John DeDakis
John is the author of three novels, ‘Fast Track,’ ‘Bluff’ and ‘Troubled Water.’ He spent 25 years with CNN, and also with CBN, working on a wide range of news and current affairs shows, including being senior copy editor on the popular news and current affairs Emmy and Peabody-Award winning programme, ‘The Situation Room,’ with Wolf Blitzer. John was also a White House correspondent for CBN News during the last three years of Ronald Reagan's presidency.
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The Wisconsin native is a popular creative writing workshop leader at conferences both within the US and abroad, including Sleuthfest (Florida), Killer Nashville (Tennessee), Pennwriters (Pennsylvania), Flathead River (Montana), Hampton Roads (Virginia), BooksAlive (Florida), Lakefly (Wisconsin).
He is a member of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime and in 2013 served as a judge for the Edgar Award for Best Mystery Novel (hardcover).
John is also an adjunct journalism faculty member at the University of Maryland-College Park and has been a lecturer at the American University, Washington, D.C. and Writer-in-Residence at the Callanwolde Fine Arts Center in Atlanta, teaching fiction writing classes and holding one-on-one writing tutorials.