So, Any Birthday Candle Phobias?

As several other blogs have reminded us, today marks the 60th birthday of novelist Stephen King, the winner of this year’s Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award. As Garrison Keillor explains in The Writer’s Almanac, “King says he draws on his own fears to write his books, and he claims to be afraid of spiders, closed-in places, the dark, flying, sewers, funerals, cancer, heart attacks, and being buried alive, among other things.” The best-selling author says of his own work: “I’ll try to terrify you first, and if that doesn’t work, I’ll try to horrify you, and if I can’t make it there, I’ll try to gross you out. I’m not proud.”

Interestingly, today would also have been the 141st birthday of science-fiction novelist H.G. Wells (The Invisible Man, The War of the Worlds), had he not died in 1946.

UPDATE: Speaking of birthdays, Peter Rozovsky notes that today is the one-year anniversary of his introducing Detectives Beyond Borders into the blogosphere. Congratulations, Peter, and we look forward to reading your posts for many years to come.