Since we know there are plenty of fans of the sci-fi series Under the Dome, we thought it was time to take a look at the writer of the novel upon which it’s based. We're talking about renowned horror author, Stephen King.
1. He loves baseball. Stephen King is a big supporter of the Red Sox, and even wrote a story about them titled, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. The latter is a former Major League baseball player.
2. King is triskaidekaphobic – which means he has a fear of the number 13. Considering his countless horror stories, and the creepy factor attached to this number, his fear is most apt. It's not his only fear. King is also afraid of flying, spiders, therapists and choking. A lot of these anxieties form inspiration for his work.
3. Talking about inspiration, his 1978 novel The Stand was inspired by the deaths of thousands of sheep due to the release of a chemical weapon close to Salt Lake City in Utah.
4. He’s quite the musical man, having made a 40-minute music video with Michael Jackson. He also wrote a musical titled Ghost Brothers of Darkland County with John Mellenkamp, and plays in a band called Rock Bottom Remainders.
5. If you’re obsessed with Stephen King that’s totally OK, because he’s a fanboy as well. He loves punk rockers The Ramones, hard rockers AC/DC and fellow writers Neil Gaiman and J.K. Rowling.
6. Fans will have spotted him in several of the movies and TV series based on his work, including Pet Sematary, The Stand, Thinner and Under the Dome.
7. Due to his alcoholism in the ‘80s, he doesn’t recall some of the work he wrote during that period, including Cujo and The Tommyknockers.
8. A lot of his work features writers (think Jack Torrance in The Shining, Paul Sheldon in Misery and Mort Rainey in Secret Window, Secret Garden). King has said that Torrance is his most autobiographical character…minus the axe-slashing part of the man, of course.
9. You might not have known this penultimate fact, but it makes perfect sense: more of King’s books have been adapted into movies than any other living author.
10. His house in Bangor, Maine looks like it belongs in a horror story.