Question: Who inspired Megan Hart and wrote the novel The Stand?

full_context: Document 1: Karen E. Taylor: Karen E. Taylor is the author of "The Vampire Legacy" Series of novels, published by Kensington Books. A voracious reader of vampire/horror novels, Karen first started writing "Blood Secrets" in January, 1988. She conceived of writing the novel while living across the street from a very large cemetery. It was never intended to be the first book of an ongoing series, but fans who had read the novel demanded a sequel. To date, the series stands at seven titles, and has earned a cult following. Her short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies, including: "Love Bites", "100 Vicious Little Vampires", "100 Wicked Little Witches", "A Horror Story A Day", and "Seductive Spectres". In 2001, she was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for best short story for "Mexican Moon".
Document 2: Ray Bradbury: Ray Douglas Bradbury (August 22, 1920June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. He worked in a variety of genres, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, and mystery fiction.
Document 3: The Mist: The Mist is a horror novella by the American author Stephen King, in which the small town of Bridgton, Maine is suddenly enveloped in an unnatural mist that conceals otherworldly monsters. It was first published as the first and longest story of the horror anthology "Dark Forces" in 1980. A slightly edited version was included in King's collection "Skeleton Crew" (1985). The story is the longest entry in "Skeleton Crew" and occupies the first 134 pages. To coincide with the theatrical release of the film based on the novella, "The Mist" was republished as a stand-alone paperback book by Signet on October 2, 2007.
Document 4: Vampire (Stephen King): Vampires appear throughout Stephen King's fictional multiverse. They appear in the novels "'Salem's Lot", "", "", and ""; the short stories "One for the Road", "The Night Flier", "Popsy", and "The Little Sisters of Eluria"; and are mentioned in a number of other stories. Marvel Comics' "The Dark Tower: End-World Almanac" includes a detailed entry on their categorization.
Document 5: Sandra Brown: Sandra Lynn Brown (born March 12, 1948) is an American bestselling author of romantic novels and thriller suspense novels. Brown has also published works under the pen names of Rachel Ryan, Laura Jordan, and Erin St. Claire.
Document 6: Nancy Warren (author): Nancy Warren is a Pacific Northwest author of contemporary romance novels. She received her first publication contract after winning Harlequin's 2000 Summer Blaze contest. Since then, she has released 30 novels and novellas, been twice nominated for the Romance Writers of America's RITA Award, and won a "Romantic Times" Reviewers' Choice Award.
Document 7: Stephen King: Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, science fiction, and fantasy. His books have sold more than 350 million copies, many of which have been adapted into feature films, miniseries, television series, and comic books. King has published 54 novels, including seven under the pen name Richard Bachman, and six non-fiction books. He has written nearly 200 short stories, most of which have been collected in book collections. Many of his stories are set in his home state of Maine. His novella "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption" was the basis for the film "The Shawshank Redemption" which is widely regarded as one of the greatest films of all time.
Document 8: The Stand: The Stand is a post-apocalyptic horror/fantasy novel by American author Stephen King. It expands upon the scenario of his earlier short story "Night Surf" and outlines the total breakdown of society after the accidental release of a strain of influenza that had been modified for biological warfare causes an apocalyptic pandemic which kills off the majority of the world's human population.
Document 9: Catherine Mann: Catherine Mann is a USA Today bestselling author who has published numerous books with Berkley, Sourcebooks, and Harlequin Desire. Catherine has won a Rita Award, a Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Award, a Booksellers' Best Award, and celebrated six RITA Award finals.
Document 10: The Stand: Captain Trips: The Stand: Captain Trips is a five-issue comic book miniseries, the first of six "The Stand" series by Marvel Comics, adapting Stephen King's novel of the same name. It is to be overseen by King, written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, illustrated by Mike Perkins, and colored by Laura Martin. "Captain Trips" refers to both the title of the first third of "The Stand" and of a slang term used within the novel for a viral biological weapon that obliterates a significant portion of the world's human population.
Document 11: List of The Stand characters: The following is a partial list of characters from Stephen King's novel "The Stand". The novel was published in 1978, with its narrative set during the 1980s; however, a second edition was released in 1990, is considerably longer than the first version (1,200 pages compared to 800 pages), and is set in the 1990s. The two versions are essentially the same, although some content was added in the second version, including a new ending. The book was also adapted into a television mini-series, starring Gary Sinise, and was released by the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) network in 1994. In 2008, Marvel Comics published a comic book adaptation that was ended in 2012. Warner Bros. Pictures released an announcement in January 2011 that the company would be producing a movie remake of the King novel.
Document 12: Lorraine Heath: Lorraine Heath is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling American author of contemporary romance, historical romance, paranormal romance and young adult novels under multiple pen names, including Rachel Hawthorne, J.A. London, and Jade Parker. She is known for her "beautiful, deeply emotional romances" and in 1997, she received the Romance Writers of America RITA Award for Best Short Historical Romance for her novel "Always to Remember". As of June 2015, fifteen of her titles made the "USA Today" bestseller list.
Document 13: The Body (King novella): The Body is a novella by American writer Stephen King, originally published in his 1982 collection "Different Seasons" and adapted into the 1986 film "Stand by Me". Some changes were made to the plot of the film, including changing the setting year from 1960 to 1959 and the location of Castle Rock from Maine to Oregon.
Document 14: The Stand: American Nightmares: The Stand: American Nightmares is a five-issue comic book miniseries, the second of five "The Stand" series by Marvel Comics, adapting Stephen King's novel of the same name. It was overseen by King, written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, illustrated by Mike Perkins, and colored by Laura Martin.
Document 15: Megan Hart: Megan Hart is an American author of romantic and erotic novels. Hart became interested in writing after reading the Ray Bradbury short story "Homecoming". Moved by this work, she rewrote her own version and began creating stories. She was inspired to write professionally after reading Stephen King's "The Stand". After a long break Hart resumed writing in 1998, publishing her first book in 2002.
ground_truth: Stephen King