Secret Windows
Secret Windows: Essays and Fiction on the Craft of Writing is a collection of short stories, essays, speeches, and book excerpts by Stephen King, published in 2000. It was marketed by Book-of-the-Month Club as a companion to King's On Writing. Although its title is derived from a King novella, it is not otherwise related to that novella or the film adaptation, Secret Window.
The texts in the collection are primarily concerned with writing and the horror genre. Several of the entries have been published elsewhere, including introductions King had written for other authors' novels, as well as introductions and essays from King's previous books. This volume also includes several short works that had not been previously published elsewhere, including lectures given by King, an interview with King conducted by Muriel Gray, a never-before-published short story by King, titled "In the Deathroom," and an introduction written by Peter Straub.
Contents
| Title | Originally published in |
| Introduction by Peter Straub | Previously unreleased |
| Dave's Rag | Dave's Rag |
| The horror market writer and the ten bears: A true story | Writer's Digest |
| Foreword to Night Shift | Night Shift |
| On becoming a brand name | Adelina magazine |
| Horror fiction | Danse Macabre |
| An evening at the Billerica library | 1983 |
| The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet | Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine |
| How It happened | Book-of-the-month-club news |
| Banned books and other concerns: The Virginia Beach lecture | Virginia Beach Public Library |
| Turning the thumbscrew on the reader | Book-of-the-month-club news |
| "Ever et raw meat?" and other weird questions | The New York Times book review |
| A new introduction to John Fowles's The Collector | The Collector |
| What Stephen King does for love | Seventeen |
| Two past midnight: A note on Secret Window, Secret Garden | Four Past Midnight |
| Introduction to Jack Ketchum's The [Girl Next Door |The Girl Next Door] | The Girl Next Door |
| Great hookers I have known | |
| A night at the Royal Festival Hall: Muriel Gray interviews Stephen King | 1998 |
| An evening with Stephen King | 1999 |
| In the Deathroom | Blood and Smoke |