Stephen King's Duma Key releases today!

It doesn't matter that it's cold, grey and gloomy outside my window. The sun is shining in here. Stephen King's new novel Duma Key releases today. Can you hear me cheering? I am jazzed about this one hitting the bookstore shelves!

To say I'm a Stephen King fan is an understatement. Don't get me wrong. I'm not one of those nutty, weird fans who want to sit at his feet and tie his shoes or anything like that. No, I'm a fan who has read almost everything that's hit the bookshelves with his name in the spot reserved for the author. Like a private parking spot, that little spot on a book jacket reserved for the author's name is the place my gaze first seeks when I hit the bookstore. Or, in this man's case, the big spot in the center of the book jacket, where passersby can see it, gasp and reach for his latest work.

The man can tell a story. No one can tell a story the way he can. I love to read his words, to be pulled into the scary worlds he creates--worlds so close to the realities most of us know that what happens in them is horrifingly plausible. In short, the guy scares the crap out of me and I love it. But that isn't why I read Stephen King's books and stories. I read them for the stories. As I said, the man can tell a story. And isn't that what it's all about? Tellling the story?

My cupcake just got iced. And sprinkled. The man himself was just interviewed on the Today show. Matt Lauer did a great job of asking his questions fast, then letting Steve (I can call him Steve, can't I? I mean, I've had his words inside my head often enough that we should be able to be on a first name basis, I think. Hell, I won't object if he wants to call me Sarita.) have enough time to answer fully. He wasn't forced to give rapid-fire, one word answers. I love it.

The cherry on top of my cupcake?

"You can scare the American people but it's really hard to gross them out."

Now that's going to stick in my head for a long, long time.