Elmore Leonard's archives go to University of South Carolina

October 17, 2014

University of South Carolina Dean of University Libraries Tom McNally said Leonard visited the campus last year, saw its archives of modern American writers and wanted his papers to go there.
The university purchased the Leonard material, but officials and Leonard’s family declined to discuss the terms.
Highlights of Leonard’s collection include many handwritten manuscripts on the custom-made, unlined yellow paper that Leonard favored.
The collection at USC includes:

• Correspondence between Leonard and authors such as George V. Higgins, John D. MacDonald, John Grisham and Dean Koontz.

Read the full article @ Crain’s Detroit Business.

Ask Anna links

October 16, 2014

• Ask Anna and Support Canine Companions (The official CCI page for the book)
• Does Your Canine Need Advice? Ask Anna Koontz, Win a Copy! (Tripwads.com)
• Votes, Recall, And Records (HamptonRoads.com)

The New American reviews The City

October 16, 2014

Dean Koontz’s characters are often a strange lot, and Jonah Kirk is no exception. In the hands of a lesser author, the story of a young black man with a gift for music growing up during the 1960s in Koontz’s unnamed city would probably become a painful dull preachment on the social ills of that era. When the reader discovers that another major character had been among the Japanese-Americans who spent the years of the Second World War in the Manzanar internment camp in California, the possibility for such preachment would often be redoubled. Not so with The City. Koontz does not offer characters who define themselves as “victims,” or who wallow in morbid self-pity. Far from making such characters objects of pity, Koontz leads the reader to see the strength which comes from adversity. As one character declares in the course of the novel, “Too many experts make art political, ’cause they believe great artists always held the same convictions as they themselves do. But the last thing art should be is political. Yuck. Double yuck. Keep your mind free. Trust your eye and heart.”

Read the full review @ The New American.

No, Dean has not written a book titled "Falling Stars"

October 15, 2014

Unfortunately, this headline is causing people to think just that: ‘The Next Dean Koontz: New Suspense Thriller “Falling Stars” Hits Bookshelves’.
You can read what this is really about @ WebWire.com.

Discover Dean Koontz

October 14, 2014

Hey US fans, have you seen the site Harper UK has set up for their editions of Dean’s books? Check it out @ www.discoverdeankoontz.com.

A few links re: The Crime Thriller Awards

October 13, 2014

• Welcome to the Crime Thriller Awards 2014
• Living Legends 2014
• Original page for the 2014 show episodes (videos only work in the UK)

The Sepcsavers Crime Thriller Awards 2014 magazine

October 13, 2014

To go along with the previously posted video from The Crime Thriller Club tv show. (Dean’s on page 15.)

Dean on The Crime Thriller Club

October 12, 2014

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srvjEtGlfEQ

Ask Anna on Facebook

October 4, 2014

Did you know that the forthcoming Ask Anna book has its own Facebook page?

Pre-order Ask Anna

October 4, 2014

Horror Writers Association Launches “Horror Selfies” Campaign

October 4, 2014

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Oct. 3, 2014 — PRZen — The Horror Writers Association (HWA), the premier organization of writers and publishers of horror and dark fantasy and home of the iconic Bram Stoker Awards^®, today announced the launch of its new promotion campaign, Horror Selfies. Through the campaign, HWA will highlight the exceptional work, both literary and cinematic, produced by the horror genre.
Inspired by the popular “Say it with a Sign” meme—used by everyone from Ellen DeGeneres and Jon Bon Jovi, to David Beckham and Princes William and Harry—the HWA is utilizing the vast reach of social media to provide a platform through which people can tell the world why they love horror.
The HWA invites authors and readers, actors and directors, fans and followers, to submit a selfie to www.HorrorSelfies.com in which they hold a sign encouraging others to read horror/dark fantasy, to watch horror movies, or to write horror. Additionally, the HWA is encouraging people to promote literacy and reading among children and Young Adults, or to support a local library in their Horror Selfies.

…
THE HORROR WRITERS ASSOCIATION is a nonprofit organization of writers and publishing professionals around the world, dedicated to promoting dark literature and the interests of those who write it. The HWA formed in 1985 with the help of many of the field’s greats, including Dean Koontz, Robert McCammon, and Joe Lansdale. Today, with over 1250 members around the globe, it is the oldest and most respected professional organization for the much-loved writers who have brought you the most enjoyable sleepless nights of your life.

Read the full article @ The Digital Journal.

Charnel House: Famous Figures in the History of Book Binding

October 4, 2014

At Charnel House, the horrific and strange aren’t reserved for Halloween. Former rock drummer Joe Stefko founded Charnel House in 1989 to produce state of the art limited edition books of horror and weird fiction. Over the next decade, the market for collector’s edition books in the literary horror genre exploded. But most weren’t publishing fine editions. Charnel House has differentiated itself with editions that are nothing like the trade editions. Over half of the press’ titles are from author Dean Koontz, though in more recent years titles have increasingly focused on typography.

Read the full article @ ILAB.org.

New Zelander review of Innocence

October 4, 2014

On the surface, it looks like girl meets boy, boy saves girl, but Innocence is much more than that.
Parts of it feel a little bit saggy, and the description of the snow, and the cold is a bit overdone, but Innocence still cracks along at a reasonable pace. The evildoers are unambiguously evil, and Addison and Gywneth are unambiguously good, and sometimes it’s refreshing to read a simple good vs evil morality tale.

Read the full review @ The Southland Times.

Demon Seed trade paperback cover reveal

October 2, 2014

Complete set of The Book of Counted Sorrows

September 27, 2014

As of yesterday I finally have a complete set of The Book of Counted Sorrows. They are (in the back, the left to right): The original Microsoft eBook version, Charnel House traycased lettered, Charnel House slipcased numbered, Dogged Press first printing, Dogged Press second printing

Dean keynotes Hoag Foundation Luncheon

September 26, 2014

More than 300 people attended the Choose Nursing, Choose Hoag luncheon presented by the Hoag Hospital Foundation this month.
Novelist Dean Koontz was the keynote speaker, according to a news release.
The event, held Sept. 17 at the Balboa Bay Resort in Newport Beach, recognized more than $2 million raised during the past year, setting a record for 363 scholarships awarded to nurses at Hoag, the release said.
Choose Nursing, Choose Hoag has raised more than $24 million since the organization was formed 10 years ago. It has provided more than 600 scholarships for nurses’ “continued education, training and advanced degrees,” the release said.

Read the full article @ The Daily Pilot.

Spokesdog’s Book Review: Ask Anna

September 21, 2014

Here’s the first review I’ve found of the forthcoming Ask Anna:

I would like to introduce my readers to Anna Koontz. The newest (four legged) talent from the Koontz family who has followed in her dog-daddy’s footsteps with her first advice book for canines with plans to become the advice columnist for the canine world.  Dean Koontz writes, “we have complied for you this book of Anna’s golden advice to other canines, with the hope that it will help you understand your dogs better and will encourage you to stop being a ninny of an owner, if in fact you are one.”

Read the full review @ seattlepi.com

Deal with Troubles, But Don’t Lose Track of the World’s Beauty: An Interview with Dean Koontz

September 19, 2014

“The dark makes the light stuff brighter.”
Not only is that a comment made by a character in Dean Koontz’s latest novel “The City,” it’s a truth that the author learned first-hand while growing up.
In “The City,” eight-year-old African-American musical prodigy Jonah Kirk is blessed with a mother and grandparents who selflessly love and support him. His father Tilton, however, epitomizes the adult who never grows up, who never accepts responsibility for anyone or anything other than the pursuit of his own pleasure. Jonah sees these traits in his father and, understandably, resents him.
Dean can relate to Jonah here. During an interview on “Christopher Closeup,” he recalled that his mother was a wonderful woman, but his father was a “violent alcoholic” who was also a “gambler and womanizer,” resulting in his family living in poverty. The worst part for Dean wasn’t his family’s unstable financial situation, though; it was the fact that he lived in a small town where everybody knew everybody else’s business, leaving him in an “almost constant [state of] humiliation or embarrassment” at his father’s actions.
And yet, Dean wouldn’t change his childhood even if he could. He said, “There’s a temptation to think how much better my life would have been, or how much more I would have achieved if I’d had a rosier childhood. But then I think, ‘No, if I hadn’t had my dad’s example, I might have gone that way.’…That is where I was able to clearly see that there is good and evil in the world; there are not just shades of gray. As a consequence, I think it helped me a great deal as a writer to have grown up in that environment.”

Read the full article and listen to the full interview @ Patheos.com.

Nevada: 150 things for 150 years

September 19, 2014

96. Strangers by Dean Koontz The characters in this 2002 horror novel are all brought to the Tranquility Motel in the Nevada desert outside of Elko to figure out what was done to them and why.

Read the full article @ NewsReview.com

The City large print trade paperback edition coming in March

September 19, 2014

According to Amazon.com, there will be a trade paperback large print edition of The City released by “Large Print Press” on 3 March 2015. No cover image is yet available.