Another great guest today on my blog: multi-talented author Dan Fiorella, who has been published pretty much everywhere, is clearly a fun character, and also a PC game writer. Dan gets two pics because he has the most adorable puppy on display on his Amazon page and that gives him twice the right to be seen.

Let’s meet Dan:

Dan Fiorella lives in New York City. Downtown New York. Very downtown. Okay, he lives in Staten Island. He has written for stage, screen and radio speaker. From Cracked magazine to Prairie Home Companion, his comedy insights and insults have given belly laughs to the masses.

In addition to Cracked, he’s been published in MAD, Reader’s Digest, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, the Staten Island Advance, Weekly World News and, in France, his Sherlock Holmes parody was included in the anthology “Sherlock Holmes Dans Tous Ses États.”

He’s worked on “The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers” and “The Start of Something Big” for TV and written comedy material for the American Comedy Network and All Star Radio. And was the writer for the PC game “The Lost Cases of Sherlock Homes 2.”

Let’s ask Dan 8 questions:

When you were a kid you wanted to be…?

A palaeontologist.  I was in love with dinosaurs and read every book about them.  Then I found out there was an actual name for a “dinosaur guy.”  And an eight-year old who can pronounce “palaeontologist” really impresses adults.

The first book you read was…?

The Dick & Jane series.  Required reading at school.  After that, the Hardy Boys books.

You discovered you were quite good at writing when…?

I’m not sure I have.  I knew I liked it.  I knew some of it got good reactions.  It probably wasn’t until college when a teacher asked me to write sketches for a weekly lunch program that I started to think of it as a talent I had.

As a reader, your favorite genre is…?

I’m really not sure I have a genre.  I’ve liked different books, but they rarely send me off into other books in a genre.  But I find a lot of books do tend to be in the detective/mystery style format.  But if it’s got a goofy twist on it, I’m in.

No, really, what’s that title you’re hiding in your kindle…?

I keep reading YA books…but luckily things like Harry Potter, Lemony Snicket and Artemis Fowl kind of transcend them.

You write…?

Humor, comedy, funny stuff.  Whether  skits, screenplays or this new fangled book stuff, it’s always about setting up a funny situation and the humor that can build out of it.

The praise about your writing you like the most is…?

That someone laughed out loud while reading my book.  Can you imagine that?  Someone on the subway or bus reads something I wrote and busts out laughing?  And all those people just stare at him like, “What’s his problem?”  I did that!

What’s next…?

I’ve actually fallen in love with one of my characters, Nick Flebber, PI.  I published two novella (Lost Claus & Space Case) and a short story (Cupid is as Cupid Does) featuring him and his off-beat cases, and I’m now laying the ground work for another.  But before that there’s a childhood tale I want to finish about a kid and his adventures leading up to Halloween.

To read Dan Fiorella’s short and donate to a great cause, the Wallace and Gromit’s Grand Appeal, A Children’s Hopital Charity, buy Something to Read on the Ride. It’s only $2.99 and all the proceeds go to the charity.