John DeDakis
Journalist, Novelist, and Writing Coach John DeDakis is a former Senior Copy Editor on CNN’s “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.” DeDakis (pronounced deh-DAY-kiss) is the author of six novels in the Lark Chadwick mystery-suspense-thriller series.
His fourth novel, Bullet in the Chamber, is the winner of Reviewers Choice, Foreword INDIES, and Feathered Quill book awards. The book fictionalizes some of the events surrounding the death of John’s 22-year-old son Stephen in 2011.
In John’s novel, Fake, Lark is a White House correspondent dealing with “fake news” in the era of #MeToo. Kirkus Reviews calls Fake “A gripping, topical tale about the difficulties of discerning the truth.” Bestselling author John Gilstrap writes, “DeDakis resets the bar for inside-the-Beltway thrillers.”
John’s most recent novel, Enemies Domestic, is the winner of eight awards including the PenCraft, Killer Nashville’s Silver Falchion, Feathered Quill, and Grand Prize for Chanticleer’s Clue Award for Best Suspense/Thriller. James Grady, author of the iconic thriller Six Days of the Condor, calls John’s book “astonishing.”
During John’s award-winning 45-year career in journalism (25 years at CNN), he has been a White House Correspondent and interviewed such luminaries as Alfred Hitchcock, Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan. DeDakis has taught journalism at the University of Maryland – College Park, and American University in Washington, D.C.
DeDakis is a manuscript editor and regularly teaches novel writing at literary centers, writers’ conferences, and bookstores nationwide and abroad. He is also a grief educator, certified by world-renowned grief expert David Kessler.