''Blaze'' is a novel by American writer

Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...

, published under the pseudonym of

Richard Bachman Richard Bachman is a pen name (as well as fictional character) of American horror fiction author Stephen King. King portrays Bachman in the third season of the FX television series '' Sons of Anarchy''. Origin At the beginning of King's car ...

. King announced on his website that he "found it" in an attic. As stated in the afterword of ''

Different Seasons ''Different Seasons'' (1982) is a collection of four Stephen King novellas with a more dramatic bent, rather than the horror fiction for which King is famous. The four novellas are tied together via subtleties that relate to each of the four se ...

,'' it was written before '' Carrie.'' King offered the original draft of the novel to his Doubleday publishers at the same time as ''

'Salem's Lot ''Salem's Lot'' is a 1975 horror novel by American author Stephen King. It was his second published novel. The story involves a writer named Ben Mears who returns to the town of Jerusalem's Lot (or 'Salem's Lot for short) in Maine, where he li ...

''; the latter was chosen to be his second novel and ''Blaze'' became a "trunk novel." King rewrote the manuscript, editing out much of what he perceived as over-sentimentality in the original text, and offered the book for publication in 2007. The book also contains "

Memory Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remember ...

", a short story that was first published in 2006 and which King has since worked into ''

Duma Key ''Duma Key'' is a novel by American writer Stephen King published on January 22, 2008, by Scribner. The book reached No. 1 on the New York Times Best Seller List. It is King's first novel to be set in Florida, as well as the first to be set in Mi ...

''.

Plot summary

The story concerns Clayton Blaisdell Jr. (known as "Blaze" for short, thus the title), a mentally disabled small-time con artist who kidnaps a wealthy gentleman's baby son, in the hopes of fulfilling the dreams of George Thomas Rackley, Blaze's deceased best friend and partner in crime and who continues to help him.

King's comments on the book

On King's website, the following was posted in the "Future Works" section on November 28, 2006:

Many of you have been asking for more information about publication of ''Blaze'' following Steve's mention of it on his recent ''Lisey's Story'' book tour. This is another Bachman novel which he recently rediscovered. The original manuscript of ''Blaze'' was 173 pages long and was written in 1973. He has rewritten the first 100 pages. A lot of it needed editing to make it more timely since the 1973 references no longer worked. He's hoping to get it done by the end of the year. No publication deal has been signed, but he's sure there will be one.

In an interview with Lilja of Lilja's Library (posted January 16, 2007), King said:

I have been thinking about 'Blaze''off and on for a while and every time I would think about it... you know I did the early books as Richard Bachman books and this is going to be a Bachman because it came from the same time. It was written right before ''Carrie'' and finally I thought to myself... the reason I've never done it was because, in my memory at least, it was a tearjerker of a book, you know it was kind of sentimental and just kind of... every now and then I think of what
Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...
said about ''
The Little Match Girl "The Little Match Girl" ( da, Den Lille Pige med Svovlstikkerne, meaning "The little girl with the sulphur-sticks", i.e. matches) is a literary fairy tale by Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen. The story, about a dying child's dre ...
''. He said that it's impossible to read about the little match girl without weeping tears of laughter and... you know something that is so sad it's actually funny.

(Wilde's actual quote was about

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian er ...

's novel ''

The Old Curiosity Shop ''The Old Curiosity Shop'' is one of two novels (the other being ''Barnaby Rudge'') which Charles Dickens published along with short stories in his weekly serial ''Master Humphrey's Clock'', from 1840 to 1841. It was so popular that New York r ...

'': "One must have a heart of stone to read the death of Little Nell without laughing.")

References

External links

Website for ''Blaze'' launch
interactive game/film trailer/comps created b
The PrecinctInterview with King about ''Blaze'', fan sites and The Haven Foundation
a
Lilja's Library
(a fan site)
The first two chapters at King's website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blaze (Novel) 2007 American novels Novels by Richard Bachman American crime novels