Author Bio
Dan Begley was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on March 7, 1968. Growing up, he loved playing sports and reading, particularly mysteries. His favorite book as a child was The Dark is Rising, by Susan Cooper.
In high school and college, he was exposed to classic literature and tried to imitate it in his own writing, with little success. He finally found his own voice in a short story called “Early Devotions,” about two altar boys waiting for the priest to show up for six AM Mass. It was his first publication.
Dan received his MFA from the University of Missouri—St. Louis in 1999, where he later served as adjunct professor. He has also held jobs at Elsevier publishing and Cor Jesu Academy, as an English teacher. His first book, MS. TAKEN IDENTITY (2009), was inspired by his wife’s suggestion that he write a chick lit novel. “But guys don’t write chick lit,” he explained to her, which then led to a plot about a guy who has no business writing chick lit actually writing chick lit…
Dan enjoys stories from a wide range of genres, in both print and film: The Lovely Bones, Jane Eyre, High Fidelity, North by Northwest, Wedding Crashers, The Birth of Venus. For this reason, he enjoys writing both dramatic and humorous fiction.
Dan lives in St. Louis with his wife Robin and dog, Bo. His interests include working out, biking, reading, and sampling his wife’s always creatively delicious cooking. Currently, he is at work on his next novel.