A page turned Thursday night, though probably not as big and heavy a one as the bookseller would have you believe.
“We’re on the computer!” Bill Maher told his L.A. studio audience and anyone else who was logged on to the homepage of Amazon.com.
The comedian touted Amazon as “the first major Internet site to launch an episodic series.” Fishbowl With Bill Maher, which began at 11 p.m. Thursday and is available at this very second at www.amazon.com/gp/movie-player-dashboard/permalink/39:31/104-3877406-928
The Blog
Latest Posts
Book review: 'Odd Thomas' faces final challenge
February 23, 2015
“SAINT ODD” is the concluding chapter in Dean Koontz’s “Odd Thomas” series of occult mystery thrillers.
Despite being the last story, “Saint Odd” will appeal to all readers, even if this is the first introduction they have to this unusual character. Those who have read the other six books in sequence will experience the story that much more deeply.Koontz’s masterful storytelling, his clear, spartan prose and his ability to see the world beyond the experience of the five senses combine to create Odd Thomas, a character at once humble, courageous and aware of the true nature of good and evil.
Read the full review @ Fredricksburg.com.
What Koontz book is this?
February 19, 2015
Here’s a fun little exercise: what Koontz title is this? (Just translating the title into English won’t help.) Leave your answer in the comments.
Moonchasers and Other Stories
February 18, 2015
I’ve been setting up my home library recently which has allowed me to unbox a lot of books. In unboxing my Ed Gorman books I stumbled over this one which had not been stored with the rest of my Koontz books.
Valentine's Day "Fantastic Fiction Assortment" Giveaway
February 8, 2015
Looking for some new reads this February? This “Fantastic Fiction Assortment” has a little something for everybody including books by Lee Child, Mary Kay Andrews, Jane Green, Sarah Addison Allen, Cynthia Swanson, Krassi Zourkova, Lisa Scottoline, Joseph Finder, Graeme Simsion, Christopher Noxon, Steve Berry, and of course, Dean!
*Enter to win by noon ET on Thursday, 2/12. One winner will be chosen at random to receive all 12 books and will be announced in time for Valentine’s Day. One entry per person. Good luck!
Source: Google+
Newport Coast author Dean Koontz says goodbye to a beloved character
February 8, 2015
Dean Koontz will never forget the moment he was kissed by the inspiration that would possess and obsess him for a series of eight books about a goodhearted fry cook with a supernatural talent for fighting the forces of evil.
What he’s never been able to figure out, though, even after more than a dozen years of writing about the uncommonly monikered character of Odd Thomas, is why: Why did this idea blossom from his imagination; from where had it come?
“I was sitting in my office, perfectly happily working on a book called ‘The Face,’ and having a good time with it,” Koontz says, sitting in a lounge chair at his home in Newport Coast, his golden retriever Anna asleep at his feet. “And the words, ‘My name is Odd Thomas, I lead an unusual life,’ popped into my head as if somebody in the room had spoken.”
It made no sense. It had nothing to do with “The Face.” But the name and the sentence intrigued him. Koontz picked up the yellow legal pad he keeps on his desk to make notes as he’s working and wrote it down and spent the rest of the afternoon writing longhand, ignoring the manuscript in progress on his computer screen, until he finished 30 pages, a first chapter.
Read the full article @ The Orange County Register.
The Unforgettable End Days of Dean Koontz’s Odd Thomas
February 8, 2015
As fiction heroes go, Odd Thomas is unique. He has no father; born with one foot in the land of the living and one foot in the land of shades, he can speak to the dead, who often come to him for help. Unlike the many horror-novel characters motivated by hatred or revenge, Odd seeks to serve a higher good. Most unusual of all, from the very beginning he’s told the reader how his saga will end: with his own death. Now, in Saint Odd, the seventh and final book in Dean Koontz’s mesmerizing series, Odd’s moment of truth has arrived. Will he achieve his destiny, the purpose for which he was born?
Read the full post @ B&N Reads.
Ask Anna paperback release date
February 6, 2015
According to Amazon, Ask Anna will be out in paperback on 13 October 2015. No cover art yet.
The City: Dean Koontz veers from type with this tender, character-driven story.
February 4, 2015
I call him the poor man’s Stephen King, which is ironic, because Koontz is probably one of the wealthiest authors alive.
So I picked up The City, convinced I was in for more of Koontz’s crafty if slightly formulaic storytelling.
I was very wrong.
In The City Koontz paints the unusual coming-of-age story of young Jonah Kirk, son of a talented lounge singer and grandson of a true piano man. Young Jonah learns about the mysteries and the beauty of his city through a very diverse crowd of friends… and enemies.
Read the full review @ Women24.
Sacramento Bee Interview
February 3, 2015
Best-selling author Dean Koontz talks about his success, latest hit character
by Allen Pierleoni
Q: Underlying the surface action, what is the Odd Thomas series about?
A: Perseverance in the face of the setbacks in life. Also, Odd represents the best that people are capable of being, but in this fallen world we rarely ever get there. That doesn’t mean he isn’t driven to do terrible things, but he does them to protect the innocent or save his own life.
Q: Where did Odd come from?
A: I was working on another book and suddenly into my mind came the line, “My name is Odd Thomas, and I lead an unusual life.” I spent the rest of the day writing what became the first chapter of the first book. The only thing I knew about him then was he was a character on a journey to absolute humility. Where all that came from is a mysterious process I did nothing to earn. The only thing I could do was bring my best craftsmanship to it.
Q: What’s so saintly about Odd?
A: I always knew the last book would be called “Saint Odd” because in his humility he would have come to a certain completeness. He lives for other people, and his philosophy is to live in a simple, old-fashioned, chivalrous way, but to never back down.
Read the full interview @ http://www.sacbee.com/entertainment/books/article8952776.html
USA Today Chat Afterlinks
February 2, 2015
For the record, here’s just a few links re: the USA Today Chat that I didn’t get posted before the event:
- Five Things to Know for Thursday (USA Today)
- An Odd Opportunity: Q&A Tomorrow with Dean Koontz (Suvudu)
And, it looks like you can view the recording of the chat officially on the USA Today page where the chat originally occurred.
Take the USA Today Odd Thomas Quiz
February 2, 2015
I got 100% of course 😉
Story reflects author's new style
February 1, 2015
Though I feel like this review of The City is appearing a year late…
The book has the usual bits of mystery, scary moments mixed with moments of lighthearted normal life moments of the characters, and offers up a good dose of nostalgia of a time in our country — the late 1960s — when things were changing, and our television sets brought in those events to us every night. Events, such as race riots, bombings on college campus and demonstrations colored people’s memories and influenced a generation as never before.
Read the full review @ Journal-Advocate.com
Movies for guys to watch … for free
February 1, 2015
“Free” as in via Netflix streaming…
“Odd Thomas:” Typically, when I stream movies or TV shows, I’m pretty particular in the ones I pick. This was not one of those picks, and I was pleasantly surprised. I clicked on this one simply because I like the lead actor, Anton Yelchin (“Star Trek”), who plays the title character. Adapted from a Dean Koontz novel of the same name, “Odd Thomas” is a paranormal investigator who can see ghosts. Though somewhat predictable and at times plodding, it’s good sci-fi fare that benefits from Willem Defoe (“Spider-Man,” “Boondock Saints”) in a supporting role and some pretty solid CGI for a low-budget flick. It has heart, humor and decent action, and a touching ending that I didn’t really expect.
Read the full article @ The Dickinson Press.
Charnel House News re: The City & Saint Odd
February 1, 2015
THE CITY: The books have been in house for weeks, it is the slipcases we are waiting on. I can not co-ordinate the two for the same date as I use a finished book to size the slips. I have made blank dummys in the past to speed this process up with less than acceptable results. I am told another two weeks before they ship to me. The lettered edition has been shipped and is out of print.
SAINT ODD: Odd is going to the printer in February and publication is now scheduled for April. There are only six copies of lettered edition with this historic binding left for sale.
I am sorry for the delays and shuffling of dates but I think you know by now–Saint Odd being the forty-first book for Charnel House and the twenty-ninth book with Dean–that this is the only way I can keep the quality that Charnel House is known for in producing these fine editions by hand, and I can not rush the process without damage. It is more important that these editions are done right than out on time and I appreciate your patience all these years. That’s a lot of patience.
Thank you–Joe Stefko, Publisher
Source: Charnel House
USA Today Chat Recording
January 29, 2015
Here’s my recording of today’s online chat. Should an official one become available I will replace my somewhat imperfect copy with the official one.
Re: Amazon Fishbowl
January 29, 2015
Just found this image on Getty Images from the Amazon Fishbowl episode…
…and this 6 June 2006 article from Philly.com:
7120, puts Maher in the talk-show host seat, interviewing folks whose stuff you can buy on Amazon. A new episode is scheduled every Thursday for the next few weeks.
Minor Internet sites have been running episodic series for quite a while. Of course, I’m a TV critic, and I don’t know a whole lot about them, but I do like one called Rocketboom.com, which features a pretty woman named Amanda Congdon doing a cockamamie “news” show, heavy on computer content.
She auctioned off the show’s first commercial time on eBay a while back (I think she got $40,000, which isn’t chicken feed, though it’s probably about 30 seconds of Amazon revenue), and you can watch her daily performance, which is called a “vlog,” on TV if you have TiVo.
I can’t, because I can’t figure out how to work it all. And that was part of the problem with Maher’s show Thursday night, too. It would just stop and start, and the little virtual gadget that was supposed to control it didn’t have any skip or rewind buttons, which I can work on my TiVo, so how new and revolutionary is that?
What is revolutionary, of course, are the commercial geegaws associated with Fishbowl, which appears on a little screen that’s made to look like a TV, maybe 5 by 6 inches, in the middle of your larger computer screen, leaving room for such Amazon messages as “The Husband (Hardcover) by Dean Koontz. Go to this product detail page.”
Full article @ Philly.com.
Amazon Fishbowl with Bill Maher
January 28, 2015
Some of you may know that Dean appeared on several episode of Real Time with Bill Maher. But today I discovered that there was a short-lived online show titled Amazon Fishbowl with Bill Maher and that the first episode from 1 June 2006 included Dean. You can still find the full original online @ http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/39:31/104-3877406-928 and I’ve embedded the interview with Dean here. (Please keep in mind that this is streaming video from 2006 so the quality pretty much sucks.)
Dean Koontz says goodbye to Odd Thomas (Interview)
January 28, 2015
Koontz will be the featured guest on a special online video chat with fans from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. ET on Jan. 29, sponsored by USA TODAY and Intercast. In the meantime, we caught up with Koontz, 69, for a phone interview from his home in Newport Coast, Calif.
Q: Is the ending of the Odd Thomas series a sad occasion for you?
A: When I finished the first one, Odd Thomas, I thought, “This is liable to be more than one book,” but at most I thought it would be a trilogy. But the character just had dimension after dimension that I found fascinating. In book two, I thought, “He’s on a journey to absolute humility,” which I didn’t know how I was going to write about since I don’t have an experience of absolute humility myself. (Laughs.) In the first book, he lost the love of his life, and got a little card from a fortune-telling machine that said, “You are destined to be together forever.” And I knew that was a promise that had to be fulfilled. I thought, “I can’t keep him going forever, no matter how interesting he is.”
Read the full interview @ USA Today.
Live Chat with Dean on 21 January 2015
January 22, 2015
What have you always been dying to ask Dean Koontz? The best-selling author answers your fan questions during a live global online video chat on Jan. 29 from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. ET, sponsored by USA TODAY and INTERCAST.
Full details @ http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/books/2015/01/21/dean-koontz-saint-odd-chat-odd-thomas/21437675/
Or, you can watch it here.
:USATodayKoontzChat:
BookReporter review of Saint Odd
January 22, 2015
In 2003, Dean Koontz published ODD THOMAS, which followed a 20-year-old fry cook from Pico Mundo, California, through the loss of his true love, Stormy Llewellyn, in a brutal mass murder. In the years since, Koontz has published six more Odd Thomas novels, concluding the series now with SAINT ODD.
In the two years since Stormy was killed at the Green Moon Mall, Odd has been traveling the country, drawn to various dark scenes and enigmatic figures. Throughout the series, he thwarts several major crimes or disasters using his psychic ability to see and communicate with the dead, though the body count is always still high. The bad guys are often nefarious cultists, and those assisting Odd are frequently mysterious or possibly magical. In SAINT ODD, the series ends with Odd finally returning to Pico Mundo and facing an evil greater than even the one that took Stormy from him.
Read the full review @ BookReporter.com