Dean Koontz is ending his popular series featuring Odd Thomas with its seventh installment, Saint Odd.From his USA Today Q & A with Kevin Nance:
Q: Some writers eventually grow weary of their series characters, as Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie famously did with Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot. Were there times when you looked forward to moving on from Odd Thomas?--Marshal Zeringue
A: I liked him so much that I would have been content to write more about him, but you also come to a moment where you realize, "What is there more to be said about him?" But it was never weariness. I got so close to him that when he said something funny, I'd laugh out loud as if I was hearing him say it. Other times, I was sitting here in tears. People who work in the house with us would go by my door and probably thought I deserved to be in an institution, and maybe I do. I said in a tweet at some point, "Finishing him off was like stabbing an old friend in the back. I felt like a swine."
Q. How did you conceive Odd Thomas?
A: He just came into my head completely full-blown. I was working on another novel, and into my mind came the words, "My name is Odd Thomas. I lead an unusual life." And I turned around to a legal tablet that I keep beside me and wrote the lines down. The next thing I knew...[read on]