Here are some fun things to share for your Monday afternoon. As most of you know, we’re making a serious effort to introduce Dekker stories to thriller readers who aren’t familiar with him. A huge part of that strategy is releasing his previous thrillers as mass market paperbacks. Those are the small format books that you find at Walgreen’s, in the airport, and your local grocery stores. The idea with mass market books is to allow readers to sample a new author without the cost commitment of a hardback. If they like the story, then hopefully we’ll gain a new fan.

I first became a Dean Koontz fan thanks to a mass market book I bought on the cheap. I’ve been a fan ever since.

Here are the covers for the first three titles to be released: BoneMan’s Daughters (already out), Adam (coming in June), and Thr3e (coming in November). You can order BMD and Adam by clicking on the cover images. Thr3e isn’t available for pre-order yet. But, soon.

Speaking of Thr3e…this is the first time the cover has been seen in public. Leave a comment and Facebook share it if you like it.

This is one for all you Ted Dekker fans. We’re ramping up for the release of The Bride Collector, which means it’s time for interview requests to start rolling in. We learned a long time ago that he answers the same questions over and over, so before a new book goes out we try to put together a FAQ for media outlets. This time I thought I’d share it with you first. If you have a blog or book review site feel free to post this “interview” along with it. Some of the questions will be familiar to you, while others aren’t. Hope you enjoy it.

Q: In your novel, the Bride Collector leaves his victims arranged in very specific, ceremonial positions.  Where did the idea come from?  And how did you put yourself inside the mind of someone who is so evil, so psychotic and so certain that what he is doing to his victims is justified?

A: The antagonist Quinton Gauld arranges his victims as angels on the wall, beautifully made up wearing only a bridal veil, consistent with his understanding that he is sending them to God as his bride. Tapping into the mind of such a person is painfully easy for all humans—evil isn’t so strange to any of us, I only put it on the page where most would not dare.

They say that writing about evil is much easier than writing about goodness, and it’s this latter exercise, making good as fascinating as evil, that consumes me the most. Enter Paradise, an innocent woman in the book who is for me the most fascinating character by a long shot. I adore Paradise. Continue Reading

OK, so I know there are lots of people out there ready to hunt me down. You’ve turned in your submission for the AYTNTD and have been waiting patiently by your computer wondering, “Did Kaiser read it? Why haven’t we heard anything? Has he been abducted and brainwashed? Assassinated by the CIA?” Well, the answers my friends are yes, because, no (I don’t think, but how would I really know?), and not yet.

Believe it or not, I am just now finishing up the last of the submissions this week. It’s taken me almost two months to get through them since I decided to read them all personally. Originally, my plan was to solicit the help of some colleagues and spread the work around. That felt too Wal-Mart-ish to me. You deserve better so I have read each one. Every. Word. And there are a lot of them, which is impressive. Impressive on your count, not that I read them. It’s exciting to see so many writers who are developing their craft patiently and consistently. I feel honored that you were willing to share your work with me. Seriously.

Where to from here? Well, I’m going to post the results on Monday. I know, I know—more waiting? It’ll be worth it. There isn’t time or space to give detailed feedback on individual submissions, but there are several comments I can make that apply across the board. I’ll outline the hits and misses that I came across and share how to tighten up your submission and focus your writing a bit more. Fair enough?

So, keep an eye out on Monday.Oh, and to the guy who put up a tent in the woods behind my house (yeah I’m talking to you). You can go home now. Even if your manuscript was awesome I just can’t represent a stalker in good conscience. It’s just–weird. Besides, I think my neighbor’s considering shooting at you.

As most of you may already know, the New Year brings with it several new Dekker titles and the first one out of the gates is Burn, a book that was co-authored with Erin Healy who also penned Kiss which came out last January. Take a look at the book’s trailer, which was done by uber-talented designer, and good friend, Mike Heath. If you haven’t already picked it up, be sure to add this book to your reading list. And be sure to watch for Erin’s debut solo novel, Never Let You Go, which comes out in May. Very talented writer who has a long career in front of her.

Yep, it’s coming. I just hit SEND on this email announcement. Watch for more to come later this week.

Since the 2009 Gathering in Nashville you’ve flooded us with emails asking when and where the 2010 event will be. You’ve also given us great feedback on how to make the Gathering accessible to more people.

Well, we’ve run with those ideas and today we’re happy to announce that there will be not one, but two Gathering events in 2010, both on weekends:

Chicago, IL (4/17/2010)  AND  Dallas, TX (4/24/2010)

We’re calling the events Gathering 2.0 and they will be different than previous years. How? For one, they will be much less expensive. Less than the cost of a hardcover novel ($25). But, what that means is the event won’t be about dancers, performers, lights, and fog machines. It’ll be about Ted connecting with you and you connecting with each other. Each one will be several hours of Q&A with Ted with a few surprises thrown in. Think of it as a backstage event. You drive to the event in the morning, spend a few hours in the Circle, finish off with a book signing, and go home that same night.

More to come very soon!