King For A Year

Last April, I wrote a blog post called "From Little Acorns..." talking about a new project I was putting together.  At the time, Stephen King had been on my mind for a few weeks and I was having a Facebook discussion with Ross Warren, Anthony Cowin, Andrew Murray and Alison Littlewood and we started talking about our personal top 10 favourite King books.  Then I posted this...

Here's an idea - Ross, Anthony, Andrew, Alison - how about next year, we declare it a Stephen King year. Twelve of us, we each pick one book and then blog a review/essay on it and link back to each others blog.  What do you think?

They all thought it was a good idea, more and more people wanted to get involved, Ross suggested we set up a dedicated blog for it and Willie Meikle gave us the perfect title with "King For A Year".

Alison later tweeted me "from little acorns..." and the blog continued to pick up strength as 2014 wore on and last week, I filled the final - 52nd - slot which will be Dan Howarth writing about "Everything's Eventual".

The third review - Jenny Barber on "The Dark Tower VII" - was published today, following well received entries from Anthony Cowin (on "The Shining") and Stephen Bacon on the "Night Shift" collection.

For those who haven't checked out the blog yet, it has a very simple concept - the writer picks their favourite  King book (novel, novella, whatever) and writes a review of it.  52 writers, 52 reviews, all posted during 2015.

I haven't read any beyond the end of January (most - including my own review, of "Pet Sematary" - haven't been written yet) but I like what I've seen so far and I think there'll be plenty to entertain people over the year.

So if you're a King fan, enjoy his books (or like the writing of particular reviewers), I hope you'll dip in and see what people have to say.  Most of all, I hope the blog entertains you.

To whet your appetite, here's the list of confirmed reviewers:

Anthony Cowin, Stephen Bacon and Jenny Barber (all now published)
Wayne Parkin, Matthew Craig, Neil Williams, Donna Bond, Mihai Adascalitei, Willie Meikle, Dean M. Drinkel, Maura McHugh, Gary McMahon, Kevin Bufton, James Everington, Selina Lock, Kit Power, Rowan Coleman, Adele Wearing, John Llewellyn Probert, Lynda E. Rucker, Shaun Hamilton, Mark West, Kim Talbot Hoelzli, David T. Wilbanks, Jay Eales, Nadine Holmes, Thana Niveau, Alison Littlewood, Phil Sloman, Dave Jeffery, Steven Savile, Ray Cluley, Johnny Mains, Sharon Ring, Liz Barnsley, Jim Mcleod, James Bennett, Christian Saunders, Frazer Lee, Carole Johnstone, Andrew Murray, Cate Gardner, Conrad Williams, Robert Mammone, Ross Warren, Sheri White, Robert Spalding, Colin F. Barnes, Simon Bestwick, Charlene Cocrane, Edward Lorn, Dan Howarth


Check out the blog at this link