Last night I couldn't sleep very well because I was alternately nerve-wracked and blissed-out about a big event tomorrow. It's at the Sarasota USF-Manatee campus: it's called 'Lauren Groff (in Conversation With Stephen King).'

Say what? Shouldn't it be the other way around? Shouldn't Stephen King get top billing?

Well. Yes. He absolutely should.

To be honest, in the sold-out crowd of about 240, there will be exactly four people there to see me: my mom, my husband, and my parents-in-law. And I couldn't be more honored or thrilled about it.

Mr. King has been wonderful, absolutely gracious and generous and kind--and we've never yet met in our lives, spoken on the phone, or even exchanged letters or emails. In his position, he could live on a mountaintop in Switzerland as a hyper-hygenic Howard Hughes-ish recluse with a penchant for Turkish Delight and STILL be the great Stephen King, but he chooses to give his time and support to unknown young writers. The man has an enormous heart.

So I've been brushing up (not on every book--he's prolific!), but definitely on On Writing (a book I taught when I taught creative writing--it's truly fantastic, funny and helpful and touching), Duma Key (which I found to be a stunning meditation on creation and healing--and language), and the Best American Short Stories 2007 , especially King's famous essay in the beginning.

Wish me luck. (Yeeeee!)