The Magic of Stephen King is a half-hour show put together by David McCracken, the host of The Stephen Kingdom, which aired on YouTube last Halloween. It's a fun piece about Stephen King, why his books are so popular, and... writer's block?!?

David interviewed several Stephen King fans for the piece, one of whom was... ME! It's a VERY short clip (less than 20 seconds!), that starts just before the 8 minutes mark, but if you'd like to check it out, and maybe watch the rest of the show too if (like me) you're in awe of Stephen King, then click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=BJw_Z7E82Dk

Heh -- this reminds me of the time I gave Mr King a helpful leg-up in Taiwan! Apparently, in the early noughties, his books weren't especially popular in Taiwan. (I don't know if that has changed since then.) Some of them had been published there, but they'd never really taken off. On the other hand, MY books had proven incredibly popular in Taiwan, and I went there a couple of times on tour. During my interviews, I mentioned Stephen King a few times, citing him as one of my biggest influences. This inspired my publisher to buy the rights to The Dark Tower, and they asked me if I would write a foreword to it, to help boost sales and hopefully persuade some of my fans to give it a go.

I know it sounds like something that could only have happened in a parallel universe -- "Hmm... well, if DARREN SHAN likes this fella King's books, I suppose they might be worth a look..." -- but it really happened. One of my more surreal true-life stories, right up there with the day when I was having lunch with Daniel Radcliffe and watched him burp the alphabet and then desperately try (and fail) to make farting noises using his hand and his armpit -- but that's a story for another day!!! :-) :-) :-)