Dean Koontz in Second Life

From the BDD Web site:
"Not only has Dean Koontz completed THE GOOD GUY (coming in hardcover 5/29) but he’s also ready to read some of it to you. Dean will be appearing—rather, his avatar will be appearing—in SECOND LIFE on Thursday, 3/15, at 6pm (PST), as the first-ever “Bantam Dell Authors-in-Second-Life” event. Already a member of Second Life? Visit The Bantam Dell Book Shop in Second Life for more details."

Here's a great question for your reference staff:

"What does the rest of the library staff know?"

Since arriving at NLC I've been meeting with different department heads, partially to get to know them personally, partially to get to know what they and their department do here, and partially for them to get to know what my skills are. Yesterday, I met with Lisa the head of Reference & ILL. At the end of our conversation she had one more question for me: "What else are you interested in or know a lot about?" At first this was an odd question but she quickly explained. The reference staff here likes to keep track of what other people in the building know in order to help with reference questions. For example, if there's a baseball question it goes to the major ball fan in the building. Should they ever get a Dean Koontz question, or a question about a SF or horror author, they'll probably head my way in the future.

The ultimate point is to know your available resources. (Hey, I think I wrote that back in 2000?) In some cases, your resources may be sitting right next to you or just down the hall.

PaperCuts & Horror

Every time I present on blogs I give a shout out for Paper Cuts, the blog from the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library describing it as "the single best public library blog in existence." Today, the post about Evil Reborn by Douglas Clegg made me add another reason it's so great to my list, one that I had in the back of my mind but hadn't verbalized before: someone there likes the horror genre.

I realize I'm in the minority, but a growing one, that likes horror books. I'm not talking just your old King and Koontz standbys, but also Clegg, Lee, Garton, Laymon, Lumley, Ketchum, Sarrantonio, and Hutson. Sometimes, the more outrageous and the bigger the splatter radius the better. The fact that someone at PaperCuts is even aware of the Harrow House series just flat out impresses me. Yes, I'm biased, but ask yourself this, what is your library doing to promote the horror genre other than the annual Halloween display of vampire novels.

Borders: Weekly In-Store Coupons

This week's Borders coupons page contains a broken link to the coupon for Dean Koontz's Brother Odd. I figured out the problem, the "K" in the URL shouldn't be capitalized, so the coupon's correct URL is http://f.chtah.com/i/9/276579820/koontz.htm.

Wikipedia does RSS!

Finally, you can get RSS notification of changes to Wikipedia articles! Find it in the toolbox on the left of any article history page.
Via LibrarianInBlack

Update

To clarify a statement made in this post from September 2005, Tim Powers will not be writing the introdcution to Dean Koontz Encyclopedia. (That book is by someone else, not to be confused with my Collector's Guide to Dean Koontz.)

Brother Odd by Dean Koontz

Brother Odd by Dean Koontz
Originally uploaded by travelinlibrarian.

Amazon is now taking orders for this third "odd" book to be released on 28 November 2006.

Dean Koontz book update

I've received some new information which leads me to believe that the book is on indefinite hold in the best case and dead in the worst case. I'm in contact with all involved and as soon as I have some solid information that I can talk about I'll post it here. There's no reason to demand a refund at this point and I beg your continued patience when it comes to this project. Thanks for your understanding.

Data Visualization: Pulp SF style

Take a few thousand classic SF magazinecovers, mix in some programming and you end up with an interesting mix of data and images. (Find me one with a Dean Koontz story in it and win a mention here. A screenshot of your find will be appreciated.)

New Dean Koontz book

Just stumpled over a listing for The Husband on Amazon.ca. No real details, just a CA$27 coverprice and a May 30, 2006 publication date.

Writing assignments

A lot happened on the writing front today. I've been asked to contribute a chapter to a forthcoming book (tentatively titled A Day in the Life) about careers in LIS. I'll be writing about a "typical" day in my position. (This ought to be interesting...)

Later in the afternoon I was contacted by someone who's been helping me with The Collector's Guide to Dean Koontz (no, I don't know when it'll be out yet) requesting that I write the forward to his Dean Koontz Encyclopedia. Considering Tim Powers will be writing the introduction, I was honored and accepted the assignment immediately.

Also, WebJunction has agreed to publish two more articles of mine. One on cleaning up Quicktime and another on how to create Firefox search extensions. I'll post links as soon as they're available.

Velocity by Dean Koontz

Velocity by Dean Koontz
Originally uploaded by travelinlibrarian.

Today I received my numbered limited edition of Dean Koontz's Velocity, published by Charnel House. More details available by clicking on the photo.

But would you want to?

Looks like Australians can start reading titles from HarperCollins title on their cell phones using thier new MobileReader starting today. Since one of the first titles is Velocity by Dean Koontz I would be willing to give it a try but I seem to be on the wrong continent for the service.

Publishing updates

• XHTML & CSS Essentials for Library Web Design
  The book is being typeset and I should receive proofs for final proofreading and indexing by the end of next week.
• Blogs & RSS: A Librarian's Handbook
  The second full draft has been turned in.
• The Collector's Guide to Dean Koontz
  Who knows... But I do have an interested third-party (who know's Dean personally) who's offered to contact him about the delay in getting back to me. I'll post more as soon as I know it.

Dean Koontz update

My lettered copy (M) of Life Expectancy arrived today from Charnel House. "Hand bound in red Morocco leather with a circular silver leather onlay cut to allow the V! to come through in red leather, a sewn silk book marker holding a brass grommet, and housed in a traycase bound in circus tent canvas with a red leather label in the shape of a star stamped in 22kt. gold"

RE: Lack of posts

For those of you wondering why I've not been posting much this week, here's some of the story.

To be honest, this has been a very rough week for me. I've put my house up for sale despite not yet having another job lined up. I've done that for a couple of reasons. Mainly for the fact that I'd rather be stuck in an apartment for an indefinite amount of time before finding a new job than to find one in another city and be stuck with a house back in Aurora.

The situation is stressful enough. In addition, I've had to rearrange my house, pack up 99% of my Dean Koontz collection, and 75% of my CDs to make the house "more appealing to buyers". Trouble is, it no longer feels like my home. I'm out on the road for 10 straight days, and I'm not sure I'm looking forward to going back to the house that doesn't feel like mine any more. Technically it is, but it doesn't feel like mine, and I feel like I'm not allowed to touch anything for fear of ruining the chances of someone buying it.

So, I'm in a bit of a funk right now. If you've e-mailed me and have not yet received a reply, it's nothing personal, I'm just trying to wrap my head around some major changes and don't have much energy for other things right now.

Dean Koontz news

The new paperback edition of Hideaway (shown right) is scheduled for a July 5, 2005 release. I'm assuming it will include a new afterword by Dean as the other re-releases have.

Dean Koontz updates

I took a look at my Amazon.com WIsh List this morning and found the following scary bit:

After a quick search it seems that maybe Amazon.com had the wrong ISBN, or Bantam changed it for some reason. The ISBN 0-553-84069-X has been discontinued. However, the paperback edition of The Taking is now listed under 0-553-58450-2.

According to IBBN.nu Berkley will be releasing a new printing/edition of Hideaway with a $7.99 cover price on July 5th. No further details are avialable at this time. If you know anything please send the information my way.

Dean Koontz update

The first book in the Frankenstein series was released today as a paperback original. According to information in the back of the book The Taking will be release in paperback on May 26th and the co-author for the second Frankenstein book will be none other than Ed Gorman(!). As for the collector's guide, I'm still waiting to hear from Dean.

Dean Koontz question

O.k. Dean Koontz collectors, help me out here. I found this recently in a Putnam Trade Hardcover (first printing) and can't figure out the history of the darn thing. Does anyone know anything about these illustrated signature sheets. It wasn't bound into the book, there's no numbering, or anything else. How may were there? Were they originally with this edition? Were they only given out at an event? Does anyone know anything. I've got a copy of the October 1993 issue of Firsts magazine with the collecting Dean Koontz article for the first person who can give me solid information. (I'll also credit you in the book!)

Dean Koontz book update

Three bits of Koontz news today:

• The cover for Velocity is now up at Amazon.com. It's of a minimalist design but somehow impressive to me.
• Amazon.com is also listing book two in the Frankenstein series City of Night. Unfortunately, it's not coming out until July 26, 2005.
• The four editions of Life Expectancy released today have been added to the book. (trade hardcover, large print hardcover, cassettes, and CDs)
• The Holiday 2004 issue of Useless News arrived in my mailbox today. All items from this issue have been added to the book.

Koontz book update

I just received an advance copy of Strangers in the mail today. I'll try to post a scan of it in the next few days.

And, don't forget, Life Expectancy comes out tomorrow.

Koontz book update

I've added the ARC of Life Expectancy to the ms.

Koontz update

When I got back from conference my ARC copy of Life Expectancy was waiting for me. I'm two hours for a book signing (Jeff Sharra) so as soon as I've made a few posts I'll be starting it.

Dean koontz book update

The following items have been added to the book:

• Odd Thomas paperback
• Angel of Darkness by Charles de Lint
• The Pavilion of Frozen Women (UK) by S.P. Somtow
• "A Halloween Message from Trixie Koontz, Dog"

Yes, I'm still waiting to hear back from Dean...