The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub

Jack Sawyer and his mother have arrived at a closed-down, sleepy seaside town where it seems everything is hibernating or hiding. While Lily Cavanaugh - known as 'the queen of two decades' worth of B-movies - drinks herself slowly to death in a dive of a hotel room, Jack is left to wander around the remnants of the old carnival where he meets Speedy Parker. Speedy tells him of another world where Jack is needed to search for the Talisman to help his mother. The other world is called 'The Territories' where violence, surprise and titantic struggles between good and evil will reach across the mythical landscapes. Jack begins to find himself in The Territories more and more; but will he arrive back in time to save his mother with the Talisman?

Peter Straub was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on 2 March, 1943, the first of three sons of a salesman and a nurse. Neither of his parents wanted him to become a writer; instead they wished him to be either an athlete or a minister. All Peter wanted to do was read. By the time he had reached the first year of primary school, he could read as he had memorised his comic books and told the neighbourhood kids the stories from his front steps. His first grade was interrupted as Peter was involved in a major car accident where he spent most of this year in a wheelchair after many broken bones and surgical operations. However, once back on his feet, he acquired a severe stutter and this haunted him until his early 20's. Because he had learnt at a young age that the world was dangerous, he had become jumpy and restless and physically uncomfortable and - until he began writing horror - prone to nightmares. He read more than ever and found that books took him out of himself. As if scripted, the rest of his life followed. He got a scholarship to Milwaulkee Country Day School and was the darling of his English teachers. He discovered Jack Kerouac and Jazz music and the alto saxophone player, Paul Desmond. He went to the University of Wisconcin and emerged in 1965 with an honors degree in English; then an MA in Columbia a year later. Peter has become the writer we know and love today through his hard work and dedication to writing. A link to his website is on the sidebar. I just can't put everything from his bio here as there's so much info.