EARLY LIFE:

Dan was born on March 23rd, 1980 in Hillston, Virginia, the first and only child of Samuel and Elena Dawkins. He stayed in Hillston his whole childhood, only leaving in the fall of 1998 to attend college at Virginia Tech, a few hours away in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Although a High School football player, Dan was cut during the Hokies' Walk-On Tryouts, and with sports in his past, focused on his other passion: Writing. He chose English as his major and graduated in 2002 with a final GPA of 3.89.

After graduation, Dan returned home to Hillston. His parents had retired to Florida his senior year and left Dan their home as a graduation present. Putting his dreams of pursuing writing on hold, Dan took a position as an English teacher at his old High School.

CAREER:

Dan met his wife, Amy Ridenour, during his first year of teaching. Amy was the Creative Writing teacher at Hillston High School. They married a year later and continued their jobs as teachers.

Eventually, Dan started writing again, and soon decided to attempt to publish a book of short stories. He found an Agent (Jenna McMurray) and together they got a book deal for Dan's first book entitled The Teachers' Lounge.

The Teachers' Lounge sold extremely well, ultimately landing Dan on Best Seller's List across the country. While the book as a whole was reviewed well, the major hype seemed to focus on one story in particular: Jackson Goes Out -- a story featuring the lead male character, Jackson, a young, handsome, wealthy stock broker who moonlights as a seductive murderer.

Between the initial advance for The Teachers' Lounge, and the followed success in sales, Dan quit his job as a teacher and focused on writing full time and traveling the country promoting his work.

Tragedy:

Less than a year after the launch, and subsequent success, of The Teachers' Lounge, Dan's wife was killed in a car accident at an intersection in their hometown. Afterwards, little was heard from Dan for months. Nobody knew where he was, or how to locate him. He only resurfaced to the public after being arrested in Jacob's Bluff, Oklahoma and charged with the murder. Few details were known as to what happened to Dan in the gap between his success and then arrest, but now in his newest (and last) book, REGRET, Dan Dawkins lays it all out for us in disturbing detail, as he journals his downward spiral from successful author to the criminally insane.