Dean Koontz takes surprising turns with new novel

Best-selling author Dean Koontz writes often and lovingly about the dogs in his life, including three golden retrievers who retired or otherwise needed a “career change” from Canine Companions for Independence, an organization he has long supported.

So it will come as no surprise to fans that his new novel, “The Friend of the Family,” features a pooch in a significant role. Maybe the biggest surprise is that this dog, who bears the angelic name Rafael, is a German shepherd.

“I have this habit that the dogs in my books are all golden retrievers,” said Koontz, who has written more than 140 works of fiction, including more than a dozen New York Times No. 1 best-sellers.

“Readers write me and ask, ‘Could you please put in this breed or that breed?’ So once in a while, I break down and put another breed in.”

“I like writing about dogs simply because dogs are a great humanizing force,” Koontz said in a Zoom interview from his home in Irvine, California, with his current retriever, Elsa, stretched out patiently behind him. “They’ve been with us thousands of years, and they know us so amazingly well.”

Elsa “knows my moods before I do,” Koontz said. “If I’m getting into a dour state of mind, that’s when she suddenly wants more cuddling than usual. And I’ve realized it’s not for her, it’s for me.”

Nearly six decades after publishing his first story in a magazine, Koontz still surprises. “The Friend of the Family,” a literary thriller set mostly in the 1930s, marks his first foray into the realm of magical realism, as well as the first time Koontz has ventured so far into the past for a historical setting.

“I have a low boredom threshold, and I’m always sort of switching up,” Koontz said. While Koontz is sometimes labeled as a horror writer in the mold of his contemporary Stephen King, his novels incorporate elements of science fiction, spirituality, fantasy, and suspense, sometimes all in the same volume.

Koontz joins Northwest Passages on Jan. 31 to discuss his new novel live on screen at the Bing Theater.

“The Friend of the Family” is narrated by Alida, episodically unfolding the story of her life as an attraction in a “freak show” managed by the despicable Captain Forest Farnam, who virtually enslaves her from a very young age, presumably after she is abandoned by her parents.

At 17, Alida is rescued from her traveling carnival life of misery by two Hollywood producers. They spirit her away to their Los Angeles estate, where she settles in with a household including three charming children and a colorful cast of servants.

Koontz said he was inspired to create his compelling lead character largely by elements of his own life, including what he described as a “very unpleasant childhood,” raised in poverty with a “violent, alcoholic father.”

He said his boyhood home in Pennsylvania was across from the county fairgrounds, which was visited annually by a famous carnival, known as James E. Strates Shows.

“The carnival was a deep fascination to me, a fantasy of running away with it,” Koontz said. “And that’s always been in my background. I’ve learned a great deal about carnivals.”

A second inspiration came from his decades of working with the nonprofit Canine Companions, which provides service dogs to people with disabilities. The book is dedicated to the organization, its people, and its “beautiful, unforgettable dogs.”

“One thing that’s always amazed me has been, of the hundreds of people I’ve known with severe disabilities, I’ve never heard one whine or complain about it,” he said. “I’ve been so impressed by how they deal with what their problems are, and they want to make the best life they can, any way they can.”

Alida fits that mold, even when she is forced to exhibit herself to the leering eyes of strangers in carnival tents and speakeasies. She escapes into the world of books, devouring Charles Dickens, Edgar Allan Poe, Jane Austen, Thomas Wolfe and F. Scott Fitzgerald. It’s a passion she shares with Koontz.

“Books saved my life,” Koontz said. “There seemed no way out until when I was very young I found books, and books and reading and reaching out to the world through literature was what saved me, quite basically saved me.”

Most of Koontz’s fiction is set roughly in the present. The author recalls one major exception, “From the Corner of His Eye,” set in the 1960s. His new novel references world wars, the Depression, and the early Golden Years of Hollywood. It required significant research, which Koontz relished.

“When I was in college, in high school, I hated research. Now as a writer, I absolutely love it.”

For another writer, that might mean hours spent online, but Koontz famously stays off the internet, saying his discipline has been one of the secrets to his production over the years.

“I realized very early on that I’m a compulsive personality, and I saw writers ending up spending more time on the internet surfing the web than they were spending writing,” he said. “And I said, ‘I’m not going to risk that.’

“But I do use the internet.”

If there is something he can’t find in his home library of some 20,000 volumes, he enlists his assistant to look it up for him.

Koontz said he spends 60 or 70 hours a week writing, largely because he loves the process.

“I’ve always worked long hours, because I like immersing myself in the world of the novel,” he said. “And if I write three or four hours a day, that isn’t immersion.”

At 80, he has slowed down a bit: Instead of his formerly torrid pace of two books a year, he is now producing one book every nine months or so, he said. He estimates it takes 2,000 to 4,000 hours of his time to produce a novel, depending on the length.

“When you put that much in, it’s surprising how much work you can get done,” he said. “And I love it so much. I’ve never stopped loving the process. I love the process more than having written it. A lot of writers like having written more than writing. I like the writing.”

He has completed most of the work for his next novel, “A Storm So Bright and Beautiful.” The book is a period piece set in 1950 and features a central character who survives a “Wizard of Oz”-style tornado and then goes on a journey in search of his lost family. The book is scheduled for release in January 2027.

While Koontz has made some concessions to modernity in his work habits, he still sticks with some practices that border on the superstitious. He backs up his work on a thumb drive, and keeps additional backups with an assistant. But he also is careful to print out his work each day and place it in the refrigerator.

“I figure if a fire swept through, maybe the refrigerator will survive,” he said. “I’m a little bit paranoid, but it’s worked so far.”