Editing Pet Sematary (section)

==Background==
In 1979, King was writer-in-residence at the [[University of Maine]] and the house his family was renting in [[Orrington, Maine]], was adjacent to a major road where dogs and cats were often killed by oncoming trucks. After his daughter's cat was killed by a truck along that road, he explained the death of the pet to his daughter and buried the cat.<ref>{{cite web |date=6 April 2019 |title=Take a look inside the house that inspired Stephen King to write 'Pet Sematary' |url=https://wgme.com/news/local/take-a-look-inside-the-house-that-inspired-stephen-king-to-write-pet-sematary}}</ref> Three days later, King imagined what would happen if a family suffered the same tragedy but the cat came back to life. He then imagined what would happen if that family's young son were also killed by a passing truck. He decided to write a book based on these ideas, and that the book would be a re-telling of "[[The Monkey's Paw]]" (1902), a short story by [[W. W. Jacobs]] about parents whose son resurrects after they wish for that to happen.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Winter |first1=Douglas E. |date=November 13, 1983 |title=Pet Sematary By Stephen King (Doubleday. 373 pp. $15.95.) |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/books/1983/11/13/pet-sematary-by-stephen-king-doubleday-373-pp-1595/c2a4bc17-1e88-429d-afd9-ea679ac95f4d/?noredirect=on |access-date=April 8, 2019 |newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref> The first draft was completed in May 1979.<ref>{{cite web |date=September 2022 |title="Write Me, Buddy! Write Me RIGHT NOW!!" 1983 Letter from Stephen King |url=https://locusmag.com/2022/09/write-me-buddy-write-me-right-now-1983-letter-from-stephen-king/}}</ref> In June 1983, King published a short story, "The Return of Timmy Baterman", in the program for the event "Satyricon II" (also known as "DeepSouthCon 21"); this was incorporated into ''Pet Sematary''.<ref name="Wood2017">{{cite book |last=Wood |first=Rocky |author-link=Rocky Wood |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EpgZDgAAQBAJ |title=Stephen King: A Literary Companion |date=2017 |publisher=[[McFarland & Company]] |isbn=978-0-7864-8546-8 |pages=194}}</ref> King has gone on record stating that of all the novels he has written, ''Pet Sematary'' is the one which genuinely scared him the most.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=King |first1=Stephen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A_v0eErRicIC&q=pet+sematary+book+i+talked+it+over+with+my+wife&pg=PT8 |title=Pet Sematary |date=2010-03-22 |publisher=Hodder & Stoughton |isbn=978-1-84894-085-7}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Rojak |first=Lisa |title=Haunted Heart: The Life and Times of Stephen King |date=2009 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=978-1-4299-8797-4 |pages=85, 115}}</ref>