Look and Listen

Biography

Dan Anderson was born in Vidalia, GA, whose claim to fame is being "The Onion Capital of the World." His family moved to Florida to escape the stress caused by all the publicity from living in such a famous place. His fascination with humor became evident when he was elected the Wittest Senior in his high school class. It was a small class and he was too chubby for Most Athletic, too ugly for Best Looking, too socially dysfunctional for Most Popular and too dumb for Most Likely to Succeed. He graduated from The University of the South in Sewanee, TN thanks to curricula outlines (think Cliff's Notes) and buying the notes of students who had actually attended classes. After college, he was drafted by the Army and served with the Americal Infantry Division in Vietnam. However, he was shipped back to the states a year later when it became apparent that his lethargic military skills had no discernible impact upon the war. On a postive note, he later managed to obtain his MBA from California Lutheran College in Thousand Oaks, CA by milking the G.I. Bill until his educational benefits ran out. Forced to seek employment, and lacking demonstrable talents, he found a career with good pay and low demands: an executive position with a large U. S. financial corporation. When it eventually became evident that he was an imposter in the areas of leadership, organizational theory, and decision-making, he was downsized (i.e., a polite business euphemism for being fired). He then wandered into insurance and investment sales with another financial company and became successful. This was a total surprise to his colleages since he rarely showed up at the office, and scheduled few appointments with clients in order not to overtax himself and interfere with his afternoon naps. Having honed his writing skills completing unemployment applications and wildly fictitious resumes, it was only natural that he would become an author of fiction. He took early retirement and began writing on a fulltime basis. Bad Vibrations, his first mystery, was published in June 2008 and has won five literary awards to date. -The Independent Publishers IPPY Book Award—Silver Medal, Best Regional Fiction 2009 -The Florida Writers Association Royal Palm Award—First Place, Published Mystery 2008 -Books & Authors Murder Mystery Book of the Year 2008 -Rockway Press International Writing Competition—Best Novel 2006 -Florida Writers Association Lighthouse Book Award—Mystery Suspense, Third Place 2008 Dan has also completed the second novel in this series, Death Cruise, which won the Florida Writers Association Best Unpublished Mystery Award 2008 Dan currently resides in Orlando, FL and spends many of his waking hours lounging around his pool puttering with his laptop and consuming pitchers of frosty margaritas. When not so engaged, he can be found on the road doing book signings and giving presentations at conferences and writers' meeting.

Inspiration

Like many authors, I began reading at an early age. I read all the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books while in grammar school which hooked me on mysteries. As I grew order, my circle of authors grew wider and I still number among my favorites authors such as the following: Margery Allingham, Eric Ambler, Charlotte Armstrong, E. C. Bentley, Earl Derr Biggers (Charlie Chan), Anthony Boucher, Fredric Brown, John Buchan, James M. Cain, John Dickson Carr, Raymond Chandler, Agatha Christie, Stanley Ellin, Dick Francis, Nicholas Freeling, Martha Grimes, Dashiell Hammett, Patricia Highsmith, Tony Hillerman, Geoffrey Household, Dorothy Hughes, William Irish, P. D. James, John LeCarre, Elmore Leonard, Ed McBain, John McDonald, Phillip McDonald, Ross McDonald Alistair McLean, Ngaio Marsh, Margaret Millar, Ellery Queen, Ruth Rendall, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Dorothy Sayers, Georges Simenon, Rex Stout . . . I could go on and on. Each added a personal touch to the mystery and enriched the genre for generations to come. I have a collection of over 3400 mysteries, some dating back to 1906. A number are signed by the author and many are first editions. I love humor and mysteries and was not finding the type of mystery I liked to read, so I decided to become a new voice in the genre and write the type of detective suspense fiction that I enjoyed the most. The initial result of that was Bad Vibrations, published in 2008, which has received more critical acclaim than I could have imagined. It has won 5 literary awards and convinced me that there is a market and readers' interest in the type of original, quirkly fiction that I plan on developing. I would love to receive your comments. Please check out my website www.murdermayhemmalice.com, my Facebook page at dananderson2, or email me at dananderson305@gmail.com.