Michael Sauers
Portraits without faces
July 31, 2014
And somewhere on each list there is a surprise, some little-known fact that the subjects thought was important enough to include in their top 10. Colin Powell likes cars (a Volvo Amazon 122 to be exact), composer and violinist Itzhak Perlman loves the Mets, Jane Goodall reads horror writer Dean Koontz, and author Joyce Carol Oates included no personal references whatsoever, not even one of the more-than 80 books she’s written, except for one specific lock of the Erie Canal just outside the town where she grew up.
Read the full article @ The Palm Beach Post.
Blogs on the By the Book interview
July 31, 2014
A few other are starting to comment on the recent NYT Book Review interview.
- Dean Koontz’s Reading Assignments – First Things
- Dean Koontz praises Flannery O’Connor, disses Virginia Woolf… – The Catholic World Report
By the Book
July 28, 2014
As predicted, Dean was the interviewee for the By the Book column in yesterday’s New York Times Book Review. It’s on page 7 if you’re following along.
Three forms of Innocence
July 28, 2014
I’m OCD about these things so you don’t have to be…
It turns out there are three versions/variations on the trade hard cover edition of Innocence.
All three of them contain the same information on their copyright pages listing an ISBN of 978-0-553-80803-2 as shown below.
The first version, the one I’m calling the “standard” version, has a dust jacket with the UPC on the back listing the same ISBN as the copyright page and was not issued with an autograph sheet:
Version #2 was sold online by Barnes & Noble. This one has a tipped in illustrated autograph page between the front free end paper and the half title. However the UPC on the back of the dust jacket does not match the one on the copyright page. This ISBN is 978-0-8041-7922-5.
Version #3 was sold online by Target. It has the same illustrated autograph page along with the same ISBN on the copyright page as version #2, but the UPC is the same as version #1. It also has an “Autographed Copy” sticker affixed to the front of the dust jacket.
So, which one is the “true first edition”? Sometimes even I’m not sure. However, considering the general availablity of version #1 and the limited availability of versions #2 & #3, I’m going with version #1 as the “true” first, even though technically all three are first editions. (After all, they all state “2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3 1” and “First Edition” on the copyright page…)
Life after dark
July 25, 2014
Honestly, before this book, I had no reference point to Dean Koontz. The only thing I’d ever read about him was one line in Walter Kirn’s wonderful take on the life of a regular high flyer, Up in the Air (you will remember George Clooney in the movie version). It went like this — “He’s reading Dean Koontz with a squinting intensity that Koontz just doesn’t call for and must be fake.”
So Kirn’s opinion wasn’t exactly great motivation to start reading the novelist, and one you haven’t tried before. Never mind that he’s up there in popularity with Stephen King and Tom Clancy. But any New York Times bestselling author at least warrants one try, so I jumped in. To some welcome relief. Koontz is generally billed as a suspense thriller writer, but he is known to tread the supernatural, horror, and science fiction at times, and that is evident in all intensity in Innocence.
Read the full review @ Khaleej Times.
The City ARC typos strike again
July 24, 2014
Wow, guess I missed a whole bunch as Erik’s found two more:
Page #377: “The swine who owned the this empire of tenements and the …..”
Page #391: “Amalia always haunted him, but he let despair lead him wrong only that once, when he was twentytwo and left the city…”
Dean Koontz: By the Book
July 24, 2014
I’m guessing that this will also be appearing in the print version of the Sunday Book Review given the 7/27 date in the URL of the online version.
What books are currently on your night stand?
After a long day, I’m especially charmed by the lyrical expressions and well-wrought cadences of poetry — currently, “The Wild Iris” and “Ararat,” by Louise Glück, and “New & Selected Poems,” by Donald Justice, all of which I’ve read many times. I’m also reading the complete poems of Elizabeth Bishop, whose life’s work shouldn’t be new to me but is.
Read the full interview now @ NYTimes.com.
Could this be O.C.'s biggest home?
July 23, 2014
When completed, the house will surpass Hot Pockets millionaire Paul Merage’s 34,000-square-foot compound in Newport Coast, county assessor’s records show.
A 17-bedroom, hilltop home in San Clemente measuring 28,867 square feet appears to be the county’s second-biggest home currently, and a Newport Coast compound owned by suspense-thriller author Dean Koontz is third-biggest at 27,219 square feet. Newport Coast’s Villa del Lago, which a Japanese industrialist bought out of bankruptcy, measures 17,700 square feet.
Read the full article @ OCRegister.com.
Remembering Vaughn Bodé
July 22, 2014
Today would have been artist Vaughn Bodé’s 79th birthday. He and Dean were fiends back in the day, and he illustrated The Underground Lifestyles Handbook among other things. (Check out the name badge on the lizard pictured right.)
Remembering Vaughn Bodé by Craig Yoe with Steven Thompson
“Unique” is a word that gets thrown around too easily these days. Everything is unique. This is unique, that’s unique, and this thing is MORE uniquely unique than that not quite as unique thing over there!
Usually artists, especially comics artists, take the approach of studying the output of a few individuals whose work they admire. If they do it right, this results in a rich combo of their visual mentors and they develop their own personal style. A very few artists draw deep from their inner selves with seemingly no influences whatsoever. Their art achieves a look with no ancestry–it’s new, it’s different! Vaughn Bodé‘s art is like that. I can’t think of anyone with whom to compare him. Vaughn Bodé was, in the truest sense of the word… UNIQUE!
Read the full article @ 13th Dimension.
Dynamite Entertainment's CEO on 10 Years of Explosive Comics
July 22, 2014
These days, both Army of Darkness and Red Sonja remain high-profile parts of a portfolio that Barrucci described as “very balanced.” (Army of Darkness No. 1992.1, a special issue featuring creators throughout the series’ run was announced Monday, as was an upcoming event series anchored by Red Sonja). “We have long-standing licenses affiliated with comic books, from the Kings Feature Syndicate’s Flash Gordon to Red Sonja, from Conde Nast’sThe Shadow and Doc Savage to the Gold Key line of Solar, Turok, and Magnus,” he listed. “Movies, television, and even gaming are well-represented in titles like Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell, Battlestar Galactica ,Grimm, Army of Darkness, Bob’s Burgers, Pathfinder, and Six Million Dollar Man. Novelists have chosen to expand their worlds with Dynamite, as with Patricia Briggs’ Mercy Thompson and Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files as well asDean Koontz, Brandon Sanderson and so many other great authors. I can name-drop all day, but my point is that – with so many licenses from such diverse media—we hope to appeal to audiences far and wide, whether comic fans or not.”
Read the full article @ The Hollywood Reporter.
Third error found in The City ARC
July 21, 2014
Fellow obsessive Erick has found another error in the advance copy of The City. This time it’s a missing open quotation mark on page 347. This one was also fixed in the trade release.
Best Books…chosen by Dean Koontz
July 21, 2014
The online article by Dean about his favorite books that I linked to yesterday will also be appearing in the 25 July 2014 print issue of The Week.
Dean Koontz's 5 favorite books
July 20, 2014
- In Sunlight and in Shadow by Mark Helprin
- The Museum of Extraordinary Things by Alice Hoffman
- Hide Me Among the Graves by Tim Powers
- The Color of Light by William Goldman
- A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Read the full article @ TheWeek.com.
Nights and Weekends: The City review
July 19, 2014
Once upon a time, Dean Koontz was known simply as a horror writer—one whose novels inspired many of his readers to sleep with the lights on. Lately, though, Koontz has been reinventing himself—and while you may not get the same leave-the-lights-on thrills from his latest novel,The City, you’ll be haunted by it nonetheless.
The City relates the unbelievable tale of young Jonah Kirk, as reflected upon by his 50-something self. The son of a singer and the grandson of a talented piano man, Jonah grew up surrounded by music—and it was inevitable that he would follow in his family’s footsteps. But if it hadn’t been for a magical woman—and a few remarkable dreams—things might have not turned out so well for Jonah Kirk.
Read, and listen, to the full review @ NightsAndWeekends.com.
First look @ Ask Anna
July 15, 2014
Yesterday I got my hands on an “Uncorrected Proof” of Ask Anna. Really it’s more of a promotional booklet at it contains just 12 pages including the front and back covers. Also, the proof lists a release date of 28 October 2104, while Amazon.com lists 7 October 2104. Looks like we’ll have to wait to see which is correct.
Another typo in The City ARC found
July 13, 2014
This one was found by Erick Garcia and occurs on page 210 of the ARC. The missing hyphen was found in time for the trade release. I’d say this kind of typo is a lot more common than the other one.
More Intensity
July 13, 2014
A while back I posted a gallery of my many editions of Intensity. Well, it turns out that through a conversation with Ted Armack, that I’d missed a few. So, here they are: three UK editions and one Russian.
The Write House by Dean Koontz
July 12, 2014
The Wall Street Journal published an article by Dean earlier this week regarding his home:
When real-estate values crashed in Southern California in 1991, my wife, Gerda, and I found an incredible opportunity in Newport Beach. We were able to buy 2½ acres on a bluff with unobstructed views of the Pacific.
After we closed, we spent the next four years with three different architects before we started building a house. When we finished, I became a more productive author, and today we enjoy our home so much that we rarely want to go out.
From the start, Gerda and I knew the house was going to take about seven years to finish. It was an insane undertaking for an author who writes six days a week, but eventually everything fell into place. I had been waiting my entire life to build a house that I would never want to leave.
Read the full essay @ WSJ.com.
Unread Books and the Ancient Enemy: An Interview with Dean Koontz
July 12, 2014
Here’s an interview from 1998 mostly about the film version of Phantoms.
“If you look at those movies (he cites Invasion of the Body Snatchers and the original Cat People), it was the psychological suspense of the moment that really gripped you. It’s harder to sell that to a studio these days because they don’t believe that people will sit still for that. I think they’re wrong. If there was anything I would have done more with Phantoms, it would have been to crank up that kind of psychological suspense higher than we have.”
Part of what separates Phantoms from the pack is the “less is more” attitude Koontz and his collaborators took toward the special effects. He explains, “If I were to totally translate my book to the screen, we’d need a budget three times the size of Titanic because of the gargantuan effects. Plus, I’m a little tired of movies that are nothing but effects; so are audiences. I don’t like mindless special effects movies. For people who like mindless special effects, we have a little of that. Basically, what interests me are stories that grip you and keep you. Your mind always does worse things than people can show in a movie.”
Read the full interview @ Lybarger Links.
The Best Baked Corn
July 12, 2014
As some of you may know Dean published the “Best Baked Corn” recipe in the December 19, 2010 issue of Parade Magazine. Needless to say, that isn’t one of the easier items to find these days. However, there’s now another way to get a copy of this recipe: just drop Nancy Huggins an e-mail (nancy.huggins@gmail.com) and ask to purchase a copy of her Enjoy the Recipes of Rich and Famous Celebrities – Second Edition for $24.99 plus shipping. Included within is Dean’s corn recipe and a brief accompanying essay, along with many other recipes form other authors, actors, and politicians ranging from Stephen King to Lady Bird Johnson.
For those looking for a little more information on the genesis of this cookbook, check out this article from The Beloit Daily News.