5 things that might surprise you about best-selling author Dean Koontz

Dean Koontz’s new novel, “The Friend of the Family,” takes the best-selling author in a new direction as the master of suspense tries his hand at historical fiction for the first time, with a tinge of magical realism.

Here are five things you might not know about the genre-spanning novelist, who joins Northwest Passages on Jan. 31 for an interactive conversation about his work.

He enjoys blogging. Koontz has said for years that he does not go online, largely because he worries it would affect his productivity. He makes an exception for Google Earth, which he finds to be “a particularly valuable source” for accurate information about settings for his stories.

He also writes entertaining blog posts and a newsletter. In his latest newsletter, Koontz reveals that he once fell off a roof and landed on a concrete sidewalk during a wildfire incident early in his career.

As the fire was creeping closer, Koontz climbed up on his roof and then a neighbor’s roof to water down the shingles. “Then came the incident.” Koontz says he slid 40 to 50 feet down a steeply pitched, Tudor-style roof, hit the ladder, and then fell the rest of the way down to the pavement. His clothes were shredded, but Koontz somehow emerged unscathed.

“After I changed my entire ensemble, I got back on our roof and lived to become a best-selling writer, following recuperation,” he writes.

Koontz is not a fan of what Hollywood has done with his books. Many of Koontz’s works have been turned into movies and TV shows. “Watchers,” one of his early best sellers, has generated four feature films.

“Most of what’s been filmed based on my books was pretty terrible,” he said.

While Koontz is frustrated with Hollywood, he does have an idea for bringing his five Jane Hawk novels, including “The Silent Corner” and “The Whispering Room,” to the screen.

“When I was writing this novel, there was one actress that I had in mind,” he says. “She has to be very tough, also very attractive, but very tough – tough-minded as well as physically tough. And I said the actress was always, in my mind, Emily Blunt. And if you ever got Emily Blunt for that, I would be the happiest writer in history.”

Koontz is a major fan of Charles Dickens. His new novel, “The Friend of the Family,” has a very Dickensian feel. His protagonist is rescued from a life of misery as a carnival “freak show” attraction and swept into a world of privilege with a pair of successful Hollywood producers and their children.

“I’m sure there was a little influence of Dickens” in the book, Koontz says. The author came to Dickens after college, starting with “A Tale of Two Cities.” “I still remember being so captivated by that book. I couldn’t stop. I read it in like a day and a half.”

When he finished, he was reading in bed with his wife, Gerda, asleep next to him. “I got to the end, and the ending of that book is so beautiful, and you just, you move to tears. And my wife woke up and thought I was having a heart attack or something. And I said, ‘No, it’s just this book. It’s so beautiful.’ ”

His dogs have written more books than many professional writers. Koontz and his wife have been involved for many years with Canine Companions for Independence, a nonprofit that provides service dogs to people with disabilities. Over the years, the couple has adopted three golden retrievers from the group.

Trixie, the first of those dogs, wrote five books, with titles including “Life Is Good” and “Bliss to You.” “Cynics say I wrote them and put her name on them. That is a monstrous lie,” Koontz wrote in People. “All I did was correct a few of Trixie’s misuses of the semicolon.”

Their second dog, Anna, wrote “Ask Anna,” a volume of advice for dogs. Royalties from these books go to Canine Companions.

His current retriever, Elsa, 11, is working on a screenplay, Koontz says.

His new book takes new directions. “The Friend of the Family” was published Jan. 20. Starburst magazine calls it “a masterful blend of suspense and thrill.”

The novel “shows us the power of self-awareness, cultural cruelty and the kindness of strangers,” says Ron Sylvester in The Spokesman-Review. “If you think this novel will be more of the same from Dean Koontz, you will be pleasantly surprised.”

On Goodreads, the book has earned an early rating of 4.04 stars out of 5, with many praising the audio version, narrated by Rachel L. Jacobs. “A thoughtful, tender novel that reminds us that even in the darkest times, there are still good people,” one reviewer wrote.