Since having published the blog below elsewhere in March 2009, I have read Stephen King’s Dark Tower books ‘Song of Susannah’ and that part of ‘The Dark Tower’ (final volume) concerning his ‘famous’ real-life accident in 1999. In both books, Stephen King appears in person, by name, as a character, at one point mentioning his sons Joe and Owen, and wife Tabby – and this accident is grafted on to the reality of the fiction in a very interesting way. [This is my real-time review of King’s DT book, written over the last few days, where I discovered this potentially important comparison.]
Mike O’Driscoll’s story ‘Double Zero For Emptiness’ was first published in 2001 (long before ‘Song of Susannah’ and the last Dark Tower volume were published). This was within the literary journal NEMONYMOUS. This Mike O’Driscoll story now bears, for me, striking comparison with my very first and recent reading of King’s DT books mentioned above – and it deserves critical scrutiny by someone currently more detached than myself from it. Meanwhile, it has certainly enhanced, even shaken, my experience of the time conundrums (inter alia) that the King’s DT books portray. [Merely as an aside: this is a quote from Stephen King’s DT book: “…; his [King’s] eyes were shocked zeroes.” ]
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Double Zero For Emptiness
A story that is close to my heart as it was first published in the very first issue of ‘Nemonymous‘ in 2001.
I’m not sure if it has been published again since then.
It is entitled:-
Double Zero For Emptiness
by Mike O’Driscoll
This is a third-person singular ‘monologue’ as if by Stephen King upon reviewing his own ‘(un)becoming’ – his relationships public and private – his thoughts on writing – his ‘fame’ – his hopes and fears – leading up finally to that ‘famous’ road accident…
It serves for me (perhaps for me alone) as a poignant and thoughtful coda to O’Driscoll’s 2006 book ‘Unbecoming’ and it resonates with this quote from one of its stories ‘If I Should Wake Before I Die’:
“Its heart raced, a thousand beats a minute. As if trying to cram a whole lifetime into a few seconds.”
‘Double Zero For Emptiness’ was first published in 2001 and contains these words:
“…the bowel-clenching terror of knowing that tomorrow you could be shipped halfway round the world to kill or be killed by people you felt no enmity towards.”
1. Weirdmonger left…
Last Balcony: Essex Serpents and Pier’s Echo 
My review of DREAMCATCHER by Stephen King is relevant… https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2015/06/08/dreamcatcher/