My Long Walk Through Stephen King's Lot

At this point in my tenure as a Stephen King fan, it’s not too often that I am blindsided by some new knowledge of his work.   Yet I just recently discovered Stephen King had written a Sherlock Holmes story!   How had I not realized this?   As fortune has it, this particular short story—“ The Doctor’s Case ,” originally published in 1987 in The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes —was later added to the compilation Nightmares & Dreamscapes , so I even had a copy on hand, and didn’t need to track it down!   Having just read it, I found the story to be pretty great.   King obviously put effort toward striking an authorial tone that breaks form with what is most familiar for him and pays homage to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.   I noticed this immediately in King’s use of certain language, phrasing and cadence, and the essential tone.   There is a certain formalized air to it that masks King’s usual style and places it nicely in the vein of Doyle’s work.   I suppose one could argu

    Confession: I was pretty excited to pick up a copy of “The Dark Tower” blu-ray on Black Friday.   I saw the film during its theatrical run, liked it, and planned to add it to my collection when it made its way to video.   Plus, it certainly didn’t hurt that I could snag it for such a good deal! I know, I know.   There are, of course, many who do not share my enthusiasm for this particular movie.   Some are casual moviegoers, others are critics.   Some, of course, are Stephen King fanatics who apparently find this film version of his most complex and expansive literary work to be a failure.   Some of this backlash seems to be rooted in the feeling that the filmmakers have changed too much of King’s source material.   For one thing, the entry point into this story is Jake, rather than Roland.   I’ll admit that I was disappointed that the movie did not begin as The Gunslinger does, with King’s excellent opening line: “The man in black fled across the desert, an