He first counseled kids for a government anti-poverty program and later taught school outside Harrisburg. In their first home, in Saxton, Pa., they used an old door for a table, slept on a sofa bed that was inches from the ground and used homemade pillows stuffed with plastic bread bags.

At the time, the couple had only $150 and a used Ford Galaxy to their names. But I do believe you can manage the shock and terror of it.' He graduated from Shippensburg State College and married wife Gerda (pronounced Jer-da) in 1966. Although many of his earlier novels featured characters who had a traumatic childhood, the author says his was challenging but not unhappy – in part because he managed to find escape by reading. His books have also been major bestsellers in countries as diverse as Japan and Sweden.Of his success, Koontz says, 'It's amazing considering where we started.' Koontz says he grew up 'dirt poor.' He describes his father as a violent alcoholic who terrorized him and his mother and held 44 jobs in 34 years. Twelve of his books have risen to the number one position in paperback. Ten of Koontz' novels have risen to number one on the New York Times hardcover bestseller list (One Door Away From Heaven, From the Corner of His Eye, Lightning, Midnight, The Bad Place, Cold Fire, Hideaway, Dragon Tears, Intensity, and Sole Survivor), making him one of only a dozen writers ever to have achieved that milestone. But just before grandfather dies, he sits up in bed and speaks coherently for the first and last time since a stroke took his ability to speak away.What he says is that there will be five dark days in the life of his grandson-five dates whose terrible events Jimmy will have to prepare himself to face. It's the story of five days in the life of an ordinary man named Jimmy Tock who is born to an extraordinary legacy.As Koontz describes the story, Tock comes into the world on the very night his grandfather leaves it. sets much of the book in the fictional community of Snow County, Colorado.

'Life Expectancy' is a blend of mystery, suspense, murder and plenty of plot twists.

Life expectancy by dean koontz