While roaming the aisles, his muse “suddenly shat on head,” and his imagination conjured the image of a prehistoric bird causing chaos in the store. King and his family were living on Long Lake in Bridgton, Maine at the time, and the morning after a storm he took his son, Joe, with him for a trip to the local grocery to pick up some supplies. Of all things, it was an errand to the supermarket that finally saw the dam give way. He faced a creative drought so bad that it made him wonder if his ability to write short stories was permanently broken. The writer appreciated the “gentle diplomacy” that was applied by McCauley – calling it “the hallmark of a really good agent” – but that didn’t help get the creative juices flowing. In 1976, McCauley was gung-ho on developing a horror anthology hardcover called Dark Forces, and he doggedly pursued King to contribute a piece for the book. King describes the origins of “The Mist” in the “Notes” section of Skeleton Crew, recounting that his agent, Kirby McCauley, served as the project’s starter pistol. “The Mist” is one of the best Stephen King stories exemplifying this talent… though the author suffered through some bad writer’s block to find it.
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