Dean Koontz#Pet dogs

Koontz was born on July 9, 1945, in Everett, Pennsylvania, the son of Florence (née Logue) and Raymond Koontz.{{Cite web|url=http://www.veinotte.com/koontz/bio.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090418074217/http://www.veinotte.com/koontz/bio.htm|url-status=dead|title=Dean Koontz biography|access-date=2024-03-26|archive-date=2009-04-18}}{{cite book|title=Discovering Dean Koontz: Essays on America's Bestselling Writer of Suspense and Horror Fiction|author=Munster, B.|date=1998|publisher=Borgo Press|isbn=9781557421456|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CVGmM1RuwB4C|page=10|access-date=2014-10-27}} He has said that he was regularly beaten and abused by his alcoholic father, which influenced his later writing, as also did the courage of his physically diminutive mother in standing up to her husband.{{cite news |first=Jerry |last=Carroll |title=Dean Koontz Fears Nothing |newspaper=San Francisco Chronicle |date=February 23, 1998 |page=E-1 |url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/1998/02/23/DD78392.DTL&ao=all |access-date=2012-06-10}} He was raised in Bedford, Pennsylvania and graduated from Bedford High School in 1963.{{cite news | url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/310279801/?match=1&terms=%22Dean%20Koontz%22%20%22Bedford%20High%22 | title=Reviewers praise novel by former Everett native | newspaper=Bedford County Press | date=February 15, 1973| page=6}} While attending Shippensburg State College, Koontz married his high school girlfriend Gerda Ann Cerra in 1966.{{cite news | url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/504374714/?match=1&terms=%22Dean%20Koontz%22%20Gerda%201966 | title=Popular Author Defers to his Dog | first=Ben | last=Fox | newspaper=Standard Speaker | location= Hazelton, Pennsylvania | date=January 2, 2005 | page=E1-6}}{{cite news | url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/645095035/?match=1&terms=%22Dean%20Koontz%22%20Gerda%20Ann%20Cerra | title= Checking in with Dean Kootnz | newspaper=The Sacramento Bee | date= February 3, 2015 | first=Allen | last=Pierleoni | page=E1}}

In his senior year of college, he won a fiction competition sponsored by Atlantic Monthly magazine.Piazza, Judyth: [http://staugnews.com/2009/07/27/judyth-piazza-chats-with-dean-koontz-and-mark-constant-the-market-on-granada.html "Judyth Piazza chats with Dean Koontz and Mark Constant, The Market on Granada"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110316154751/http://staugnews.com/2009/07/27/judyth-piazza-chats-with-dean-koontz-and-mark-constant-the-market-on-granada.html |date=2011-03-16 }} St. Augustine News, July 27, 2009 After graduation in 1967, he went to work as an English teacher at Mechanicsburg High School in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. In the 1960s, Koontz worked for the Appalachian Poverty Program, a federally funded initiative designed to help poor children.{{cite web|url=http://www.libertarianism.com/pop_celebrity/44|title=Dean Koontz – Friend of Liberty|publisher=Advocates for Self-Government|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100819135951/http://www.libertarianism.com/pop_celebrity/44|archive-date=2010-08-19}} In a 1996 interview with Reason magazine, he said that while the program sounded "very noble and wonderful, ... [i]n reality, it was a dumping ground for violent children ... and most of the funding ended up 'disappearing somewhere.'" This experience greatly shaped Koontz's political outlook. In his book, The Dean Koontz Companion, he recalled that he

"... realized that most of these programs are not meant to help anyone, merely to control people and make them dependent. I was forced to reconsider everything I'd once believed. I developed a profound distrust of government regardless of the philosophy of the people in power. I remained a liberal on civil-rights issues, became a conservative on defense, and a semi-libertarian on all other matters."

In his spare time, Koontz wrote his first novel, Star Quest, which was published in 1968. Koontz went on to write over a dozen science fiction novels. Seeing the Catholic faith as a contrast to the chaos in his family, Koontz converted in college because faith provided existential answers for life; he admired Catholicism's "intellectual rigor," saying it permitted a view of life that saw mystery and wonder in all things.{{cite news|access-date=2009-11-28 |last=Drake |first=Tim |title=Chatting With Koontz About Faith |work=National Catholic Register |url=http://www.ncregister.com/site/article/2013 |date=March 6, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100117060951/http://www.ncregister.com/site/article/2013 |archive-date=January 17, 2010 }}Rossi, Tony, [http://catholicexchange.com/2009/08/01/120925/ Best-selling Author Dean Koontz Explores Catholic Values in Novels] Catholic Exchange, August 1, 2009 He says he sees Catholicism as English writer and Catholic convert G. K. Chesterton did: that it encourages a "joy about the gift of life". Koontz says that spirituality has always been part of his books, as are grace and our struggle as fallen souls, but he "never get[s] on a soapbox".

In the 1970s, Koontz began writing suspense and horror fiction, both under his own name and several pseudonyms, sometimes publishing up to eight books a year. Koontz has stated that he began using pen names after several editors convinced him that authors who switched back and forth between different genres invariably fell victim to "negative crossover" (alienating established fans and simultaneously failing to pick up any new ones). Known pseudonyms used by Koontz during his career include Deanna Dwyer, K. R. Dwyer, Aaron Wolfe, David Axton, Brian Coffey, John Hill, Leigh Nichols, Owen West, Richard Paige, and Anthony North. As Brian Coffey, he wrote the "Mike Tucker" trilogy (Blood Risk, Surrounded, Wall of Masks) in acknowledged tribute to the Parker novels of Richard Stark (Donald E. Westlake). Many of Koontz's pseudonymous novels are now available under his real name. Many others remain suppressed by Koontz, who bought back the rights to ensure they could not be republished; he has, on occasion, said that he might revise some for republication, but only three have appeared — Demon Seed and Invasion were both heavily rewritten before they were republished, and Prison of Ice had certain sections bowdlerised.

After writing full-time for more than 10 years, Koontz had his acknowledged breakthrough novel with Whispers, published in 1980. The two books before that, The Key to Midnight and The Funhouse, also sold over a million copies, but were written under pen names. His first bestseller was Demon Seed, the sales of which picked up after the release of the film of the same name in 1977, and sold over two million copies in one year.{{cite web|title=demon seed from the author|url=http://www.deankoontz.com/demon-seed-from-the-author/|website=Deankoontz.com|access-date=2011-01-01}} His first hardcover bestseller, which finally promised some financial stability and lifted him out of the midlist hit-and-miss range, was his book Strangers.{{cite web|title=strangers from the author|url=http://www.deankoontz.com/strangers-from-the-author/|website=Deankoontz.com|access-date=2010-06-27}}

Since then, 12 hardcovers and 14 paperbacks written by Koontz have reached number one on The New York Times Best Seller list.

Bestselling science fiction writer Brian Herbert has stated, "I even went through a phase where I read everything that Dean Koontz wrote, and in the process I learned a lot about characterization and building suspense."{{cite web|publisher=www.frankherbert.net |title=Interview with Brian Herbert |url=http://www.frankherbert.net/news/BrianHerbertInterview.pdf/ |access-date=2011-05-03 }}{{dead link|date=December 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

In 1997, psychologist Katherine Ramsland published an extensive biography of Koontz based on interviews with his family and him. This "psychobiography" (as Ramsland called it) often showed the conception of Koontz's characters and plots from events in his own life.{{cite book |title=Dean Koontz : a writer's biography |author-link=Katherine Ramsland |first=Katherine M. |last=Ramsland |location=New York, N.Y. |publisher=HarperPrism |year=1997 |isbn=0-06-105271-X |lccn=97030839 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/deankoontzwriter0000rams }}

Early author photos on the back of many of his novels show a balding Koontz with a mustache. After Koontz underwent hair transplantation surgery in the late 1990s, his subsequent books have featured a new, clean-shaven appearance with a fuller head of hair.{{cite web|title=photo gallery |url=http://deankoontz.com/about-dean/photo-gallery.php |access-date=2007-08-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070629153158/http://www.deankoontz.com/about-dean/photo-gallery.php |archive-date=2007-06-29 |url-status=dead }} Koontz explained the change by claiming that he was tired of looking like G. Gordon Liddy.{{Cite book|title=Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Fiction: From C.S. Lewis to Left Behind|last=Tischler|first=Nancy M.|publisher=Greenwood Press|year=2009|isbn=978-0-313-34568-5|pages=187}}{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0hXBd-V3vncC&pg=PA187 |title=Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Fiction: From C.S. Lewis to Left Behind |first=Nancy M. |last=Tischler |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2009 |page=187 |isbn=9780313345685}}

Many of his novels are set in and around Orange County, California. As of 2006, he lives there with his wife, Gerda, in Newport Coast, California, behind the gates of Pelican Hills. In 2008, he was the world's sixth-most highly paid author, tied with John Grisham, at $25 million annually.{{cite news

|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7649962.stm |title=Rowling makes £5 every second |publisher=BBC

|date=October 3, 2008 |access-date=2009-11-29}}

In 2019, Koontz began publishing with Amazon Publishing. At the time of the announcement, Koontz was one of the company's most notable signings.{{Cite web| title = Dean Koontz's Jump to Amazon Publishing: Will Other Authors Follow?| work = Publishing Perspectives| access-date = 2020-04-25| date = 2019-07-22| url = https://publishingperspectives.com/2019/07/bestseller-dean-koontz-jumps-to-amazon-publishing-five-book-deal-plus-stories/}}

One of Koontz's pen names was inspired by his dog, Trixie Koontz, a Golden Retriever, shown in many of his book-jacket photos. Trixie originally was a service dog with Canine Companions for Independence (CCI), a charitable organization that provides service dogs for people with disabilities.{{cite web|title=Trixie Koontz |url=http://deankoontz.com/trixie/monthly-columns.php |access-date=2007-08-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070710211834/http://www.deankoontz.com/trixie/monthly-columns.php |archive-date=2007-07-10 |url-status=dead }} Trixie was a gift from CCI in gratitude of Koontz's substantial donations, totaling $2.5 million between 1991 and 2004.{{cite news|author=Ben Fox |title=Associated Press |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4188/is_20041226/ai_n11495304 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071123115347/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4188/is_20041226/ai_n11495304 |url-status=dead |archive-date=2007-11-23 |access-date=2007-08-01 |work=Deseret News |date=2004-12-26 }} Koontz was taken with the charity while he was researching his novel Midnight, a book which included a CCI-trained dog, a black Labrador Retriever, named Moose.

In 2004, Koontz wrote and edited Life Is Good: Lessons in Joyful Living in her name, and in 2005, Koontz wrote a second book credited to Trixie, Christmas Is Good. Both books are written from a supposed canine perspective on the joys of life. The royalty payments of the books were donated to CCI. In 2007, Trixie contracted terminal cancer that created a tumor in her heart. The Koontzes had her euthanized outside their family home on June 30. After Trixie's death, Koontz has continued writing on his website under the name "TOTOS", standing for "Trixie on the Other Side". Trixie is widely thought to have been his inspiration for his November 2007 book, The Darkest Evening of the Year, about a woman who runs a Golden Retriever rescue home, and who rescues a "special" dog, named Nickie, which eventually saves her life. In August 2009, Koontz published A Big Little Life, a memoir of his life with Trixie.

In October 2008, Koontz revealed that he had adopted a new dog, Anna. Eventually, he learned that Anna was the grandniece of Trixie.{{cite web | last=Koontz | first=Dean | title=The Write Stuff: All About Anna | url=http://www.deankoontz.com/about-dean/the-write-stuff/ | access-date=2008-10-30}} Anna died on May 22, 2016.{{cite web | last=Koontz | first=Dean | title=Anna Koontz: June 22, 2006 – May 22, 2016 | url=http://www.deankoontz.com/anna-koontz-june-22-2006-may-22-2016/ | access-date=2016-09-15 | archive-date=September 6, 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160906042101/http://www.deankoontz.com/anna-koontz-june-22-2006-may-22-2016 | url-status=dead }} Koontz then adopted a new dog, Elsa, on July 11, 2016.{{cite web | last=Koontz | first=Dean | title=Introducing Elsa | url=http://www.deankoontz.com/introducing-elsa// | access-date=2016-09-15 | archive-date=2016-09-22 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160922104722/http://www.deankoontz.com/introducing-elsa | url-status=dead }}

A number of letters, articles, and novels were ostensibly written by Koontz during the 1960s and 1970s, but he has stated he did not write them. These include 30 erotic novels, allegedly written together by Koontz and his wife Gerda, including books such as Thirteen and Ready!, Swappers Convention, and Hung, the last one published under the name "Leonard Chris". They also include contributions to the fanzines Energumen and BeABohema in the late 1960s and early 1970s, including articles that mention the erotic novels,{{cite web|url=http://efanzines.com/Energumen/Energumen08.pdf |title="Dean's Drive", Energumen 8; June 1971, page 9 |publisher=efanzines.com|access-date=2015-04-06}}BeABohehma #8, 1970, ed. Frank Lunney; page 5 such as a movie column called "Way Station"{{cite web|url=http://sjhtn2007.livejournal.com/3810.html|title=Round 8 of the auction|website=Sjhtn2007.livejournal.com|access-date=13 August 2017}} in BeABohema.

Koontz wrote in How to Write Best Selling Fiction, a much revised and updated version of 'Writing Popular Fiction' (1972),Writer's Digest Books, 1981, pp18 "During my first six years as a full-time novelist ... I wrote a lot of ephemeral stuff; anything that would pay some bills ... I did Gothic romance novels under a pen-name ... Like many writers, I did some pornography too, and a variety of other things, none of which required me to commit my heart or my soul to the task. (This is not to say I didn't bother to do a good job; on the contrary, I never wrote down to any market, and I always tried to give my editors and readers their money's worth.)" The Gothic novels are identifiable, but none of Koontz's acknowledged work fits into the latter category.

Koontz has stated on his website{{cite web| title=Facts for Collectors | url=http://www.deankoontz.com/about-dean/collectors/ |work=deankoontz.com |access-date=2012-12-14}} that he used only the ten known pen names and "there are no secret pen names used by Dean"; he adds that his own identity was stolen by "a person he had previously worked with professionally", who submitted letters and some articles to fanzines under Koontz's name between 1969 and at least the early 1970s. Koontz has stated that he was only made aware of these bogus letters and articles in 1991 in a written admission from the identity thief. He has stated that he will reveal this person's name in his memoirs.

{{Main|Dean Koontz bibliography}}

Koontz was also nominated in 1988 & 1989 for the World Fantasy Special Award—Professional award. He also won the World Horror Convention Grand Master Award in 1996 & the Ross Macdonald Literary Award in 2003.

• 1979 – CHiPs episode 306: "Counterfeit" (as Brian Coffey)
• 1990 – The Face of Fear
• 1998 – Phantoms
• 2005 – Dean Koontz's Frankenstein

• Demon Seed (1977) – MGM – starring Julie Christie, Fritz Weaver, and Robert Vaughn as the voice of Proteus
• The Passengers (1977) – MGM – starring Jean-Louis Trintignant (French film adaptation of Koontz's novel Shattered)
• Watchers (1988) – Universal Pictures – starring Corey Haim, Barbara Williams, and Michael Ironside
• Whispers (1990) – Cinepix – starring Victoria Tennant, Chris Sarandon, and Jean LeClere
• Watchers II (1990) – Concorde Pictures – starring Marc Singer and Tracy Scoggins
• The Face of Fear (1990) – CBS – starring Pam Dawber and Lee Horsley, also includes Kevin Conroy and William Sadler
• Servants of Twilight (1991) – Trimark – starring Bruce Greenwood
• Watchers 3 (1994) – Concorde Pictures – starring Wings Hauser
• Hideaway (1995) – Tristar Pictures – starring Jeff Goldblum, Christine Lahti, Jeremy Sisto, and Alicia Silverstone
• Intensity (1997) – Fox – starring John C. McGinley, Molly Parker, and Piper Laurie
• Mr. Murder (1998) – ABC – starring Stephen Baldwin, Thomas Haden Church, and James Coburn
• Phantoms (1998) – Miramax/Dimension Films – starring Peter O'Toole, Ben Affleck, Rose McGowan, and Joanna Going
• Watchers Reborn (1998) – Concorde Pictures – starring Mark Hamill
• Sole Survivor (2000) – Fox – starring Billy Zane, John C. McGinley, and Gloria Reuben
• Black River (2001) – Fox – starring Jay Mohr and Stephen Tobolowsky
• Frankenstein (2004) – USA Network – starring Adam Goldberg, Parker Posey, Michael Madsen, Vincent Perez, and Thomas Kretschmann (Koontz pulled out of the project midway through production because he did not like the direction the film was headed. He ended up writing his own books with the storyline he had originally created. The project continued without him.){{cite web|url=http://deankoontz.com/about-dean/10-questions/june-8-2006.php|title=Dean Koontz Website, Suspense Novel – Dean Koontz – The Official Site|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080119231320/http://www.deankoontz.com/about-dean/10-questions/june-8-2006.php|archive-date=2008-01-19}}
• Odd Thomas (2013) – starring Anton Yelchin

{{reflist}}

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{{wikiquote}}

• [http://deankoontz.com/ Dean Koontz – The Official Website]
• {{ISFDB name|id=286|name=Dean R. Koontz}}
• {{IBList|type=author|id=408|name=Dean Koontz}}
• [http://efanzines.com/Energumen/Energumen08.pdf Dean Koontz article including information on his erotic books]
• {{IMDb name|nm0465588}}

{{Dean Koontz}}

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Category:1945 births

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Category:People from Everett, Pennsylvania

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Category:21st-century pseudonymous writers