Suspense Magazine, Spring 2021

April 26, 2021

The Spring 2021 issue of Suspense Magazine contains both a review of The Other Emily and an interview with Jonathan Kellerman. In the interview the “Koontz factor” comes up…

J.A.: Is there a place to see the Ted Danson version?

J.K.: I actually have no idea. Let me know if you guys can find it. (*) It was a good TV movie, and I thought the acting and directing was very good. It was also a lot of fun because it was shot here in L.A. Ted was a doll and it was a new experience for me because I got to go on set, etc. This is an interesting tidbit: Teddy was executive producing it and he really didn’t like the screenplay. My agent said to me, go in there and fix it. So, we sat in the office while Teddy and an actress read the script line by line out loud, and I rewrote the lines as they read them.

Like I said, I’m a social guy in my personal life, but when it comes to work, I like doing things by myself; I’m not really into collaboration. Dean Koontz is a friend of mine and is known for the fact that he does not like to leave his house. We shared the same agent for a time in Scandinavia, and I remember going to Dean’s house and always seeing him there, but nowhere else. I even remember going there and he was not happy about a trip he had to take to L.A. the next day. He hates to travel.

J.R.: My wife and I went to his home for an interview with him; I definitely remember he had no interest in travelling.

J.K.: I understand the Koontz factor when it comes to business. In fact, the things I like to do are very “loner-type” things. Professionally, being a psychologist means sitting in the room with one person, or writing by myself; and even my hobbies, like classical guitar or painting, are solitary. A lot of writers will complain about the solitude of it all, but for me it’s fantastic because Faye and I raised four kids—we had a household full at one time of animals and children—and now we finally have that peace and quiet.