by Ralph Miller

Steven King, in an interview, was once asked about the source of his inspiration for all of his lurid tales. The article was really very enlightening, and his response to the question has always stayed with me. He responded by talking about the wolf hour. He described the wolf hour as the times when you wake up in the middle of the night with an absolute chilling feeling of being alone.

When you have a true sense of your complete aloneness; you are almost always confronted with death itself.

You would love to wake your wife, partner, girlfriend who is sleeping soundly next to you, but you don't; or if you live alone you would love to call your best friend on the phone. Just as that thought comes into your head, you are looking at the clock radio as it flips over to 4:17am (can't call George this early …), and the cold of your loneliness (death?) brings a new rebounding wave of its chill.