When you think of stories that are nightmare fuel, there is only one name that comes to mind: Stephen King.
I mean, there are a bunch more but millennials only speak in absolutes.King has penned It, The Shining, Carrie, The Dark Tower, Cujo,and The Green Mile to name a few. Just having his name attached to something instantly brings it up to a 10.
But what made the man he is now?
1. He saw his friend get struck and KILLED by a train when he was just a kid.
No one's brain could be normal after that...
2. He had some SERIOUS drug addictions and alcoholism problems throughout the '80s.
He started getting help after his family showed him all the Xanax, cocaine, beer cans and Valium in the trash. He's been sober ever since.
3. He's LEGITIMATELY terrified of the number 13.
He suffers from triskaidekaphobia and has said, “The number 13 never fails to trace that old icy finger up and down my spine. When I'm writing, I'll never stop work if the page number is 13 or a multiple of 13; I'll just keep on typing till I get to a safe number. I always take the last two steps on my back stairs as one, making 13 into 12."
4. In 1999, he was hit and NEARLY KILLED by a van close to his house. He bought that van for $1,500 and WAILED on it with a baseball bat.
He suffered from a collapsed lung, a broken hip, a gash to the head and a leg broken in nine places. His nurses were told to NEVER make Miseryjokes.
5. He loved 28 Days Later so much that he bought all the tickets at one screening. AKA all 275 tickets.
He also went to a screening of Pan's Labyrinth and sat next to director Guillermo Del Toro. King squirmed in his seat, and Del Toro described it as "the best experience ever."
6. He threw out the first draft of Carriebut his wife said to make it longer instead of a short story.
His wife Tabitha saw potential and pushed him to keep going. He dedicated the book to her.
7. His drunken stupors and alcoholism made him forget writing a bunch of his own books, including Cujo.
The Onion once wrote an article that Stephen King couldn't remember writing The Tommyknockers... and then King admitted that was actually TRUE. A bunch of novels from the '80s were washed away with the drinking.
8. He most relates to Jack Torrence, the guy who went nuts in The Shining. He said it was autobiographical.
Originally he saw Jack “as a heroic character battling his demons the way strong American men are supposed to do.”
9. He once went to an unannounced book signing and people thought he was a homeless man.
Yep... that Australian book shop was in for quite a shock when the vandal didn't just come in to sleep on the floor.
10. His deadbeat dad who ran out on him left a collection of H.P. Lovecraft short stories behind, and it inspired King to start writing.
He found his father’s book in the attic and didn't care that the book had a demon on the cover.
11. His only regret in life was showing up in an American Express commercial. Can't imagine why...
He told fellow author Neil Gaiman that if he got to live again the ONLY thing he'd change was being in that commercial.
12. After he heard that a high school gunman held his class captive because of his book, Rage, King let the book fall out of print in the U.S.
Jeffery Lyne Cox, a disturbed high school student, said he was inspired by the book. Ragewas King's first novel, written under the pseudonym "Richard Bachman."
13. Of the five people in his immediate family, four of them are writers.
Tabitha King, Stephen's wife, has published seven novels. Their eldest is a horror writer, their youngest one writes short stories. However, their daughter is a minister and gay rights activist.
14. He said that Ronald McDonald was one of the influences for Pennywise, the clown in It.
According to Guinness World Records, Stephen King's books have been adapted into films MORE than any other author...
COMMENTand tell us which Stephen King story scares you THE most!
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