Michael Sauers
Random House's Innocence Reader's Guide
December 22, 2013
Especially useful for book groups that need discussion questions.
In Innocence, #1 New York Times bestselling author Dean Koontz blends mystery, suspense, and acute insight into the human soul in a masterfully told tale that will resonate with readers forever.
Questions for Discussion:
1. What do you make of the epigraph by Petrarch, “Rarely do great beauty and great virtue dwell together?” Would you agree with this statement? How does it play out in the novel? What other juxtaposed qualities figure into the story—for example, arrogance versus humility—and what do these themes imply about human nature and our world at large? How did the epigraph inform your idea of the story at the onset, and did that idea take on new meaning by the end?
Read the full guide @ RandomHouse.com.
Charnel House edition of Innocence featured in New York Times
December 21, 2013
The Limited: Hardcovers, paperbacks, e-books — the combined lists include them all. But what about collectible limited editions, wherein a specialty publisher produces a small run of books to an exacting standard, often by hand? (Think of the old leather-bound Franklin Library titles, for example.) The Times doesn’t track those, since by their nature they sell in numbers too small to register. That doesn’t mean they never intersect with the best-seller lists, though. One such publisher is Joe Stefko, the owner of Charnel House books in Catskill, N.Y., who for more than 20 years has printed limited editions of Dean Koontz’s novels. Stefko, 58, a former drummer for Meat Loaf, got interested in fine books when he played with the Turtles. “Other bands had drug dealers coming to their dressing rooms,” he told a music fan site some years ago, “and we had book dealers coming to ours.” As you’d guess from its name — and its address, P.O. Box 666 — Charnel House specializes in horror, and Stefko has designed covers with protruding fangs (for Christopher Moore), real bullets (for Stephen King) and deep fingernail gouges (for Tim Powers). “These are commercial books,” he told me in a phone interview, “but I turn them into fine art.”
Read the full article @ NewYorkTimes.com. This article will also appear in the Book Section of the Sunday New York Times for December 29, 2013.
Sony Movie Channel airing Intensity in January
December 18, 2013
The New Year is bringing a few new changes to Sony Movie Channel’s programming as the network unveils a change to its weekly Thursday night programming block. Starting January 2, SMC will be airing suspense, thriller and horror films every Thursday in prime time due to the growth in popularity of genre entertainment. Films like THE NET with Sandra Bullock (1/2); WOLF (1/9); Dean Koontz’s INTENSITY (1/16); and SINGLE WHITE FEMALE (1/30) now have a permanent home on the Channel every week.
Read the full press release @ PR Newswire and see the full schedule of airings @ SonyMovieChannel.com.
Dean on The Geek's Guide to the Galaxy podcast
December 16, 2013
Topics include: Innocence, Wilderness, the Odd Thomas film, a possible Frankenstein TV series, The City, Secret Forest, and Saint Odd.
Want to watch Odd Thomas? Get DirecTV.
December 15, 2013
It looks like if you have DirecTV service you can now watch Odd Thomas via their On Demand (TV) or Online streaming service for just $10.99.
RIP Peter O'Toole
December 15, 2013
Deeply Odd – Charnel House Limited (Numbered) edition
December 15, 2013
Dean Koontz on His Strange New Supernatural Thriller Innocence
December 15, 2013
Dean Koontz on poisonous honey:
“If bees were to feed only on oleander and produce honey, the honey would kill you … When I was researching poisons I was fascinated that here was this shrub that in California is grown along the side of the highway in great big hedges, and one flower of it can kill you … Occasionally because people are not aware of its toxicity they chop it up and throw it in a salad to see what it’ll taste like, and it kills them. Or sometimes beekeepers who are amateurs don’t make sure what their bees are feeding on, and will produce poisonous honey. Everything in life is dangerous.”
Read the full interview @ Wired.com.
Best-selling author Dean Koontz talks 'Innocence'
December 15, 2013
via USA Today.
A Special Thank You from Dean Koontz
December 15, 2013
I would like to thank public library staffs all across the country for choosing INNOCENCE for their LibraryReads December 2013 Top Ten list. As a child in a family too poor to afford books, libraries were my lifeline. And when I couldn’t pay the overdue fines, they let it slide. I think I owe them $206,514—so I’m delighted they’ve forgiven me and done me this honor with INNOCENCE!
Read the full post @ Random Revelations.
Q&A with Dean Koontz: On His Innocence – and His Future
December 15, 2013
EVERYDAY EBOOK: You are an author who writes so brilliantly and prolifically across genres. Are there common threads among your books? Among your characters?
DEAN KOONTZ: You make me blush. But give me just a moment, and I’ll get over it. Well, I seem to be endlessly combining genres in different ways because as a reader I like all kinds of fiction and want to write in virtually every genre. When I first started doing this more than thirty years ago, publishers weren’t enthusiastic, but now it’s become acceptable, so I’ve never had to learn a trade like plumbing or carpentry. The common thread among the books is my view of the world: that it is a place of layered mysteries, of profound wonders and great beauty, where there is darkness and Evil but also hope that can’t be extinguished. If one thread runs through most of my lead characters, it is that they are not special agents with nearly superhuman skills, not indestructible mesomorphs, but ordinary people – masons, bartenders, gardeners, fry cooks – who suddenly find themselves in extraordinary situations. Sometimes they’re even people with disabilities, such as Chris Snow in Fear Nothing and Leilani Klonk in One Door Away from Heaven. Also, I find myself more interested in characters who are, in one way or another, outsiders or on the edges of society.
Read the full interview @ EverydayEbook.com.
A Grace of Softness in a Hard World
December 15, 2013
Here’s a review of Innocence with a definite Catholic perspective:
I was reminded of Riva when I began reading best-selling author Dean Koontz’s latest novel, “Innocence.” Its main character and narrator, Addison, is a young man for whom the unkindness of strangers (and even family members) is the norm.
Addison says, “When I entered the world, the twenty-year-old daughter of the midwife fled the bedroom in fright…When the midwife tried to smother me in the birthing blanket, my mother, although weakened by a difficult labor, drew a handgun from a nightstand drawer and, with a threat, saved me from being murdered.”
Though Addison loved his mother, she could barely tolerate being around him. He observed, “She tried hard to love me, and to an extent she did. But I was a unique burden.”
Read the full review @ Patheos.com.
Winning mystery thriller by Dean Koontz: Odd Thomas
December 15, 2013
Here’s a German review of the Odd Thomas film:
Blockbuster director Stephen Sommers (“The Mummy,” “Van Helsing”, “GI Joe”) has taken perhaps the most popular hero of bestselling author Dean Koontz. The question is naturally Odd Thomas – a young man who communicate with spirits and can foresee disaster.
In his first film adventure from 10 December is going to have on DVD and Blu-ray, the hero faces a special challenge: snack chef Thomas (Anton Yelchin) knows immediately that his city is in great danger when a stranger enters the fast-food restaurant.Because this has countless Bodachs in tow. These are dark, shadowy figures who are nourished by misfortune and destruction of people and surrounded evil.
But what exactly will happen? When Thomas supported by his girlfriend Stormy (Addison Timlin) and Police Chief Wyatt Porter (Willem Dafoe) hires research, it quickly becomes clear: The life of all urban residents in peril.
Read the full article @ hitchecker.de.
Dean Koontz: What I’m Giving
December 11, 2013
In this special series, we asked writers we admire to share a book they’re giving to their friends and family this holiday season. Check back daily to see the books your favorite authors are gifting.
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Kate DiCamillo has written several wonderful books — among them The Tale of Despereaux, The Magician’s Elephant, Because of Winn-Dixie — all of which would make wonderful gifts. If I had to choose just one, it would be The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. Ms. DiCamillo is known as a writer for children and has won numerous awards in that field, including the Newbery Medal, but she is a storyteller of such grace and charm that her books provide as much pleasure for adults as for children. Children will never feel that she is writing down to them, and adults will never feel that her writing is too simple, for it is in fact complex in theme and rich in emotion. Few writers have ever made me laugh out loud and, in the same book, moved me to tears, but Ms. DiCamillo does both, book after book.
Read the full essay @ Powells Books Blog.
Twilight Eyes Uncorrected Proof found
December 11, 2013
It isn’t often that I found an old Koontz item that I was previously unaware of. Recently, that has actually happened. I now have in my possession of a 1987 uncorrected proof of Twilight Eyes. Here’s why I’m considering this a significant find and how I’ve missed it previously:
First, publishers generally don’t print ARCs or proofs for mass market paperbacks. With the exception of the previously limited hard cover of the first half of the novel by Land of Enchantment and a hardcover of the full novel in the UK, this was a “original” mass market paperback in the US. The only other Koontz mass market ARC I can recall off the top of my head was The Funhouse by Owen West. This just wasn’t, and still isn’t, done very much.
Second, unlike the ARC of West’s The Funhouse, this proof isn’t printed in the mass market size. This one’s printed in the smaller (8.25″x5.25″) trade paperback size yet with the same pagination (or at least page numbers: 451) as the first mass market printing. Honestly, I’ve never seen this before. (I’m not saying it’s never happened before but in all my time book selling and collecting, I’ve never seen a size miss-match like this.)
Third, and lastly, I’ve never seen one of these for sale before this one. I’ve been haunting the Dean Koontz marker for more than 25 years, and this is the first one I’ve ever seen for sale. It’s not like I’ve been out-bid previously, or knew of one that was outside of my budget. This is the only copy that I’ve ever know of.
So, welcome to my life. Just when I think I’ve seen them all, something magically appears. Ah, the joy of collecting Dean Koontz!
Dean in Doctor Sleep
December 10, 2013
Page 183:
Innocence arrives today
December 10, 2013
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-Xe6dZeaus
Buy it @ Amazon.com.
Innocence sans Wilderness
December 10, 2013
I have it on good authority that the Charnel House editions of Innocence will not include Wilderness. However, publisher Joe Stefko is looking to do a separate edition of Wilderness but that is yet to be confirmed.
Dread Central review of the Odd Thomas film
December 7, 2013
After a two-year legal battle to get Stephen Sommers’ latest supernatural thriller out in theatres, Odd Thomas is finally making its premiere at this year’s Toronto After Dark film festival, and fans of the novel written by Dean Koontz will definitely get a kick out of this genre bender as it stays true to significant portions of the source material.
Opening with a self-deprecating voiceover, Odd Thomas sets its quirky tone right off the bat by introducing viewers to Odd (Yelchin), a young, small town line cook who happens to have clairvoyant abilities—such as seeing ghosts. With the help of police chief Porter (Dafoe) and his annoyingly cute ice creamer scooper girlfriend (Timlin), Odd uses these skills to help avenge murdered souls and yet always remains under the radar and continues to live a seemingly normal life.
Read the full review @ DreadCentral.com.
Innocence limited editions up for pre-order
December 7, 2013
Charnel House is once again producing both a numbered and lettered edition of Innocence.
Innocence, by Dean Koontz.
The Signed Limited Edition
Dean compassionately illustrates the beauty and the brutality inherent in the human race. He splits the atom with this one.
Arguably the most beautiful book Charnel House has created to date. Paper has been handmade for this edition by randomly pouring two colors into the process, creating different cloud-like patterns on each sheet. Each unique book resembles a thick chunk of a cloudy blue sky.
A harlequin faced marionette drawn by Phil Parks and printed in two colors by hand via letterpress will be tipped in every book.
Each exquisitely printed book is sewn and bound by hand and finished off with a white silk ribbon bookmark. Each book is hand signed by the author.
5.75 X 8.75 trim / 396 pages
150 Numbered copies:
Bound in full Cloudy Sky paper
$350.00
26 Lettered copies:
Bound in full Cloudy Sky paper with baby blue Moroccan leather along both fore-edges
$1,000.00