Dean Koontz

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 Koontz lives with his wife, Gerda, and the enduring spirit of their golden retriever, Trixie, in southern California.

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PAST INTERVIEW

January 14, 2000

Masterful author and quirky character Dean Koontz impresses us yet again with his new book, FALSE MEMORY, a book that is about, among other things, a woman who suffers from a rare and peculiar disease called autophobia --- which the author defines as the fear of oneself. Chilled yet? Only Koontz could juggle the logistics of this odd premise and only TBR Senior Writer Joe Hartlaub could tackle the enviable task of interviewing his favorite author (I don't think he'd stand for anyone else doing the asking). In this interview find out about Koontz's FALSE MEMORY, what an atypical day of writing is like for him (it has to do with walking his pet crocodile), which Koontz books will be peppering the silver screen, and more in the latest and greatest Koontz conversation.

TBR: I'm going to have to confess...my favorite passage in a novel published in 1999 was in FALSE MEMORY, wherein Martie Rhodes, in the grip of an autophobic episode, makes her home "safe."  It read more like a case study account than a work of fiction. Did you go through your home and do an inventory of dangerous objects as preparation for creation of this passage?

DK: A few years ago, when I was writing INTENSITY, I had to do an inventory of the culinary tools and gadgets in an ordinary kitchen. My lead character, Chyna Shepherd, had been fettered, handcuffed, and chained to a kitchen chair and table by serial killer, and she wasn't too keen about waiting around to see what he might serve for dinner. First she freed herself from the table, then from the chair. (By the way, as research, I had myself cuffed and chained to exactly the same table as in the book and spent a looong morning getting loose of it; Chyna managed to free herself more quickly, because she had the advantage of my experience!) Anyway, once free of the table and chair, she was still chained and cuffed, and she needed to find something with which to release the cuff lock. The key opening in a set of handcuffs is too small to accept a knife blade, scissors, or most other things that you might think would work as a makeshift pick. The tines of a fork don't work because you only need one, and the others interfere. After a long, frustrating search, drawer by drawer, I found a set of poultry struts, which worked on my cuffs --- and later on Chyna's. In the course of the search, I gradually became impressed with the fact that everything in a kitchen is, to one degree or another, a reasonably good weapon. Well, with the exception of whisks and rubber spatulas. You wouldn't want to battle an armed intruder with just a whisk. Everything else, however, is wickedly sharp or had the heft and balance to serve as a bludgeon. I suspect it would be a mistake for anyone to mess with Julia Child; she probably knows a thousand ways to cave in your skull and gut you without being in the least distracted from the preparation of a superb crème brulee. Anyway, when I wrote Martie's descent into phobic panic, in FALSE MEMORY, I had her begin her weird odyssey in her kitchen, because I vividly remembered my research for INTENSITY. After that, a quick walk through the rest of the house revealed that, indeed, even the most beautifully decorated, serene, and welcoming room contains a stunning array of fearsome weapons if one has even the most latent talent for homicide.

TBR: Autophobia --- (1) fear of being alone; (2) fear of being egotistical; (3) fear of oneself --- is a personality disorder that has attracted very little attention in the mainstream press.  Was there an impetus for you to use the topic as a vehicle for FALSE MEMORY?

DK: Years ago, while I was doing research for another book on an entirely different subject, I encountered a passing reference to autophobia. Upon first seeing the word, I assumed that those who suffered from this rare condition were afraid of Buicks. When I discovered the real nature of the disorder, I was fascinated. If you're afraid of flying, you don't get on an airplane. If you're afraid of horses, then you don't ride. If you're afraid of female television evangelists, you can avoid turning on the TV every Sunday morning and stay away from the false-eyelashes display whenever passing by the Neiman Marcus cosmetics department. But if you're afraid of yourself, there's nowhere to hide. I knew at once that this was ideal material for a novelist, especially for this novelist, but I needed a few years to figure out how to use it to the best of my abilities.

TBR: On a related note, were there any autophobic-related reference works which you used while writing FALSE MEMORY?

DK: The condition is rare, so I had to fine-comb the psychological literature and subsequently enquire among therapists to find people who had firsthand experience with the disorder. A couple times, I was briefly misunderstood, and because of who I am, the therapist made the assumption that I had at last cracked under the weight of my own dark fiction, and that I was suffering from autophobia myself. And insisting that you're seeking the information only as background for a book can sound suspiciously like the claim that you're inquiring about impotence cures not for yourself but for a friend.

TBR: A shadowy, secondary theme of your novels for some time now has been the behind the scenes involvement of what we will call for simplicity's sake the Institute --- referred to in FALSE MEMORY as the Bellon-Tockland Institute.  The "Institute," while not "onstage," if you will, for long periods of time in your novels, nonetheless exerts considerable influence over events. Do you plan to keep the Institute as a shadowy background figure in your novels, or will you will ever delve at length into the secrets behind the stacked-stone wall?

DK: In the middle of writing FALSE MEMORY, I laughed out loud when I realized that the Bellon-Tockland Institute wasn't a government body but an academic think tank stuffed full of megalomaniacal but well-meaning psychologists and sociologists, funded by a consortium of universities. Not Big Brother, but Big Professor. In the books where The Institute or its equivalent plays a role, I'm making the point that we live in a century during which we have increasingly entrusted the running of society to "experts," because those same experts have convinced us that we're too dumb or too narrowly educated to make sound judgments on many subjects. Yet these experts, these supposedly best and brightest, have routinely let themselves be swept into irrational thought and brutal action by grand theories and by noble-sounding ideologies, resulting in the destruction of freedom, war, and mass murder on a scale unthinkable in previous centuries. I wouldn't doubt that the Institute will show up again, in future books, though there's no such paranoia-inducing organization in the book I'm working on now.

TBR: Do you plan, in the foreseeable future, to return to Moonlight Bay, and more specifically, Christopher Snow, featured in FEAR NOTHING and SEIZE THE NIGHT?

DK: I'm half way through RIDE THE STORM, the third Christopher Snow story, but another book will appear between FALSE MEMORY and RIDE. I must say, I never anticipated the enormously positive response I've received from the first two books. They are different, after all, and the characters in them are unconventional for a suspense novel, so I expected that the tone of these books would seem like a sour note to some readers who wanted only what they've seen before. Yet that hasn't been the reaction at all. I receive about 10,000 letters a year from readers, and in the first year after a book is published, perhaps 5,000 letters will deal specifically with that piece of work. Each of the first two Snow books, however, have drawn nearly double the usual volume of mail, and out of that correspondence, only eleven readers, to date, have complained. Most of those who complained didn't perceive the humor in the books. Since humor is the essential coping mechanism for Chris Snow, since it is at the heart of all his relationships with his friends, and since it is as saturated through the events of the story as is suspense, I'm a little surprised anyone could read the books and not at least recognize the comic elements. You might not share my sense of humor, but I'd expect you to know that with these books --- as with, say TICKTOCK or MR. MURDER --- I'm wearing two hats: my suspense-novelist fedora and my comic-novelist cap with pompon.

TBR: Walk us through a typical writing day for you --- walk us through an atypical writing day.

DK: A typical writing day begins at either 7:00 or 8:30, depending on whether it's my turn to walk with the dog. Trixie, our golden retriever, takes either Gerda or me on a brisk one-hour walk every morning, and in return for giving us this needed exercise, she receives a half hour of brushing, combing, paw-cleaning --- and as much belly rubbing as she can con out of us. I've found that the days I walk Trixie are often the most productive, even though I get to the computer 90 minutes later, because a long walk and grooming with a well-mannered dog is a Zen experience that leaves you refreshed and in a creative frame of mind. I then have breakfast at my desk and work straight through the day until 6:00 or 6:30. I never take lunch, because food at midday leaves me feeling sluggish; happily, this has made it possible for me to keep the 30-inch waistline with which I graduated college --- although skipping lunch hasn't done anything to prevent my face from becoming a textbook example of the pernicious effect of gravity. I don't write a quick draft and then revise; instead, I work slowly page by page, revising and polishing, trimming page 1 repeatedly until I feel I can't do better with pace or language, and only then moving on to page 2. This means anywhere from twenty to fifty passes at each page before proceeding to the next. At the end of each chapter, I print out and pencil the hard copy four or five times, because I see things on the page that I didn't see on the screen. Some days I'm lucky to squeeze out a page of copy that pleases me, but I get as many as 6 or 7 pages on a very good day; the average is probably 3 pages.

DK: An atypical writing day? It's my turn to walk the crocodile. We haven't gone two blocks before it attacks and devours a neighbor. The leash is torn out of my hand, and Homer (the croc) races from street to street as though afflicted by reptile dementia, with me in frantic pursuit. Homer's impetuous gambol ends in tragedy when he is run over by a garbage truck, and my morning is shot because it takes three hours to persuade the operator of the local pet cemetery that a cherished and pampered pet crocodile has every right to be buried among calico cats and cockapoos --- not to mention the half hour required to offer sympathy to the widow of the neighbor who was eaten by Homer and to present her with a properly inscribed copy of my latest novel by way of apology. Exhausted, I return home, wondering how I'm going to break the bad news about poor Homer to Gerda, who was the first to cradle him in her palm when, as a baby, he chewed his way out of his egg and savagely bit her thumb. When I step through the front door, however, I forget all about Homer, because a large amorphous mass or shape changing protoplasm, out of the Jurassic period, is coming across the foyer toward the dining room. Caught, it tries to deceive me by morphing into a nine-foot-tall replica of Richard Simmons and barking out aerobic-exercise command. I have some experience with beasts of this ilk, and I am not so easily fooled. This ensues a violent, at times terrifying, at times tedious, at times horrific, at times sentimental, smelly, muck-spattered, noisy, heart-stopping, kidney-purging epic battle for survival that comes to a sudden halt when Gerda accidentally discovers that the shape changer's supple flesh dissolves into a foul-smelling and lifeless slime if hit with the foamy spray from a shaken can of Diet Pepsi. Then it's after four o'clock when the guys from Ned's Emergency Carpet Cleaners finally leave with all their noisy equipment. When at last I get upstairs to my study, my clone is waiting there with a Glock machine pistol, determined to eliminate me and take my place. The guys from Ned's Emergency Carpet Cleaners aren't a mile away before they have to turn around, come back, and haul all their equipment into the house again. One of the cops and two of the technicians from the medical examiner's office, who are dealing with the lookalike corpse, admit that they are longtime readers of mine, so I have to sign several of the police photographer's polaroids of the dead clone for them. Now it's almost six o'clock; my office carpet reeks of the cedar-based chemicals used to clean it, and I'm a little dizzy. I'm concerned about the cost and disruption that we'll have to incur to repair all the bullet holes in the walls and furniture, and this inhibits my creativity. After an hour at the keyboard, at the start of a new chapter, I've managed only to write four words that please me: The large butternut squash. . . But I have no idea where this scene is going to lead. Is the important issue the size of the squash, it's very largeness? Or should we be more concerned that it is a butternut squash, rather than another variety? Or perhaps the issues of utmost importance is the fact that a squash of any variety or any size will play a major role in this suspense novel. Is this squash an ominous development or a foreshadowing of hope and salvation for the protagonist, or merely a metaphor that will not profoundly affect the plot? By seven o'clock, I need a drink. This atypical writing day is over.

TBR: Do you have any film or television projects in the works?

DK: Filming has wrapped on a miniseries of SOLE SURVIVOR for the Fox network, starring Billy Zane, John McGinley, and Gloria Reuben, and perhaps it will air in the May sweeps if postproduction can be completed in time. In the spring, filming starts on BLACK RIVER, based on my novella of the same; this is supposed to be the first of a series of two-hour movies, each stand-alone, but all exploring events in the same town in northern California. Other things are always percolating, but after too many dreadful film adaptations and only a couple of good ones, I no longer spend any serious time, intellect, or emotional capital on film adaptations. A great movie adaptation would be a pleasure, but I'm no longer at a point in my career where it would have any significant impact.

TBR: What are you reading now?

DK: THE LIFE OF ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE by Daniel Stashower and THE LAST DANCE by Ed McBain. I'm not a nut about Sherlock Holmes, but I've long been intrigued by Doyle. I've read every book McBain -- and Evan Hunter -- has ever written, which must be close to a hundred by now, and I hope he hangs in there to produce another hundred.

TBR: Is there a book you love so much you wish you had written it first?

DK: Lots of them. THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE and DOUBLE INDEMNITY by James Cain, probably twenty books by John D. MacDonald, A TALE OF TWO CITIES by Charles Dickens, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee, THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS by Kenneth Grahame. Hundreds more.

TBR: Can you give us an update on any of your upcoming literary projects?

DK: I'm half finished with RIDE THE STORM, the third Christopher Snow novel, but before that, late this year, Bantam will publish a book that I'll wrap later this spring. It's titled FROM THE CORNER OF HIS EYE, and it's kept me on the edge of my seat and continually surprised from the day I started it. It's been one of those rare stories that goes so well that some days I find myself in a flow state, getting it down with less struggle than usual. Fortunately, there have been no atypical writing days on this one...so far.

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PAST INTERVIEW

February 27, 1997

On February 27, 1997, THE BOOK REPORT welcomed DEAN KOONTZ, whose appearance was so eagerly anticipated that AOL members began camping out in the Coliseum ten hours before the event. The BOOK REPORT interviewers were Marlene Taylor (Marlene T) and Sean Doorly (BookpgSD). Our online host was BookpgXena.

Marlene T: Mr. Koontz, you are a man of many genres.  Which Suspense/Thriller is Dean Koontz?

D Koontz: In my personal life, I'm a comic novel.  But then, so are we all, because we're human beings.

Bookpg SD: How do you handle the discipline of your work --- how do you restrain your absurd sense of self?

D Koontz: I don't always restrain it. There's a book coming out in two weeks called TICKTOCK which deals deeply with the absurd.  As a writer, I like to deal with EVERY aspect of our condition, and that means terror and humor in equal mix.  Some books have more room for humor than others, but after two without much room for humor --- INTENSITY and SOLE SURVIVOR --- I felt it was time to pull out all the stops.

Marlene T: Where did you get such a vivid imagination and what drives it?

D Koontz: The imagination comes from a lifetime of pumping bizarre fiction into myself as a reader.  And part of it is my skewed view of the world.  If you keep your eyes open to the real world around us, there is nothing more bizarre than what happens around us on the street.  Ninety percent of my books are just about that.

Marlene T: What is this bizarre fiction that you read?  Please tell us!

D Koontz: I've read everything, you name it: sci fi, horror, noir. If someone wrote it and it had a peculiar twist, I've read it.

Marlene T: Any specific favorite authors?

D Koontz: My favorite author of all time is John D. McDonald.  I've read everything he wrote four or five times.  If you were to take a poll of writers, he'd be the most influential writer for many.  He broke all the rules --- and got away with it.

BookpgMarL: In the overall field of literature, do you believe the horror genre has gained credibility?

D Koontz: I'm not sure it should WANT credibility!  Most genres have no credibility with "literary" figures.  But let's remember that literary fiction, as a strict Suspense/Thriller, is all but dead.  Meanwhile, most Suspense/Thrillers flourish.

Question: First, may I say, please continue to share with us the magic of your books.  Now for the Question:  Once you have the basic concept for a new book, about how long does it take you to complete it?

D Koontz: Anywhere from five months to a year, but when I'm working on a novel, I work 70-hour weeks.  INTENSITY took about 6 months.  DARK RIVERS OF THE HEART took 11 months and 3 weeks.  I remember the exact period of time because I slept one night out of two during the final week as I was so deeply involved.

Question: Are any of your books based on real-life experiences?

D Koontz: Every book has some real life in it.  I was never pursued by an evil twin clone, but everything else in MR. MURDER was pretty much out of my own life. With the cloning of the sheep, I anticipate being stalked by my evil twin.

Bookpg SD: What do you think of the movies made from your novels?

D Koontz: I once asked my paperback Bantam to do an unusual design with the tie-in edition of HIDEAWAY.   I wanted them to put a little starburst on the cover containing the words A MOVIE FOR MORONS.  However, INTENSITY (which runs on Fox two nights in May) is a great work and, for once, there is no reason for me to call the producer "swine."  I am so happy with what Mandalay did with INTENSITY that I have given them SOLE SURVIVOR without marketing it elsewhere.

Question: I just finished SOLE SURVIVOR and it was great!  I especially enjoyed the depth of Joe's character.  What kind of research was necessary for the in-depth look at the grief process?  It was fascinating, and very real.  Excellent work.

D Koontz: Thank you, thank you, thank you.  When I started SOLE SURVIVOR, I was dumb enough to think that writing about Joe would be easy because his terrible loss would instantly make him empathetic for the reader.  But as I began to write, I realized that if I didn't handle Joe with extreme care he would be so bleak that no one would want to read about him.  For research, I talked to many people who had lost children.... and listened.  What I absorbed from them made it easier to write -- though in the process I heard stories that would break your heart.

Marlene T: Are we ever going to see The Book of Counted Sorrows?

D Koontz: Yes.  I've been pushed by my Bantams to promise delivery for publication in late 1998.  Now librarians all over the country can stop cursing my name!

Question: I know that your life affects your writing, but I'd like to know if writing about the recurring themes of transcendence, hope, and redemption has affected your life?

D Koontz: A writer is what he writes and becomes what he writes.  This is one reason that I have always objected to writing stories that celebrate evil or that show evil as triumphant in the long run.  Evil triumphs in the short run... not across the course of time.  I am always aware of the potential for self-corruption in not taking seriously what you put on the page.

Question: You wrote a very practical book about writing popular fiction.  Is it still in print?  If it is, have you revised it?

D Koontz: It's out of print.  In a year or two or three, I will revise it.  Most of what it said about the marketplace is no longer correct.  I stand by what it said about the craft and technique of writing.

BookpgMarL: Which are more fun to write? Psychological/Thriller stories like INTENSITY or Supernatural stories like those in STRANGE HIGHWAYS?

D Koontz: They are ALL fun to write.  In spite of my reputation as a workaholic, I am a slacker by nature... so if the story wasn't fun to write, I wouldn't be productive.

Question: You are my favorite author, with Stephen King next in line.  He has said that he reads your books.  Do you read his?

D Koontz: Yes.  I have been reading Stephen King since CARRIE and hope to read him for many years to come.

Question: I am curious to know if you realize that what you wrote at the end of SOLE SURVIVOR is almost word for word what you wrote in the foreword of BEAUTIFUL DEATH?   By the way, I love that foreword.

D Koontz: When I got to the end of SOLE SURVIVOR, I realized I had already said this very same thing as well as I could say it, so I plagiarized myself.  The dark side of me is threatening me with a lawsuit!

Question: Does your wife like your books, and does she get scared to death reading them too?

D Koontz: My wife is my first audience.  She's a tough lady, so I can't say that I ever scare her (except, of course, when she sees me the way I look before breakfast).

Marlene T: Is there really an Einstein out there?

D Koontz: All dogs are hugely smarter than they want us to know.  They are the ruling species on the planet... or could be if they cared to take charge.  Like me, however, they are all slackers by nature.  As to whether there is a real Einstein with all the wisdom of the one in the book... I am scratching his ear at this moment.

Question: What was the significance of the elk in INTENSITY?

D Koontz: I knew I'd be asked that!  Chyna is a survivor who always has her little prayer: "Chyna Shepard untouched and alive."  She believes that the elk she sees at two important junctions in the story is a sign that she will be okay if she perseveres. Further interpretation I will not give.  Each reader needs to bring his or her own mind and heart to the text.

Bookpg SD: Why did you drop the R. from your name?

D Koontz: Because my middle name was Rumplestiltskin and if anyone found out, I would have lost ALL my power.  Safer to drop the name.

Question: What is your best book?

D Koontz: I would have to say WATCHERS has a slight edge, but I am also satisfied near as well with LIGHTNING, INTENSITY, DARK RIVERS OF THE HEART and SOLE SURVIVOR.

Question: I would like to ask where you get your insight when you write from the dog's point of view, and will you ever write a sequel to WATCHERS?   Finally, did Mr. Carpenter ever tell the car salesman where he parked the car in SOLE SURVIVOR?

D Koontz: I believe that I was a dog in a past life.  That's the only thing that would explain why I like to snack on Purina Dog Chow.  The only reason I would write a sequel is if I were struck by an idea that I felt to be equal to the original.  Too many sequels diminish the original.  Recently, at a book signing, someone gave me one line that has put my mind to work and there now is a slim chance that I might do a sequel to WATCHERS in a few years.  As for Joe Carpenter and the car..... it was just a junker, basically, but he IS a moral man so I've got to assume that even as he proceeded to save the world, he called the car dealer.

Question: Was Ray Bradbury a major influence in your "carnival" writings?

D Koontz: Ray Bradbury is one of my favorite writers of all time, but my interest in the carnival arose because we lived across the highway from the county fairgrounds.  I was a kid in a very unpleasant home and I dreamed of running away to the carnival. Ever since, I've collected information about carnivals and carneys.

Marlene T: We know Dean Koontz, the writer.  What do you do when you aren't writing?

D Koontz: Sleep.  Collect books.  Sleep.  Most of my life has been spent writing.  And I can't think of anything more interesting to do with my time.  I once tried to watch a football game on TV; it wasn't half as entertaining as struggling with the next paragraph in a novel.  My wife and I like interior design.  We like to collect art and furnishings related to that interest and to educate ourselves in related periods --- we're currently into Art Deco.

Question: Where does ICEBOUND fit in with your other books?

D Koontz: The bigger question is:  Where the hell all of my books fit in with one another? I have spent most of my career "discussing" with Bantams my tendency to work in a wide variety of styles and genres.  Some people may not like the occasional ICEBOUND, but if I didn't write those unusual books I couldn't write the stuff that people like more.

BookpgXena: I'm sorry sorry --- we're out of time. Thank you Mr. Koontz, Marlene, and Sean.

Bookpg SD: This audience loved it all and very much hopes you come again. THANK YOU.  You are always welcome here!

D Koontz: If I'm not abducted by aliens... if I don't get in trouble with the police... if I'm not hauled away and subjected to a forced marriage to Bigfoot... I'll come back.

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PAST INTERVIEW

December, 1998

Having written over 70 books and countless short stories, Dean Koontz keeps getting better and better with every novel he pens. His latest thriller, SEIZE THE NIGHT --- a sequel to FEAR NOTHING --- is a novel that can just as easily stand alone. The following interview, brilliantly engineered by TBR's Joe Hartlaub, is amazingly candid and consistently clever. Koontz will dazzle you --- and maybe even frazzle you --- with his pun-filled monologues and witty word play.  Discover how this prolific author keeps his writing from getting stale (preview: it has to do with toaster ovens), where his influences come from --- the dead ones anyway --- and how he learned all the fascinating surfer lingo found in SEIZE THE NIGHT. So seize this opportunity to learn more about this truly amazing writer.

TBR: SEIZE THE NIGHT hits the bookstores December 29th.  It has been out for a while in the UK.  Any reason why was it released there first?

DK: British hardcover sales can be tremendously boosted by being in the Christmas market, more so than here, and my U.S. Bantam, who wants to land in stores after Christmas, is gracious enough to allow the British to go first in their market. I wish I had a more exciting answer, but that's all there is to it. I wish I could say it's all part of a plot by evil extraterrestrials, but it's not. I wish I could say that my British publication date was predicted by Nostradamus as a precursor to Doomsday, but that would be a lie. I wish I could say that Big Foot was involved in this somehow, because I really don't trust Mr. Foot, I really don't, but as far as I know, he's not had a role in the discontinuity of my British and American publication dates, though I'm dead-solid sure that he had something to do with the cheese missing from my refrigerator.

TBR: There are a number of things I wanted to ask you about SEIZE THE NIGHT.  While it is a sequel to FEAR NOTHING, it stands well on its own, and in fact contained several subplots that could easily have spun --- or be spun --- off into other novels. Will we be visiting Christopher Snow and Moonlight Bay again in the near future?

DK: When I started to write SEIZE THE NIGHT, I set two goals for myself in addition to those I always have when embarking on a new novel. First, I wanted it to stand entirely alone, so you could read it without first reading FEAR NOTHING and nevertheless find it entirely self-contained and satisfying. In, say, a detective-novel series, it's easy to make every book stand alone, because each involves a new case, and there's no complex story and character arc spanning multiple novels; but in a trilogy like this, there are plot, character, and theme arcs, so making every volume a complete experience is tough. My editor and I think SEIZE THE NIGHT is essentially a hundred percent successful at this, and advance reviews seem to agree. Second, I wanted anyone who read SEIZE THE NIGHT to be able then to read FEAR NOTHING without having it spoiled for them. I think I was about 90% successful with this one, protecting most of the story line of the first book, although inevitably the central premise of book one must be revealed early in book two. These goals, in addition to the usual challenge of writing a story as well as I possibly can, made SEIZE THE NIGHT the hardest thing I've done in a while. During the writing, I found myself wallowing in deep, murky pools of angst, wading through an endless sludge of self-doubt, through a slough of despond, through an oily murk of despair. But at last I finished the manuscript, burned my writing clothes, took a long hot shower, immersed myself in a vat of antiseptics, drank a bottle of cologne, and made myself fairly presentable again.

TBR: Christopher Snow is an incredibly unique character.  He is unable to tolerate light due to a condition called xeroderma pigmentosum (XO). He could easily be sitting around all day feeling sorry for himself.  Instead he switches his days and nights around, leads a full life, has many friends --- and when one of them needs help, he doesn't hesitate for a second, he jumps into the situation with both feet and gets the job done.  He reminded me, in a very remote way, of the pulp hero Doc Savage.  Snow's friends also to some extent reminded me of the cast Doc assembled around himself.Were you drawing on Doc as a prototype or is Snow a combination of divergent elements?

DK: I've never read Doc Savage, so I can't claim it's an influence. For more than a decade, however, Gerda and I have worked with charities for the disabled, especially with Canine Companions for Independence, and I've found that many of even the most severely disabled tend to be more in love with life, more optimistic, and lese self-pitying than one hell of a lot of people who have the full use of all limbs and senses. That's why I created the eleven-year-old disabled girl, Regina, as the linchpin of HIDEAWAY, and Thomas --- the Down's syndrome boy--- as the thematic focal point of THE BAD PLACE. In my experience, their indomitability is not merely a nice conceit for a piece of fiction; It's the truth, it's the way so many disabled people really are, and it's inspiring. They serve as a symbol of all humanity's courage in the face of death. But the primary reason I like to write about the disabled is because I'm always looking for characters who are absent from other fiction, people who rarely if ever get written about in either popular or literary novels. That's one reason I tackled a Vietnamese American character in TICKTOCK and a grief-shattered suicidal man as the lead in SOLE SURVIVOR. Getting inside the head of a character unlike those who usually inhabit novels is both a challenge and a thrill.

TBR: Speaking of influences --- and SEIZE THE NIGHT is so much fun that I don't want to give anything away here --- I detected a subtle Lovecraftian influence in SEIZE THE NIGHT.  You mention Lovecraft directly in the book.  You sneak a mention of Brian Lumley in it as well.  My favorite subtle reference of yours, however, was to William Hope Hodgson.  His book HOUSE ON THE BORDERLAND was actually the first book in that genre that I read, even before Lovecraft.  He regrettably isn't as well known as Lovecraft.  Was Hodgson an early influence on you or someone you've discovered recently?

DK:  Oh, yeah, I had a Lovecraft period big time, in my teens, just as did Chris Snow and Bobby Halloway in FEAR NOTHING and SEIZE THE NIGHT. These books are peppered with allusions to different streams of American culture. There are webs of quiet references to 20th-century poetry, most of which only hard-core poetry fanatics are going to notice (all four of you); lines and images and philosophies that are distilled out of almost fifty years of rock-and-roll; an obvious matrix of surfer lore and lingo, but also a less obvious stew of allusions to the mythical underpinnings of the surfer culture, and then lots and lots of allusions to the --- oh, let's call it the --- dark suspense genre. I'm not surprised that the reference to Brian Lumley was noticed, but I'm knocked out that you picked up on the fact that Bill Hodgson is a reference to William Hope Hodgson! You know your stuff! The inside of your head must be a musty, crammed-to-the-rafters, attic storehouse of the weird, like mine! THE HOUSE ON THE BORDERLAND is my favorite haunted house story of all time and unquestionably the creepiest. I read it when I was about nineteen or twenty, and it scared the kidney fluid out of me. It's also a parallel-world story, in a way, a door-to-otherwhere yarn, and we know why that makes Hodgson the perfect name for the character in SEIZE THE NIGHT. Although I've said a million times that I'm not a horror writer, and although I would argue to the death (a cruel and hideous death) that I am not a horror writer, I do like horror and have always hoped one day to write a sort of modern version of THE HOUSE ON THE BORDERLAND that would capture the total whacked-out eeriness of Hodgson's generally --- and undeservedly --- obscure masterpiece.

TBR: If it's okay with you, I'd like to touch on another subject.  You have created an incredible body of work, both in terms of quality and quantity.  Over a 30 year period you have averaged better than two novels per year.  This, of course, does not take into account your short fiction and your nonfiction books.  I have two questions relating to this.  First of all, what sort of writing discipline, or schedule, have you created for yourself?

DK: I sit down at my keyboard at 7:30 in the morning, and I work until dinner, with no lunch break. Indeed, my protracted absences from the kitchen allow the aforementioned nefarious Mr. B. Foot to steal the cheese and other treats with little fear of being caught in the act. I find that long sessions allow me to settle more deeply into character and setting, to see and feel the fictional world more fully. Strangely, ten- or eleven- hour sessions don't tire me; in fact, they energize me, and I'm often more excited about a scene at the end of a long day than I was when I sat down to it in the morning, I love the possibilities of language, the gracefulness and suppleness of English, so while storytelling is - make no mistake! --- hard work, it is also a form of play.

TBR: Secondly, how have you managed to avoid becoming "stale" or "burned-out?"

DK:  I have avoided becoming stale by putting a little water on the plate, lying on the plate, and having myself "refreshed" in a toaster oven for twenty-three minutes once every month. Twenty-one minutes is too little, and you risk staleness; twenty-four minutes is too long, and you risk becoming too crisp, thereafter given to writing only minimalist short-short stories and haiku. Other than that, I find it helps to give myself new challenges with every book. If I do things I've never done before, if I raise the bar higher book by book, if I drive myself to the brink of my ability, then I don't get stale or bored. Plus I sprinkle myself with just a little cinnamon from time to time.

TBR: I find one thing incredibly interesting.  When your story MOUSE IN THE WALLS OF THE GLOBAL VILLAGE was published in Again, Dangerous Visions, Harlan Ellison in his introduction to your story predicted --- and this was in 1972 --- that if you continued as you had, in the next five to seven years you would rise to the pinnacle of "One-Mansmanship" --- the perch were you would be the only man doing Dean Koontz stories, where you had the corner on a market demanding Koontz fiction.  And he was pretty much dead-on with his prediction.  Besides Harlan, did you have anyone else who was prescient enough at that time to predict how far you would go?

DK: Harlan is a visionary, a seer, a superprescient prognosticator, a prophet with honor, a soothsayer seething with soothe to say, a foreteller with formidable forelocks, a geomancer (who once sold Geos on television!), an haruspex who can see more in an animal's entrails than the rest of us might learn from reading every volume in the Library of Congress, and just a total know-it-all. In truth, considering that I wasn't a very good writer in my early days, I'm not sure what Harlan saw that no one else --- including me ---saw, but he turned out to be right. I hate telling Harlan he's right. He's spent his life being right about too many things. His head's already so large he has trouble getting through doorways. I don't want to be responsible for additional enlargement of his cranium, because he'll probably send me a bill for all his new hats.

TBR: You also wrote an introduction to MOUSE, stating that you were beginning, in 1972, to branch out into mainstream novels and suspense novels.  You also indicated that you wanted to see some of your suspense and mainstream work on film.  As we sit here some 26 years later, it appears that you have accomplished everything that you set out  back then to accomplish.  Are there any of your books that haven't been made into movies that you would like to see made into screenplays?

DK: I sure haven't accomplished what I wanted to in film. Most of the adaptations have been trash, reels of suppurating celluloid, and in some cases (notably HIDEAWAY), I've spent more agony in legal fees trying to get my name off the picture than I was paid for the rights in the first place. But the miniseries of INTENSITY was a terrific piece of work, and the miniseries of MR. MURDER (on ABC in April) is also exceptionally good. SOLE SURVIVOR is shaping up in development right now, and we're negotiating a deal on a one-hour series and a series of related two-hour movies that promise to be exciting and well-made if they happen. My problem was selling rights to people who didn't understand the material. I'm not making that mistake any longer, and perhaps I'll have a second chance in Hollywood.

TBR: What can we look forward to in the way of television or film adaptations of your books within the next year? Any plans for a screenplay of FEAR NOTHING or SEIZE THE NIGHT?

DK: The aforementioned MR. MURDER is the only thing finished at the moment. We're not putting the Snow trilogy out to the film market until the third book is done --- and even then, if there's interest, I'm going to be wary about entrusting it to anyone. Aside from whatever price a producer might pay, I expect a mortgage on his soul. These characters are too important to me to see happen to them what happened to WATCHERS in the Hormel-fisted care of Mr. Roger Corman.

TBR: In FEAR NOTHING and SEIZE THE NIGHT you incorporate quite a bit of surfer lingo into the narrative, have you picked this up by osmosis, by research, or are you surfing twelve hours a day?

DK: Because Gerda and I had been working such long hours for so many years, we found it difficult --- impossible! --- to take time off, We worked straight through the weekends. Finally, three years ago, we decided to buy a house on the water, a smaller getaway place only twenty minutes from where we live during the week, a house in which work would never be allowed. No computers. No reference tomes. A phone with a number unknown to anyone but us. No clothes except Hawaiian shirts and hula skirts. No books except light reading. No serious food. No sharp instruments. This house just happened to be near one of the most famous surfing spots along the California coast, and soon I found myself listening to the richest and most fascinating lingo I'd ever heard. I knew this was golden material, and as Chris Snow was in the development stage, suddenly it seemed exactly right that he would be a surfer, albeit a night surfer.

TBR: I have to ask this, though it is an unfair question --- of your entire body of work, what is your favorite book?  And what, if any, is the book you wish you had never written?

DK: I've got a long list of books I wish I'd never written --- and I've kept them all out of print for the past twenty years. My personal favorites? That's tough, and I might alter the list somewhat a month from now. But probably WATCHERS, LIGHTNING, INTENSITY, THE BAD PLACE, MR. MURDER, DARK RIVERS OF THE HEART, COLD FIRE, and the first two books of the Snow trilogy, FEAR NOTHING and SEIZE THE NIGHT. That's more than five, but I'm shameless.

TBR: What writers have influenced you the most?

DK: The only fair thing in answering this question is to limit the list to the dead: Charles Dickens, John D. MacDonald, James M. Cain, Robert Heinlein, Raymond Chandler, Kenneth Grahame (THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS).

TBR: What books are you reading now?

DK: A history of string cheese. I forget the author. And Jim Harrison's THE ROAD HOME.

TBR:  Are you working on anything new right now, and if so can you tell us about it?

DK: I am always working on something, even if just darning holes in my socks. Fortunately, all my socks are currently mended, and I'm able to concentrate on fiction. I never discuss a novel while I'm writing it, for fear that talking about it will diminish my desire to write it. I guard my current story the way Rumpelstiltskin guarded his name, as if revealing it before I've finished working on it might give you some magic power over me. You're an astute and clever interviewer, so I suspect I would be at mortal risk if I gave you the chance to possess a magic power over me. Next thing you know, I'd be transformed into a frog, a slug, a mad hyena, a gherkin marinating eternally in a Heinz bottle with a bunch of other damn gherkins.

TBR: Do you give books as gifts during the holidays? If you could receive a book as a gift this season, what would you want?

DK: Yes, I do give books as gifts sometimes, when people would rather have one than a new Ferrari. What book would I like to receive? Anything well written. Any genre. Fiction or nonfiction. Just so it grips, contains truth, and lifts me up.

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