Latest Posts
Jeffrey Jones: A Life in Art
January 22, 2011
Previously I wondered if the book Jeffrey Jones: A Life in Art contained any of the work he did for Dean’s books. The answer is yes. Page 194 contains the cover of Dark of the Woods. As a result, both editions will be included in the Guide.
Legacies
January 20, 2011
I always had this small defense in the back of my mind when someone asked me why my book isn’t out yet. It was “Well, Cemetery Dance was supposed to publish Legacies back in 2001 also and it’s not out yet either.” That defense, although generally unspoken, disappeared yesterday as I finally received my copy of Legacies, containing Dean’s “Black River”, yesterday. (Click on the photo for more pics of this wonderful and long-awaited title.)
An odd observation about a recent book club edition
January 19, 2011
Back in the old days, book club editions didn’t list ISBNs, just the book club’s number. Then, a few years back they started listing an ISBN but usually of the equivalent trade edition. For example, the ISBN for the trade hardcover of What the Night Knows is 978-0-553-80772-1. The book club edition (BCE) of What the Night Knows lists the book club number of 1315656 but also the ISBN for the trade edition. (The appearance of the club number and the smaller size, never mind the shoddy binding, indicate that it’s a book club edition.) What this boils down to is that BCE’s don’t get their own ISBNs.
But then today I received my BCE of the large print edition of What the Night Knows. It lists a club number of 1333073 but the ISBN 978-1-61129-143-8. This is not the ISBN of the trade paperback large print edition. (978-0-7393-7797-0) Any searches for this new ISBN online all point to the large print book club edition.
So here’s my question from a bibliographer’s point of view: when did book club editions start getting their own ISBNs? Anyone?
Needed: Original publication of an interview by John Gilbert
January 17, 2011
The Summer 2006 issue of Useless News contains an interview titled “From the Graveyard of Forgotten Interviews” described as A few questions from a 1995 interview with John Gilbert.” I’m looking for any information on the original publication of this interview.
Found: Staten Island Advance
January 17, 2011
According to the Holidays 2007 issue of Useless News “In 1996, following the publication of Intensity, Dean did this interview with Michael Lyons, at the time the teenage correspondent for the Staten Island Advance.” Any additional information is greatly appreciated.
Update 12/18/12:
As you can tell from the comments I have been in contact with Mr. Lyons and he has supplied me with the needed information. As special thanks goes out to him!
Needed: Reader's Digest of Great Britain
January 17, 2011
According to the Spring 2007 issue of Useless News “…as The Husband was pending publication, Dean did the following interview with Reader’s Digest of Great Britain.” Any additional information would be greatly appreciated.
The Green Devotional
January 17, 2011
For those completists out there, The Green Devotional: Active Prayers for a Healthy Planet By Karen Speerstra contains a small excerpt from One Door Away From Heaven on page 197 and mentions the inclusion of Dean on the back cover. I’m guessing that since just a paragraph is being quoted, it was done so under fair use and Dean was not involved. If anyone knows any different please let me know. (You can see the quote via Google Books.)
Does this book contain and Dean Koontz cover art?
January 15, 2011
UPDATE: This question has been answered.
Here’s the Amazon.com description for the book Jeffrey Jones: A Life in Art
So here’s my question for before I order a copy and need to return it if the answer is no: does this book actually contain any cover art from a Dean Koontz book?
(Oh, and there’s a “signed and numbered limited edition” version of this title coming out in February too.)
Double the Odd
January 15, 2011
It looks like the major book clubs (New Literary Guild, SFCB, &tc.) are releasing an exclusive Dean Koontz title Double the Odd. The amusing part is that none of the sites selling it seem to have a description or a cover image available, just a release date of February 28, 2010. My guess is that it’s a two-in-on edition of In Odd We Trust and Odd Is On Our Side. My copy is on order and I’ll report as soon as I know anything else. If anyone has additional information please leave it in the comments.
Two new magazine articles
January 9, 2011
In updating the manuscript last night I found two previously unknown (to me) magazine items. The first is the February 2008 issue of the US Airways in-flight magazine which contains an interview with Dean. The second is the October 2010 issue of Saveur with an article by Dean titled “Lunch Lessons”. I immediately was able to find copies of each of them on eBay for less than $5.00 each.
If you’d like to read them without buying your own copies I used the Wayback Machine to find a copy of the US Airways magazine in question (their current Web site doesn’t include content going back that far.) The Saveur article is currently on their Web site and was reprinted in the Holiday 2010 issue of Useless News.
Songs of the Dying Earth
January 2, 2011
In case you missed it, TOR has published a trade hardcover edition of Songs of the Dying Earth: Stories in Honor of Jack Vance (right) which includes “an appreciation” by Dean. Previously this was only available in pricier limited and trade editions from Subterranean Press (below).
What am I working on this week?
January 2, 2011
Here’s the pile of what I’m working on this weekend:
Podcast Interviews
January 2, 2011
Dean’s done an interview for the National Review’s Between the Covers with John J. Miller podcast on What the Night Knows. It seems he also did one back in 2007 regarding the release of Darkest Evening of the Year.
eBook Only
December 19, 2010
Graphically Dean
December 19, 2010
I’m getting caught up today so here’s another post, this time pointing out some graphical recent releases:
Corny? You Bet
December 19, 2010
Did you know that today’s issue of Parade (stuck inside your Sunday paper) features a three-paragraph essay from Dean along with a recipe for The Best Baked Corn? Here’s an excerpt:
One new Koontz book out, two forthcoming, and another new book by me
October 17, 2010
Here’s a new one you might have missed: Pages 97 though 100 of On Gratitude by Todd Aaron Jensen feature new content from Dean on what he’s grateful for.
Last weekend I received an advance reading copy of What the Night Knows courtsey of the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program and read it in just three days. I throughly enjoyed it and I bet you will to.
From the looks of things in Amazon.com the fifth book in the Frankenstein series, Frankenstein: Dead Town, will not be coming out in hardcover but in mass market paperback and audio CD editions only. (Though I’m guessing that the paperback will be actually in the larger premium format.)
Lastly, on a non-Dean Koontz note, my latest book Blogging and RSS: A Librarian’s Guide – Second Edition was officially released last week.
Two new online interviews
September 19, 2010
In the past week I’ve found the following two new Interviews with Dean online. One dealing with the new series of Frankenstein comics, and the other with video games.
Newsarama: DEAN KOONTZ Likes Graphic Changes to FRANKENSTEIN Novels
Game Rant:Author Dean Koontz On Storytelling & Gaming
Darkness Under the Sun eBook exclusive
September 13, 2010
Just announced on the Dean Koontz Mailing list:
This Halloween you can enjoy Darkness Under the Sun, an all-new eBook novella from Dean!
The chilling account of a pivotal encounter between innocence and ultimate malice, Darkness Under the Sun is the perfect read for Halloween—or for any haunted night—and reveals a secret, fateful turning point in the career of Alton Turner Blackwood, the killer at the dark heart of the forthcoming novel What the Night Knows.
Darkness Under the Sun, a Random House eBook, will be available everywhere October 25, 2010. You can also preorder it right now!
Learn more about Darkness Under the Sun [on DeanKoontz.com]
You can pre-order it on Amazon.com and BN.com right now.
Scanning problems
September 7, 2010
Well, it turns out that all the scans I’ve been doing over the past ten years (almost 900 of them) are all at a dpi (dots per inch, i.e. resolution) that’s too low for printing them in a book these days. So, at some point I’ll need to rescan everything at 300+ dpi. I’m thinking I might need to take a full week’s vacation from my day job just to focus on that.
In the mean time I created some new sample scans to send to CD just to make sure everything was ok. Well, yes and no. It seems that the 320dpi TIFF files I’m creating look just fine on both my Linux boxes (on which I’m doing the scanning) and several Windows Vista and 7 boxes. Once CD gets them however and opens them up on their Mac, they get a crappy image.
Here’s the original TIFF. The first screenshot below is what I see when I open it windows, the second is what CD’s seeing on a Mac. If I convert the TIFF to a JPG CD’s got no problem with it. However, I’d rather we all used the better TIFF image rather than downgrade them all to JPGs. If you’ve got any suggestions or tests we could run, please leave a comment.
