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Volume One of "Harper"
Is South Carolina Author's
First Work of Short Stories
=======================

South Carolina author and editor Daniel Elton Harmon has written more than 50 books, most of them educational studies for juvenile readers. Recently published by Mason Crest and Chelsea House are his works on the Hudson River, American presidents and government agencies, Middle Eastern studies and world exploration. (Click here for details.)

He began writing for newspapers and magazines while in college (University of South Carolina, B.A. in journalism, 1972). His freelance articles have appeared in such periodicals as Nautilus, Music Journal and The New York Times. He served for a decade in various writing and editing roles for The Dispatch-News in his Lexington, South Carolina, hometown and later wrote a human interest column for The Lexington County Chronicle.

Harmon has been the associate editor and art director of Sandlapper: The Magazine of South Carolina since 1989 and managing editor (now editor) of The Lawyer’s PC, a technology newsletter for legal professionals published by West Group, since 1983. His book career, meanwhile, began in 1993. After abridging and editing a number of Christian classics for Barbour Publishing, Inc., he wrote five titles for Barbour in 1996-97: four book-length "Great Clean Jokes" compilations and Men of the Bible: Fifty Biographical Sketches of Biblical Men. For two years Harmon edited The Christian Bed & Breakfast Directory, published by Barbour. Since 1997, he has researched and written books for Wright/McGraw-Hill, Chelsea House, Mason Crest and other publishers on multiple topics including the Bible, the American Revolution and Civil War, international studies, world exploration, psychological disorders, government agencies and biographies.

The Chalk Town Train & Other Tales is his first book of fiction and the first of his series of short story collections that follow the career of Harper the crime reporter. More than 70 subsequent stories in the series are "germinated," as he puts it. "Some of them are rather developed. Others are just seeds of plots or small scenes or bits of dialogue which I can't wait to dig into—but I need time for that. I hope to have the second volume ready in late 2005, but it won't be forced."

Two stories from Volume One were published by mystery e-magazines in 2001. "The Swindlers Circle," appearing in Volume 22 of HandHeldCrime, marked Harmon's debut as a mystery writer. "The Derelict Seamen" was published shortly thereafter by Mysterical-E.

A native of rural Lexington County, South Carolina, Harmon now lives in Spartanburg, South Carolina, with his wife Sherie and daughters Jessica and Alison; his oldest daughter Courtney is completing studies for master's degree in art education at Radford College in Virginia. He is a member of Spartanburg Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. Special interests include folk music and maritime history.