About

Daniel J. Showalter (he answers to Dan) was born in Stratford, Ontario, and was raised and educated in Ottawa. He began his working career as officer-in charge of a geophysical observatory in Resolute, NWT (now Nunavut). In 1973 he joined Telesat Canada, where he worked thirteen years as a flight dynamics analyst and system engineer. This was followed by four years in Luxembourg as satellite engineering Supervisor at a television broadcast satellite company.

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In 1990 he returned to Ottawa and joined the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) in St-Hubert, Quebec. There he spent fifteen years in Satellite Operations, as Manager responsible

for control of the RADARSAT and SCISAT satellites, followed by four years as Deputy Director, responsible for supporting the development of operational capability for several CSA programs.

Finally, he spent nine years in Ottawa as Director of the David Florida Laboratory (DFL), retiring in 2018.

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His experience in satellite operation and spacecraft design allows him a certain license to describe various aspects of space travel; he leans on this background to enrich his novels

with realistic technical detail, but in a language accessible to technical enthusiasts of various levels of expertise. He drew on his direct experience with RADARSAT as the basis for the novel

In A Pinch.

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Primarily a creative person, it was retirement from public service which finally afforded him the opportunity to write stories inspired by his experiences, beginning with In A Pinch, and

shortly to be followed by LG2. His other creative pursuits center around music; he has written several dozen songs for which he accompanies himself on guitar, and is in the process of

compiling and recording his song book. He now lives with his wife on Amherst Island, Ontario.