A Model for Character Development

“Books were this wonderful escape for me because I could open a book and disappear into it, and that was the only way out of that house when I was a kid.” – Dean Koontz

When he was a senior at Shippensburg State in Pennsylvania, Dean Koontz won an Atlantic Monthly fiction competition and he’s been writing ever since. His books are published in 38 languages and have sold hundreds of millions of copies.   Born on this date in 1945, he is arguably America’s leading writer of suspense thrillers.

Reading Koontz’s work provides a text on character development and how to draw readers into a story.   “Each reader,” he says, “needs to bring his or her own mind and heart into the text.”

 

Fourteen of his novels have risen to number one on the New York Times hardbound bestseller list, including the mega-selling Strangers, Sole Survivor, and What the Night Knows, making him one of only a dozen writers ever to have achieved that milestone. Sixteen of his books have risen to the number one position in paperback and also been major bestsellers in countries as diverse as Japan and Sweden.         

                                    Koontz said he was abused as a child and because of that has championed causes to help victims of abuse.  “Even in the darkest moments light exists if you have faith to see it,” Koontz said.  “Civilization rests on the fact that most people do the right thing most of the time.”

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