Horrorstruck: The World of Dark Fantasy

August 29, 2015

Last week I found a full nine-issue run of Horrorstruck magazine from back in the late 80s with which Dean had a connection. Through the magic of the Internet I contacted the magazine’s editor and was able to get the details filled in. Here’s the entry as it currently reads in the manuscript followed by the relevant cover images.

Horrorstruck: The World of Dark Fantasy
(magazine)
Paul F. Olson, Editor-in-Chief
Dean R. Koontz, contributing editor

Horrorstruck was a nine-issue magazine published bi-monthly by Paul F. Olson from 1987 through 1988. The first four issues list Dean as one of several “contributing editors” and a “Coming next issue” segment on page 44 of the first issue states that Dean will be publishing a column starting in issue #2. However no contribution ever appeared. I contacted Mr. Olson in August 2015 and here’s what he had to say:

“The story with Dean is quite simple: he committed to being a regular contributor to Horrorstruck and then got incredibly busy and was unable to follow through. He told me a few weeks before deadline that he would have to skip the first issue but would be in issue two for sure. Then the same thing happened again. After three or four issues, he finally fessed up that he would not be able to keep his promise, and I quietly removed him from the list of contributing editors.”

The four issues listing Dean as a contributing editor are dates as follows: May/June 1987, July/August 1987, September/October 1987, and November/December 1987.