Shaken & Stirred: FINALLY

July 01, 2006

FINALLY

Jeff VanderMeer brings the cat out of the open bag, into the light: Joe Hill (20th Century Ghosts) is Stephen King's son.

Jeff's right in that most everybody knew, but I've seen at least a couple of people find out who were SHOCKED, even people who'd met Hill. And after the Variety thing, it seemed odd that there were still blog posts disappearing that referenced this.

I do wonder if any of the reviewers (and there were several) who compared Hill's work to King's in their reviews actually didn't know -- perhaps they were all just being sly.

I have to say I was not surprised at all when I first found out about this. After reading "Best New Horror" and before knowing anything about who Hill was, I said to Christopher, "It's going to turn out this is Stephen King writing under a pseudonym or something." But the reality's much better, I think. And it's time people are talking about this openly. So many people knew that even one not feels dishonest. The point has been made. The writing speaks for itself.

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