Short stories have a way of seeping into the subconscious, I think, as the reader dwells on what was left out. But the quality of the tales (starting with The Mist, which would have been a novel for most other writers) was such that it soon became one of my favourite King books. His shorts weren't what I wanted from him, so a tiny part of it felt like duty – getting through something that represented a huge amount of time and effort from somebody of whom I was in awe. I first read Skeleton Crew as part of my initial King binge, aged 13 and hugely impressionable. So, this is a personal reread – but then, aren't all the best readings personal? But I'm going to look at the three that led me towards writing one of my own novels, The Explorer. Because The Monkey, Uncle Otto's Truck, Word Processor of the Gods, all the rest of them: they're great stories, and they should be spoken about. In the comments thread, I urge you to post your own thoughts on your favourite stories from this book.

I will focus on only three of Skeleton Crew's tales, talking about each in detail. This week I'm going to do something different. As I reread this collection, I could see how these stories did what they did to me, how they had managed to affect me for so long. Greatest among these are some of the stories featured in Stephen King's Skeleton Crew. It's difficult to pin down the literary influences of many writers, but I think I wear my influences on my sleeve. Books feed into our own narrative voices, and the stories we want to tell. Revisiting any book that means something to you is hard, especially when you're a writer.

Skeleton crew short stories