Latest Posts
Kidnap insurance
August 12, 2014
I just read that many wealthy people buy kidnap insurance. Why would they want to ensure they'll be kidnapped?
— Dean Koontz (@deankoontz) August 12, 2014
Wilderness and Other Stories MP3-CD
August 11, 2014
This is due out on September 9, 2014. Here’s the details on what’s included:
“Wilderness,” a darkly intriguing short story first published as an e-book original, was written as prelude to Dean Koontz’s novel of mystery, suspense, and strange wonder—Innocence.
Twelve of the other fourteen short stories and novelettes included in this audio anthology were most recently reissued in a print collection entitled Strange Highways, published by Warner Books (1995). The other two—”The Scariest Thing I Know” (2000) first published in Martha Stewart Living magazine and “Hostage Situation” (2009) in The New York Times Summer Thriller series.
Only the short work “Down in the Darkness,” has ever been produced for audio.
From this description I could probably predict the titles of the unspecified titles based on the TOC of Strange Highways, but instead I think I’ll leave it for now and just post the 100% accurate version once I have a copy in hand.
Edible Dean Koontz books?
August 9, 2014
Someone in Titusville, PA made food based on a Dean Koontz book!
Benson Memorial Library wanted to be a part of the annual Oil Festival, so they threw their hat into the ring with the first ever “Incredible Edible Book Challenge,” and it was a hit with festival patrons.
The challenge, which took place outside the library on Friday evening, featured 13 edible works of art, based on a variety of books.
…
The adult top prize went to Nicole Schmidt, whose creation was based on “The Mask,” by Dean Koontz.
I do plan on trying to track down more details, hopefully photos. Read the full article @ The Titusville Herald.
Discuss the City
August 9, 2014
The site Book Browse has an online discussion, with starting questions, for The City. Check it out @ BookBrowse.com. (Free registration is required to participate.)
I thought that sounded familiar…
August 8, 2014
If you thought that the title “The Scariest Thing I Know,” Dean’s contribution to the previously mentioned October Dreams II, you’re right. It was first published in the October 2000 issue of Martha Stewart Holiday.
Dean's in Focus
August 8, 2014
Dean is currently the “Writer in Focus” on the UK Nook site.
Announcing October Dreams 2: A Celebration of Halloween From Cemetery Dance Publications!
August 8, 2014
Hi Folks!
We’re very pleased to announce we’re working on October Dreams II edited by Richard Chizmar & Robert Morrish, the long-awaited follow up to one of the most acclaimed Halloween anthologies ever!
Featuring Ray Bradbury, Dean Koontz, Robert McCammon, Robert Bloch, Stewart O’Nan, Glen Hirshberg, Joe R. Lansdale, Al Sarrantonio, Whitley Strieber, Lisa Morton, Matthew Costello, Elizabeth Massie, and dozens of others, this oversized volume will contain spooky Halloween short fiction, dozens of authors and artists recalling their own personal memories of Halloween, and essays detailing the “history” of Halloween.
Many of the contributing authors will also autograph the signed editions, which we don’t expect will last long considering the popularity of the original October Dreams and the low print runs we have planned for these special editions!
Special Note For Collectors:
For a very limited time only, we are also accepting orders for copies of the trade hardcover personally signed by the editors. There is no extra charge for these copies and this offer will not last long!
About the Book:
The long-awaited follow up to one of the most acclaimed Halloween anthologies ever! This oversized volume will contain spooky Halloween short stories, dozens of authors and artists recalling their own personal memories of Halloween, and essays detailing the “history” of Halloween. Many of the contributing authors will also autograph the signed editions, which we don’t expect will last long considering the popularity of the original October Dreams and the low print runs we have planned for these special editions.
Dean’s contribution is “The Scariest Thing I Know.” Read more and order @ CemeteryDance.com.
Koontz digital comics
August 6, 2014
Interested in reading digital editions of the Fear Nothing graphic novel or the Frankenstein: Prodigal Son comics? You can find them on the Dark Horse Web site. (Yes, they were published by Dynamite, but Dark Horse is hosting the digital editions.)
Dean on writing his first book
August 5, 2014
Dean Koontz (first book Star Quest): I was teaching under Title III of the Appalachian Poverty Program and tutoring kids from families deep in poverty. And I was likewise deep in poverty. I thought, I don’t want to keep this forever because I was selling short stories. I wanted to write a novel, so I took a job at a regular school teaching English. I had been reading sci-fi from about when I was 11 or 12. It was the preponderance of what I had read and that’s what my short stories became, and I proceeded to write a novel called Star Quest the summer between those jobs. It was a pretty lame novel. It met the length requirements of a novel but it was like an expanded short story.
Read the full article @ BuzzFeed Books.
The Dail Mail "introduces" Dean to the UK
August 4, 2014
From Dean Koontz to Anita Shreve: Between them they have sold 23 million books in the UK… but who are they?
You might know Stephen King or Danielle Steel. But what about Lesley Pearse or Karin Slaughter? These authors have sold an amazing 23, 342, 129 copies in the UK alone. So before you take them on holiday let Max Davidson make some introductions…
Dean Koontz
Total UK sales: 3.6 million
Who is he? A 68-year-old from Pennsylvania who had an abusive childhood. Converted to Catholicism when he was a student. Published numerous books under pseudonyms before achieving his breakthrough.
Read the full article @ The Daily Mail.
Dean's Worldwide Rights
August 3, 2014
This is the Dean Koontz page for the Lennart Sane Agency which, as far as I can tell from looking through the site, is the agency that represents Dean for worldwide (i.e. non-US) rights. (Warning: thir home page auto-plays music.)
Portraits without faces
July 31, 2014
And somewhere on each list there is a surprise, some little-known fact that the subjects thought was important enough to include in their top 10. Colin Powell likes cars (a Volvo Amazon 122 to be exact), composer and violinist Itzhak Perlman loves the Mets, Jane Goodall reads horror writer Dean Koontz, and author Joyce Carol Oates included no personal references whatsoever, not even one of the more-than 80 books she’s written, except for one specific lock of the Erie Canal just outside the town where she grew up.
Read the full article @ The Palm Beach Post.
Blogs on the By the Book interview
July 31, 2014
A few other are starting to comment on the recent NYT Book Review interview.
- Dean Koontz’s Reading Assignments – First Things
- Dean Koontz praises Flannery O’Connor, disses Virginia Woolf… – The Catholic World Report
By the Book
July 28, 2014
As predicted, Dean was the interviewee for the By the Book column in yesterday’s New York Times Book Review. It’s on page 7 if you’re following along.
Three forms of Innocence
July 28, 2014
I’m OCD about these things so you don’t have to be…
It turns out there are three versions/variations on the trade hard cover edition of Innocence.
All three of them contain the same information on their copyright pages listing an ISBN of 978-0-553-80803-2 as shown below.
The first version, the one I’m calling the “standard” version, has a dust jacket with the UPC on the back listing the same ISBN as the copyright page and was not issued with an autograph sheet:
Version #2 was sold online by Barnes & Noble. This one has a tipped in illustrated autograph page between the front free end paper and the half title. However the UPC on the back of the dust jacket does not match the one on the copyright page. This ISBN is 978-0-8041-7922-5.
Version #3 was sold online by Target. It has the same illustrated autograph page along with the same ISBN on the copyright page as version #2, but the UPC is the same as version #1. It also has an “Autographed Copy” sticker affixed to the front of the dust jacket.
So, which one is the “true first edition”? Sometimes even I’m not sure. However, considering the general availablity of version #1 and the limited availability of versions #2 & #3, I’m going with version #1 as the “true” first, even though technically all three are first editions. (After all, they all state “2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3 1” and “First Edition” on the copyright page…)
Life after dark
July 25, 2014
Honestly, before this book, I had no reference point to Dean Koontz. The only thing I’d ever read about him was one line in Walter Kirn’s wonderful take on the life of a regular high flyer, Up in the Air (you will remember George Clooney in the movie version). It went like this — “He’s reading Dean Koontz with a squinting intensity that Koontz just doesn’t call for and must be fake.”
So Kirn’s opinion wasn’t exactly great motivation to start reading the novelist, and one you haven’t tried before. Never mind that he’s up there in popularity with Stephen King and Tom Clancy. But any New York Times bestselling author at least warrants one try, so I jumped in. To some welcome relief. Koontz is generally billed as a suspense thriller writer, but he is known to tread the supernatural, horror, and science fiction at times, and that is evident in all intensity in Innocence.
Read the full review @ Khaleej Times.
The City ARC typos strike again
July 24, 2014
Wow, guess I missed a whole bunch as Erik’s found two more:
Page #377: “The swine who owned the this empire of tenements and the …..”
Page #391: “Amalia always haunted him, but he let despair lead him wrong only that once, when he was twentytwo and left the city…”
Dean Koontz: By the Book
July 24, 2014
I’m guessing that this will also be appearing in the print version of the Sunday Book Review given the 7/27 date in the URL of the online version.
What books are currently on your night stand?
After a long day, I’m especially charmed by the lyrical expressions and well-wrought cadences of poetry — currently, “The Wild Iris” and “Ararat,” by Louise Glück, and “New & Selected Poems,” by Donald Justice, all of which I’ve read many times. I’m also reading the complete poems of Elizabeth Bishop, whose life’s work shouldn’t be new to me but is.
Read the full interview now @ NYTimes.com.
Could this be O.C.'s biggest home?
July 23, 2014
When completed, the house will surpass Hot Pockets millionaire Paul Merage’s 34,000-square-foot compound in Newport Coast, county assessor’s records show.
A 17-bedroom, hilltop home in San Clemente measuring 28,867 square feet appears to be the county’s second-biggest home currently, and a Newport Coast compound owned by suspense-thriller author Dean Koontz is third-biggest at 27,219 square feet. Newport Coast’s Villa del Lago, which a Japanese industrialist bought out of bankruptcy, measures 17,700 square feet.
Read the full article @ OCRegister.com.
Remembering Vaughn Bodé
July 22, 2014
Today would have been artist Vaughn Bodé’s 79th birthday. He and Dean were fiends back in the day, and he illustrated The Underground Lifestyles Handbook among other things. (Check out the name badge on the lizard pictured right.)
Remembering Vaughn Bodé by Craig Yoe with Steven Thompson
“Unique” is a word that gets thrown around too easily these days. Everything is unique. This is unique, that’s unique, and this thing is MORE uniquely unique than that not quite as unique thing over there!
Usually artists, especially comics artists, take the approach of studying the output of a few individuals whose work they admire. If they do it right, this results in a rich combo of their visual mentors and they develop their own personal style. A very few artists draw deep from their inner selves with seemingly no influences whatsoever. Their art achieves a look with no ancestry–it’s new, it’s different! Vaughn Bodé‘s art is like that. I can’t think of anyone with whom to compare him. Vaughn Bodé was, in the truest sense of the word… UNIQUE!
Read the full article @ 13th Dimension.