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ALL ABOUT DEAN KOONTZ

Full Name: Dean Koontz
Date of Birth: 9 July 1945
Place of Birth: Everett, Pennsylvania
Profession: Novelist, short story writer, screenwriter

Bio:

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. He has sold 325,000,000 copies, a figure that currently increases by more than 17 million copies per year.

Ten of his novels have risen to number one on the New York Times hardcover bestseller list (ONE DOOR AWAY FROM HEAVEN, FROM THE CORNER OF HIS EYE, MIDNIGHT, COLD FIRE, THE BAD PLACE, HIDEAWAY, DRAGON TEARS, INTENSITY, SOLE SURVIVOR and THE HUSBAND), making him one of only a dozen writers ever to have achieved that milestone. Fourteen 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.

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.” Rolling Stone has hailed him as “America’s most popular suspense novelist.”

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 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 along with their dog, Trixie, live in southern California.

Series:

Tucker (writing as Brian Coffey)
Blood Risk (1973)
Surrounded (1974)
The Wall of Masks (1975)

Moonlight Bay
Fear Nothing (1997)
Seize the Night (1998)

Odd Thomas
Odd Thomas (2003)
Forever Odd (2005)
Brother Odd (2006)

Novels:

Star Quest (1968)
The Fall of the Dream Machine (1969)
Fear That Man (1969)
Anti-man (1970)
Beast Child (1970)
The Dark Symphony (1970)
Hell’s Gate (1970)
The Crimson Witch (1971)
A Darkness in My Soul (1972)
The Flesh in the Furnace (1972)
Starblood (1972)
Warlock (1972)
Chase (1972) (writing as K R Dwyer)
Hanging on (1973)
The Haunted Earth (1973)
A Werewolf Among Us (1973)
Shattered (1973) (writing as K R Dwyer)
Demon Seed (1973)
After the Last Race (1974)
Dragonfly (1975) (writing as K R Dwyer)
Nightmare Journey (1975)
Invasion (1975) (writing as Aaron Wolfe)
The Long Sleep (1975) (writing as John Hill)
Night Chills (1976)
Prisoner of Ice (1976) (writing as David Axton)
aka Icebound
Time Thieves (1977)
The Face of Fear (1977) (writing as K R Dwyer)
The Vision (1977)
The Key to Midnight (1979) (writing as Leigh Nichols)
Whispers (1980)
The Funhouse (1980) (writing as Owen West)
The Voice of the Night (1980) (writing as Brian Coffey)
The Eyes of Darkness (1981) (writing as Leigh Nichols)
The Mask (1981) (writing as Owen West)
The House of Thunder (1982) (writing as Leigh Nichols)
Darkness Comes (1983)
aka Darkfall
Phantoms (1983)
The Servants of Twilight (1984) (writing as Leigh Nichols)
Twilight Eyes (1985)
The Door to December (1985) (writing as Richard Paige)
Strangers (1986)
Shadow Fires (1987) (writing as Leigh Nichols)
Watchers (1987)
Oddkins (1988)
Lightning (1988)
The Bad Place (1989)
Midnight (1989)
Cold Fire (1991)
Hideaway (1991)
Dragon Tears (1992)
Mr. Murder (1993)
Winter Moon (1993)
Dark Rivers of the Heart (1994)
Intensity (1995)
Santa’s Twin (1996)
TickTock (1996)
Sole Survivor (1997)
False Memory (1999)
From the Corner of His Eye (2000)
One Door Away from Heaven (2001)
By the Light of the Moon (2002)
The Face (2003)
Life Expectancy (2004)
Robot Santa: The Further Adventures of Santa’s Twin (2004)
The Taking (2004)
Velocity (2005)
The Husband (2006)
The Good Guy (2007)
The Darkest Evening of the Year (2007)

Omnibus:

Dark of the Woods / Soft Come the Dragons (1970)
Three Complete Novels (1991)
Winter Moon / Icebound (1995)
Koontz I: House of Thunder / Cold Fire / Dragon Tears (1996)
Koontz II: Voice of the Night / Darkfall / Midnight (1996)
Koontz III: Bad Place / Mr. Murder / Cold Fire (1997)
Key to Midnight / Shattered / House of Thunder (1998)
Cold Fire / Key to Midnight / Hideaway (2001)

Collections:

Strange Highways (1991)
The Paper Doorway: Funny Verse and Nothing Worse (poems) (2001)
Every Day’s a Holiday: Amusing Rhymes for Happy Times (poems) (2003)
The Book of Counted Sorrows (poems) (2003)

Graphic Novels:

Trapped (1993) (with Ed Gorman)

Series contributed to:

Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein

City of Night (2005) (with Ed Gorman)
Prodigal Son (2005) (with Kevin J Anderson)
Dead and Alive (2007) (with Ed Gorman)

Non fiction:

Writing Popular Fiction (1972)
How to Write Best Selling Fiction (1981)
Anthologies containing stories by Dean Koontz:
Again Dangerous Visions Book 2 (1972)
Time Thieves and Against Arcturus (1972)
The Edge of Never (1973)
Final Stage (1974)
The Architecture of Fear (1987)
Night Visions Hardshell (1987)
Between Time and Terror (1990)
Predators (1993)
The Ultimate Witch (1993)
Cyber-Killers (1997)

Short stories:

Kittens (1966)
Beastchild (1970)
Dark of the Moon (1970)
Nightmare Gang (1970)
Soft Came the Dragons (1970)
Bruno (1971)
A Mouse in the Walls of the Global Village (1972)
Ollie’s Hands (1972)
Time Thieves (1972)
The Undercity (1973)
Night of the Storm (1974)
We Three (1974)
The Black Pumpkin (1986)
Down in the Darkness (1986)
Snatcher (1986)
Hardshell (1987)
Miss Attila the Hun (1987)
Twilight of the Dawn (1987)
Trapped (1989)
Strange Highways (1995)

Dean Koontz Awards:

Hugo Best Novella nominee (1971) : Beastchild World Fantasy Best Novel nominee (1987) : Strangers Bram Stoker Best Novel nominee (1990) : Midnight Bram Stoker Best Novel nominee (1993) : Hideaway British Fantasy Society Best
Novel nominee (1995) : Intensity Prometheus Award Best Novel nominee (1995) : Dark Rivers of the Heart Bram Stoker Best Collection nominee (1996) : Strange Highways Bram Stoker Best Novel nominee (1999) : Fear Nothing

Books About Dean Koontz:

Sudden Fear: The Horror and Dark Suspense Fiction of Dean R. Koontz (1992) by Bill Munster
The Dean Koontz Companion (1994) by Ed Gorman and Martin H Greenberg
Dean Koontz : A Writer’s Biography (1997) by Katherine Ramsland

Dean Koontz Filmography:

Black River - (2001) - Story
Mr. Murder - (1999) - Source Writer
Phantoms - (1998) - Story, Screenwriter
Watchers Reborn - (1998) - Story
Hideaway - (1995) - Source Writer
Watchers 3 - (1994) - Story
Demon Seed - (1977) - Story

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