Author Q&A with Dean Koontz

May 10, 2006

First: In the e-mails you leave for me at the e-mail address given above, I'm being asked to send signed photos, books for charity auctions, and old socks for Old Sock Festivals. I'm happy to do all of that, but I must have a mailing address. Because of the popularity of "Author Q&A," I can't respond to every e-mail and seek addresses where needed. If you're asking for something that has to be sent by snail-mail, either leave an address where the snail can find you, or write to me at the post office box listed below:

Dean Koontz
PO Box 9529
Newport Beach, California 92658

 

Question #1

I just read the advance proof of THE HUSBAND. Wow! INTENSITY moved fast, VELOCITY was fast, but this is a rocket. Fantastic! I adore Mitch. And Holly is a fabulous role-model. All the beautiful references to nature. Do you really know so much about flowers and trees? Will you re-do my yard? --Carmen, Connecticut

Thanks for the effusive review, Carmen. Your check is in the mail. I've been interested in landscape design for at least thirty years. When we landscaped our current home, we had to import 240 trees, large and small, because the land was bare. Gerda and I visited nurseries and selected each specimen, which probably sounds insufferably boring to some folks, but we had a great time. I'm particularly familiar with Pacific Coast and Southwest plants. Last year I received a letter from a guy--let's call him Grump--who said he was sick of encountering bougainvillea in so many of my novels. Bougainvillea is a vine with showy, colorful flowers, cascades of dazzling flowers. We don't have any bougainvillea at our place because it grows faster than weeds and is very difficult to keep under control, but I enjoy it on other people's properties. Grump said the word bougainvillea and the thought of it repelled him every time he encountered it. "By God," he said, "if you don't stop using it in your novels, I'll stop reading them." After advising him to seek psychiatric care, I looked over the manuscript of THE HUSBAND, discovered I hadn't yet used the word bougainvillea, and at once added it to Chapter 23.

Question #2

I just finished FOREVER ODD. This book, like most of yours, is packed full of subtle literary allusions. I probably get a small fraction of them. Does anyone ever notice this? You do intend it, don't you? Or am I crazy? --Maxine, Texas

You may be crazy, Maxine. I don't know you, so wouldn't venture an opinion as to your sanity. Your neighbors and friends have got quite a web site going on the subject--maxinewhatanut.com--but I'm not prepared to make a judgment based on hearsay. I love the idea that I might be packing books full of literary allusions just by chance--like that infinite number of monkeys writing all the plays of Shakespeare, given an infinite length of time--or perhaps while in a trance. A writer of fiction has a deep bag of techniques with which to attempt to affect the reader on a subconscious level. This includes conforming metaphors and similes and imagery to a scheme that supports the underlying themes of a novel and also deepens character as revealed through point of view. It includes reaching for poetic meter now and then to make the prose surge along for a particular effect. And among dozens of other tools, there is literary allusion. None of these are things of which the reader needs to be aware. In fact, the more aware the reader is of them, the less effective they may be. The surface of a piece of fiction should be alluringly illuminated, but there are dimensions that fade down into ever deeper shadow, affecting us less consciously than by washing through the catacombs of the unconscious. After I'd been at this a long time, I realized that no matter how cunning the writer may be, even if he layers the story as exquisitely as a master pastry chef's best phyllo, there will be a layer or two of which he himself is not consciously aware, or perhaps of which he is not aware at all. This is one of the reasons I say that fiction is a mysterious medium and that creating a fictional world puts you in touch with some higher creativity.

Question #3

I once heard you deliver a commencement address. It was very funny. You shared some life-taught wisdom with the graduates. One of the bits of advice you gave was "Never pick a fight with a man who has the words 'Born to Die' tattooed on his forehead." Have you acquired more wisdom as profound as that? --John, Pennsylvania.

Oh, John, I'm full of it. Wisdom, I mean. Let me see... Do not dress up like your mother and stab people to death. There's no future in it. Besides, it's been done, and it's so old-movie. And when you take time to smell the roses, bring your laptop and get some work done, too, or you won't amount to a damn thing. For more wisdom much deeper than mine, visit Trixie's page on this web site, particularly the section titled "Dog Wisdom."

Question #4

What are you currently writing? --Alicia, Kansas

VThe answer to your question.

Question #5

I saw there will be a movie made of THE HUSBAND. Do you have reason to hope Hollywood will get it right this time? They've screwed up your stuff before, you know. --Ian, London

They have? They have screwed up film adaptations of my books? Really? What books? When? Who? Trixie is shaking her head. No, she says. No. She seems to be saying you're wrong, Ian. She seems to be saying you're thinking of another writer. I don't recall any films ever being made from my books, especially not WATCHERS or HIDEAWAY or THE SERVANTS OF TWILIGHT. Trixie puts a paw on my arm and gives me a very solemn stare. She has a very commanding stare, a very deep stare. I feel so relaxed staring into Trixie's eyes. I feel so at peace. No, Ian, you must be wrong. THE HUSBAND will be the first feature film ever made from one of my novels. And I'm very happy with the people who have acquired the rights. I have every reason to think this will be a brilliant film and that even if Hollywood had screwed up my films in the past (which seems to be your bizarre fantasy), this would make up for everything that went before. I'm dealing now with people of substance and taste. Don't look for it in theaters next week, of course. They have to develop a screenplay --and these are people whose artistic aspirations are high--so THE HUSBAND won't be in front of a camera for quite some time yet. But it now does seem as if I'll live long enough to see a first-rate film based on one of my books.

Question #6

I was fascinated by the waitress, Ivy Elgin, in VELOCITY. She has a small part, but she's magical. Would you consider writing an entire novel about her? I guess this is a stupid question. --Rebecca, Seattle

Don't usurp my authority, Rebecca. I'll be the one who decides which questions are stupid. This is not a stupid question. In fact, lots of people have written to me with the same request. And when I finished Chapter 43 of VELOCITY, I felt it was likely that Ivy was going to get the leading role in a future novel. She's a very mysterious, even haunting, character, and I would like to have a look at the world from inside her head. I haven't come up with a story for her, but I can feel it brewing.

Question #7

Will you take me out to pee right now? --Trixie, California

Of course, short stuff. Let's go.

Question #8

If they make a movie of VELOCITY, Ralph Cottle has to be played by Harry Dean Stanton. Were you thinking of him when you wrote the part? Is Harry Dean Stanton alive? Do you know who I mean--Harry Dean Stanton? Can you write back and answer me? I'd really like to know. Will there be a movie? With Harry Dean Stanton? --Roger, New York

Two words, Roger--less caffeine. You might want to adjust your sugar consumption, too. I wasn't consciously thinking of Harry Dean Stanton, the great character actor, when I wrote Ralph Cottle, but you're absolutely right. My friend Stephen Tolkin, the wonderful screenwriter, said the same thing when he read the novel. And it would be perfect casting. I do believe Stanton, a superb character actor, is alive and well. I did recently sign a film option for the rights to VELOCITY, and the producer is planning a revolutionary approach to the material that I'm not permitted to discuss at this time. It's so revolutionary, in fact, that he might never get it off the ground in the way he hopes, but he's been solid in the past, and he's a doer. No matter what, they won't be filming the project tomorrow. They don't even have a script yet. And besides the need to cast, film, and edit it, a lot of time is needed to make all that popcorn and get it to theaters.

Question #9

The dedication in FOREVER ODD has me worried. Did something happen to Trixie? --Jill, Maryland

Unless I just took a ghost dog out to pee, she's fine. Several people wrote with condolences--misinterpreting, I think, the line of the dedication that says Trixie is "an angel on four feet." She has been an angel since the day that she came to us, but always very much alive.. I've made a couple of verb-tense changes in the dedication for the paperback edition, just to avoid confusion. Trixie is 10, turns 11 next October, and with the veterinary care and healthy diet available to dogs these days, she should be with us another five years or more, especially as she is on the small side for a golden, weighing in at 68 pounds, except in those weeks when she cages a few corn chips and extra peanut butter, but even then she has never ballooned to more than 236 pounds.

Question #10

I'd like a sequel to LIFE EXPECTANCY. That book was a page-turner and hilarious. Will you ever write one? --Rafael, Arizona

I'm on record as saying I don't believe in sequels. Yet here I am, finishing the third Odd Thomas novel, working on the third in the Frankenstein series, contemplating a fourth round with Odd, and promising a third Chris Snow. I can't write sequels to everything. When I finished LIFE EXPECTANCY, I wanted to spend more time with the characters, but it seemed that to follow little Rowena on her five special days would require the book to be science fiction if the first of her days, like her father's special days, came in her twentieth year. Then I realized all five special days could come in Rowena's first couple of years, which lets the book take place in our time. So it has been a thought in the back of my mind. But the past few years have brought me more and better ideas than I've ever had before, and I think it's less--not more--likely that I'll do any sequels other than the third Chris Snow and, possibly, other Odd Thomas titles. Thanks for caring, Rafael. May you always have cake, and may you never be troubled by angry clowns.

Next Installment Coming Soon!