Bring Your Shotgun! There's Fish in This Barrel!

Stephen King offers an opinion about Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series.

King compares Meyer's writing ability (Full Disclosure: I've never read one of of Meyer's books. Probably won't, either) unfavorably to that of J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series. He says Meyer can't write very well. But Rowling, in King's opinion, is a terrific writer.

In what is, I am sure, a completely unrelated piece of information, King says he doesn't know if his work had any influence on Meyer, but he does know that Rowling read him when she was younger. Rowling is about my age, which means she probably took in some of King's earlier and much better work during that time. Reading The Shining, The Stand or maybe even Firestarter might definitely help a would-be writer learn some pacing, some storytelling ideas and some ways to build suspense with words. Reading Duma Key sure as heck wouldn't.

I would also note that the creative genius of Mr. King is being showcased these days in a volume called Stephen King Goes to the Movies, which consists of reprints of five of his short stories that were turned into movies and what basically amounts to a few pages of liner notes about each one. Oh, and a list of his ten favorite movie versions of his books. It includes The Mist, so let that say to you what you will.