A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z
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Life and Works: Dean Ray Koontz was born on 9 July 1945 in Everett, Pennsylvania, to Florence and Ray Koontz. Koontz is one of the best-known names in popular fiction. He is a prolific writer with more than seventy novels to his name in addition to nonfiction books, articles, and short stories. While he considers himself mainly a suspense author, his novels are usually cross-genre, blending elements of suspense, horror, supernatural, science fiction, mystery, satire and romance literature. 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. Several of his books have appeared on the 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. Early in his career, Dean Koontz wrote under an array of pen names, but since the '90s has written mostly under his own name. Few writers have labored as long and as hard as Dean R. Koontz has to achieve his reputation as a writer of high quality commercial suspense fiction. Not only has he produced quality works in a variety of genres, but Koontz has also become a leading advocate for quality writing and creativity, producing two guides for would-be writers of fiction (How To Write Best-Selling Fiction, 1981, and Writing Popular Fiction, 1972). Koontz grew up in poverty under the abuse of an alcoholic father. He started writing at the young age of eight, and sold his works to his family. Koontz graduated from Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania (then known as Shippensburg State College). While in college Koontz converted to the Roman Catholic faith. Dean Ray Koontz married his high school sweetheart, Gerda Cerra, in 1966. That same year he published his first story, "Kittens," in Atlantic Monthly, an auspicious beginning for a young writer. Taking a job as a teacher-counselor in the Appalachian Poverty Program, Koontz published his first stories as a professional writer, "Soft Come the Dragons" and "Behold the Sun," both of which appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. 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. A year later, Koontz worked as a high school English teacher in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, writing after the school day was done. By 1969 he had sold 20 short stories and three short novels, all works of science fiction. That year, he left his job as a teacher to write full-time. In quick succession, more science fiction stories and novels came into print, with his novella Beastchild receiving a 1971 Hugo nomination. In the 1970s, Koontz began publishing mainstream suspense and horror fiction, under his own name as well as several pseudonyms. 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). Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, alongside fiction that continued to appear under his own name, Koontz wrote thrillers, mysteries, romance novels, horror tales, and even science fiction as Brian Coffey, Anthony North, Richard Paige, Aaron Wolfe, John Hill, David Axton, Leigh Nichols, and Owen West. Only in the early 1990s did Koontz give up his various guises, republishing several of his pseudonymous works under his own name. Koontz's acknowledged breakthrough novel was Whispers, published in 1980. Since then, ten hardcovers and thirteen paperbacks written by Koontz have reached #1 on the New York Times Bestseller List. He has often quipped that he encourages fans to collect his novels and stories, as long as they don't actually read them. Film versions of Watchers and other thrillers from the 1980s convinced Koontz to give up on selling movie rights to his work unless he could retain authorial control of the screenplay. His dissatisfaction with film treatments of his work and strong sense of ownership towards it explain in large part why there have been far fewer Koontz novels filmed than those of his counterpart, Stephen King. Koontz is an avid dog lover, and canines (typically an unusually smart Golden or Labrador Retriever) often feature prominently in his works: Fear Nothing, Seize the Night, The Taking, Watchers, Dark Rivers of the Heart, Dragon Tears and One Door Away from Heaven are prime examples. As of 2006, Koontz resides in Newport Beach in California, (where most of his novels are set), with his wife Gerda, and the enduring spirit of their golden retriever, Trixie. |
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