-talented class in Dover our school bus was held up due to a traffic jam in the city. I turned to look at the Cause of the traffic jam and it was the "The Creep" throwing newspapers from a breadvan which I waste no time reminding my friends when we watch the beginning of "Creepshow"
My soccer coach graduated from the high school you taught at because I remember him telling the story of you showing up to work in a corvette once "Carrie" got published. I never really believed that story until I read your book, "On Writing, a memoir of the craft" and you spoke of the the same incidence. I drove by your Bangor house with bats on the iron gates, and I remember your son Joey showing up to one of our prom dances in Guilford Maine. We met and he was a really cool guy.
I have retired from the military after 22 years. I have served 14 years of war and suffered alcoholism, PTSD, depression and an overall hatred for humanity. I read your book "On Writing" and was immediately impressed to read and learn from a master such as yourself. I will say I was disappointed to read in the FAQ section that you stopped reviewing exercise submissions from your "On Writing" book. I found this website through that book intrigued to have my story reviewed by Stephen King but understand that there is a statute of limitations on everything.
I have never made it back to Maine since I was 15 even though I plan to in the future. I plan on taking the info I read in your book "On Writing" and apply it to my first book. I just want you to know that you and I have always been close in life even though you only met me once in a convenience store. The books you write have always been my favorite and I intend to be the next Stephen King in writing or at least that is my goal.
Wish you and your family all the best and I hope to meet you again in person and talk the small talk.
John
