Finished Salem's Lot

So I finished Salem's Lot, and I can't say too much about it because that would spoil the book if you read it. I thought it was pretty good, but had a good ending that wrapped everything up while still one of those endings that is like a new beginning.

The good stuff that I thought was in the book was it had a pretty unpredictable plot, unlike some books or movies that I've read, and it has a lot of aspects and stories that all basically come together in the story. Another good thing Stephen King does in the book is making the characters actual people, not just heroes that can't do anything wrong, they make mistakes and mess up quite often, so I thought that was real and good.

Some bad stuff is that certain scenes were pretty predictable and one character that he didn't really make you understand was the main bad guy, which I think would have added to the story. Those are really the only things that I thought would have improved the story, but like I said, a pretty good book overall.



I started another newer book by Dean Koontz, called Innocence. It is about this guy who looks weird for some reason and makes people hate him when they see him. I know, kind of weird but we'll see what happens. He has this underground place where he lives that's attached to the sewer system so he can sneak around the city, which hasn't been named yet.

I think that Dean Koontz has done a good job so far of characterizing the main character by having it narrated from his point of view and I think this book will have very few characters due to how reclusive the main character is.

I think that having few characters will allow the author to really get the chance to show the reader what each of the characters' point of views are and what they think about other characters and will do this to help you infer what each character's reactions will be to whatever happens throughout the story.

Still Reading Salem's Lot

I originally didn't think that this book would turn out to be that interesting. Well, I was wrong and this book is actually turning into a page turner and the plot has gotten really weird. Even for Stephen King, weird.

So the main weird part is that the problems that have been going on in Salem's lot is the guy, Straker, isn't a satanist (Which is good). He just worships this vampire dude (Which is not). His name is Barlow, and he got Ben's girlfriend and most of the town and they try to stop him, which is going to be the climax of the story, from getting the rest of the town and moving on from there.

One main issue that Stephen King has been focusing on is Fear. He constantly goes back to the idea that when we're kids we all are terribly afraid of that closet or the lamp that looks like a person when the lights go out and you can't tell your parents about it because only other kids understand. Then he tells his own definition of adulthood. "The essential and defining characteristic of childhood is not the effortless merging of dream and reality, but only alienation. There are no words for childhood's dark turns and exhalations. A wise child recognizes it and submits to the necessary consequences. A child who counts the cost is a child no longer." I think that this is true, and we all remember our own personal boogeyman when we were little and now we rationalize and think, "Oh there's a creaking. Well, I locked the doors, and the windows are shut, so it must be just regular house creaking".

Another factor of Fear that Stephen King considers is the effect it has on some people. Some of us are good under pressure and perform better than normal. Others are very skilled at something until someone is watching and analyzing them. I think that you are kind of stuck with which you are but you can change it based on the environment you grow up in. For example, if you grow up doing a lot of sports or live in a high stress environment, you'll probably be better under pressure or with fear. If you live in a sheltered environment where you have time to do everything really thoroughly, but have few deadlines, you might be less productive under stress. In our society, there are jobs that match each of these personalities. A surgeon literally has someone's life in their hands, so they can't have nervous shaking in their hand, while an engineer that designs bridges is in a less personal environment and has less stress to deal with. We need engineers and we need surgeons. I think every job is split up like that, with more jobs that have low stress compared to jobs with high stress.

I found this article about fear, and it seems pretty interesting. View it Here

Salem's Lot

So I've been reading some more of my book, and some new things have happened. The older brother of the kid that was taken just died from some anemia stuff that noone knew was there, and after the funeral the guy that was burying the coffin got possessed or something and redug out the coffin to shut the eyes and then he didn't remember any of it and he got REALLY sick and slept through the next few days and then this guy (Matt, Ben's friend) takes him home to sleep and get better and then later that day Matt hears the guy open the window and say, "Yes, come in," That's where I stopped reading because that's when the reading time in class ended so that's a pretty big cliffhanger so I'll tell you what happened if it's not a big spoiler next time. The guy calls Ben to come right away and I thought that was kind of funny. Who you gonna call? Ghost Busters! That's what that reminded me of and I just thought that was funny

HW Post Column

The column that I read for the homework assignment was called "Living the new adoption law" and was about this law in Ohio that will become effective in one year that will allow adopted people to see information about their birth parents. view column here

The line that I think was best written was "She still doesn’t understand why Ohio made it hard for a segment of its adoptees to find answers to those questions." I think that it is the best line because it shows the frustration before the law was passed and then the author includes quotes of how this will help the person understand things better.

I think that Ramsey's writing style is to take a serious or real story and make it more personal so that everyone can kind of relate to it. She does this by adding some meaningful quotes or by adding humor to her writing. Quotes from the columns that prove this are:

"active time outdoors isn't just good for young peoples' waistlines and social skills,"

"Probably half the population sees this as a problem and the other half, a blessing. The problem is both halves show up at the same events"

“I’ve always been one of those people who thought I had to wait until I was really ready to do this, but I don’t want to wait until it’s too late. I need to do it now – we need to do it now. Now is as good a time as any.”

Questions:
How do you find people to quote in your stories?
What is the biggest challenge in your job?
What made you want to go into that type of job?

Salem's Lot

Alright so now in my book the main character is kind of settling back in to his hometown and things are being more normal for him now he met this girl's parents but her mom wants her to marry this other guy but her dad really likes Ben. So I think that will become more important later in the book. On a more important part of the story, these two kids go out to look at one of their friend's frankenstein and other monster toys, which was not allowed by their mom, so they snuck out and something happened to the little kid and it skipped to a diner type place where they were talking about some satanic cults going on so I think someone might have taken the little kid from one of those groups. I think all of these stories will be tied in to the Marsten House, which I talked about in the last post so you can read that if you're really interested in the book.

I Finished Chromosome 6

So I finished Chromosome 6 over break and I started a new book by Stephen King. It's called  'Salems Lot. I haven't gotten that far into it yet, but I think that it's going to be a good one. I think the main thing that the story is talking about is that even though lots of things change, some things last forever like 'salems lot is this place in Maine that this writer grew up in and it's really scary and someone hung himself in the big house in the neighborhood and that kind of mood still hangs over the house a long time later when he goes back and some things have changed, but basically it's the same town that he grew up in. Ben Mears (the writer in the story) goes back to get ideas for a book that he's trying to write. He hasn't ever written anything scary before so he tries to rent the old big house but someone bought it and I think that might tie in to something later in the book because no one wants to live there and everyone knows what happened and no one ever goes near it and Ben had a personal occurrence with the house. To get into this group when he was eleven, their initiation was for him to go and get something from the house and he went in and up the stairs and saw the guy hanging there and then he moved. This is long after the funeral so either Ben was hallucinating or there is something seriously messed up in the house and I think that the cover provides some foreshadowing because it has a house with fire coming out of all the windows. You can kind of see that in the below picture but I don't know it might just show up as orange dots on the thing.