In an interview with Rolling Stone, King admits that he doesn’t like his book “Dreamcatcher” very much, and chalks up its poor quality to the circumstances under which it was written. King started writing “Dreamcatcher” in 1999, shortly after a horrible accident when a man driving a van ran over King on the sidewalk. King suffered a punctured lung, a crushed hip and leg, a head injury, and broken ribs. He was bedridden in a hospital for nearly a month. King has admitted to being afraid of cars and car accidents (easy to believe from the author of “Christine”), so the van accident was mentally traumatic as well. 

Unable to sit in a chair for extended periods, King elected to write his next novel in longhand, and, significantly, while under the influence of Oxycontin, which he was taking to deal with the extreme pain. King already knew it was not wise to write under the influence, as his story “The Tommyknockers” was written when he was still drinking heavily. When “The Tommyknockers” was finally completed and published, and King was able to get some perspective on the book, he admits that he did a bad job. King is on record for how little he likes “The Tommyknockers” and how much it was influenced by his alcoholism. His feelings about “Dreamcatcher” run just as cold, citing his accident and his use of Oxycontin as severely interrupting his ability to turn out quality work.