Dean Koontz

When Odd Apocalypse, bestselling suspense author Dean Koontz's fifth novel in his Odd Thomas series about a fry cook with paranormal abilities, came out in the summer of 2012, the author submitted to a Q & A with Irene Lacher for the Los Angeles Times.

Part of the Q & A:

I gather Odd Thomas is your most popular character. Why do you think that is?

I think it's because he's unique to the genre he's in. There were people in my publishing life who were not enamored of Odd Thomas when I turned in the first novel and really didn't want me to write another. And it was my new publisher who said, "I love this. Let's get back to this and round out the series," which is supposed to be seven books.

I think a number of things make him appealing. It's the mix of suspense with humor, the supernatural with gritty realism, and also his humility. Because this is a series of seven books about somebody's journey to perfect humility, and that's what sets him apart from your usual action hero. Now the biggest problem will be when I get to that seventh book and he completes his journey and is a person of complete humility, how am I ever going to write that because I have no experience with complete humility?

So the ending isn't the ending of the character's life? It's the end of his journey in humility?

Let's not say whether it's...[read on]

--Marshal Zeringue