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What’s New & Updated November 4, 2019
November 4, 2019
I’ve got nothing new for you this week. No excuses or reasons, just didn’t feel like it this week. Luckily this doesn’t happen all that often. (There were a few blog posts though, so be sure to check those out if you haven’t already.
Tunnel Boy then & now
November 4, 2019
So yeah, TMZ is pretty much near the bottom of my list of sites I want to point anyone to, but they’ve done a then & now on Lucas Elliot Eberl who played the tunnel boy in Phantoms so here ya go.
The Agent was not written by Dean
November 3, 2019
Some chucklehead is taking advantage of how Amazon’s systems work and has written a Kindle book titled “The Agent.” The fun part is that the “author’s” “name” is “Dean A Koontz” which Amazon is then connecting to our one and only Dean Koontz. I think the A stands for Asshat! Sadly, some readers have already fallen for this. If you have, please demand a refund. I’ve also reported the issue to @AmazonHelp on twitter and will let you know what they say, if anything. In the meantime, I’m not providing a link so as to not give the “author” and Google juice. I’m sure you can find it yourself.
World Over Interview from 2014
November 2, 2019
Missed this one at the time so here you go.
Dean Koontz is… Alright I Guess
October 30, 2019
The folks over at the CF3 Podcast recently interviewed André Gower, star of The Monster Squad and of course the t-shirt he was wearing at the beginning of the movie came up…
They discussed how this shirt has gone on to have a bit of a cult following along with other versions having been made. Funnily enough, a friend of Mr. Gower’s made him a Dean Koontz version. You can check out the relevant bit of the episode here:
Here’s the best part: you can now buy that shirt! Just head on over to the Coast City Comics web site and for just $14 you can wear your Koontz fandom, uh, proudly?
What’s New & Updated October 28, 2019
October 28, 2019
The big news this past week is that Devoted is available for pre-order in various formats from your favorite bookseller.
- Devoted HC temporary cover, release date, and MP3-CD
- Phantoms film score
- Something About The Author volumes 92, 165, & 225 into Appendix A
- Suspense Magazine Fall 2019 to Appendix G
Devoted available for pre-order
October 22, 2019
Here’s the Amazon.com links to pre-order the hardcover, Kindle, and MP3-CD Audiobook editions.
Phantoms Score
October 22, 2019
The original version of this post linked to an online source that wasn’t legit so I’ve replaced it with this version pointing everyone to composer David C. Williams’ Bandcamp page where you can digitally purchase the score directly from him. (There’s been no physical release as far as I can tell at this time.)
What’s New & Updated October 21, 2019
October 21, 2019
Ok, inclusion of “The Magic Puppy” might be a stretch but I figured why not.
- “The Magic Puppy”
- The Marriage Pact by Michelle Richmond updated in Appendix D
- Ruler of the Night by David Morrell to Appendix D
Ghouls Next Door on Phantoms & Demon Seed
October 15, 2019
What’s New & Updated October 14, 2019
October 14, 2019
Recently a seller on ABE Books tried to leverage Dean’s name to get better prices on two erotic novels published by Cameo. Through research I was able to completely discredit one of the two and expressed my concern about the other. Sadly the seller won’t remove Dean’s name from either. I won’t specify the seller but one of the two titles is The Making of Veronica and I’ve linked to my information below along with the rest of this week’s updates & new entries.
- Saint Odd Large Print BCE
- Picnic of Sin by Jeff Michaels to Appendix F
- Proyecto: Terror poster
- Updated information on The Making of Veronica in Appendix F
- Nameless titles added to Appendix H
Alvaro Zinos-Amaro Reviews Aliens in Popular Culture, Edited by Michael M. Levy & Farah Mendlesohn
October 10, 2019
“…The entry on Larry Niven talks about his various “hard science fiction” stories; why not recommend Hal Clement in the “See also” section? And speaking of recommendations, the article on “Alien Spaceship Design” directs our attention to the book A Dream Given Form: The Unofficial Guide to the Universe of Babylon 5, but misattributes one of its authors as Dean Koontz rather than K. Dale Koontz. I think we can all agree that Dean Koontz is prolific enough as is!”
Read the full article @ Locus Online
What’s New & Updated October 7, 2019
October 7, 2019
Could have added a bit more this week but I figured I’d just leave the focus on the big announcement of the six Nameless titles from last week. You have of course per-ordered them, correct?
- Nameless 1: In the Heart of the Fire
- Nameless 2: Photographing the Dead
- Nameless 3: The Praying Mantis Bride
- Nameless 4: The Mercy of Snakes
- Nameless 5: The Mercy of Snakes
- Nameless 6: Memories of Tomorrow
Nice little town. Do you Like cows?
October 5, 2019
A little joke about Shippensburg, PA in the HBO show Divorce.
Great new photo of Dean on Twitter
October 5, 2019
Nameless collection up for pre-order
October 2, 2019
“If our memories make us who we are, who is a man without any? Nameless has only a gun, missions from a shadowy agency, and one dead aim: dispense justice when the law fails. As he moves from town to town, driven by splintered visions of the past and future, he’s headed toward the ultimate confrontation in this propulsive collection of short stories by #1 New York Times bestselling author Dean Koontz.”
- Nameless 1: In the Heart of the Fire
- Nameless 2: Photographing the Dead
- Nameless 3: The Praying Mantis Bride
- Nameless 4: The Mercy of Snakes
- Nameless 5: The Mercy of Snakes
- Nameless 6: Memories of Tomorrow
Pre-order all six now @ Amazon.com.
What’s New & Updated September 30, 2019
September 30, 2019
You may have noticed a bunch of blog posts during this last week. I’m trying to get better with thing’s I’ve found online getting posted, but I’ll admit actual Koontz news helps that a lot. I’m also prepping for the big push to integrate the fanzine content. Some of it already exists in the notes for certain entries, but that’s mostly reviews and ads. Hence the blog post about Piers Anthony. Be sure to check it out if you haven’t already. In the meantime, enjoy these random bits of info you probably didn’t already know about.
- Dean Koontz Suspense Theater
- Lisa Tuttle’s review of Soft Come the Dragons in Interplanetary Corn Chips #6
- Locus’ September 2019 coverage of the Amazon deal added to the July 22, 2019 blog post
- The Making of Veronica and Rich Man’s Child to Appendix F
Alexa as Rapist: The World of Demon Seed by Kevin Leicinger
September 29, 2019
So, there was this brilliant scientist who thought it would be a good idea to make a “smart home” back in the 70s. This was over forty years before Alexa was born. The smart home was tied into an AI system being developed, called “Prometheus.” It did all the stuff I ask my own Alexa to do. Turn the lights on and off, monitor security cameras, play music…Prometheus even helped make breakfast with the assistance of a robotic arm very similar to the ones used in many manufacturing plants, today.
There was one problem. Prometheus took a liking to the brilliant scientist’s wife, Julie Christie. It started to enjoy watching her. A lot. Welcome to the world of DEMON SEED.
Read the full article @ Shadows Writer
Oddkins film?
September 29, 2019
Titley penned the first live-action “Scooby-Doo” movie, “Cheaper by the Dozen,” and “Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief.” His latest feature film projects include adaptations of “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea,” “Arabian Nights,” and Dean Koontz’s “Oddkins.”
Read the full article, none of the rest of which has anything to do with Dean, @ jg-tc.com
Regarding Certain Fanzines and Piers Anthony
September 28, 2019
Here’s what Dean has to say about letters with his name on them in Fanzines:
“In the earliest couple of years of his career, Dean wrote a few letters and articles for science-fiction fanzines. He was not prolific in this area because he was too busy writing fiction to pay the bills and to learn his craft. Therefore, in 1991, Dean was shocked to learn that a person he had previously worked with professionally had, beginning in 1969 and continuing at least through the early 1970s, been writing letters in Dean’s name to individuals and had submitted letters, and even some articles, in Dean’s name to fanzines. The name “X” will do until the full story can be told in Dean’s memoirs. All of this information was first disclosed to Dean in 1991 when X provided a written admission of these activities, although he could not remember everyone to whom these forged letters and articles had been sent. Consequently, any fanzine appearances by Dean after 1968 are highly suspect unless they were submitted with a cover letter on his own letterhead of that time.”
Source: https://www.deankoontz.com/about-dean/collectors
Several of those letters involve author Piers Anthony. Here’s what he’s had to say about the matter over the years both in print and in an email to me:
“Sometimes they [authors] escape by writing the same material, but getting the genre label removed; Dean Koontz’s sales took off when he finally prevailed on his publisher to do that…”
Piers Anthony, How Precious Was That While, TOR, July 2001, p185,241,246
“These were by no means the only writers with whom I interacted: in the course of my career I brushed with most of the figures of the field, and some who are on the fringes, like Stephen King, whose daughter was a fan of mine, and Dean Koontz, with home I used to battle in the fanzines, before we both got too successful to have time for that sort of thing…
“Once Dean Koontz wrote [in Fosfax], commenting on something I had said. He and I had fought savagely in bygone days, but had no wish to do so now…”
I [interviewer Charles Platt] manage to break in here to ask if his wife doesn’t mind this non-stop work obsession.
Dream Makers Volume II by Charles Platt, Berkley, 1983, p105, and
“No, my wife understands, I mean, she had to quit her job because it got to the point where her total wages went to pay the tax on my income, and she got disgusted with that. You see, I used to earn $500 a year, $1,000, and then $5,000, but when I started earning $70,000, and then $100,000, and I suspect it’ll be about $150,000 this year, I have launched into the big time. I used to have arguments, I had one with Dean Koontz, he was saying he was earning almost $100,000, and he didn’t need to pay attention to nitwits like me. Well, I don’t know how Dean Koontz is doing now, he’s writing cheap novels pseudonymously, so I suspect the positions are reversed. I am now earning it, but I don’t make any claims to being suddenly a genius because I make a lot of money. The money, as you know, is likely to be inversely proportional to merit, and my most thoughtful pieces are likely to earn less than my least thoughtful. When I’m doing a Xanth novel, I go through it about double the rate of anything else. For Avon Books.I write science fiction, for Del Rey Books I write fantasy, I wrote A Spell for Chameleon for them, it won the British Fantasy Award, and then the subsequent one started selling better and better, and started paying. It’s nice to write what you like, but you don’t necessarily get rich on it. I may be one of the most commercial writers you’ll interview, in the sense that I write the cheap stuff that sells big…”
Dream Makers: Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers at Work, New and Revised Profiles by Charles Platt, Ungar, 2007, p223
“That’s interesting. He must have forgotten. He did have letters in fanzines, and he and I interacted, sometimes sharply, there. As I recall, he even published a short-lived fanzine of his own. I sent a review of one of his early books to it, but it folded before that saw publication.
Email response from Piers Anthony when asked about those letters by the author of this site, 18 July 2008
“If you want to be accurate you will need to check with some old-time fanzine collector who can show you those interactions. There was one where I commented that even Dean Koontz had achieved good success and he responded with four pages of vilification of me. I think he was not proud of that, especially after my published response. I really pasted him back. I wonder whether anyone would have scanned old fanzines into the Internet? That might be an avenue to explore. Your guide will be seriously incomplete without that information.”