Author Q&A with Dean Koontz

November 19, 2007

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

 

This installment of "Q&A" features eleven questions from the Barnes & Noble readers' group for THE HUSBAND. Most of you visiting this site will not have seen them. Yes, including 11 questions is a profound violation of the protocols of this column, and I deserve a spanking.

Question #1

Will you describe the best breakfast of your life?

An ordinary omelet, inadequate hash browns, and half-burnt toast on the first day of our honeymoon, my first morning as a married man. Gerda and I had dated for over four years--during my senior year in high school, and during the three years that I worked my way through college on an accelerated schedule--so I thought the wedding day would never come. When at last we were married, all seemed right with the world, and some unfortunate hotel food could not mar the morning. Besides, I genuinely like burnt toast.

Question #2

What is your idea of absolute happiness?

A Sunday afternoon nap on the floor with a couple of freshly bathed and sweet-smelling golden retrievers, the sound of their great good hearts when you lay with your head on them.

Question #3

In the For-All-Eternity category, what will be your final thought?

Now it begins.

Question #4

On a clear and cold day, do you typically get outside into the sunshine or stay inside where it's warm?

We live in Newport Beach, California, and when it gets really, really chilly out--say fifty degrees--I like to take a walk in just my shirtsleeves because I'm of pioneer stock, and I am invigorated by such bitter weather.

Question #5

Writers are better liars than other people: true or false? Why or why not?

Generally speaking, most writers are not good liars. They are transparent when they lie. I think this is because so many of them confuse fiction and reality; whereas a good liar always needs to know when he is lying in order to successfully sell the lie.

Question #6

Fahrenheit, Celsius, or Kelvin?

Fahrenheit when I'm cooking, Celsius when I'm sunbathing, and Kelvin plays every month in our poker group.

Question #7

What is your favorite indulgence, either wicked or benign?

Collecting Meiji-period Japanese bronzes. There is no sculpture in the world as exquisite, detailed, beautiful, mysterious, and spiritual as that produced by the Meiji masters.

Question #8

Please describe your latest book.

DARKEST EVENING OF THE YEAR is a suspense novel, a comic novel, a love story, a dog story, a story about the danger to your sanity posed by much twentieth-century literature, a story about the strange order that underlies chaos in both nature and the human experience, a story about loss and redemption, a story about hope and perseverance, a story about Marco the driving blind man and his co-pilot dog Antoine, a story about the meaningful patterns in our lives of which we often remain oblivious, a story about identity and how we become who we are, and a story about the wisdom of always having a Power-Pak II crematorium ready for your use. Until I moved to Bantam Books, each time I delivered a new novel, my publishers would groan and say, "This isn't like your last book, we want each book like all the others, readers like to know exactly what they're getting. Why do you keep doing this to us, what genre is this, how are we supposed to label this?" By contrast, at Bantam, my publisher said, "Well, you do take the train out there where trains don't usually go, but I enjoy the ride." I've long believed that, in spite of conventional publishing wisdom, readers don't want the same book every time from a favorite writer, but want variety as long as they are gripped by the story and can hear the singular voice of that writer at work. So far it's worked for me. If one day readers change their minds, I guess I'll have to get real work.