In his just released newsletter, Dean Koontz says this about his newest novel, “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.”
You can sign up for his newsletter here (it’s under the Contacts tab): Dean Koontz Newsletter
