Press Releases
October 14, 2024 – New Novel Turns Science Fiction Heavenward
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Book Launch Trailer
Approved Author Bios
100-word Bio
Dan Whicker’s first novel, Planet of Eden, was born during Dan’s 28-year career in the fields of communications and marketing. It is the dialogue in the novel that he enjoys the most: “I want the characters to tell the story. That’s what makes my writing so different.” Dan’s intellectual interests are vast, but his affinity for science fiction keeps him exploring that genre. “I challenge the status quo in sci-fi,” he says. “Speculative fiction that is truly great should be truly speculative. The whole story should make us think in new and better ways. That’s where the magic happens.”
500-word Bio
Planet of Eden is Dan Whicker’s first novel, but writing has been a major part of his 28-year career in communications and marketing. In fact, being a professional communicator has made Dan a pro at creating believable dialogue.
“I’ve had to write in many voices over the years,” Dan says, “it made sense that I should be able to bring fictional people to life just like I did for real people by giving them words to say.”
From advertising copy to speech and script writing to online content creation, Dan spent years wordsmithing for a variety of businesses, organizations, industries, fields, and audiences. All the while, he developed a love for writing and knew it was time to apply his skills to the world of fictional storytelling.
Dan reveals that “Planet of Eden actually began as a film script.” The earliest version of the story was like a movie playing in his head. “I think it’s like that for a lot of authors,” he says. “Many of us can see the story being played out in our minds. Then, we have to figure out how to draw that story out, whether through the visual arts or the written word. Once I put pen to paper and fingers to the keyboard, the story took off and I knew it had to become a novel.”
As the story grew, Dan then realized that one novel would not contain it, so he planned for a series and kept at it.
“It took years to write Eden,” he admits. “In between, I had all the usual life stuff—family, work, education, and I had to leave room for my own care—but I kept at it, learning how to become a better writer in the process.”
It is the dialogue in the novel that Dan enjoys the most. As he explains it: “I want the characters to tell the story. That’s what makes my writing so different. I want the reader to be absorbed into the story, vicariously exploring and unraveling mysteries as if being right there in the middle of the action.”
Though he loves fiction, Dan also likes to write about subjects as diverse as modern culture, philosophy, metaphysics, religion, health, leadership, and relationships. With degrees in business and theology, his varied interests have helped him as a communicator and storyteller.
“It helps to be well-rounded,” he notes, “especially in fiction writing. To become that, you write about a lot of different things. Fortunately, my career in communications provided outlets for me to cover many, many subjects in my writing.”
Today, that shows in Dan’s deep and thought-provoking blog posts and articles.
“If nothing else, I’ll get you thinking” he says. “If I can get you to think deeply and differently, I’ll consider my writing career successful.”
When Dan is not behind a computer, he is honing his singing voice and teaching himself to play the guitar. Often, you can find him doing something outdoors in Tennessee where he lives with his two sons.
Planet of Eden: Book Synopsis
Growing up as an orphan and bouncing between foster homes, Jay Harrison always hoped that someday he would find the perfect family. Now at age twenty-two, working at a youth ranch while trying to figure out his future as an adult, he has all but given up on the idea. That is, until his routine camping trip turns into an alien abduction that puts him face-to-face with a family from another world.
Travel to the planet that we call Earth has been banned since recorded time. For the peaceful Ah-Ahey people of the distant, Eden-like planet Hourou, it is intergalactic law. For their rebellious kin, the Dah-Ahey, however, such rules were made to be broken.
When some Dah-Ahey rebels steal a spacecraft and crash it on the forbidden planet of Earth, a family of Ah-Ahey explorers must also violate the travel ban to capture the rogue interlopers and recover the wrecked ship before the inhabitants discover them. When the mission goes awry and six Earth people are accidentally and very publicly captured along with the Dah-Ahey thieves, two planets inhabited with contradictory people are suddenly thrown into chaos as each contends with the existence of its opposite.
Twenty-two-year-old loner Jay Harrison, young married couple April and Paul Theele, university professor Ellis Minister, medical student Yori Shimizu, and government official Perry Carlson must learn to trust each other and their alien hosts when they are reluctantly taken to the Utopian planet of Hourou. There, amidst an archetypal paradise, they experience living among a near perfect race of humans who seem to have remained isolated from all evils…or have they?
On Earth, Laura Turgis is tasked with investigating the world’s first bona fide alien abduction while society unravels around her. With their long-held beliefs about extraterrestrial life shattered, how will her people react to her discovery that the aliens are coming back again…to retrieve one of their own who was left behind?
“PLANET OF EDEN will awaken the part of you that is seeking what was once lost and encourage you to find it again. It is a novel to experience through the eyes of its characters as they lead you through an adventure of self-discovery on an idyllic world. We all crave Eden. It was hardwired into us. If you knew where it was, would you go? This is your invitation to join me in the search.” –Author Dan Whicker
Short Book Description
Snatched up accidently by benevolent alien beings, six people from diverse backgrounds must learn to trust each other and their hosts when they are reluctantly taken to a distant planet that has remained isolated from all evils…or has it?
Novels by Dan Whicker
Title: Planet of Eden
Published on: May 7, 2024
Publisher: TALIA SEK
ISBN Info: Softcover: 979-8-9899359-0-1, Hardcover: 979-8-9899359-1-8, E-book ASIN: B0CVFDRK5M
Genre: Science Fiction, Adventure, Religious Fiction
Quotes/Q&R with Dan About Planet of Eden
“Planet of Eden is for readers who appreciate alternative worldviews in speculative fiction. Can God show up in sci-fi? Why not?”
MORE TO COME
