Latest Posts
Another move of The Silent Corner release date
March 26, 2017
Today Amazon sent me the following shipping update:
Koontz, Dean “The Silent Corner: A Novel of Suspense”
Estimated arrival date: June 20, 2017
Darkfall (finally) in the UK
March 21, 2017
Look what just arrived… (Turns out I missed this release back on 5 May 2016)
Audible Germany trailer for Frankenstein: City of Night
March 20, 2017
"An Elegant and Exalted Enterprise"
March 20, 2017
The Holiday 2016 issue of The Companion, the electronic newsletter of Canine Companions for Independence has Dean & Gerda on the cover and contains a one-page piece titled “An Elegant and Exalted Enterprise.” I’ve archived a copy here and the original can be found here.
Novelist Dean Koontz and his wife, Gerda, have been loyal and passionate supporters of Canine Companions since the 1990s. Dean has penned six books that showcase the Koontzes’ love for the released and retired Canine Companions dogs they’ve adopted.The author’s proceeds from the books are donated to their dogs’ alma mater. On top of that, the Koontzes have also provided extraordinary financial contributions to Canine Companions and are the Southwest Region’s campus benefactors.
Recently, Dean put pen to paper to reflect on why our mission resonates so deeply with him. The result is something to which we all relate, but only a best-selling author could write.
The Silent Corner on TV; Six-book series
March 17, 2017
Best-selling author Dean Koontz’s forthcoming book The Silent Corner is going to get the TV treatment.
Paramount Television and Anonymous Content have optioned the FBI drama ahead of its June publication by Bantam, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. A network is not yet attached.
The book revolves around FBI agent Jane Hawk, who after she starts to learn why people of talent and accomplishment who are happy and of sound mind are killing themselves for no apparent reason, becomes the most wanted fugitive in America. The powerful cabal she confronts is completely unprepared to stop a woman driven by a rage born of love who is as clever and courageous as its members are cold-blooded.
Koontz plans to write at least five more books featuring Jane Hawk, with Silent Corner being the first out.
Read the whole article @ The Hollywood Reporter.
Ten new MP3-CD audio editions released
March 15, 2017
Ten collections, twenty titles…
Between The Lines with Barry Kibrick: Dean Koontz, A Big Little Life
March 13, 2017
Host Barry Kibrick talks with Best Selling Author Dean Koontz, about his book, A BIg Little Life, the true story of his life with his best friend, his dog.
Originally broadcast on 19 May 2011.
Charnel House editions of "Black River: I'll Be Watching Over You"
March 13, 2017
Click either of the images for the relevant ordering pages.
Perihelion
March 13, 2017
Hey, did you all know that Perilehion relaunched back in November as an online SF magazine? Sadly, it does not include an archive from back in the day.
Julie Christie
March 12, 2017
Just picked up this 2002 UK biography of Julie Christie by Anthony Hayward. Of course, I got it because of a few paged related to the film version of Demon Seed.
The Silent Corner release date moved again
March 12, 2017
I just received an e-mail from Amazon indicating that the release date for The Silent Corner has been reset back to its original release date of 6 June 2017. The listing on their site has been updated accordingly and we’re back to the date listed on the ARC. (The paper edition of which arrived at my home yesterday.)
No pre-signed editions of The Silent Corner?
March 12, 2017
The last several titles Dean’s released (Saint Odd and Ashely Bell off the top of my head,) have had pre-signed editions come out from stores like Barnes & Noble and Target. So far, with the release just a few months away, there are not (yet?) signed editions listed at either of these stores. This has me wondering if there’ll just be a standard trade edition released. I’ll keep you posted if/when more information becomes available.
Odd Thomas art
March 6, 2017
Just stumbled on this piece by JAF-Artwork on DivantArt. Click the image for the full version.
The Silent Corner: My Review
March 5, 2017
I know Dean doesn’t like to be pegged to a particular genre, but in all the years that I’ve been reading his work, I’ve found that in most cases, each novel falls into one of five categories: Science Fiction (Dark Symphony, Demon Seed, Lightning), Suspense (Whispers, House of Thunder, Key to Midnight), Horror (Watchers, Shadowfires, 77 Shadow Street), Fantastics (Odd Thomas, From the Corner of His Eye), and Thrillers (The Face of Fear, Shattered, Dark Rivers of the Heart.) Sure, there are exceptions (Hanging On) and you can quibble with me on even some of my examples, but in the end, the horror is my favorite followed by the thrillers in a very close second. The Silent Corner is a thriller in the best Dean Koontz style, and one I finished in just a few sittings.
The thrillers don’t have monsters, nothing supernatural, aren’t preachy, and usually have someone chasing after the main character. The tech involved is real although some it may be stretched a bit into the future for dramatic effect. The Silent Corner is a thriller and the first in a trilogy all centered around FBI Agent Jane Hawk, currently on leave looking into a conspiracy that she believes led her husband, and many others, to commit suicide. Throw in drones, armored vehicles, and a form of mind control and you’ll be buckled in for the ride.
As a librarian I do have one additional praise and one criticism that I do want to get on the record. First, Jane uses public libraries on a regular basis to have untraceable Internet access. Kudos to Dean for getting this one right. However, another character, caught looking at porn in a library, defended his doing so with the following:
“Look, I work with various concerned groups in the city. We try to set things right where we can. It took a while to get libraries to block the nasty websites so kids couldn’t get on them. Now and then a librarian or somebody decides it’s a free-speech issue and opens the lid on the sewer. I was told that branch was backsliding. I had to see for myself. Today, the lid’s back on, kids are safe.”
The issue of porn on library computers just isn’t that simple and I hope Dean doesn’t actually think it is.
In the end, if you’re a fan of Dean’s thrillers you’re going to love The Silent Corner and I expect the sequels when they arrive.
Blood Risk as by Dean Koontz?
March 5, 2017
An lastly of this week’s finds we have Locus #115, 23 June 1972…
In this case Dean has sold Blood Risk to Bobbs-Merrill. Oddly enough, it doesn’t mention the Brian Coffey pseudonym implying, to me, that this was another title that was originally intended to come out under his own name originally. (And to this day, it still hasn’t.)
Beatschild film part 2 & Shattered originally as by Dean Koontz?
March 5, 2017
Continuing to work my way through some recent finds we come to Locus #120, 25 August 1972…
According to this this issue the option on the yet to be filmed Beastchild was renewed at least once and, maybe more interestingly, Shattered had been sold to Random House “under [his] own name.” In the end, as we all know it came out under the K.R. Dwyer pseudonym. I wonder what happened there.
Enter to win an ARC of The Silent Corner
March 5, 2017
goodreads is giving away 25 ARCs of The Silent Corner and you’ve got just a little more than two days left to enter.
Reselling lawsuit dismissed
March 5, 2017
A follow-up to this story…
LAS VEGAS (CN) – Best-selling author Dean Koontz doesn’t directly do business in Nevada and can’t be sued on fraud claims by a Nevadan who says Koontz kept valuable signed works instead of selling them.
Last week, U.S. District Judge Gloria M. Navarro dismissed a complaint filed by Raymond Davis that accused Koontz of keeping a valuable collection of signed literature formerly owned by John Paul Bodner.
Koontz and Davis were mutual friends with Bodner, who passed away in 2012.
Davis said Bodner gave him a collection books written by Koontz, many of which the author signed.
Davis said he sought his help in selling them, and Koontz agreed to sell them on consignment in 2013.
But instead of selling the books, Davis said Koontz kept them and refuses to return them. Davis sued Koontz last year, and accused the author of fraud, conversion and unjust enrichment.
Koontz sought dismissal due to a lack of personal jurisdiction.
…
Navarro dismissed Davis’ claim without prejudice, noting he could request permission to amend his complaint.
Read the full article @ Courthouse News Service.
Films Into Books -or- There's more than one John Hill in the world
March 5, 2017
There are a lot of reference books out there that were very useful in the pre-Internet days and they we marketed to, and mostly sold to libraries. Here’s one of them form 1995:
Beyond a very long bibliography of film and TV novelizations there’s essays on authors ranging from Piers Anthony to Robert Block to John Jakes. Dean gets two mentions in the first chapter since he wrote the novelization of The Funhouse.
Sadly, this book also includes some mis-information:
Just as Dean didn’t write Stolen Thunder under the pseudonym David Axton (Prison of Ice), there’s never been any proof that he wrote the novelization for the film Heartbeeps under the name John Hill (The Long Sleep.)
For reference, here’s the paperback in question:
Eyes of the Virgin blurb
March 5, 2017
Found another new (to me) Koontz blurb yesterday on the 2003
paperback edition of Eyes of the Virgin by Thomas F. Monteleone.
