10 Things You Might Not Know About Me

Saturday again, and we're continuing the theme of getting to know the author behind the book. My life is one that seems pretty normal to me, but with a few things that - once I start talking to people about it - are actually fairly unique. I've not included any of those in this list.

Without further ado, 10 random facts about Daniel Dydek, author of By Ways Unseen.


1. I actually wear glasses. Well, truthfully, I more often wear contacts. And I realized that, unless you dig deep on my Facebook page, you wouldn't know that. Easy start.

2. I was in the Army for three years - from March 2004 to June 2007, including one fairly mild (for me) tour in Iraq from '05 to '06. I was a cannon crewmember with 1st Battalion, 320th Field Artillery Regiment with the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) based in Ft. Campbell KY. I never fired my rifle while overseas, and was never directly shot at (we had stray rounds falling into our parking lot during the civil war, but that was it).

3. Thanks to the money I made over there, I was able to purchase my first full-suspension mountain bike, and love mountain biking all over the place. My goal is to ride a trail in every state - so far I'm up to 19: PA, NY, OH, WV, VA, MD, DE, NC, SC, TN, KY, OR, ID, MT, WY, CO, UT, NV, CA. Technically, that's two things, but I'll let you have that one for free.

4. I also love driving. I got my license later in life (21) but got busy right away, taking a 3,000 mi road trip 5 or 6 months after getting it (and hitting up trails in seven states, BTW). For a long period, I used to go on a flyer in the middle of the night and drive around all the roads I knew in a 4-county area, going 100-200 miles, depending.

5. So if you haven't picked up on it yet, I love traveling. Airports are my favorite, because there's so many people and their all going somewhere significant - because plane tickets are expensive, so you don't fly unless there's a really good reason. Road trips are great too, and I actually have plans to do roadtrips like the ones in 2007 and 2015 driving state to state and riding trails.

6. Which leads into the fun dichotomy that I plan in real life, and pants in my books. Writing is an adventure, and I never lay too many plans for where the book will go. But when I decide to do a trip? I figure out where the hotels are, where the trail is, line out each day of where I'm going to eat, ride, sleep, go where at what time, and have an envelope for each day with cash and the itinerary including GPS for each and cross roads in case the GPS doesn't work.

RANDOM FACT TIME:

7. I've run a half marathon. I used to say I couldn't run because of an injury. I was wrong.

8. To date, my jobs have been: garden center employee, soldier, bicycle mechanic, administrative assistant, environmental specialist (writer the whole time).

9. I have never interviewed for any of those jobs. I worked for my dad; the government (which doesn't care); I had gone to school for the bike mechanic thing so I was hired automatically; and I knew the Director and he brought me on as a contract employee with no questions asked, and that carried over into being brought on full time. I have only ever interviewed twice, one time an abject failure, the second time:

10. I had a massively successful interview and was hired to work in an airport bookstore, but a couple days before starting got hired at my current job which paid a LOT better and I didn't have to be at work at 5am. Sometimes I wonder though, since books and airports are high on the list of my favorite things...

So there you have it! 10 random but slightly related facts about me. Back to the adventure...