(A writer in California. A doctor in Boston. A motel owner...)
A writer in California. A doctor in Boston. A motel owner and his employee in Nevada. A priest in Chicago. A robber in New York. A little girl in Las Vegas. They’re a handful of people from across the country, living through eerie variations of the same nightmare. A dark memory is calling out to them. And soon they will be drawn together, deep in the heart of a sprawling desert, where the terrifying truth awaits...
(They found the town silent, apparently abandoned. Then th...)
They found the town silent, apparently abandoned. Then they found the first body, strangely swollen and still warm. One hundred fifty were dead, 350 missing. But the terror had only begun in the tiny mountain town of Snowfield, California. At first they thought it was the work of a maniac. Or terrorists. Or toxic contamination. Or a bizarre new disease. But then they found the truth. And they saw it in the flesh.
(On his thirty-sixth birthday, Travis Cornell hikes into t...)
On his thirty-sixth birthday, Travis Cornell hikes into the foothills of the Santa Ana Mountains. But his path is soon blocked by a bedraggled Golden Retriever who will let him go no further into the dark woods. That morning, Travis had been desperate to find some happiness in his lonely, seemingly cursed life. What he finds is a dog of alarming intelligence that soon leads him into a relentless storm of mankind’s darkest creation...
(In the midst of a raging blizzard, lightning struck on th...)
In the midst of a raging blizzard, lightning struck on the night Laura Shane was born. And a mysterious blond-haired stranger showed up just in time to save her from dying. Years later, in the wake of another storm, Laura will be saved again. For someone is watching over her. Is he the guardian angel he seems? The devil in disguise? Or the master of a haunting destiny beyond all time and space?
(One Door Away From Heaven In a dusty trailer park on the ...)
One Door Away From Heaven In a dusty trailer park on the far edge of the California dream, Michelina Bellsong contemplates the choices she has made. At twenty-eight, she wants to change the direction of her troubled life but can’t find her way until a new family settles into the rental trailer next door and she meets the young girl who will lead her on a remarkable quest that will change Micky herself and everything she knows or thinks she knows forever. Despite the brace she must wear on her deformed left leg, and her withered left hand, nine-year-old Leilani Klonk radiates a buoyant and indomitable spirit that inspires Micky. Beneath Leilani’s effervescence, however, Micky comes to sense a quiet desperation that the girl dares not express. Leilani’s mother is little more than a child herself. And the girl’s stepfather, Preston Maddoc, is educated but threatening.
(In The Taking he tells the story of a community cut off f...)
In The Taking he tells the story of a community cut off from a world under siege, and the terrifying battle for survival waged by a young couple and their neighbors as familiar streets become fog-shrouded death traps. Gripping, heartbreaking, and triumphant in the face of mankind’s darkest hour, here is a small-town slice-of-doomsday thriller that strikes to the core of each of us to ask: What would you do in the midst of The Taking. On the morning that will mark the end of the world they have known, Molly and Niel Sloan awaken to the drumbeat of rain on their roof. It has haunted their sleep, invaded their dreams, and now they rise to find a luminous silvery downpour drenching their small California mountain town. A strange scent hangs faintly in the air, and the young couple cannot shake the sense of something wrong.
(Timothy Carrier is an ordinary guy who enjoys a beer afte...)
Timothy Carrier is an ordinary guy who enjoys a beer after work. But tonight is no ordinary night. Instead, Tim will face a terrifying decision: Help or run. For the jittery stranger sitting beside him at the bar has mistaken Tim for someone else and passes him a manila envelope stuffed with cash and the photo of a pretty woman.
(A murderous sociopath, Edgler Foreman Vess, has entered t...)
A murderous sociopath, Edgler Foreman Vess, has entered the house, intent on killing everyone inside. A self-proclaimed “homicidal adventurer,” Vess lives only to satisfy all appetites as they arise, to immerse himself in sensation, to live without fear, remorse, or limits, to live with intensity. Chyna is trapped in his deadly orbit.
(Frank Pollard is afraid to fall asleep. Every morning he ...)
Frank Pollard is afraid to fall asleep. Every morning he awakes, he discovers something strange like blood on his hands a bizarre mystery that tortures his soul. Two investigators have been hired to follow the haunted man. But only one person a young man with Down's syndrome can imagine where their journeys might end. That terrible place from which no one ever returns.
(A dazzling new series, a pure adrenaline rush, debuts wit...)
A dazzling new series, a pure adrenaline rush, debuts with Jane Hawk, a remarkable heroine certain to become an icon of suspense “I very much need to be dead.” These are the chilling words left behind by a man who had everything to live for - but took his own life. In the aftermath, his widow, Jane Hawk, does what all her grief, fear, and fury demand: find the truth, no matter what. People of talent and accomplishment, people admired and happy and sound of mind, have been committing suicide in surprising numbers. When Jane seeks to learn why, she becomes the most-wanted fugitive in America.
(When the disturbing contents of her secret journal are di...)
When the disturbing contents of her secret journal are discovered, it seems certain that she must have been insane. But Jane Hawk knows better. In the wake of her husband’s inexplicable suicide and the equally mysterious deaths of scores of other exemplary individuals Jane picks up the trail of a secret cabal of powerful players who think themselves above the law and beyond punishment. But the ruthless people bent on hijacking America’s future for their own monstrous ends never banked on a highly trained FBI agent willing to go rogue and become the nation’s most wanted fugitive in order to derail their insidious plans to gain absolute power with a terrifying technological breakthrough.
(She was one of the FBI’s top agents until she became the ...)
She was one of the FBI’s top agents until she became the nation’s most-wanted fugitive. Now Jane Hawk may be all that stands between a free nation and its enslavement by a powerful secret society’s terrifying mind-control technology. She couldn’t save her husband, or the others whose lives have been destroyed, but equipped with superior tactical and survival skills and the fury born of a broken heart and a hunger for justice - Jane has struck major blows against the insidious cabal. But Jane’s enemies are about to hit back hard.
(Battling the strange epidemic of murder-suicides that cla...)
Battling the strange epidemic of murder-suicides that claimed Jane’s husband, and is escalating across the country, has made the rogue FBI agent a wanted fugitive, relentlessly hunted not only by the government but by the secret cabal behind the plot. Deploying every resource their malign nexus of power and technology commands, Jane’s enemies are determined to see her dead or make her wish she was. Jane’s ruthless pursuers can’t stop her from drawing a bead on her prey: a cunning man with connections in high places, a twisted soul of unspeakable depths with an army of professional killers on call. Propelled by her righteous fury and implacable insistence on justice, Jane will make her way from southern Southern California to the snow-swept slopes of Lake Tahoe to confront head-on the lethal forces arrayed against her.
(A visionary young filmmaker hunted for sport across a vas...)
A visionary young filmmaker hunted for sport across a vast Colorado ranch by the celebrated billionaire at the heart of a monstrous cabal. A brilliant computer hacker slipping through top-secret databases a whisper ahead of security trackers, gathering the facts to fight the all-powerful perpetrators of mass murder.
Dean Ray Koontz is one of the United States’ most prolific modern authors, who writes in the genre of horror fiction. He is one of the most popular fiction writers today, he captivates his readers with his creative plotlines and unique characters, often incorporating a spiritual element into the story. His books are published in 38 languages and he has sold over 450 million copies to date.
Background
Dean Koontz was born on July 9, 1945 in Everett, Pennsylvania. The only child of parents Ray and Florence, Koontz grew up in Bedford, Pennsylvania. Despite a rough childhood with an alcoholic father, he found solace in the characters of books, movies, and cartoons - a hobby responsible for his passion to become a writer. From the age of eight, Koontz would write short stories and sell them to his relatives for a nickel.
Education
Dean Koontz studied at Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, which he graduated from in 1967. Dean eventually received an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania as well.
Dean Koontz`s first job was with the Appalachian Poverty Program, where he counseled and tutored underprivileged children. After a year in this program, Koontz taught English at Mechanicsburg Area Senior High School in Mechanicsburg, a suburb of Harrisburg, from 1967-1969. Still motivated to become a writer, Koontz wrote in his spare time during nights and weekends. In these years, Koontz wrote over a dozen short stories, some of them published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. At this time, Gerda, his wife, gave him the opportunity to write full-time, offering to support him for five years. Koontz’s hard work, enabled by his wife’s agreement, began to manifest in the publication of his first science fiction novel, Star Quest, in 1968.
Published as an Ace Double with Emil Petaja’s Doom of the Green Planet, its cover depicts a futuristic world with the tagline: “They Drove a Salient into Another Universe.” After this first novel, Koontz continued writing science fiction books for several years. In 1971, Koontz was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novella for Beastchild. This text reenergizes the aliens and interstellar war of science fiction with Koontz’s thematic contributions of friendship and redemption. The combination of genres and themes became a defining aspect of Koontz’s subsequent novels. Eager to expand his audience and abilities, Koontz began to write and publish in others genres under various pseudonyms. Writing under ten different pseudonyms (in addition to his real name) enabled Koontz to publish across genres without being pigeon-holed as a one-genre writer, although it causes some debate over the exact number of books he has written. With the publication of the novel Chase in 1972, Koontz began to emerge as a serious writer. Chase is a suspense novel that describes the after-effects of the Vietnam War on a veteran that returns to civilian life. Less than a decade later, Koontz had his first paperback bestseller in his 1980 novel Whispers. This book features a dark story about childhood cruelty that reappears after its antagonist rises from the grave.
The bestseller success of Whispers was not a fluke, as Dean Koontz has become a standard name among top contemporary writers since the 1980s. As of 2008, eleven Koontz novels have reached number one on the New York Times hardcover bestseller list; in addition, fourteen of his books have reached number one on the paperback bestseller list. Unsatisfied with leaving a published book as a finished story, Koontz often expands a story arc across a series of novels. Consistent with his ability to write across genres of literature, Koontz expanded to the graphic novel medium, creating an original comic book series Nevermore and an adaptation of the first novel in his popular Frankenstein series, Frankenstein: Prodigal Son.
In 2008, Koontz partnered with illustrator Queenie Chan to create In Odd We Trust, a graphic novel featuring Odd Thomas, another popular Koontz character who has the ability to communicate with the dead. This installment functions as a prequel to the published novel series. In a review in Fantasy & Science Fiction, Charles de Lint enjoys the premise of the genre switch: “It moves quickly, with plenty of Koontz’s humor, and it’s fun to visit again with some of the characters who are no longer in the prose book series.” However, de Lint takes issue with the Japanese Manga style of In Odd We Trust, complaining that he “found it too hard to keep track of the characters because they all have a somewhat similar look, especially the male characters.” In spite of favorable or unfavorable reviews, Koontz constantly expands his ability to write both across genres and cross-genre novels.
Today Dean Koontz lives in Southern California with his family.
Although Koontz was born into the United Church of Christ, he converted to Catholicism after marrying his wife, Gerda. When I started dating Gerda, we didn't have much money. We would go on Sundays to neighboring Jonestown, where she had aunts and uncles. I was so impressed with the sense of family among them and the fun they had being together and the easiness with which they interacted that I, either rightly or wrongly, identified that in my mind as being a consequence of Catholicism, which was so strong for all of them. So, it got me interested in it. When I was in college, I expanded my reading about things and ended up thinking about halfway through college that this was for me.
Views
When asked how writers can tell fresh, original stories, Koontz said, “The most natural way about it is: who are you as a person and a writer and what about your way of your personal style and way of seeing the world. That will lead you into handling anything differently than other people.”
Quotations:
"If you made the best of it, if you smiled through every storm, the bad things were never as terrible as you expected them to be, and the good things were better than anything you could have wished for yourself."
"Not one day in anyone’s life is an uneventful day, no day without profound meaning, no matter how dull and boring it might seem, no matter whether you are a seamstress or a queen, a shoeshine boy, or a movie star, a renowned philosopher or a Down’s-syndrome child. Because in every day of your life, there are opportunities to perform little kindnesses for others, both by conscious acts of will and unconscious example."
"We're all needed, even those who sometimes think we're worthless, plain and dull. If we love and allow ourselves to be loved... Well, a person who loves is the most precious thing in the world, worth all the fortunes that ever were."
"People who go to work every day, make sacrifices to raise families, and get through life without hurting other people if they can help it--those are the real heroes."
"If we were always conscious of the fact that people precious to us are frighteningly mortal, hanging not even by a thread, but by a wisp of gossamer, perhaps we would be kinder to them and more grateful for the love and friendship they give to us."
"No one can grant you happiness. Happiness is a choice we all have the power to make."
"Love is absorbing, related to affection but stronger, full of appreciation for—and delight in—the other person, marked by a desire always to please and benefit her or him, always to smooth the loved one’s way through the roughness of the days and to do everything possible to make her or him feel profoundly valued."
"Because God is never cruel, there is a reason for all things. We must know the pain of loss; because if we never knew it, we would have no compassion for others, and we would become monsters of self-regard, creatures of unalloyed self-interest. The terrible pain of loss teaches humility to our prideful kind, has the power to soften uncaring hearts, to make a better person of a good one."
"Petting, scratching, and cuddling a dog could be as soothing to the mind and heart as deep meditation and almost as good for the soul as prayer."
"The more you expect from life, the more your expectations will be fulfilled. By laughing, you do not use up your laughter, but increase your store of it. The more you love, the more you will be loved. The more you give, the more you will receive. Life proves that truth every hour, every day. And life continues to surprise."
"The geometry of judgment is a circle. Hate is a snake that turns to consume itself from the tail, a circle that diminishes to a point, then to nothing. Pride is such a snake, and envy, and greed. Love, however, is a hoop, a wheel, that rolls on forever. We are rescued by those whom we have rescued. The saved become the saviors of their saviors."
"Being polite is not only the right way to respond to people but also the easiest. Life is so filled with unavoidable conflict that I see no reason to promote more confrontations."
"Bad people succeed and good people fail, but that's not the end of the story. Miracles happen that nobody sees, and among us walk heroes who are never recognized, and people live in loneliness because they cannot believe they are loved."
Personality
HIs friend Ed Gorman said about Dean: "Dean has been a good friend of mine for close to fifteen years now. Carol always knows when I'm talking to him because she can hear me laughing no matter where she is in the house. Dean is one of the two or three funniest people I've ever known. He has a profound sense of the ridiculous, and is always willing—hell, eager—to laugh at himself as well as some of the others we get in our sights from time to time. (We are pretty much kindred spirits in both politics and writing.)
I could tell you about all the luckless writers he's helped out financially over the years. I could tell you about all the plots I've brought him for his wise assessment and suggestions. I could tell you about the much-needed smart-ass presents he sent me during one of my longest and most depressing hospital stays. I could tell you about all the many, many hours he's spent helping other writers get their careers back on track.
A generous man in every regard. A truly decent man. And we haven't even mentioned his writing. I knew his work long before I knew him. Back in my drinking days, I'm told, I used to regularly regale my bottle mates with long-winded speeches about how Dean Koontz would someday be a household name. And they'd of course say, "Who's Dean 'Kountz'?" (Some of them are still back there in the same bar, I believe, and still asking the bartender, "You know some guy named Dean 'Kountz'?")"
Interests
Writers
John D. MacDonald, Charles Dickens, Walker Percy, James M. Cain, G. K. Chesterton, C. S. Lewis, T. S. Eliot, James Kirkwood, William Goldman, Ray Bradbury, Robert A. Heinlein, Elmer Kelton, Jack Vance
Connections
Dean Koontz lives in Southern California with his wife, Gerda, their golden retriever, Anna, and the enduring spirit of their golden, Trixie.
Father:
Raymond Koontz
Mother:
Florence (née Logue)
Wife:
Gerda Ann Cerra
Friend:
Edward Joseph Gorman
References
Dean Koontz: A Writer's Biography
A detailed glimpse into the life of one of the most prominent suspense writers ranges from his troubling childhood with an abusive, alcoholic father to his days as a teacher trying to get published to his marriage and finally his overwhelming success, and details the reasoning behind his novels and character development.