Skyfisher

Dan Dowhal

Dan Dowhal, a writer and digital media producer, was born and raised in Toronto's culturally feisty Queen West neighbourhood and lives and works there to this day. Endowed with a pathologically self-expressive nature, Dan's precocious childhood included writing plays, performing on stage, and being paraded around public-speaking competitions.

His writing deftly balances left- and right-brain characteristics, a quality partly explained by his schooling as an engineer, work as a computer programmer, and a later return to academia to earn a journalism degree from Ryerson University. While at Ryerson his penchant for writing bloomed, and he received the A.O. Tate Award for reporting, and was elected editor-in-chief of The Eyeopener student news-paper.

Re-entering the working world, Dan Dowhal's rare blend of talents was recognized by IBM and the company snapped him up, leading to a prolonged stint with Big Blue as a writer, manager, and research scientist. Then, in the Nineties, Dan and his two brothers founded The Learning Edge Corp., a producer of interactive digital content, where he continues today as the company's chief writer, editor, and creative director.

Dan is currently a board member of Interactive Ontario, the trade organization representing the province's games, eLearning, mobile, web, and social media producers, and chairs IO's eLearning Committee.

With the turn of the millennium, Dan finally stopped trying to fight the voices in his head and embraced a conversion to fiction with pent-up energy and ideas. His novels to date include Skyfisher and Flam Grub, and he is just warming up.

Away from the keyboard, Dan shifts gears to chase balls, pucks, and flying discs. If his writing in Skyfisher gives the lowdown on the high and mighty, the author also engages high and low experience in his own life, currently learning to fly airplanes and lay stones. For a complete change of pace, he retreats to his northern cabin beside Algonquin Park where he walks in the woods and talks to trees.