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Dean Koontz: What I’m Giving
December 11, 2013
In this special series, we asked writers we admire to share a book they’re giving to their friends and family this holiday season. Check back daily to see the books your favorite authors are gifting.
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Kate DiCamillo has written several wonderful books — among them The Tale of Despereaux, The Magician’s Elephant, Because of Winn-Dixie — all of which would make wonderful gifts. If I had to choose just one, it would be The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. Ms. DiCamillo is known as a writer for children and has won numerous awards in that field, including the Newbery Medal, but she is a storyteller of such grace and charm that her books provide as much pleasure for adults as for children. Children will never feel that she is writing down to them, and adults will never feel that her writing is too simple, for it is in fact complex in theme and rich in emotion. Few writers have ever made me laugh out loud and, in the same book, moved me to tears, but Ms. DiCamillo does both, book after book.
Read the full essay @ Powells Books Blog.
Twilight Eyes Uncorrected Proof found
December 11, 2013
It isn’t often that I found an old Koontz item that I was previously unaware of. Recently, that has actually happened. I now have in my possession of a 1987 uncorrected proof of Twilight Eyes. Here’s why I’m considering this a significant find and how I’ve missed it previously:
First, publishers generally don’t print ARCs or proofs for mass market paperbacks. With the exception of the previously limited hard cover of the first half of the novel by Land of Enchantment and a hardcover of the full novel in the UK, this was a “original” mass market paperback in the US. The only other Koontz mass market ARC I can recall off the top of my head was The Funhouse by Owen West. This just wasn’t, and still isn’t, done very much.
Second, unlike the ARC of West’s The Funhouse, this proof isn’t printed in the mass market size. This one’s printed in the smaller (8.25″x5.25″) trade paperback size yet with the same pagination (or at least page numbers: 451) as the first mass market printing. Honestly, I’ve never seen this before. (I’m not saying it’s never happened before but in all my time book selling and collecting, I’ve never seen a size miss-match like this.)
Third, and lastly, I’ve never seen one of these for sale before this one. I’ve been haunting the Dean Koontz marker for more than 25 years, and this is the first one I’ve ever seen for sale. It’s not like I’ve been out-bid previously, or knew of one that was outside of my budget. This is the only copy that I’ve ever know of.
So, welcome to my life. Just when I think I’ve seen them all, something magically appears. Ah, the joy of collecting Dean Koontz!
Dean in Doctor Sleep
December 10, 2013
Page 183:
Innocence arrives today
December 10, 2013
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-Xe6dZeaus
Buy it @ Amazon.com.
Innocence sans Wilderness
December 10, 2013
I have it on good authority that the Charnel House editions of Innocence will not include Wilderness. However, publisher Joe Stefko is looking to do a separate edition of Wilderness but that is yet to be confirmed.
Dread Central review of the Odd Thomas film
December 7, 2013
After a two-year legal battle to get Stephen Sommers’ latest supernatural thriller out in theatres, Odd Thomas is finally making its premiere at this year’s Toronto After Dark film festival, and fans of the novel written by Dean Koontz will definitely get a kick out of this genre bender as it stays true to significant portions of the source material.
Opening with a self-deprecating voiceover, Odd Thomas sets its quirky tone right off the bat by introducing viewers to Odd (Yelchin), a young, small town line cook who happens to have clairvoyant abilities—such as seeing ghosts. With the help of police chief Porter (Dafoe) and his annoyingly cute ice creamer scooper girlfriend (Timlin), Odd uses these skills to help avenge murdered souls and yet always remains under the radar and continues to live a seemingly normal life.
Read the full review @ DreadCentral.com.
Innocence limited editions up for pre-order
December 7, 2013
Charnel House is once again producing both a numbered and lettered edition of Innocence.
Innocence, by Dean Koontz.
The Signed Limited Edition
Dean compassionately illustrates the beauty and the brutality inherent in the human race. He splits the atom with this one.
Arguably the most beautiful book Charnel House has created to date. Paper has been handmade for this edition by randomly pouring two colors into the process, creating different cloud-like patterns on each sheet. Each unique book resembles a thick chunk of a cloudy blue sky.
A harlequin faced marionette drawn by Phil Parks and printed in two colors by hand via letterpress will be tipped in every book.
Each exquisitely printed book is sewn and bound by hand and finished off with a white silk ribbon bookmark. Each book is hand signed by the author.
5.75 X 8.75 trim / 396 pages
150 Numbered copies:
Bound in full Cloudy Sky paper
$350.00
26 Lettered copies:
Bound in full Cloudy Sky paper with baby blue Moroccan leather along both fore-edges
$1,000.00
Innocence review & Dean interview @ Shelf Awareness
December 7, 2013
Dean Koontz knows exactly what story you’ll be thinking about after the opening chapters of Innocence. His narrator-protagonist Addison Goodheart, a shunned outcast who lives alone deep below the city streets, comes up to the surface late one night and, making his way through the public library, catches sight of a haunting young woman fleeing an angry pursuer. Once the threat has passed, Addison figures out where she must be hiding and reaches out to her; she agrees to meet and talk with him. “I have no illusions about romance,” he tells her during that first conversation. “Beauty and the Beast is a nice fairy tale, but fairy tales are for books.”
Of course, Innocence is a book, and so ultimately there will be much of the fairy tale in Addison’s account of how he becomes 18-year-old Gwyneth’s companion–not so much her hero or protector as a bearer of witness. Gwyenth’s father was murdered by the man who had stolen much of his fortune, the same man from whom she was running earlier (who has an even more sinister fate in mind for her). Addison tags along as she tries to find evidence of this villain’s crimes–and stays with her as she scrambles to protect those closest to her from the inevitable attempts at revenge. He has fallen in love with her, and his devotion is absolute. “She would always be blameless,” he tells us, “for I knew the purity of her heart.”
Read the full review and an Interview with Dean @ Shelf-Awareness.com.
Ask Dean: How did you get the idea for Innocence?
December 7, 2013
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TtyTc_O7Rc
Ask Dean: Which of your books do you get asked about most often?
December 7, 2013
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsikbDRX1Fk
Saint Odd release date
December 7, 2013
According to the Holidays 2013 issue of Useless News the final Odd Thomas book, Saint Odd, will be published in December 2014. No further details have been made available at this time.
The Holidays 2013 issue of Useless News has arrived
December 7, 2013
Patterson mentions Koontz
December 7, 2013
PW Picks: Books of the Week, December 9, 2013
December 6, 2013
Innocence by Dean Koontz (Bantam) -In this imaginative, mystical thriller from bestseller Koontz, Addison Goodheart, a 26-year-old man so “exceedingly ugly” that his appearance causes “the most terrible rage” in regular people, lives alone in a hidden part of an American metropolis, but views his solitude as a gift that has enabled him to recognize “reality’s complex dimensions.” An unexpected encounter in a deserted library with Gwyneth, an 18-year-old Goth girl who’s the target of the rare-book curator’s lust, throws him for a loop. Addison bonds with Gwyneth, who suspects her nemesis, J. Ryan Telford, of murdering her father by sending him poisoned honey.
Read the full article @ PublishersWeekly.com
Interview in December issue of Book Page
December 1, 2013
The December 2013 issue of Book Page contains a full-page interview titled “Finding Hope in Life’s Dark Side” by Jay Macdonald.
The print version of Book Page can be found in some bookstores (including Books-A-Million) and at many libraries around the country. The cover and the ads are customized for the distribution point, but all contain the same basic content.
If you’re unable to find a print copy, you can also find the interview on the Book Page Web site.
New Edition of "Love of Goldens" available
December 1, 2013
A third hardcover edition of Love of Goldens has been released. This time with a new cover photograph and sans dust jacket. And, according to the sticker on the cover, this edition is exclusive to the Books-A-Million bookstore. Unfortunately I can’t find it on their Web site so if you want a copy, you’ll need access to a BAM or a friend who lives near one.
For those unaware of this bargain book, it contains “A Mind of Its Own” by Dean, which is actually an excerpt from Watchers.
Ask Dean: If you could have dinner with one of your own characters, who would it be?
November 30, 2013
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SYIrveTdpY
Ask Dean: Which of your books do you get asked about most often?
November 30, 2013
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsikbDRX1Fk
Ask Dean: What are you currently watching on television?
November 30, 2013
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBUPeeD-RyY
Dark Harvest gallery
November 24, 2013
