Rose Group, Please add the following roses posted on 10-31-05 on the IRAR web site, to your October 2005 “AEN” supplement Rose List of 10-29-05. BRIGHT DREAM F, yb ST. CLARE S, ab SLEEPING BEAUTY pb IISE HT, pb ERIN ELISE F, or MARILYN WELLAN HT, mr MARY ANN HT, m MARY’S PRIDE LCl, rb PATTY CAKES Min, dy ELEGANT PINK Min, lp RACHEL Min, dp ZACH F, or Thank You. Ron Schwerdt

I've read many of his books and short stories, and love many of them too. I'm not normally a big horror fan, with the exception of King, and so plenty of his stories are not horror at all. I particularly love the film adaptations of "(Rita Hayworth and the) Shawshank Redemption" and The Body, re-titled "Stand by Me." I don't feel compelled to read all of his books yet, though, 'cause I want to have lots to look forward to. I have read 20 or so: Carrie Salem's Lot The Shining Night Shift The Stand The Dead Zone Firestarter Pet Sematary Skeleton Crew The Bachman Books It Misery The Tommyknockers Four Past Midnight Needful Things Dolores Claiborne The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft Lisey's Story That leaves twice as many for me to read in the future: Rage The Regulators Blaze Duma Key Cujo Danse Macabre Roadwork Creepshow (comic book) The Dark Tower series I-VII Christine Cycle of the Werewolf The Talisman (written with Peter Straub) The Eyes of the Dragon Nightmares in the Sky (Photo book with text by King) Dark Visions The Dark Half Dolan's Cadillac My Pretty Pony Gerald's Game Nightmares & Dreamscapes (stories) Insomnia Rose Madder Umney's Last Case The Green Mile Desperation Six Stories Bag of Bones Storm of the Century The New Lieutenant's Rap Hearts in Atlantis Blood and Smoke (audio book) Riding the Bullet (e-novella) The Plant (e-novel) Secret Windows Dreamcatcher Black House (collaboration with Peter Straub) From a Buick 8 Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales Faithful: Two Diehard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the Historic 2004 Season The Colorado Kid Cell

Vee, here's my other story.Winters in Iowa can be hellish, with ice and wind storms that often knock out power utilities nowadays, though it was even more common in the early 1960s when the incident I am about to relate happened. My grandfather (Opa) worked for the rural county electric cooperative. He was almost at the end of his career, and though he no longer did manual work, with his experience he supervised crews and told them what to do. Therefore, he was on call for any problems that came up. My mother and I were visiting her parents who, by this time, had moved to town. We had intended to drive home that evening after supper, but the weather was so threatening that we decided to spend another night. The wind was howling and the snow was coming down so thick we couldn't see the streetlight directly across the way while looking out the front door. As he could have predicted and dreaded, Opa got a call to go out to repair some downed power lines. He bundled up and left in his company truck. Mother, Oma, and I finished with the dishes and decided to go to bed early. Now, the physical layout of the house has some importance, so I'll describe it. The large living room was at the front of the house; and its focal point in the winter was the gas heater, around which several chairs were arranged. Opa's armchair was the closest because he liked to take off his shoes and put his sock feet on the fender -- his circulation wasn't very good and his feet were always cold. In the wall directly across from the heater was the door to the long hallway that led to the bedrooms. The bathroom (toilet) was located off this hall, too. Some hours after going to bed, I woke up and sprinted to the bathroom because the floor was so darned cold. Passing the door to the living room, I glanced in to see the blue flames of the heater giving off just enough light to see Opa in silhouette sleeping, as he often did, with his feet propped on the fender. I finished in the bathroom and sprinted back past the living room door. I noticed this time that Opa had changed positions and was hunched over and seemed to be fumbling with his shoes. When I got back into the bed I was sharing with my mother, she was awake and said to me, "Next!" She got up to make her own excursion to the bathroom. After that I apparently went to sleep and didn't even know when mother returned to bed. The next thing I knew it was morning and my Oma was making breakfast. The weather was still nasty, but the kitchen was heaven. As we were setting the table, the kitchen door off the back porch opened and Opa came in, knocking snow off his hat and making puddles on Oma's linoleum. She swatted at him to quit, but asked him, "How did things go?" He said he was just about frozen through; and if she didn't mind, he wanted his breakfast on a tray so that he could eat it in front of the heater. Oma was obliging. As she was arranging things, Opa called to...

Probably his most famous "non-scary" short story is Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, on which the film The Shawshank Redemption was based. That's certainly worth reading. And (Rayma would have enjoyed seeing me write this) the Black Tower series is a fantasy series which is well worth reading. Seven books - the first is The Gunslinger. Not a great lover of his spooky books, personally.