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DAN DANE - AUTHOR
Dan Dane grew up in a small town in southern New Mexico where, as a
schoolboy, he peddled donuts from his father's bakery in the streets. He
attended the University of New Mexico in the 1960's during the turmoil of the
Civil Rights movement and the beginning of the Vietnam War. He earned a JD
degree from the University of Arkansas and was licensed to practice law in 1969.
He immediately entered the U.S. Army and received a direct commission as a JAG
officer. After a short stay in Arizona he was re-assigned to the Third Brigade
of the First Cavalry Division in Vietnam.
Dane's experiences have taken him from the parched deserts of the American
Southwest to the jungles of Vietnam and through the lush Mississippi River delta
of eastern Arkansas. As a lawyer he has defended some of the country's poorest
criminal defendants and served as counsel for executives of some of the nation's
largest financial institutions. He has seen the inner workings of the military,
county courthouses, banks, penitentiaries, and all sides of southern politics.
The engaging characters he has met and the riveting experiences he has had along
the way provide a rich background for the books he now writes as historical or
creative fiction.
WHAT OTHERS SAY
"Dane tells his story from the inside out, looking through the
eyes of the characters and drawing the reader in there with him... I started
reading and couldn't stop."
-- Sheila Berry of Truth in Justice at
http://www.truthinjustice.org/
"Each generation has only a few writers who intimately
understand the social institutions they denounce. Dan Dane is one of those rare
voices."
-- Malcolm Maclean, former Mayor of Savannah, Georgia
http://www.dandane.com/index.htm
Dane's Latest Book:
Conduct to the Prejudice of Good Order
- - the final years of the Vietnam War
Conduct to the Prejudice of Good Order offers a glimpse of conditions
in the First Cavalry Division around Bien Hoa during the last years of the
Vietnam war. In 1971, Bill Blake encounters fragging, racism, and heroin
addiction while defending soldiers in court-martial trials as a young Army JAG
lawyer. Much like the soldiers he defends, Blake finds himself in conflict with
his superior officers.
The story of a drafted, civilian attorney serving as an Army lawyer in
Vietnam gives this book a unique perspective. Captain Blake's experiences
accentuate many of the troublesome aspects of the war, including the draft,
authority of commanding Generals, domestic demand for troop withdrawal, and in
the end, the manufacture and delivery of heroin to the American troops.
Although conditions varied widely during the ten years of the war, the
historical fiction genre allows veterans to recognize historically correct
settings in Vietnam during 1971 and 1972. The fictitious characters and
circumstances provide an entertaining read for those who lived through the era
as well as those for whom Vietnam is only a curiosity out of the distant past.
This short novel is one of the most readable and provocative accounts of the
Vietnam war.
In Bloodlines of Tyranny, Dan Dane
grabs your attention on the first page and holds it until the last one. The
setting is in the cotton-growing region in Arkansas. The novel spans four
generations, going from the plantation owners battering their black
sharecroppers to the small- town politicians doing whatever they wanted to
maintain control and get rich. Much of the story takes place in various
courtrooms. The strong points of this book are the dialogue and the portrayal of
the unique characters. Recommended for all adult readers.
- Jean Starnes, newspaper columnist and author of Hell on Wheels.
Click here to read an excerpt from
Bloodlines of Tyranny
Conduct to the Prejudice of Good Order,
Dane's latest book, is one of the most readable and provocative accounts of the
final years of the Vietnam War. He weaves a few key characters through a story
depicting events in Vietnam just before the final withdrawal of the American
troops. Captain Blake, an Army lawyer defending soldiers in court-martial
trials, encounters fragging, racism and massive heroin addiction among the
troops. Much like the soldiers he defends, Blake finds himself in conflict with
his superior officers as he tries to leave the combat zone. This book is not a
war story, but rather a description of the effect of war on those around it.
This may be the first book to openly express the view that heroin addiction
played at least some role in forcing the final withdrawal of the U.S. troops.
Thirty years later, a more appropriate question than why were we ever in Vietnam
in the first place might be, why did we prosecute the soldiers we sent there?
Dane dubs those who orchestrated the fiasco, "the Edsel Generation."
- John Maclean, author of Russian Adoption Handbook.
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