Hello everyone and welcome to the Stephen King cast, One Man's Musings on the Works of Stephen King.

Each week I will review one entry in the bibliography of Stephen King and the chronological order of publication.

This week I will examine 1985's short story collection, skeleton crew.

With Skeleton Crew, King launches into a second collection of short stories, the first having been Night Shift.

Like Night Shift, Skeleton Crew begins with an introduction from King, but unlike Night Shift,

he isn't trying to adopt some EC-styled, EC-comic-styled persona, describing the darkness of the winter night,

or inviting you to come closer.

By this point, there's no need to try to impress the reader.

The days of early courtship are a distant memory.

The relationship between King as an author and his audience has developed into something resembling a marriage.

He can speak honestly, opening up about how much money he's made from his short stories, and

adoringly refer to us as constant reader, which I think is the first time he actually uses

this term from himself to us. I think the first time we actually see it in print in a Stephen

King work is in the body, but that's within the context

of that particular narrative. I think that this is the first time we see him actually use

his term of affection to us. Skelton Crew's introduction

showcases the writing of a much more confident author, one who is a bona fide

literary superstar whose appeal has transcended the medium in which he's worked. At this point,

it's 1985. At this point, King has published 15 works under his own name, five under the name

Richard Bachman, and has seen eight adaptations

between TV and film, with two more to come before the end of the year. Needless to say, King

has settled into his groove, and I use that term loosely, because in his entire career, while he

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