Dean Whitlock

Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Authors

Added By: valashain
Last Updated: valashain

Dean Whitlock

Full Name:	Dean Whitlock
Born:
Occupation:
Nationality:	American
Links:

Biography

I'm a military brat. My father was in the Air Force for a period that spanned WWII, the Korean Conflict, the Cold War, and Viet Nam. We moved frequently and traveled on holidays: I lived in ten states and three foreign countries, and visited many more. I learned to fit in quickly and to appreciate new cultures. I learned that there are many ways to live, many points of view, and none of them are 100 percent right or wrong.

Traveling so much gave me plenty of time to read in the car, on the boat, and in the plane. I loved history and science, but also developed a taste for science fiction and fantasy - literature that was filled with even wilder cultures, more points of view, and greater differences than the places I traveled to. I still love to travel, and I still enjoy escaping into a good book, particularly if it can teach me something new or move my heart. Along the way I picked up the trade of writer. Reading was the start of that career: writers develop from avid readers.

For the past 40-plus years, I have lived the whole time in the same town in Vermont. (On Vermont's "East Coast"; the Connecticut River Valley.) Of course, I have lived in three different houses in two different villages in that time, but it's still a far cry from moving every three years or less! As for work, I've been a lab tech and a carpenter, but quickly moved into journalism and from there to technical writing, marketing, public relations, and then everything to do with writing. I'm a story-teller who writes it all down (and a bit of a graphic artist and teacher to boot).

As for my indie publish house - Boatman Press - it's part of a story I wrote and one I like to live. I own three canoes, and built two of them. I paddled most of the length of the Connecticut River in one of them, 370 miles from Canaan, Vermont to Long Island Sound. I also have a Nordic pram that I built (with a lot of help) at WoodenBoat School. I'm currently adding a sailing rig. And writing a novel set on an ocean liner. It's some of that wanderlust I learned growing up.