Author and CNN Senior Copy Editor John DeDakis is an editor and writer for the Emmy-Award winning "The Situation Room," (Mon.-Fri. 4-7pm ET) anchored by Wolf Blitzer.
DeDakis is the author of the mystery/suspense novel "Fast Track" published by ArcheBooks. It's the story of a young woman's search for purpose as she solves the mystery surrounding the car-train collision which orphaned her as an infant. The novel deals with issues of suicide, journalistic integrity, anonymous sources, and mentoring relationships.
"Fast Track" grew out of two events in the author's life: a fatal car/train crash he witnessed as a youngster in 1959 and the suicide of his sister in 1980.
He is currently at work on his second novel, "Bluff," a sequel to "Fast Track," based on his four-day, 25-mile hike along the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu in Peru.
DeDakis, a native of La Crosse, Wisconsin, began his journalism career in 1969 by getting tear gassed as he covered an anti-Vietnam War riot for a campus radio station at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He earned a BA in Journalism from that university in 1977 following a stint in the Army where he worked from 1972-74 as a Special Events Reporter at The American Forces Network - Europe, based in Frankfurt, Germany.
DeDakis is a former White House Correspondent and has interviewed such luminaries as Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and Alfred Hitchcock.
DeDakis has been with CNN since July 1988. From 2001 to 2005, he supervised the writing on CNN's "Daybreak," anchored by Carol Costello.
From 1976 to 1983, DeDakis was a reporter at WMTV (NBC) in Madison, Wisconsin. From 1983 to 1988 he was a correspondent with CBN News in Virginia Beach, Virginia and Washington, DC.
DeDakis, a member of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime, lives in Washington, DC with his wife, Cynthia, a choral conductor. They have three grown children.
In addition to book signings and readings, DeDakis frequently speaks on the topic "From Journalist to Novelist: (Or How I Learned to Stop Telling the Truth and Start Making it Up)." He is a lecturer at American University, Washington, DC where he taught a journalism class of student interns during the summer of 2007.
Accomplishments: DeDakis' awards include:
-An Emmy for his role in CNN's coverage of the 9/11 terror attacks
-The American Bar Association's Gavel Award for "Judges of the Facts," a television documentary on the jury system
-A UPI Wisconsin award for "The Cubans: Freedom and Frustration," a televsion documentary about the Cuban Boatlift of 1980.
-The U.S. military's Thomas Jefferson Award "for excellence in broadcasting" for the 1974 radio documentary "Telling it Like it Is in Pottsville, Pennsylvania" about the Army's Hometown Recruiting Program.
