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Dean Koontz Facts

Dean Koontz Facts
Dean Koontz, a famous best-selling American novelist, was born on July 9th, 1945 in Everett, Pennsylvania. He was born Dean Ray Koontz, to Florence and Raymond Koontz. He grew up suffering abuse at the hand of his alcoholic father, but his mother showed him courage in her efforts to stand up to her husband. This is said to have influenced his writing. He won an award for his writing from the Atlantic Monthly Magazine while attending university, and worked as an English teacher after graduating in 1967. Dean Koontz wrote his first novel, a science fiction book titled Star Quest in his spare time. It was published in 1968, and his writing career blossomed.
Interesting Dean Koontz Facts:
Dean Koontz married Gerda Ann Cerra on October 15th, 1966.
Dean Koontz's wife supported him financially for five years so that he could focus on writing. The deal was that he would go back to work if his writing career did not take off in that time. It did.
Dean Koontz has written under many pen names including Aaron Wolfe, Brian Coffer, David Axton, Deanna Dwyer, John Hill, K.R. Dwyer, Leigh Nichols, Anthony North, Owen West, and Richard Paige.
Novels are not the only form of writing by Dean Koontz. He also writes short stories, poetry, and screenplays.
Dean Koontz writes in a variety of genres including thriller, horror fiction, suspense, and science fiction.
Dean Koontz wrote one episode for the television show CHIPs, called "Counterfeit", which resulted in an offer to write for the show. Dean declined to focus on his novels. Dean used the pseudonym Brian Coffey because his script for the show was butchered and he didn't want his name on the episode's credits.
Dean Koontz's first bestselling novel was Demon Seed, a horror and science fiction novel that was first published in 1973. Dean Later rewrote the book, which was released in its new form in 1997. Both books have the same basic plot but are written from different points of view. The book was also adapted for film and released in 1997.
Dean Koontz's published novels include several series including the Black Cat Mysteries/ Mike Tucker Series, the Moonlight Bay Series, the Odd Thomas Series, the Odd Thomas Graphic Novel Prequels, and the Frankenstein Series.
Dean Koontz has had more than 75 pieces of short fiction published since 1965 when his story titled This Fence was published in Shippensburg University's magazine The Reflector.
Dean Koontz has had non-fiction books published in addition to his immense body of fiction, including How to Write Best Selling Fiction (1981), and Writing Popular Fiction (1972).
Dean Koontz has had more than 100 books published in his career to date.
At least 14 hardcover novels and 14 paperback novels written by Dean Koontz have reached the number one position on the New York Times Bestseller List.
Dean Koontz's books have sold more than 450 million copiDean Koontz won the Ross Macdonald Literary Award in 2003, and the World Horror Convention Grand Master Award in 1996.


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