Sole Survivor

Dean Koontz was born and raised in Pennsylvania. He graduated from Shippensburg State College (now Shippensberg University) and won an Atlantic Monthly fiction competition while still a senior. Dean landed his first job after graduation with the Appalachian Poverty Program, where his assignment was to counsel and tutor underprivileged children on a one-to-one basis. On the first day of work, he discovered that his predecessor had been beaten up by the very children he had been trying to help and had landed in the hospital for several weeks.brbrThe following year was filled with challenges, but Koontz never gave up on his desire to be a writer. He wrote at night and during weekends, a practice he continued after leaving the poverty program and becoming an English teacher in a suburban school district outside of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.brbrAfter Dean had taught for a year and a half in Harrisburg, his wife, Gerda, made him an offer he couldn't refuse: "I'll support you for five years," she said, "and if you can't make it as a writer in that time, you'll never make it." By the end of the five years, Gerda had quit her job to manage the financial side of her husband's writing career.brbrDean Koontz's books are published in 38 languages. Worldwide sales total more than 175 million copies, and that figure currently increases at a rate of more than 17 million copies a year. Ten of his novels have risen to number one oniThe New York Times/ihardcover best-seller list (bLightning, Midnight, Cold Fire, Hideaway, Dragon Tears/b,bIntensity,/bandbThe Husband/b). His books have also been number one bestsellers in countries as diverse as Japan and Sweden.brbriThe New York Times/ihas called his writing "psychologically complex, masterly and satisfying."iNew Orleans Times-Picayune/isaid Koontz is, "at times lyrical without ever being naive or romantic. (He creates) a grotesque world, much like that of Flanner