What does it take to frighten an author of best-selling horror novels? In Misery, Stephen King embodies a writer's fears about himself as a writer and about the continuation of his creativity in a richly elaborated and horrifi-cally psychotic woman, Annie Wilkes. In the novel, Annie represents a mother figure, a goddess, and a "constant reader". In reality, however, An-nie merely represents a creative part of King's mind. Annie Wilkes is a proud mother of …showed first 75 words of 808 total…

…showed last 75 words of 808 total…How do you think he feels about his readers?" (http://www.faf.buffallo.edu/html/willbern/misery/mis_stud.html). Misery is about the powerful hold fiction can achieve over the reader, as personified in Annie Wilkes. Annie comes to embody a mother, goddess, and audience image in the novel. Whatever the circumstance, Annie's crea-tive force will live on. Her death will never be a reality, any more than Mis-ery Chastain's death is a reality.