You Get One

One decent book, that is.

I try to be supportive of horror fiction writers, as they have a tough row to hoe.  In the words of Rodney Dangerfield, they get no respect.  Horror writers are hacks!  That's not REAL literature!  Something must be wrong with their brain-meats to write that kind of trash!  Heretics!  Burn them as witches!  And so on.

However, sometimes certain authors deserve the bashing they receive (don't even ask me about Laurel K. Hamilton and her series that devolved into icky, porny grossness with no real plot).  One such author, I hate to say, is Dean Koontz.

I used to love Koontz.  From 1990 'til about 2000, I read every single book the man ever wrote, including his short story collection.  Yes, sadly, it took me ten years to realize he had jumped the shark long ago.  In fact, it could be argued he only ever wrote one great story.  But dudes, that one story is AWESOME.

Watchers, by Dean Koontz, was first published back in 1987.  It tells the tale of genetically modified creatures - one, a sweet golden retriever with a human-like brain, the other thing is a monkey/gorilla thing bent on destruction.  Grotesque and maniacal, it cuts a bloody (but not too gory) path on its way to find the retriever named Einstein.  Scary bits ensue until the final showdown.

The story has everything... and I do mean EVERYTHING.  A downtrodden women rescued from the clutches of an evil rapist by love!  And a super smart doggie!  A man saved from a life of meaninglessness by love!  And a super smart doggie!  There's covert military!  And people getting their eyes gouged out!

Oddly, though, it all works together to tell an ultimately cohesive, haunting, make-you-cry tale, with enough frights to keep you, well, not up all night.  But you will double-check the locks on your doors, at least.

I tried to think of another Koontz novel I could also whole-heartedly recommend, and I came up short.  I liked his two-part series about Christopher Snow, but it's not particularly scary, and it contains waaaaaaay too much deus ex machina for my tastes.  Also, I think it was meant to be a longer series that Koontz abandoned for the more successful Odd Thomas series (which I found depressing, without a fright in sight).

Dean Koontz himself wrote an Afterword to Watchers, discussing how other readers have told him, to his face, his best work was this book.  Thus implying everything that came after sucks rocks.  I hate to jump on the negativity bandwagon, but the people speak the truth.  But at least I'm saying it here... and not to Mr. Koontz during a book signing.  That's just MEAN.

Let's segue now to fashion, where hopefully none of us get just one.  One decent outfit, one look that works for us, or merely one thing from our collective closets that fits.  We want variety contained in those dark and spooky depths, am I right?



Keeping in line with yesterday's TV outfit, here's something else I wore on Fox 9 awhile ago:

Black 3/4-sleeved sweater, Marshall's

Pink cotton tank dress, the "faux Target", aka The Salvation Army in downtown Mpls (lower level)

Black patterned tights, the real Target

Black round-toe boots, once belonged to my Gramma Mac (a serious fashionista)

Location, the edit suite at Kaplan in Saint Paul

Photographer, our editor, Dan.  Thanks, Dan!

And speaking of having just one look, yes.  I wear boots.  A lot.  All the time.  Why?  Because they are WARM, and I live on the tundra (Minnesota) where we need toasty outfits to survive.  Plus, I like the look.  They're part of my fashion uniform - more on uniforms in a later post.  Oooo, something to look foward to!  I do like a good cliffhanger.