Stephen King to pay for troops' holiday trip home

:patriot:

http://www.salon.com/books/2009/12/12/us_people_stephen_king_troops/index.html?source=rss&aim=/books


150 soldiers get a free bus ride to Maine

By Associated Press

Author Stephen King and his wife are donating money so 150 soldiers from the Maine Army National Guard can come home for the holidays.

King and his wife, Tabitha, who live in Bangor, are paying $13,000 toward the cost of two bus trips so that members of the 3rd Battalion, 172nd Infantry Unit can travel from Camp Atterbury in Indiana to Maine for Christmas. The soldiers left Maine last week for training at Camp Atterbury. They are scheduled to depart for Afghanistan in January.

Julie Eugley, one of King's personal assistants, told the Bangor Daily News that the Kings were approached about giving $13,000.

But Stephen King thought the number 13 was a bit unlucky, so the couple pitched in $12,999 instead. Eugley chipped in $1 to make for an even $13,000.

His writing began to become rather repetitive years ago (how many books\stories can you write about tortured writers?), but this shows that he is still a very good person.

I wish that more people with the means to do things like this would step forward instead of buying another house or car.

Read his "On Writing" book -- and then listen to him read it on audiobook. It's part autobiography, part advice to writers. King had a very interesting life (his dad was absent early, his mom very unstable and peripatetic). He and Tabitha both worked lots of blue-collar jobs as they raised their kids in hardscrabble circumstances before he hit it big with "Carrie."

He and Tabitha got married and started having kids when they were college-age ... and they're still together and sound like they're having a great time (King says in his book that they are both monogamous by nature, both love dancing to the Ramones, both respect each other's work).

I'm not crazy about King's writing style, though I love the stories he creates. Did love "On Writing," though.

Also loved his Commencement address at his U of Maine alma mater back in 2005.

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/187000-1