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Dean Koontz's CTHULHU
March 17, 2015
Parody alert!
Now my Book of Counted Sorrows set is complete! Or is it?
March 15, 2015
Back in September I posted a photo of my “complete set” of The Book of Counted Sorrows editions. I need to stop saying that any part if my collection is “complete.” (Just as much as people need to stop claiming “I’ve read everything Dean’s ever written/published.”) Because, recently I found, and was able to obtain this:
This is a printed trade paperback advance reader’s copy / uncorrected proof of the Barnes & Noble ebook edition from 2001. Yes folks, this is a printed ARC for an ebook from 2001!
Just to let you know, in my day job I’m heavily into ebooks and ereaders, the issues involved with them, and training people how to use them. Forget back in 2001 when ebooks were just a twinkle in the reader’s eye, even today, a print ARC of an ebook is practically unheard of.
This has got to be one of the most obscure items I have in my collection.
Book Review: Demon Seed by Dean Koontz
March 15, 2015
This isn’t a “professional” review but figured I’d share it if for no other reason than I’ve not previously been aware of the HubPages platform.
This book starts out with a single woman who has a wait staff and a sprawling mansion with manicured grounds. Why is she single? This is revealed early in the book. She has planned on taking some time for herself and these plans are rudely interrupted by an “entity”, that was created by her husband Dr. Harris.
The entity is electrical and lives in the air ways and can attack phone lines, computer programs and the security system of the house. The project was something that was being worked on in the lab by her husband. It’s like a computer became evil and took over this woman’s hi tech mansion and she is being controlled.
Read the full review @ lesliebyars.hubpages.com. She’s also written a review of The Husband.
Mystic Hills details
March 15, 2015
[My guess is that this will be an eBook novella tied to Secret Forest.]
Release Date: 1 December 2015
He lives in solitude beneath the city, an exile from society, which will destroy him if he is ever seen. She dwells in seclusion, a fugitive from enemies who will do her harm if she is ever found. But the bond between them runs deeper than the tragedies that have scarred their lives. Something more than chanceand nothing less than destinyhas brought them together in a world whose hour of reckoning is fast approaching. 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. ACCLAIM FOR DEAN KOONTZ A rarity among bestselling writers, Koontz continues to pursue new ways of telling stories, never content with repeating himself.Chicago Sun-Times Tumbling, hallucinogenic prose. Serious writers . . . might do well to examine his technique.The New York Times Book Review [Koontz] has always had near-Dickensian powers of description, and an ability to yank us from one page to the next that few novelists can match.Los Angeles Times Koontz is a superb plotter and wordsmith. He chronicles the hopes and fears of our time in broad strokes and fine detail, using popular fiction to explore the human condition.USA Today Characters and the search for meaning, exquisitely crafted, are the soul of [Koontzs] work. . . . One of the master storytellers of this or any age.The Tampa Tribune A literary juggler.The Times (London)
Source: edelweiss
Secret Forest details
March 15, 2015
Release Date: 1 December 2015
Ivy Elgin was first introduced in Dean Koontz’s New York Times bestselling novel VELOCITY, but there’s a haunting quality about her that fans have not soon forgotten. She is beautiful and mysterious, and has an almost ethereal connection to the natural world that makes her even more of an enigma. Yet there’s also an air of innocence surrounding her that sets her as the object of many a man’s affections. Narrated by one such admirer, this spellbinding and deeply intricate novel launches a new trilogy that is sure to satisfy readers who have long been waiting to learn more about this inscrutable character. Infused with beauty, complexity, and many twists and turns, this new series showcases Koontz’s “near-Dickensian” skill (Los Angeles Times) that has earned him the distinction of “master of the psychological drama” (USA Today). Dean Koontz, the author of many #1 New York Times bestsellers, lives in Southern California with his wife, Gerda, their golden retriever, Anna, and the enduring spirit of their golden, Trixie.
Source: edelewiss
Interview on the Total Celebrity podcast
March 15, 2015
Source: Am/FM 24/7
Reading Group Guide for The City
March 14, 2015
Did you catch the link to the reading group guide to The City in Dean’s most recent e-mail newsletter?
Des Teufels Saat
March 13, 2015
It’s been a very good week find-wise. I’ll be posting about all of it over the next few days. To kick it off, here’s photos of the German Press Kit for the film version of Demon Seed.
Artfully Odd
March 11, 2015
How a book designer captured the essence of Dean Koontz’s bestselling Odd Thomas series
Design notes by Virginia NoreyVirginia Norey, associate design director for the Random House group, has worked on the entire Odd Thomas series, in which each book features unique original art on the title page and elsewhere. As the series comes to a close with Saint Odd, she reflects on the choices behind each image. She says, “The art within the Odd Thomas series sets the reader on a journey; it illustrates nuances of mood in each book, and depicts the movement of his story.”
Read the full article @ RandomHouseBooks.com.
What is Horror Fiction?
March 9, 2015
An interesting 2009 article from the Horror Writer’s Association:
That’s a difficult question. In recent years the very term has become misleading. If you tell people you write horror fiction, the image that immediately pops into their minds is one of Freddy Krueger or maybe Michael Myers, while you were hoping for Shelley’s Frankenstein or Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The popularity of the modern horror film, with its endless scenes of blood and gore, has eclipsed the reality of horror fiction. When you add to that a comprehension of how horror evolved as both a marketing category and a publishing niche during the late eighties — horror’s boom time — it’s easy to understand why answering the question of what today’s horror fiction actually is has become so difficult.
But let’s give it a try, shall we?
Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary gives the primary definition of horror as “a painful and intense fear, dread, or dismay.” It stands to reason then that “horror fiction” is fiction that elicits those emotions in the reader.
…
It’s a funny fact of today’s market that those writers whose works define the quintessential essence of horror are not considered horror writers. Millions of people read Stephen King, but the average King reader doesn’t read other horror writers. Dean Koontz’s books are filled with the strange and fantastic, yet he vehemently argues against being labeled a horror writer, despite being the first president of this very organization. John Saul thinks of himself as a writer of thrillers; Clive Barker a master of the fantastic. HWA founder Robert McCammon stopped publishing altogether to avoid being trapped in a box not of his own choosing when the publishing world demanded more horror instead of the historical novel he had so desperately wanted to produce.
Read the full article @ Horror.org.
Italian Frankenstein
March 6, 2015
“Saint Odd” wraps up an intense Koontz series
March 6, 2015
If you are an Odd Thomas fanatic, like me, then you were both excited and saddened by the release of Dean Koontz’s final installment in the Odd Thomas series, “Saint Odd.” The novel promises a conclusion to the 12-year-long series that I have been reading, religiously, as each book has been released.
“Saint Odd” picks up where the story left off in the previous novel, “Deeply Odd,” with Thomas returning to his hometown, Pico Mundo. Thomas feels, once again, he is being pulled toward a disastrous event in which it is his duty to prevent. Thomas also feels that his time on earth is limited, and that the event he must stop will ultimately result in his own death.
Read the full review @ The Slate Online.
Denise Drespling reviews Odd Thomas
March 4, 2015
Dean's home: One Door Away Form Heaven
March 2, 2015
Dean Koontz doesn’t get out much and that’s entirely by design.
The author of thrillers, such as the recent “Saint Odd” and scores of earlier best-sellers such as “Watchers” and “Intensity,” says he likes to put in at least 60 hours a week at the keyboard of his old-fashioned MS-DOS computer. When he takes a break, it’s usually for some quiet pleasure with his wife, Gerda, and their golden retriever, Anna.
“One thing we like to do is take long walks with the dog,” Koontz says during a recent walkthrough of his 27,219-square-foot Newport Coast home, the third largest in Orange County. “We put the dog in the car and go down to Corona del Mar and walk the village because the streets are so pretty. And then drive south and walk Laguna Beach. Keep on going down the coast to different towns until you can’t walk as much.”
Mostly, Koontz says, he and Gerda and Anna are happiest at home. “We’re homebodies, so most of our things we like to do are with friends. Having friends in for dinner. Spending a day together playing cards or whatever is for us as good as it gets.”
Staying in seems like a particularly appealing prospect when the house is as lovely as the one Dean and Gerda Koontz built. They’d settled in Orange County years ago, pulling up stakes in Pennsylvania to resettle in California, and lived for many years in the Harbor Ridge neighborhood of Newport Beach. But sometime in the mid-1990s, they decided to design and build their own home from the dirt up.
“We’ve worked very hard all our lives and decided to finally build sort of the dream home,” Koontz says. “And it got completely out of control.”
Read the full article @ CoastMagazine.com
The basic plots of fiction
February 26, 2015
Just down the road from me… literally.
With some 130million books in existence, it’s hard to fathom how the literary sphere’s wealth of storylines could be boiled down into just six different categories.
But a professor is now claiming that there are only half a dozen possible plots which any novel can follow.
Matthew Jockers, from the University of Nebraska, has used a high-tech computer system to analyse more than 40,000 novels in a bid to find out the pattern behind storylines.
…
Intensity by Dean Koontz and A Creed in Stone Creek, by Linda Lael Miller, were two examples of the ‘man on a hill’ format.
Read the full article @ The Daily Mail while I look for the full report which the article doesn’t link to.
Dean Koontz says goodbye to Odd Thomas
February 26, 2015
Dean Koontz is one of the world’s most popular novelists, with 450 million books sold worldwide. In recent years, his series featuring Odd Thomas — a young fry cook with paranormal powers, including the ability to see the spirits of the “lingering dead” — has been particularly popular, with 20 million copies sold to date. Now the series is ending with its seventh installment,Saint Odd (currently No. 4 on USA TODAY’s Best-Selling Books list), in which the character returns to his hometown of Pico Mundo, Calif., to fulfill the destiny foretold in the series opener in 2003.
Koontz will be the featured guest on a special online video chat with fans from 1-2 p.m. today, 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 @ The Baxter Bulletin.
Book review: 'Odd Thomas' faces final challenge
February 23, 2015
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.
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+