Randee Dawn

Humorous Fantasy

Maryland-born Randee Dawn is now a Brooklyn-based entertainment journalist who scribbles about the glam world of entertainment by day, then spends her nights crafting wild worlds of fiction. She’s a former editor at The Hollywood Reporter and Soap Opera Digest, and these days covers the wacky world of show business for Variety, The Los Angeles Times, Emmy Magazine and Today.com.

Dawn’s obsessive love of all things Law & Order led her to appear in one episode and later co-author The Law & Order: Unofficial Companion.  Her short fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies and online publications; she also dreams up trivia questions for BigBrain Games. Once a month, she can be found hosting Rooftop Readings at Ample Hills Creamery in Brooklyn, and when not writing, she’s focused on her next travel destination and hangs out with her wonderful, funny husband and fluffy Westie. She admits she reads way too many books and consumes far too many mangoes.

 

 

Learn more about Randee on her website.

BOOKS:

Tune In Tomorrow (2022) – Buy on Amazon

Home for the Holidays: Stories to Gnaw Lightly on Your Brain (2012) – Buy on Amazon

The Law & Order: SVU Unofficial Companion (2009) – Buy on Amazon

SELECTED ANTHOLOGIES:

Horror for the Throne: One-Sitting Reads (2021) – Buy on Amazon

Another World: Stories of Portal Fantasy (2021) – Buy on Amazon

Biggest literary influences:

Jonathan Carroll, Stephen King, Judy Blume

Last book read:

The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

The book that changed your life:

Fairy & Folk Tales of Ireland by W.B. Yeats. I stumbled on this collection in the library, and really didn’t know much about Irish folklore except what we’d all heard — leprechauns, banshees. But inside was a whole new world of fae and folklore I’d never heard about, with fantastic creatures who were not giving morality lessons, so often the point of fairy tales I read while I was growing up. These were tough creatures who had their own agendas. I know Yeats’ exploration of Irish folklore is considered problematic now, for a number of reasons (and I know the rural peasantry he gleaned the stories from might have been messing with him), but this was the first time I’d read fairy tales and wanted to dive in with one of my own, to take these mythical beings and weave them into contemporary frameworks. And I did!

Favorite literary character:

I don’t know if I have only one; characters are like party guests you spend some time with and then move on from, and they work best in the context of their story. But I do love Henry Sugar from Roald Dahl’s The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, about a dissolute user, who flits through life with graft and gambling and no conscience, and who discovers a way to win at any game he plays. And by so discovering, learns that it is actually far more inspiring to give than to receive. I love the idea that by losing all boundaries, we can find ourselves. And it’s going to be a movie directed by Wes Anderson and starring Benedict Cumberbatch!

Currently working on:

A follow-up to Tune in Tomorrow! New characters, but different “shows” put on by mythical beings.

Words to live by:

“Be the mango.” This is a quote in Tune in Tomorrow that will make sense to readers of the book, but essentially means: Throw your whole self into your endeavors. Leap into the darkness and embrace the challenge. Don’t half-ass it, ever. 

Advice for aspiring authors:

“Remember: When people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.”

Neil Gaiman aimed those words at writers, but they’re a good metaphor for life. 

ARTICLES/REVIEWS

“Unmissable Fantasy & Scifi of 2022,” EveryBookADoorway.com

“Cover Reveal: Randee Dawn’s Reality TV-Infused Fantasy Novel Tune in Tomorrow,” TheMarySue.com

“A Mythic Soap Opera: Interview with Randee Dawn, Author of Tune in Tomorrow,” Interstellar Flight Magazine