David Alan Dedin
Author, Cartoonist
"And the moments of silence in between what is spoken often carry more impact 
than the importance of words, themselves."


Dave's Latest Cartoon: The Fox And Friends Presidential Debate

During the heated political season, about the only news show I could stand to watch anymore was Fox and Friends - a daily morning program that managed to avoid both election venom and liberal bias.

I drew this cartoon in conjunction with the three Presidential debates.  

Click below to download a digital copy of this cartoon

fox___friends.pdf
File Size: 633 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

           Dave's Blog: 8/7/2017          
" Catching Pokemon in Barrow, Alaska "

Picture
So, I just watched Game Of Thrones S7 E4 (again) this morning, and with what has now become my Monday routine I also caught several episode recaps from channels I follow on YouTube.  Sunday's GOT was one of the best this season, but the video commentary only made it that much better. I used to think I was clever, that I was adept at noticing the little nods, Easter eggs, and nuances that directors insert to give core fans a hard-on. But I have to admit, after subscribing to some of the big YouTube fan channels, I'm not even on the radar when compared to the current bunch of fan-bloggers.  It seems like only yesterday, we were all swapping MST3K episodes on VHS mix tapes.
​
YouTube has become ... amazing.  It's light years beyond just video clips of cats.  A solid YouTube channel can be as important as a resume (or a website), and I've found myself watching it as often as Netflix or cable TV. I'm constantly impressed by YouTube's creativity, and how ordinary people have developed massive followings just by posting short, simply-edited videos on topics mainstream media would never give the time of day. Sure, the fan-blogs are fascinating, but I what I really enjoy are the growing number of channels that take mundane subjects (such as struggling retail stores like Sears) and give them the treatment of a good documentary.  (Search YouTube for a channel called "Retail Archeology.")   I've mentioned a few of these in this blog over the years, with one of my favorites being "Jaka Parker" and his hidden-camera videos showing daily life in North Korea. Another new favorite is "Star Trek Continues," a crowd-funded fan-fiction channel that's continued the original Star Trek series with different actors and dead-on production values.  Forget Jenna Marbles & Miranda Sings, I enjoy falling asleep to Mr. Nightmare & Creepy Pasta.  Chuckling ... I'm sometimes tempted to start a YouTube channel of of my own, but when I think about things that I like to film, I'm probably better off on XTube.  

Click here to read the rest of the post  >

Dave's First Book:  Goodbye to Beekman Place :

Available now 
from AuthorHouse

www.authorhouse.com


You may also order this title 
at your local bookseller 
or preferred online retailer

Softcover ISBN: 978-1-4772-9867-1
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4772-9866-4
E-book ISBN: 1-4772-9863-3  
Nook Book ISBN: 978-1-4772-9863-3

Buy the Book

Dave's Next Book: 
When People Go Away

A Sir Comes of Age Against the Background of Recovery, Grief...and Murder

Two days after an ugly DUI, Paul's world is rocked by the death of his father - and the struggle that unfolds within his grieving family.  In the weeks that follow, Paul crumbles under the needs of an unraveling mother, the anger from his estranged sister, and the demands laid out by an unsympathetic court system.  But unbeknownst to everyone, Paul hides the shame of what happened in the hours before getting behind the wheel. The police may have arrested him for drinking and driving, but they had no idea of the crime he was really running from.  Or, more importantly, who he was running to...

Frankie is so similar to Paul, the two may as well be the same person.  Both men are gay, mid-40s, participants in the leather community...and each has battled 20 years of alcoholism, with very different mindsets.  When the two cross paths in a Chicago AA meeting, it seems nothing more than coincidence.  As Paul shares his struggle to make things right with his family, Frankie offers his unwavering support - proving himself to be exactly who Paul needed to meet, at precisely the right moment.  But Paul has grown so preoccupied with family, he fails to see how dangerous this new friendship has become.  In the aftermath of rehab, Paul's fight for emotional sobriety comes in conflict with his former self.  The red lights of the leather scene provide an unsettling background as he recognizes a predator in action - hunting online and in the city's dark corners, having hidden in plain sight for years.  No one has died yet, Paul realizes - but it's only a matter of time.  And to make matters worse, the only way to stop a murder is to face the crime he committed himself - a secret he swore to carry to his grave.

The clock is ticking.

About
Goodbye to Beekman Place
A Novel of Murder, Mental Illness, and Denial

Picture
On a cold night in 1980, a young gay man is murdered in the old Beekman Place Hotel in Peoria, Illinois.  The crime is brutal and sexual, and the killer left behind two clues that seem to have traveled through time:  Coca Cola from 1902 – made with cocaine instead of caffeine - and Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Clove Cigarettes, a brand defunct since 1898.  With no witness to the crime and no match to fingerprints, the murder remains unsolved.

Twenty-seven years later, Frankie Downs – a writer for OldPlaces Magazine – travels from Chicago to Peoria to research Beekman Place’s nefarious past.  That evening, Downs hits it off with a young gay tenant and a consensual S&M encounter ensues. When Frankie leaves for Chicago in the wee hours, the boy is still alive.  But the following morning, the young man is found dead, in the same style, at the same hotel, and with the same clues as 27 years before.  Unfortunately for Downs, in addition to being a suspect today, his fingerprints also match the 1980 crime…but he is not the killer.

Detective Kellie Hogan knows that Beekman Place hides a dangerous secret.  The hotel is the key to a growing series of murders within the gay leather community, and her investigation reveals an ominous connection that’s driving the actions of everyone around her.  

But something is very wrong. 

Kellie realizes that in order to stop the present day killer, she must journey deep into the hotel’s sordid past to reveal a secret that’s been hidden in plain sight from the moment Frankie Downs began to write his story.

And it all revolves around the search for a single missing man…

Click Sample Chapters to read 100 pages of 
Goodbye to Beekman Place for FREE

Dave's Third Project:
The Casual Cafe
"A dark and twisted revenge comedy, 
set within the world of restaurant embezzlement."

When a delivery truck slams into her car, Guinevere is mortally wounded - and now lays dying in a midwestern hospital.  Her 13-year-old daughter Stephanie miraculously survives the crash, but the young girl's fate has become uncertain in the wake of her single mom's death - especially since Gwen never really grew up herself, and allowed her aging parents to raise their granddaughter.  Gwen's lifelong gay friend Alan arrives at her bedside in the eleventh hour, and her dying words are for him to take care of her daughter.  And though Alan agrees, he knows that teenage girls push his temper - and sometimes he gets violent.  But he can't deny that "Steph" reminds him of  Gwen from 20 years ago - his best friend in the early 1990s, and his fellow prankster while waiting tables at Checkers, a busy local restaurant.  Guinevere dies within the hour. 

As family gathers for the funeral, Alan is reunited with Patrick - a mutual friend just in from Vegas, who also worked at Checkers.  Back in the day, Alan, Patrick, and Guinevere were known as "the trio" - three unlikely people who became the best of friends in a restaurant staffed by stoners, drunks, wild college kids, and a cook's line supplied by the state work release program.  Sharon Donnovan - Checkers' angry, middle-aged manager - ran the place with an iron fist, and her hostility towards her staff fueled an already-tense environment.  Alan & Gwen were on the verge of quitting, but when Patrick revealed his secret past as a grifter, the trio hatched a plan to steal from the restaurant…and to make Sharon's life a living hell.  And what happened in the year that followed was no less than diabolical...  

But karma is a bitch, and Patrick is arrested the moment he returns to Nevada.  His frantic call for help sends Alan & Stephanie on a cross-country road trip - where Alan discovers evidence of his friend's most recent scam.  It's eerie how current events mirror those at Checkers twenty years ago, and past-and-present stories play out side-by-side.  Without Alan's help, Patrick will go to prison - but as Sharon Donnovan learned at Checkers, it's often those you trust the most who blindside you with their behavior.  This is especially true for Guinevere's parents, as their granddaughter is now two weeks overdue to return to Illinois, and Alan is clearly avoiding their calls...

No matter how far you run, the past will always catch up with you.

And once it does, it will serve a dish best cold...
"Sometimes I feel the only way I can get a major publisher interested in mental illness is if I find a character who has bipolar disorder and is also a love-sick vampire attending an English school called Hogwarts. But I'm not giving up."…Pete Earley