​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."
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​Coming Soon: 
The Saturday Night Everlasting
Inspired by True Events
A Story About Depression, Intentionally Disguised As Comedy
​Told in the spirit of (an angry) David Sedaris on steroids
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"Look around, everywhere you turn is heartache - it's everywhere that you go...
You try everything you can to escape those bills and debts that you owe.

If all else fails and you long to be something better than you are today 
I know a way you can make extra cash, it's called the Void Key, and it's all tax free, so -

C'mon VOID!  Let your fingers make extra money, hey, hey, hey -
C'mon VOID!  Let your fingers feel the cash flow..."

​(From The Saturday Night Everlasting, Chapter Eleven)
Thirty years ago, Alan, Patrick, and Guinevere - "the Trio" - became the best of friends while stealing from Checker's Casual Cafe, the busiest restaurant in town.  But the trio didn't just take money - what happened in 91' was no less than diabolical.  Cicadas attacked customers, out-of-hand pranks collapsed the kitchen ceiling, and The Phantom of the Restaurant brought havoc to the dining room - all against a background of blaring 80s music.  Sharon Donovan, the restaurant's general manager, was literally ready to kill someone when police were finally called.

Fifteen years later, Guinevere is mortally wounded in a horrific car accident.  As Alan and Patrick rush to her side, her deathbed confession is chilling: "The worst thing about my depression is that it has a sense of humor."  In her dying breath Gwen asks Alan to take care of Stephanie, her teenage daughter - "As you once took care of me, when we all worked together at Checker's."   And as Steph brings back memories of the best time in his life, Alan makes a very bad decision... 

But karma is a bitch, and Patrick' arrest on returning to his Nevada home makes national news.  His frantic cry for help sends Alan & Stephanie on a cross-country trip - where evidence reveals a disturbing connection between the Trio that began years before Checker's.  It's eerie how current events mirror those from decades 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 the hard way, it's often those you trust the most who blindside you with their behaviors...  

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.
Click here to read the first 120 pages for FREE:
Additional project information available in the Toolbar. ​


Dave's Cartoons: The Fox And Friends Presidential Debate

During last year's heated political season, about the only news show I could stand to watch 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 on the above toolbar for additional cartoons.

Click below to download a digital copy of this cartoon

fox___friends.pdf
File Size: 633 kb
File Type: pdf
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           Dave's Blog: 02/10/2018         
"Blog Go Dark ..."

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So, as my mind is focused on completing the next book by spring, I'm going to set this blog aside for awhile.  I'll resume the posts once the manuscript is finished.   

In the meantime, feel free to explore the archives.

​Thanks!

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

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

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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:
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.
"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