The Write Stuff — Insights
August 3, 2009
Not for the Faint of Heart
I have been asked how much research into transplant surgery I did before writing YOUR HEART BELONGS TO ME. I would like to reveal that, in the interest of accuracy and the accumulation of vivid detail, and because I bring total commitment to my writing, I underwent a heart transplant myself, even though I didn't need one. This would be a lie, however, and people without a sense of humor would write by the hundreds to accuse me of taking a perfectly good heart needed by some patient who really needed it. Full Article
August 3, 2009
All About Anna
Ten months after losing Trixie, Dean and Gerda were ready to bring a new dog into their lives. At that time, in May of this year, the Canine Companions for Independence division in Oceanside had a young golden retriever, sent to them from the Northwest division, that they had decided to release from their program. Full Article
August 3, 2009
The Darkest Ice Cream of the Year
I once said writing a novel is sometimes like making love and sometimes like having a tooth pulled--and sometimes like making love while having a tooth pulled. Full Article
August 3, 2009
Starring Dean Koontz? You've Got to be Kidding!
My publisher's Creative Marketing Department lives up to its name in every regard: The folks there are creative, they know marketing, and they have their own department. Considering that they also have to put up with me, they would be well advised to rename themselves the Patient Creative Marketing Department. Full Article
August 3, 2009
ABOUT ODD THOMAS
So I was in the middle of writing THE FACE, polishing page 345 of the manuscript, focused to such an intense degree that even an attack by a pack of wolverines failed to distract me from the keyboard (a team of out-call physicians treated me in my office chair: 124 stitches, a series of rabies shots, a procedure to reattach my left foot, and nine operations by a plastic surgeon to reconstruct my nose - all of which cost me only four hours of writing time.) Although the pesky - and mystifyingly hostile - wolverines couldn't distract me from THE FACE, my ever Full Article
August 3, 2009
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING ODD
When I wrote ODD THOMAS, the title character came to me fully formed, as if he were a real person whom I had known all my life. No character in any of my previous novels led me through his story with such grace, with his voice unfailingly strong in my mind's ear, making revelations about himself and his family that were surprising - even shocking in some instances - yet seemed inevitable to me the moment they were made. Full Article
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