Amazon Launching "Single Sitting" Imprint; Koontz to be included

December 4, 2017

LOS ANGELES, Nov 30 — Amazon has revealed a new publishing imprint focusing on fiction and non-fiction works that can be read in a single sitting, beginning with a story by Joyce Carol Oates and the story that inspired the Amazon Studios film Crown Heights.
…

W. Kamau Bell, Jade Chang, Eddie Huang, Janice Y.K. Lee, Walter Kirn, Dean Koontz, Wednesday Martin, Nick McDonell, Harold Schechter, Dan Slater, Dodai Stewart and Susan Straight will be among the other authors to contribute stories to the new imprint.

Read more at Maylay Online.

A Mr. Murder film starring Bruce Willis?

December 3, 2017

Here’s an intersting excerpt from Tales from the Script: 50 Hollywood Screenwriters Share Their Stories edited byPeter Hanson and Paul Robert Herman

Chapter 3: The Marketplace of Ideas

“MICHAEL WOLK: I had many experiences in Hollywood of not pitching original ideas, but of going into meetings with producers who had a property already and were looking for a way to ignite it. It was either something that had lain dormant for a while, or it was a new property, or a sequel they were trying to create, and they were pumping writers for ideas.
“I had a marvelous interaction with Dean Koontz, who is somewhat more popular than, let’s say, me. He had written a book called Mr. Murder, and it was being developed as a script for Bruce Willis. I really liked the book, and I had some great ideas how to make it better for the screen.
“I got down to the finals, and I was talking to Mr. Koontz himself over the phone. I was able to impart my story-making magic to Mr. Koontz, who listened. But in the end I was nixed for the job because, basically, Dean Koontz thought he’d written a pretty good story, and he didn’t think I’d written a better one.”

This fun little thing happened yesterday…

December 3, 2017

Beautiful Writers Podcast – Dean Koontz: Master of Suspense

December 2, 2017

500 million books sold. 38 languages. 14 #1 New York Times bestsellers. How is that possible? My guest co-host, Robert McKee, and I couldn’t wait to get the inside scoop on a bestselling career that has spanned fifty years and been compared to the Beatles. Welcome to the epic world of Dean Koontz, who is totally delightful and slightly worrisome, in a crawl inside your brain and lays eggs kind of way. (Wait. Don’t repeat that! In reality, what struck me as most odd is that he’s not at all creepy.)Dean’s new thriller, THE WHISPERING ROOM, drops TODAY and will leave you breathless. You might have to sleep with the lights on for a while, but you’ll beg for the next book in this series just the same because our protagonist, Jane Hawk, is that addictive.
She’s my shero. A rogue FBI agent on a mission to save her son, Jane is intuitive and fearless and perfectly on time with the times—putting the fear of God into abusive men everywhere. If only we could bring her to flesh-and-blood life. And then clone her on every street corner.
In this episode, you’ll learn the difference between suspense and mystery; how to “let the character be the character”; how to make the fictional world more real—to the point of being swept away by it; what readers are looking for in the first two paragraphs of a book to make them buy; the three things setting (or nature) must accomplish; why reaction is more important than action; how worrying about paying the rent discourages a lot of artists + and the mindset you must have to break through. Of course, there’s so much more—including a civilized disagreement about the existence of the muse and a little Hollywood bashing.
I feel so blessed the legendary Robert McKee is back on the show. Imagine, these two experts talking shop about Setting and Suspense and Opening Hooks and Dialogue and so much more. Speaking of dialogue, Robert’s latest book, DIALOGUE: The Art of Verbal Action for the Page, Stage, and Screen will floor you with how much there is to know about the act of talking. Who knew?! Fortunately, McKee does. The details are so detailed I thought about quitting writing to find a day job until I remembered I’m too old for that and took wild amounts of notes instead.
The show, as they say, must go on. So take a listen. You’ll see why the writers of Pixar (creators of TOY STORY and FINDING NEMO), consider McKee’s STORY seminar a rite of passage. And how alumni to his courses have earned 200 Oscar nominations (with 60 wins) and 1,000 Emmy noms (with 200 wins).
As for Dean and this thriller genre. If you’re tempted to think it’s not for you because you hightail it out of the room when the 10 o’clock news starts as if a quake just hit, and watch Abraham Hicks videos on replay in a desperate attempt to trust in a benevolent Universe, I feel ya. Same, same.
But with Koontz and McKee as our guides, we just might find a whole lotta heart and sanity in the story. Even after the sun goes down.
I’m so glad you’re here.
Welcome.
Linda

Buy a Zune get Black River

November 19, 2017

Ok, it was back in 2008, and that still wouldn’t have gotten me to buy a Zune but it turns out Dean’s Black River audiobook was part of a Microsoft Zune promotion…

Zune also now supports audiobook content from leading distributors including Audible Inc. Zune users can now explore more than 50,000 books, magazines and newspapers from more than 600 publishers and content providers at audible.com and sync it to their Zune. To commemorate the addition of audiobooks, Audible is offering all new and existing Zune owners a free copy of “Black River” by bestselling writer Dean Koontz.

Read the full press release @ news.microsoft.com.

The Whispering Room signed editions available for pre-order

November 16, 2017

As with many of Dean’s recent books, both Barnes & Noble and Target are offering pre-signed copies yet again. Currently they’re available for $19.04 and $21 .00 respectively.

Update: Books-A-Million is also offering signed editions which have the same ISBN as the B&N edition.

Emporis

November 10, 2017

Dean mentions an interesting company named Emproris in The Whispering Room. He didn’t make it up. Check them out @ https://www.emporis.com/.

Jane Hawk #3 title, draft cover art, and release date

November 5, 2017

Looks like book #3 is going to be titled The Crooked Staircase and is scheduled to be released on 8 May 2018.
From Amazon:
Jane Hawk—who dazzled readers in The Silent Corner and The Whispering Room—faces the fight of her life, against the threat of a lifetime in this electrifying new thriller by #1  New York Times bestselling suspense master Dean Koontz.
“I could be dead tomorrow. Or something worse than dead.”
Jane Hawk knows she may be living on borrowed time. But as long as she’s breathing, she’ll never cease her one-woman war against the terrifying conspiracy that threatens the freedom—and free will—of millions. Battling the strange epidemic of murder-suicides that claimed Jane’s husband, and is escalating across the country, has made the rogue FBI agent a wanted fugitive, relentlessly hunted not only by the government but by the secret cabal behind the plot. Deploying every resource their malign nexus of power and technology commands, Jane’s enemies are determined to see her dead . . . or make her wish she was.
Jane’s ruthless pursuers can’t stop her from drawing a bead on her prey: a cunning man with connections in high places, a twisted soul of unspeakable depths with an army of professional killers on call. Propelled by her righteous fury and implacable insistence on justice, Jane will make her way from southern California to the snow-swept slopes of Lake Tahoe to confront head-on the lethal forces arrayed against her. But nothing can prepare her for the chilling truth that awaits when she descends the crooked staircase to the dark and dreadful place where her long nightmare was born.

Looking for an eARC of The Whispering Room

November 5, 2017

Click the cover to request your eARC from NetGalley.

New to NetGalley? No problem! Just sign up for a reviewer or media professional account using the email that received this message. NetGalley delivers secure electronic review copies to many devices, including Kindles, Nooks, iPads, PCs and more—make sure to check out the handy FAQ before you download, but if you have any troubleshooting questions, feel free to contact me directly or email support@netgalley.com.

[Side note: The original eARC from NetGalley has the original cover. They’ve since updated it to have the new cover.]

I've got my work cut out for me

November 2, 2017

I recently received a CD containing what ended up being a 1.5″-high pile of pages of Koontz-related material from a super wonderful person who’s gone above and beyond to help me with this project. (I’m only being non-specific so people don’t just start contacting them for their own set.)

Anything of interest I find (starting with the the page on the top of the pile) will be added to the finished product. Of which, news should be coming relatively soon.

The Whispering Room trailer

October 30, 2017

 

There was almost a Funhouse film remake/prequel….

October 25, 2017

DC: When you world-premiered Leatherface at FrightFest, it was the same weekend Tobe Hooper [the director of the 1974 Texas Chain Saw Massacre] passed away. Did he at least get to see your film at some point?
JM: No. We learnt that he passed away the day before the first screening of Leatherface. So it really was a shock for us and especially because we didn’t have the chance to meet him or even talk to him. His name is on the credits, but it is just contractual and because he created the characters with Kim Henkel. Honestly, it was very disappointing for us, because when we accepted this project, we hoped to meet him and to hear his take on the story and all the sequels and how he felt about that and maybe ask some advice from him. So we were really saddened and disappointed, yes. He’s someone that really changed our lives, as an audience and as a director later. We love his career. We even tried to propose a remake of Funhouse. I remember we had this conversation with an executive from Universal, just saying that we would love to do that movie, being a prequel of the movie and being inspired by the novel by Dean Koontz. I remember the executive at that time said ‘Ah fellows, interesting, I’ve never seen this one.’ And we were like ‘Okay you know it’s in your catalogue and you own the rights.’ He said, ‘Ah really!? Cool!’ (laughs) So it didn’t happen, whatever. But yeah, we were very, very saddened about Tobe’s passing.

Read the full article @ Dread Central.

Contest: Where have you seen this bug before?

October 22, 2017

Yesterday’s mail brought me a copy of The St. Louis Bug, a four-page b&w comic by Dean’s friend Vaughn Bodé, published in 1969 w/ a copyright of 1968.

On page four is this guy:

Recognize him? Where have you seen him before?
The first person to comment below (in this blog post, not on Facebook, Twitter, or any other platform) with the correct answer (be as specific as possible) will win a prize of their choosing from a pile of random Koontz items I have laying around.
Let the searching begin!

Charnel House editions of The Whispering Room now available for pre-order

October 20, 2017

The Charnel House Numbered Edition
Crafted by hand and signed by the author
250 Numbered copies, bound in Japanese silk jacquard
600 Pages
$300.00

The Charnel House Lettered Edition
Crafted by hand and signed by the author
26 Lettered copies, bound in full Morocco leather in the color(s) of your choice and stamped in 22kt gold
600 Pages
Available in choice of 4 colors: Hunter Green, Crimson, Chocolate, and Black
$1000.00
 
 

The Silent Corner paperback to be released on 31 October 2017

October 3, 2017

Click through to per-order via Amazon.

Watchers gets a mention in King's Sleeping Beauties

October 2, 2017

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The Whispering Room ARC & Cover Change

September 13, 2017

This arrived in today’s mail…

The same day that Dean’s Facebook page announced this is will now be the cover of the book when it’s released.

I must admit this is the first cover change post-ARC that I’ve ever experienced. I’m sure it’s happened before to some book somewhere but it’s definitely rare.

Achievement Unlocked: A Visit to Shippensburg University

September 5, 2017

Early in August my wife and I took an epic road trip from Nebraska to New York, to New Jersey, to Pennsylvania, to Missouri then back home. Along the way we met old friends, possibly got filmed as part of a reality TV show, and did a lot of quilt and book shopping.
When cruising through Pennsylvania, I wondered out loud where Shippensburg, PA was knowing full well that the university library there had copies of The Reflector in their archives containing Dean’s earliest published works.  My wife looked it up and she said it was about 30 minutes away. What I thought she meant was it was 30 minutes off our route which would add an hour of travel time (plus the time spent at the university) to our trip and at this point of the trip I wasn’t looking to extend my driving that much. No, she corrected me, it’s about 30 minutes ahead of us on our current route, and just 10 miles off the highway. Well, that changed everything!

Next up was a call to a long-time acquaintance of mine, a fellow librarian on the campus. (Turns out he’d recently become the head of the library. Yes folks, personal networks come in handy.) He have us directions and made it to campus a short while later.

Our first stop was in the university archives to check out issues of The Reflector. I’ve had photocopies of Dean’s content for years, but to actually hold the issues in hand was a bit of an experience.

The next step was to verify something I’d already suspected. Dean did appear in the 1964 campus yearbook (I own a copy) but I did not know if he appeared in the ’65, ’66’ or ’67 (just for good measure) yearbooks. Those were brought out for me and I got to take a look. Theory confirmed, he’s not in there.

I was then asked if I wanted to see the Koontz items in special collections. I believe my response was literally “duh.” Turns out the library created the “Dean R. Koontz” collection a few years back containing the personal collection of OI. Richard Forsythe, Dean’s favorite English professor from his time on campus.


The library also kept material from a display put up for when Dean was back on campus years ago to give a talk. (I forgot to ask what year that was when I was there.) Here’s just one of the pieces from that display.

As if this visit hadn’t been exciting enough, I was then asked if I wanted to see the box of correspondence and other things. At this point I was pretty much babbling. Again here’s just a sample of the content of that box:
 
Like I said, the photos here are just a sample of what they had. I took many more, but I’m saving those for later.  Needless to say, this happy accident was amazing and the staff of the library were nothing short of gracious, helpful, and understanding of my excitement especially Melanie Reed who I look forward to working with the future regarding their collection.

Tobe Hooper, The Funhouse Director, Dies at 74

August 27, 2017

Filmmaker Tobe Hooper, best known for The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, has died, according to Variety and other news sources. He was 74.
Born in Austin, Texas, Hooper made his first feature, Eggshells, in 1969, an odd, experimental film that is allegorical and, more than that, spacey and trippy. But it was The Texas Chain Saw Massacre that made him (in)famous. Long before I saw it, I remember reading a newspaper article in Los Angeles about a big, tough college football player who vomited during a screening and thought: ‘that’s a movie for me!’
Its horrors, of course, were more shocking in contrast to its era. Even as Hollywood was becoming (briefly) more serious about redefining mainstream filmmaking, Hooper and his colleagues painted a disarming picture about a house in rural Texas that looked bucolic on the outside, hiding truly unimaginable horrors within.
The film became a sensation and a foundation for horror movies to come. Hooper never escaped its shadow, but neither did Orson Welles escape the shadow of Citizen Kane, so it was not entirely a bad thing. Eaten Alive was a charming crudity about another hungry killing thing, Salem’s Lot was an acceptable if rudimentary TV version of Stephen King’s novel, and The Funhouse was a solid slasher.

Read the full article @ Screen Anarchy.

This Whispering Room to arrive in 2017?

July 23, 2017

The release date for The Silent Corner jumped around a few times and I’m hoping that doesn’t happen to the next book again but, I just received this from Amazon:

  Koontz, Dean “The Whispering Room: A Jane Hawk Novel”
Previous estimated arrival date: January 09, 2018
New estimated arrival date: November 21, 2017