Stephen King is one of today's most popular writers. He has written over thirty-six novels, one hundred short stories, and non-fiction essays. King is a superb storyteller, and has a string of best-selling novels, many of which have been translated into many different languages. Each book he writes sells over a million copies in hardcover and about three million copies in paperback. For three decades, King has brought fear and terror to his readers. What makes King so popular? King's greatest achievement has been the revival and modernization of the horror genre.
             Stephen King is noted for being the master of horror and he can write an excellent classic horror story. His scariest novel is Salem's Lot, which is set in a small town in Maine. This town has little contact with the outside world. King uses this climate of secrecy to show how a vampire could easily exist in such a place. The horror stories of Stephen King, however, cover more than just monsters like vampires and werewolves. They cover the fear inside every human being.
             Stephen King does not stick to the same types of stories, which are proven successes. He wants to keep his readers guessing. He does this by combining different genres into his works. One example is the suspense genre, which shares much of its structure with horror. "Both encourage identification with the central character or characters, and both use the plot and reader's expectations to create tension" (Russell 23).
             The source of the tension in a horror novel may be supernatural, but the tension in a suspense novel is the natural world. We feel tension when a character goes into an abandoned house or down into a dark basement, and this is partially the result of suspense. That suspense is intensified by our knowledge of the horror genre. We know that characters in the horror novel will meet something awful when they go where they shouldn't. An e...