About the Author
Del Staecker, Storyteller
A lot of middle-aged people dream of chucking it all in and running away to write a novel. Del Staecker did just that, leaving behind a thirty-year career to sit in a two-room cabin in Idaho with no phone, no TV and with radio reception only a few hours a day to write his first novel, The Muted Mermaid, by hand.
His yearning to write took hold and a lifetime of stories crammed in his head started rolling out. The day Staecker finished The Muted Mermaid he began writing the sequel, Shaved Ice, both were released in 2008. Together with Chocolate Soup, the final piece of his trilogy they have earned recognition as the 2010 recipient of the Military Writer's Society of America's Silver Award for Mystery/Thriller. His non-fiction work, The Lady Gangster: a Sailor's Memoir, was released in 2009 and received two national awards.
Del grew up in Blue Island, Illinois, a small town outside Chicago, where he shifted between two cultures, the surreal artist's world of Chicago's Old Town-where the likes of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and Bob Dylan hung out at his Uncle Erling's exotic bird shop-and the normal world of Boy Scouts, Little League baseball and working on his relatives' farms. At fifteen he survived leukemia and penned his own bucket list which served as the source of his life's adventures.
Del describes himself as a storyteller. He has been a soldier, lived on a boat, and has completed all but one item on his list. He is a member of the Royal Society of Arts, London, United Kingdom and currently he lives and writes in his Pennsylvania home, which is shared by his wife and the colorful characters in his head.
A lot of middle-aged people dream of chucking it all in and running away to write a novel. Del Staecker did just that, leaving behind a thirty-year career to sit in a two-room cabin in Idaho with no phone, no TV and with radio reception only a few hours a day to write his first novel, The Muted Mermaid, by hand.
His yearning to write took hold and a lifetime of stories crammed in his head started rolling out. The day Staecker finished The Muted Mermaid he began writing the sequel, Shaved Ice, both were released in 2008. Together with Chocolate Soup, the final piece of his trilogy they have earned recognition as the 2010 recipient of the Military Writer's Society of America's Silver Award for Mystery/Thriller. His non-fiction work, The Lady Gangster: a Sailor's Memoir, was released in 2009 and received two national awards.
Del grew up in Blue Island, Illinois, a small town outside Chicago, where he shifted between two cultures, the surreal artist's world of Chicago's Old Town-where the likes of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and Bob Dylan hung out at his Uncle Erling's exotic bird shop-and the normal world of Boy Scouts, Little League baseball and working on his relatives' farms. At fifteen he survived leukemia and penned his own bucket list which served as the source of his life's adventures.
Del describes himself as a storyteller. He has been a soldier, lived on a boat, and has completed all but one item on his list. He is a member of the Royal Society of Arts, London, United Kingdom and currently he lives and writes in his Pennsylvania home, which is shared by his wife and the colorful characters in his head.
