New York Time’s Best Selling author, Dean Koontz, is known for his stories of suspense and revelation, told with humor and heart.
What he is not as readily known for is his ability to do a darn good interview.
I was lucky enough to discover this when he agreed to answer some questions for my blog.
His answers were so good, in fact, that rather than share them here on my personal blog, I shared them instead at the Visionary Fiction Alliance, a blog I share with other visionary fiction writers.
To read Part One of my interview, click HERE.
Below is the introduction to Part Two of that interview.
Interview with Dean Koontz: “Metaphysics are the ink in my pen.”
Genre is a subjective marketing category that often misleads rather than informs.
Some books defy classification, especially books by Dean Koontz.
How do you pin down stories that fit at least a dozen marketing labels, including: Action, Adventure, Crime, Horror, Humor, Mystery, Philosophical, Science Fiction, Speculative, Thriller, Urban, and, yes, Visionary Fiction?
No one could have been more surprised than I was at finding principles of quantum mechanics and elements of visionary fiction in the work of mega-popular author Dean Koontz.
On reading my first Koontz novel, titled Watchers, I was prepared for the kind of “rip-roaring, rattling-good story” that “keeps you so far out on the edge of your chair that you have butt bruises from repeatedly falling to the floor” (Dean’s words, not mine). However, it delivered much more. I found myself repeating “Wow!” over and over in reaction to the depth and meaning interwoven almost subliminally throughout the book.
In the afterword to Watchers, Dean Koontz said, “We have within us the ability to change for the better and to find dignity as individuals rather than as drones in one mass movement or another. We have the ability to love, the need to be loved, and the willingness to put our own lives on the line to protect those we love, and it is in these aspects of ourselves that we can glimpse the face of God; and through the exercise of these qualities, we come closest to a Godlike state.”
Yet, no matter how much I’d like to claim Watchers as a prime example of visionary fiction, it does NOT contain all the elements of VF. Any attempt on my part to classify Dean Koontz’s novels under a single genre label, except maybe “Best Seller,” is as impossible as trying to emulate his work.
That said, to not point out the visionary aspect of Koontz’s novels, especially From the Corner of His Eye, One Door Away From Heaven, Odd Thomas, The Face, Innocence,and The City, means that his books may be going unread by many of the general public who balk at the word “horror” associated with his work.
In Part One of my interview with Dean Koontz, we discussed his efforts to avoid any genre label and why every writer should write for himself.
Click HERE to join me for the Part Two of our discussion and decide for yourself if this cross-genre writer has the heart of a visionary.
As always, thanks for stopping by,
