FAQ
The Ranch
Full Name: Dean Ray Koontz
Date of Birth: July 9th, 1945 - Everett, Pennsylvania
Residence: Orange, California
Education: Shippensburg State Teachers College, Pennsylvania
Career: Teacher/Counselor with Appalachian Poverty Program,
1966-67; High School English Teacher, 1967-69; Full-Time writer, 1969 -
Present
Family: Married October 15th, 1966 to Gerda. No Children.
Mailing Address: Dean Koontz
P.O. Box 9529
Newport Beach, CA. 92658
Dean's favorite author is John D. McDonald.
A novel generally takes Dean five months to a year to complete -
Working 70 hours a week.
You may have noticed that "Dean R. Koontz" was the name that appeared on
all his earlier books but on all later books it is simply "Dean Koontz".
The reason for this was just to accommodate the artwork for the books.
The "R" always looked out of place.
Dean answers why he has written under so many pen names:
The major ones were Leigh Nichols, Brian Coffey, K.R. Dwyer, and Owen
West.
There are many reasons for using pen names, but I resorted to them
largely because, early in my career, agents and editors insisted that I
use a pen name every time I wrote something different from what I had
written before. They said that readers always wanted pretty much the
same book from an author every time, and because I refused to write to
formula, they wanted me at least to group books of similar narrative
style under the same pen name.
Brian Coffey was for shorter novels with a brisk style - The Face of
Fear, The Voice of the Night. Nichols was for larger novels of suspense
and intrigue that sometimes had elements of the horror story in them
-The Servants of Twilight, Shadowfires, The Key to Midnight, The House
of Thunder.
Eventually I became convinced that readers would be pleased by
diversity as long as the books grabbed and held them, and we began to
reissue the pen-name books under my real name. I no longer use any pen
names.
Dean Koontz's pseudonyms:
David Axton
Brian Coffey
Deanna Dwyer
K.R. Dwyer
John Hill
Leigh Nichols
Anthony North
Richard Paige
Owen West
Aaron Wolfe
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Koontz on Koontz
Writing a novel is like making love, but it's also like having a tooth
pulled. Pleasure and pain. Sometimes it's like making love while having
a tooth pulled.
The pain is a product of the ceaseless self-doubt that sits like a
demonic imp on my shoulder from the moment I begin the first sentence
until long after I finish the last, informing me in a whisper -
occasionally in a stentorian rant - that I am composing this story with
less success than any three-legged toad might experience if it attempted
to herd sheep. This imp, which I visualize as an evil twin of exercise
guru Richard Simmons - actually, a cross between the ebullient Mr.
Simmons and the glowering Hannibal Lecter - is with me at dinner,
muttering vicious judgments on that day's writing while intermittently
offering scathing comments on my table manners. At night, as I sleep, it
sits on the headboard of my bed, happily swinging its tiny sneakered
feet, urging me to forsake my career as a novelist and take work for
which it believes that I am better suited - such as gutting halibut on
an Alaskan fishing trawler
When other novelists ask me how I avoid writer's block, which has
never afflicted me, I answer that self-doubt is the cause of all
blocks, that I have more self-doubt than any writer I know, but that
the trick is to embrace this demonic imp and cherish it. Use the doubt
to motivate yourself through another draft of the current page, then
another draft, then ten more drafts. Encourage this inner critic to be
the most merciless you'll ever encounter - then strive to please it
even while recognizing that it cannot be satisfied.
Objectivity about any piece of writing comes only with time; after you
finish it, you might allow yourself to begin to like it. Writers who
love their own work too much and too soon are usually not very good.
Regardless of this quarrelsome antimuse on your shoulder, however, you
will eventually have to declare the current book finished; thereupon,
you must snatch up the imp, seal it in a Ziploc bag, and, until you
start the next book, store the nasty little beast in the freezer, beside
those obnoxious neighbors with whom you finally dealt last month.
You probably think that the pleasure of writing, for me, is to be found
only when the work is done and the imp is as solid as a Popsicle,
stacked between a package of frozen peas and a microwave pizza. In fact,
however, even during the long months in which this inner critic is at
room temperature, moments of pure pleasure overtake me when I suddenly
realize that a page of dialogue or a metaphor or a passage of
description is polished, seductive, and effective. At this point, of
course, the inner critic becomes as shrill as Donald Duck on massive
doses of methamphetamine, but for a few minutes - or, on rare occasions,
for hours at a time - the criticism cannot touch me.
Once in a great while, a book feels so true and right from the first
chapter, the characters so alive, that I become - and remain - joyful on
a deep instinctive level even as I remain tortured by doubt. I
obsessively revise every page, as before, but at least I dare to talk
back to the imp. "You should be writing the text for nothing more
complicated than beer commercials," it says, and I remind it that
Voltaire once described certain critics as serpents who feed on filth
and venom. When a novel proceeds this well, I am so effervescent as to
be annoying. After a ten-hour session at the keyboard, I virtually burst
out of my study singing show tunes, and at dinner I regale my patient
wife with bits of amusing dialogue that the characters spoke in the
latest scene - as though I have not been writing at all but rather
eavesdropping on the adventures of real people.
FEAR NOTHING was one of those rare experiences when the joy of writing
was equal to the pain, when an instinctive confidence balanced the
doubt. A few times I found myself in what psychologists call a "flow
state" and what athletes call "being in the zone," when the story seemed
to tell itself, flowing through me as electricity flows through a power
cable. In this higher state of consciousness, I seemed to be not the
creator of the piece but only the conduit between the creator and the
page. This is a sublime experience, so exhilarating that if I could
write every book in the flow state, I would be happy with an obituary as
succinct as this: "Died. Dean Koontz. A good conduit." When I am swept
into the flow state, it is inevitably due to the characters, who have
magically convinced me that they are real and that I need not write the
story so much as listen to them while they tell it to me.
Although FEAR NOTHING contains numerous twists and turns that I hope
will fascinate readers, and although I hope they will find it
breathlessly paced, the novel did not spring from a plot outline or from
a high-concept idea; rather, in the beginning I presented Bantam Books
with a few paragraphs about the protagonist, Christopher Snow, and said,
"This is what I want to write."
Christopher Snow is twenty-eight years old, athletic, handsome enough,
intelligent, romantic, funny - but with a limitation that has affected
his entire life. Chris has xeroderma pigmentosum - "XP" for short - a
very real but rare genetic disorder that leaves its victims acutely
vulnerable to skin and eye cancers if they are exposed even briefly to
sunshine or to other ultraviolet light. He is not an albino, for his
skin is pigmented, but like virtually all XPers, Chris lives at night,
sleeps by day, and keeps the windows in his house covered. He must live
largely by candlelight, use reduced-wattage bulbs, apply sunscreen to
exposed skin if there's even a risk of standing under a streetlamps for
more than a minute or two, often wear sunglasses at night to guard
against car headlights. In short, he lives by rituals so strange and
complex that they are more deeply fascinating than the details of any
exotic culture in the farthest corner of the globe. I have been
gathering research on XP for over six years, and I've never found a
subject more intriguing, more poignant.
Although Chris is as sophisticated as any man of the world, he has
never ventured beyond the limits of Moonlight Bay - and the nearby
grounds of the closed military base, Fort Wyvern, which offers a maze of
abandoned buildings and subterranean warrens. Although he dares not
drive a car (too many oncoming headlights) and must walk or take a
bicycle instead, he is adventurous and daring and always on the move.
Although one might expect him to be a loner, he is gregarious and
outgoing, with many colorful friends, and his romantic life is
passionate and deeply felt. Yet a sweet melancholy weaves through his
unusual existence, a yearning for what cannot be and what he cannot
have; which makes him quite like all of us, for each of us is limited by
life in one way or another, if not as severely as Christopher Snow.
This is a story about the night world and those who work and live in it.
It's a story about the mystery of the night, the beauty of the night,
the terror and the solitude and the wonder and the strange silken
rhythms of the night.
Christopher Snow knows the night as no one else ever will, ever can;
for it is only at night that he is free.
This is a story about winning against overwhelming odds: Many with XP
never live to be twenty-eight like Chris, and every year that he
survives is a triumph. This is a story about taking the terrible
injustices of life and transforming them into blessings. This is a story
about being different, about being an outsider but nevertheless finding
a way to be part of one's community. About being alone but finding
friends. About forsaking self-pity and fear. About opening oneself to
the world to build an extended family for shelter against the
vicissitudes of life. About leading the fullest possible life of the
mind and senses regardless of the limitations imposed by nature. About
indomitability and perseverance and commitment.
FEAR NOTHING is also a suspense novel, of course, because I write
suspense novels and my publisher and readers would be nonplussed if I
delivered a story about teenage angst in nineteenth century Latvia.
Nonplussed and worse.
Years ago, however, I began to bridge genres in the hope of finding
new, exciting ways to tell stories Consequently, FEAR NOTHING is a
thriller but also a novel about friendship; a tale of adventure but
also a mystery story; scary yet sometimes humorous; a novel about
personal courage and a cautionary tale à la Michael Crichton - but also
a dog story. As my most faithful readers know, dogs have had important
roles in several of my novels, beginning with Einstein in Watchers and
continuing with Woofer in Dragon Tears, Rocky in Dark Rivers of the
Heart, and Scootie in TickTock. Through the character of a dog, I can
say things about the human condition that are simple and true yet
palatable, even if sometimes harsh, because the dog's perception is
colored by an endearing innocence. Dogs didn't fall from grace, after
all; they accompanied us out of Eden because, I suspect, they thought we
were so amusing that it was worth giving up Paradise just to see what
foolish things we might do next. In FEAR NOTHING, the dog is named
Orson, and I love him as much as any real dog that I have ever known. He
is a creature of mysterious depths, capable of much lighthearted fun yet
occasionally melancholy, courageous and clever and loving and strange. I
so enjoy writing about dogs that sometimes I think I must have been one
in another life; if I'm really lucky, maybe I'll be a dog again
someday. One of the most peculiar things about me- oh, it's a long list
- is that I can develop genuine feelings for many of the fictional
characters I write about, not just the dogs. I can laugh out loud when
they're funny and even sometimes be moved to tears when they suffer
loneliness and anguish. I fear for them - though I know, better than
anyone, that their fate is in my hands.
When they come alive on the page, I feel their longing, their dread,
their joy, their despair. This could mean that I am flat-out crazy, of
course, though I believe I am reasonably sane. I don't keep a collection
of severed heads in my refrigerator (there'd be no room for pickles),
don't ascribe to the theory that Elvis Presley was an extraterrestrial
(but don't ask me about Garth Brooks), and long ago realized that I was
wrong to accuse Martha Stewart of being the secret evil master of the
universe. I am able to identify so strongly with my characters because I
like real people so much, and the finest characters on the page are
those that are pure distillations of the most admirable and/or
interesting qualities of people I meet in daily life. Furthermore, I
find the human condition to be both enormously hopeful and terrifying,
and when my characters truly come alive, I'm moved by their plight
because it is, in essence, my plight as well - and the plight of all of
us who pass this way.
The characters in FEAR NOTHING appealed to me so strongly that I
didn't want to let them go at the end of the book. I have felt this way
as I've completed other novels - but never before have I decided to
write future books with the same cast. As FEAR NOTHING drew to a close,
my mind spun with new stories in the same milieu, and I knew that I
couldn't deny myself the pleasure of visiting these people again and
following them as they cope with the triumphs and the tragedies and the
joys and - it's a Koontz novel, after all - the fears and terrible
dangers of life in our time.
I won't be writing only novels featuring Christopher Snow, because I
have many other stories to tell that don't fit into this world, but I'll
be doing three in a row and perhaps more to follow. Indeed, I've
already taken the imp of self-doubt from the freezer and put him on the
kitchen drainboard to thaw. Even now he's mumbling something about my
shirt clashing with my blue jeans. If he performs his job well and keeps
me honest, I think that these stories of Chris Snow and Orson and their
friends might eventually prove to be the best work that I will ever have
done.
As a lonely child growing up in poverty, in the shadow of a violent
and alcoholic father who repeatedly threatened to kill my mother and me
(and was later diagnosed as psychotic), I found relief from fear and
deprivation only in books. Storytellers became my heroes because they
provided me with temporary escapes from that dark world, because through
their characters they made me feel less isolated and more connected to
the human experience, and because they brought joy and wonder into my
life at a time when I would otherwise have known little of either. All I
have ever wanted to do is give that same gift to others. Can a thriller
keep the reader turning the pages urgently - yet also engage the mind,
profoundly touch the heart, and lift the spirit? I've spent a major
portion of my adult life trying to do just that, and my entire career
has been an effort to acquire the craft and art to write FEAR NOTHING
and the books to follow it.
My work isn't as important as finding a cure for cancer, not as
important as the efforts of any parent who raises a child well, not as
important as the work of the dedicated cops who put their lives on the
line for all of us, not as important as the work of teachers who truly
inspire their students - but I would feel that my life had been well
spent if, by the end, I had touched the lives of even a handful of
people in the way and to the same degree that the authors of my youth
touched and improved my own life. Besides, writing keeps me safely
occupied, with plenty of room in my refrigerator for pickles.
Copyright © 1998 Dean Koontz.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Biography 1
When he was a senior in college, Dean Koontz won an Atlantic Monthly
fiction competition and has been writing ever since. His books are
published in 38 languages; worldwide sales are nearly 200 million
copies, and that figure currently increases more than 17 million copies
per year. Seven of his novels have risen to number one on the New York
Times hardcover bestseller list (Lightning,
Midnight,
Cold Fire, Hideaway, Dragon Tears, Intensity, and Sole Survivor), making
him one of only ten writers ever to have achieved that milestone. Eleven
of his books have risen to the number one position in paperback. His
books have also been major bestsellers in countries as diverse as Japan
and Sweden. He has written a screenplay for the film adaptation of his
novel Cold Fire; he wrote and executive produced The Face of Fear for
Warner Brothers-CBS Television. Phantoms, based on the author's
screenplay - starring Peter O'Toole and Joanna Going - will be released
by Miramax/Dimension in January 1998. Intensity, which went to number
one on the New York Times bestseller list, was filmed by Peter Gruber's
Mandalay as a miniseries for the Fox Network, and aired initially in
August 1997. Mandalay is also developing a miniseries based on one of
the author's most recent works of fiction, Sole Survivor, scheduled at
this time for a Fall 1998 premiere. Meanwhile, ABC is developing a
miniseries of Mr. Murder. The author signed a three-book deal with
Bantam Books, the first of which is FEAR NOTHING (on sale January 14,
1998). The New York Times has called his writing "psychologically
complex, masterly and satisfying." The New Orleans Times-Picayune said
Koontz is, "at times lyrical without ever being naive or romantic. [He
creates] a grotesque world, much like that of Flannery O'Conner or
Walker Percy ... scary, worthwhile reading." Of Cold Fire, a worldwide
#1 bestseller, the United Press International said, "An extraordinary
piece of fiction. It will be a classic." Dean Koontz was born and raised
in Pennsylvania. He graduated from Shippensburg State College (now
Shippensburg University), and his first job after graduation was with
the Appalachian Poverty Program, where he was expected to counsel and
tutor underprivileged children on a one-to-one basis. His first day on
the job, he discovered that the previous occupier of his position had
been beaten up by the very kids he had been trying to help and had
landed in the hospital for several weeks. The following year was filled
with challenge but also tension, and Koontz was more highly motivated
than ever to build a career as a writer. He wrote nights and weekends,
which he continued to do after leaving the poverty program and going to
work as an English teacher in a suburban school district outside
Harrisburg. After he has been a year and a half in that position, his
wife, Gerda, made him an offer he couldn't refuse: "I'll support you for
five years," she said, "and if you can't make it as a writer in that
time, you'll never make it." By the end of those five years, Gerda had
quit her job to run the business end of her husband's writing career.
Dean and Gerda Koontz live in southern California.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Biography 2
Dean Koontz was born and raised in Pennsylvania. His childhood was
filled with turmoil and abuse, his father being an alcoholic who was
prone to violent outbursts and was eventually diagnosed as being
mentally ill. Koontz, being an only child with a mother who was prone to
illness, developed his own survival strategies to cope with the horrors
of his homelife. Books became a large part of this, as he found that
they could take him into a better world. As a child Koontz desired to
create this same escape for others, to give them a world to step into
when their own became too harsh. Most of his novels written later
contained characters who were or had been troubled children, as well as
the underlying theme that that those who embrace friendship, love, faith
and an unwavering commitment to freedom will inevitably win out over
those who are motivated by power, envy, and greed.
Koontz received no encouragement from his parents as far as writing
was concerned. They considered books and reading to be a waste of time
and money, and actually discouraged him from reading. Undaunted by this,
Koontz began selling original fiction when he was eight years old. He
wrote short stories on tablet paper and sharpened them up with colorful
covers, stapled the left margin of each story, put electrician's tape
over the staples, and tried to peddle them to relatives and neighbors,
usually for a nickel a story. When he was twelve he won a wristwatch and
twenty-five dollars in a nationwide newspaper essay competition, writing
on the subject "What being an American means to me". He realized early
the need to charge a fee for his work in order to be taken seriously.
As a senior in college Koontz won a fiction competition, and wrote
consistently from then on.
His first 'real' fiction sale was called "Kittens" which he sold while
still in college at the age of twenty. He graduated from Shippensburg
State College (now ShippensburgUniversity), and his first job after
graduation was with the Appalachian Poverty Program, where he was
expected to counsel and tutor underprivileged children on a one-on-one
basis. His first day on the job, he discovered that the previous
occupier of his position had been beaten up by the very kids he had been
trying to help and had landed in the hospital for several weeks. The
following year was filled with challenges and struggle, but Koontz was
more highly motivated than ever to build a career as a writer.
Koontz wrote when he could - nights and weekends - and continued this
as he left the poverty program and started teaching in a suburban school
district near Harrisburg. After teaching there for about a year and a
half, Koontz's wife, Gerda, made him an offer too attractive to refuse:
She offered to support him for a period of five years, so that he could
pursue his freelance writing full-time. "…if you can't make it as a
writer by that time, you'll never make it." She told him. Of course
Koontz made full use of these five years and by the end of that time his
wife had quit her job in order to run the business end of her husband's
galloping writing career. By this time Koontz had published a great deal
of science fiction, both short stories such as "Unseen Warriors" (Worlds
of Tomorrow, 1970) and novels like "The Haunted Earth" (Lancer Books,
1970) and "Demon Child" (Lancer Books, 1971).
Among the writers who influenced Koontz , John D. Macdonald stands
among the top of the list. Koontz refers to Macdonald as a "brilliant
writer" and, speaking of works he has read of Macdonald's, said "When I
read something like 'Slam the Big Door', 'Cry Hard Cry Fast', 'The
Damned', or 'The End of the Night', I usually turn to the last page
thinking, "O.K. Koontz, face it, you don't belong in the same craft as
this man; go learn plumbing, Koontz get yourself and honest trade!". His
respect for writers of this caliber obviously played a part in his
severely critical view of his own work. Koontz is an admitted
obsessive-compulsive, and this personal characteristic drives him to
accept nothing but high quality work from himself. A novel normally
takes him from five months to a year to complete, and he often works
seventy hours a week.
In 1976 the Koontz's moved to southern California, where they presently
still reside.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AN UNCONVENTIONAL INTERVIEW
Interviews with Dean Koontz focus on the
serious themes of his books, on the details of his difficult childhood,
on his work habits and methods, and on his thoughts about the craft and
the art of writing. Although FEAR NOTHING is as suspenseful and
thoughtful - and as full of emotion - as anything he has written, and
although he ranks it as possibly his best book, it is also fun to read.
Frequently, interviewers are not interested in that aspect of the
author's work, and the resultant conversations are dry. In the hope of
providing an atypical interview for this website, we wrote a series of
unconventional questions on slips of paper and tossed them in a box.
Then we excerpted questions contained in recent letters from readers -
among the 10,000 that the author receives each year - and tossed those
in the same box. The following interview was conducted by randomly
drawing questions from that receptacle and posing them to the author.
Q: Do you believe in life after death?
A: Yes. To me, it seems as easy to believe in life after death as to
believe in life before death. Look around at our world and marvel at its
wonderful weirdness. Nothing on the Other Side could be any more amazing
or bizarre - or more unlikely - than the glorious world in which we
already exist. How can anyone have difficulty believing in eternal
spirits but have no trouble at all believing that Richard Simmons and
Bobcat Goldthwait and Madonna are real?
Q: How tall are you, what do you weigh, and what is your shoe size?
A: This is from a reader from where? Amarillo, Texas? There must not be
much happening in Amarillo if people have time to wonder about things
like this. I'm five feet eleven, weigh one hundred fifty-two pounds
(plus or minus a lemon-filled chocolate doughnut) and wear an
eight-and-a-half narrow shoe. Yes, I have small feet. I could probably
stand on point pretty easily and, if writing fails me, launch a career
as either a ballet dancer or a bird dog.
Q: For my term paper, I need to know what you think is the difference
between "literary" and "popular" fiction and whether you usually write
one or the other. Also what living writer do you most admire, and what
dead writer do you want to be like?
A: "Literary" and "popular" are bogus distinctions. The best literature
- Dickens, Twain, Shakespeare - was also popular, and the best popular
fiction has as much style and grace and depth as that of anyone
self-consciously writing literary fiction. There's a lot of trash in
each form. I admire many living writers but none more than Anne Tyler
and Jim Harrison. I don't want to be like any dead writers. They're
dead. It's difficult to write when you're dead - and it's impossible to
party.
Q: Intensity and Sole Survivor didn't leave much room for the humor that
was such a strong element in books like Watchers and Mr. Murder. What
about FEAR NOTHING?
A: Suspense always comes first. And an involving story. Sometimes a tale
doesn't allow for a smile and sometimes it demands a lot of laughs.
Although there's a core of darkness in FEAR NOTHING and, I hope,
considerable tension, it was more fun to write than anything I've done
since Watchers, primarily because each of the major characters has a
distinctive sense of humor and an interesting way of looking at the
world. As a reader, I always care about characters more deeply and fear
for them more urgently if they have a sense of humor. We are a
delightfully foolish species, so both real people and fictional
characters are more fun to know if they have a healthy sense of their
foolishness.
Q: What do you drive?
A: Myself
Q: Will you ever come to Birmingham, Alabama, for a book signing?
A: The realities and logistics of book promotion and my own current
disinclination to travel much by air make it unlikely that I'll get to
Birmingham. I have nothing against the place. Been there, liked it. But
why am I always being asked whether I'll go one place or the other? This
cuts both ways, you know. Why doesn't the city of Birmingham load up a
couple of semis with copies of my books and come out here to California?
They'd be welcome. It's not only the South that has hospitality. We'd
have to meet at the beach for a picnic, because our dining room seats
several thousand fewer than the population of Birmingham, not to mention
the intolerable wait in line to use our powder room.
Q: What are your hobbies?
A: Simultaneously juggling razor-sharp axes and flaming torches.
Communing psychically with alien intelligence's on Saturn and in
Washington, D.C. Stalking David Letterman. Boy, I sure wish I could
claim a hobby as colorful as any one of those. Unfortunately, I am a
laid-back guy in the hobby department. My wife and I collect Art Deco
and Chinese furniture and decorative items. We go to the beach. We like
to read. We like to go on long fast walks and work out in the gym.
Occasionally, we go on a bank-robbing and murder spree, but no more than
once a decade.
Q: Why do you write about dogs so often? And will you ever feature a cat
in a major role?
A: The bigger question is: Why do other novelists write so little about
dogs? John Irving, Danielle Steel, Pat Conroy, Mary Higgins Clark,
Robert Ludlum, Tom Clancy, Marge Piercy...none of these writers has, to
the best of my knowledge, ever written a scene from a dog's point of
view or used a dog as a major character. I find this particularly
strange in light of the fact that dogs are the masters of the universe
and have lives infinitely more complex and richer than our own. What are
they afraid of, all these writers with such serious cases of
dog-avoidance? Are they worried that writing about dogs will draw the
attention of the Canine Overlords who decide our fates and that these
potentate pooches will look with disfavor on what they've written? Or is
it something even darker: anti-canine bigotry? As for a cat - there's
one in FEAR NOTHING, and in the book I'm writing now, the same feline
reappears. His name is Mungojerrie. What - you think cats have names
like Fluffy and Smartie Boots? Please.
Q: You are so prolific - when do you sleep?
A: Every June 14th.
Q: Are you pleased with the upcoming movie version of Phantoms?
A: Pleased enough to let them use my name above the title. If I hadn't
liked it so much, I'd have made them call it "Emily Brontë's Phantoms"
or some such. It's a tight, fast-paced picture, genuinely creepy,
emphasizing suspense and avoiding gore, relying on inventive
storytelling rather than mindless special effects - although we also
have some mindless special effects for those who like that sort of
thing. I wrote the script, served as executive producer, had
considerable control - and worked with some very talented people like
Joe Chappelle (the director), Joel Soisson (the producer), Bob Weinstein
and Andrew Rona and Richard Potter at Miramax/Dimension. And with actors
like Peter O'Toole, Joanna Going, Ben Affleck, Liev Schrieber, and Rose
McGowan, we're ahead of the game going in.
Q: Have you always wanted to be a writer?
A: As a kid, I wanted to grow up to be the Lord High Executioner at the
Tower of London, and I was really disappointed to learn the position had
been eliminated in another century. I was 23 when I discovered the job
was unavailable, and I don't think I finally put the dream behind me
until I was 40.
Q: What advice would you give teenagers today?
A: Don't listen to the doomsayers all around us. They have always
existed and they will always exist, predicting one catastrophe or
another, and now they get into your head more deeply because the media
amplifies their cries of alarm. The future is going to be bright and
full of promise, and you are going to have more opportunities before you
and a higher quality of life than any prior generation of humanity.
Sure, there are problems, big ones, but there have always been problems
and we have always triumphed over them. Be hopeful, be kind, be
hardworking and you'll be happy. Kids and teachers write all the time
asking me to give advice to teenagers. Why am I never asked to give
advice to 80-year-old guys? I'd tell them to drive a little faster and
to avoid wearing their trousers six inches above the waistline. I am
never asked to give advice to 40-year-olds, either. I'd tell them to
beware of all those hopeful, kind, hardworking teenagers who are going
to grow up and take their jobs.
Q: What's your favorite food, color, flower, song, and hat?
A: Kibby with a Greek salad. Green. Orchid. Currently, "Dancing'" by
Chris Isaak. Hat? My favorite hat? Well, berets seem a little
pretentious, and those tall fur guardsmen's hats from Buckingham Palace
seem warmish for California. So I guess I'd have to go with those
colorful little crocheted hats that reggae singers sometimes wear. Hey,
did this question come from Amarillo?
Q: Will you ever stop writing?
A: Like it or not, I will probably have to quit working when I stop
breathing.
Q: Did people think you were strange when you were growing up?
A: Not just when I was growing up.
Q: Is it true that you're going to write other books featuring the
characters in FEAR NOTHING?
A: Yes. The second one is going so well I am getting superstitious about
it. These characters so far are proving to be the most interesting I've
ever created - and their adventures are taking twists and turns I never
foresaw.
Q: You and Gerda have been together since high school. What attracted
you to her and her to you?
A: She was pretty. She was smart. But, most important, by far: On our
first date, I discovered she had a terrific sense of humor and a very
dry wit. I can't speak for her with complete confidence, but I think she
was attracted to me because my shoes were neatly polished, there was
very little spinach caught between my teeth, and I could play any
passage of Beethoven on a nose flute.
Q: Will FEAR NOTHING scare me?
A: If it doesn't, I'd better start practicing the nose flute again.
Q: What are your favorites of your own books?
A: At this point, FEAR NOTHING, Watchers, Lightning, Mr. Murder, Dark
Rivers of the Heart, and Intensity, in that order.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An excerpt from the Katherine Ramsland Biography:
One of today's most popular writers, author of some seventy novels,
including many New York Times bestsellers, Dean Koontz has never fully
revealed one of his more dramatic stories: his own. Critically
acclaimed biographer, Katherine Ramsland, now undertakes that task.
From his difficult childhood in rural Pennsylvania, to his years as a
school teacher striving to get published, to his spectacular
breakthrough to worldwide literary fame, Dean Koontz's life has been
filled with struggle. Yet he developed the tenacity, vision, and
business savvy to make himself succeed. He also married an amazingly
supportive and resourceful woman. Although he studied the classics and
often utilizes a literary approach, Koontz initially worked in genre
fiction, meeting with early success under an astonishingly variety of
pseudonyms in science fiction, fantasy, gothic romance, capers, how-to
books, and international thrillers. When he moved on to writing
mainstream suspense, he began to develop what has come to be recognized
as his unique cross-genre style.
Through it all, Koontz worked out the childhood torment of having an
abusive, alcoholic father who was ultimately diagnosed as mentally ill.
An only child whose mother was afflicted with much illness, Koontz had
to develop his own psychological survival strategies. As he matured,
this unrelenting childhood struggle to protect himself gave him a
special sensitivity to the politics of the individual. He used his
writing, no matter what the subject, to entertain but also to explore
both the dark and light sides of the human heart, to champion the
rights of the individuals over those of institutions. In an age of
widespread cynicism, each of Koontz's novels insists that those who
embrace friendship, love, faith and an unwavering commitment to freedom
will inevitably win out over those who are motivated by power, envy, and
greed.
And through it all, Dean Koontz was troubled by the secret his mother
had tried to tell him before she died. What was the key to his father's
rages: the mysterious tempests that haunted the family and inspired the
monsters in Koontz's novels? Was Ray Koontz even his father? More
perhaps than any other writer today, Dean Koontz embodies in his own
life and work the chiaroscuro contradictions, the glaring light and
moody darkness, of modern America. Ruthlessly honest, ambitious, and
ready to experiment, he has fearlessly delved into every corner of is
own psyche, and it is this artistic integrity and its application to
larger social issues, that has endeared his work to millions.
In her fascinating, full-length portrait, Katherine Ramsland brings new
insight into the life and work of this complex and intriguing master of
modern fiction.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Most of Dean Koontz's Books and Short Stories (I think)
1966
Kittens (short story in 'The Reflector')
1968
Star Quest
The Fall of the Dream Machine
Fear That Man
1970
Anti-Man
Beastchild
Dark of the Woods
The Dark Symphony
Hell's Gate
Soft Come the Dragons
The Pig Society (non-fiction)
The Underground Lifestyles Handbook (non-fiction)
Bounce Girl (reprinted as Aphrodisiac Girl)
Hung (pseudonym withheld)
Unseen Warriors (short story in 'Worlds of tomorrow')
Shambolain (short story)
1971
The Crimson Witch ( short story in 'Fantastic stories')
Demon Child (as Deanna Dwyer)
Legacy of Terror (as Deanna Dwyer)
Bruno (short story in 'mag. of S.F. and fantasy')
Cosmic Sin (short story in 'mag. of S.F. and fantasy')
Legacy of Terror (Deanna Dwyer)
1972
Chase (as K.R. Dwyer)
Children of the Storm (as Deanna Dwyer)
The Dark Summer (as Deanna Dwyer)
Dance with the Devil (as Deanna Dwyer)
A Darkness in My Soul
The Flesh in the Furnace
Starblood
Time Thieves (as Leigh Nichols)
Warlock
Writing Popular Fiction (non-fiction)
Alterboy (short story)
A Mouse in the Walls of the Global Village (short story)
Ollie's Hands (short story in 'Infinity Four')
1973
Aprodisiac Girl (reprint of Bounce Girl)
Blood Risk (as Brian Coffey)
Demon Seed
Hanging On
The Haunted Earth
Shattered (as K.R. Dwyer)
A Werewolf Among Us
Dance with the Devil (Deanna Dwyer)
Terra Phobia (short story in 'Androids')
Graveyard Highway (short story in 'Tropical Chills')
The Undercity ( short story in 'Future city')
Grayworld (short story in 'Infinity five')
Wake up to Thunder (short story in 'Children of Infinity')
1974
After the Last Race
Strike Deep (as Anthony North)
Surrounded (as Brian Coffey)
Night of the Storm (short story in 'Continuum 1')
We Three ( short story in 'Final Stage')
Hardshell (short story in 'Night Visions 4')
1975
Dragonfly (as K.R. Dwyer)
Invasion (as Aaron Wolfe) (reissued as Winter Moon)
The Long Sleep (as John Hill)
Nightmare Journey
The Wall of Masks (as Brian Coffey)
1976
Night Chills
Prison of Ice (as David Axton) (reissued as Icebound)
1977
The Face of Fear (as Brian Coffey)
The Vision
1979
The Key to Midnight (as Leigh Nichols)
1980
The Funhouse (as Owen West)
The Voice of the Night (as Brian Coffey)
Whispers
1981
The Eyes of Darkness (as Leigh Nichols)
The Mask (as Owen West)
How to Write Best-selling Fiction (non-fiction)
1982
The House of Thunder (as Leigh Nichols)
1983
Phantoms
1984
Darkfall
Twilight (as Leigh Nichols) (rereleased as The Servants of Twilight)
Darkness Comes
1985
The Door to December (as Richard Paige) (Signet as Leigh Nichols)
Twilight Eyes
Shattered (reissue)
1986
Strangers
The Vision (reissue)
The Black Pumpkin (short story in 'Twilight Zone')
The Sinless Child (short story in 'flame tree planet')
Weird World (short story in 'Horror Show')
Down in the Darkness (short story in 'Horror Show')
Snatcher (short story in 'Night Cry')
1987
Shadowfires (as Leigh Nichols)
Watchers
Twilight Eyes (revision w/ sequel)
Twilight of the Dawn (short story in 'Night Visions 4')
The Interrogation (short story in 'Horror Show')
Miss Attila the Hun (short story in 'Night Visions 4')
1988
Lightning
Oddkins: A Fable for All Ages
The Mask (reissue)
1989
Midnight
Trapped (short story in 'Stalkers')
1990
The Bad Place
The Servants of Twilight (reissue)
1991
Cold Fire
The Voice of the Night (reissue)
1992
Hideaway
Beastchild (reissue)
The House of Thunder (reissue)
1993
Dragon Tears
Mr. Murder
Shadowfires (reissue)
1994
Dark Rivers of the Heart
Winter Moon
The Funhouse (reissue)
The Door to December (revision)
The Bone Yard (night visions VI)
1995
Strange Highways (Collection of short stories)
Icebound (revision)
The Key to Midnight (revision)
1996
Intensity
Santa's Twin
The Eyes of Darkness (revision)
Santa's Twin
1997
Sole Survivor
Ticktock
Demon Seed (revision)
1998
Fear Nothing
Seize the Night
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Books to movies or television mini-series':
Demon Seed
Hideaway
Intensity
Mr. Murder
The Face of Fear
The Servants of Twilight
Whispers
Watchers
Phantoms
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Eventually, as my books became best-sellers, the nickels piled up and
one day I was offered a substantial four-book deal that was lucrative as
any airliner hijacking in history. Though writing those four books was
hard work, at least I didn't have to wear Kevlar body armor, carry heavy
bandoliers of spare ammunition, or work with associates named Mad Dog."
Dean Koontz
"Ever since I was a kid , I've loved humour of the absurd. Ernie Kovacs,
Stan Freberg, Jack Douglas, Ed Bluestone, early Steve Martin, recently
Steven Wright - all of those guys with the really strange extra edge can
make me laugh until I'm too limp to stand up. Then I have to be taken to
a dry cleaner to be steamed, starched and pressed, but thereafter I'm as
good as new."
Dean Koontz
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I found most of the information in this FAQ at these two web sites:
http://www.randomhouse.com/features/koontz/
http://www.veinotte.com/koontz/
But these two also have a lot to offer:
http://www.call-us.demon.co.uk/dean.html
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This FAQ was compiled by 'The Ranch' tntr...@worldnet.att.net
It is, to the best of my knowledge, correct. But, who knows? I spent
hours going through web sites and putting together a lot of what I found
there.
I will post this FAQ to this group every week or so to make sure it
appears frequently before being dumped. I hope any inconvenience this
causes some of you will be out-weighed by Mr. Koontz's bio and personal
humor.
If you find anything erroneous about the FAQ please notify me and I
will verify and update as needed. Any other comments should be directed
to alt.books.dean-koontz , as I am busy reading at the moment
:)
The Ranch
Chris Freestone
The Ranch <tntr...@worldnet.att.net> wrote in message
news:379E6346...@worldnet.att.net...
> personal courage and a cautionary tale ą la Michael Crichton - but also
> pursue his freelance writing full-time. ".if you can't make it as a
> liked it so much, I'd have made them call it "Emily Brontė's Phantoms"