Dean Koontz
I take this to mean where does the inspiration come from, the idea. Damn if I know. It’s as mysterious as how Big Bird got to be so insanely big. Some weird radiation? From another planet? Just a freak of nature? Okay, wait. I’ll give it a shot. Sparks? Reading has a lot to do with it, reading not just novels but poetry and nonfiction, newspapers and magazines. It’s like the dormouse said: Feed your head.
THE TAKING was inspired when I read an Arthur C. Clarke piece in which he said the technology of ETs, thousands of years more advanced than ours, wouldn’t look like applied science, but entirely supernatural. This inspired me to consider the reverse: that a spectacular supernatural event, in our secular age, would look to us like an alien invasion.
PHANTOMS was inspired when I read a book about mass disappearances in history——and wondered what scientific explanation could explain these inexplicable events. LIFE EXPECTANCY was triggered by a line in the song “Patterns” by Paul Simon——“My life is made of patterns that can scarcely be controlled”——and ONE DOOR AWAY FROM HEAVEN was inspired by disgust at the arrogance and fascist “logic” behind the “utilitarian bioethics” that has infected our medical schools.
In short, inspiration is everywhere. However, one thing I learned over the years that’s helpful is this: Sitting and brooding in search of a story idea is usually fruitless; instead, if you feed your head, the subconscious conjures up the ideas when you’re least expecting them.
THE TAKING was inspired when I read an Arthur C. Clarke piece in which he said the technology of ETs, thousands of years more advanced than ours, wouldn’t look like applied science, but entirely supernatural. This inspired me to consider the reverse: that a spectacular supernatural event, in our secular age, would look to us like an alien invasion.
PHANTOMS was inspired when I read a book about mass disappearances in history——and wondered what scientific explanation could explain these inexplicable events. LIFE EXPECTANCY was triggered by a line in the song “Patterns” by Paul Simon——“My life is made of patterns that can scarcely be controlled”——and ONE DOOR AWAY FROM HEAVEN was inspired by disgust at the arrogance and fascist “logic” behind the “utilitarian bioethics” that has infected our medical schools.
In short, inspiration is everywhere. However, one thing I learned over the years that’s helpful is this: Sitting and brooding in search of a story idea is usually fruitless; instead, if you feed your head, the subconscious conjures up the ideas when you’re least expecting them.
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