John Dandola

Biography of
John Dandola

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John Dandola is a graduate of Seton Hall University where he studied Film/Theatre/Television and was actively involved with its well-known "Theatre-in-the-Round."

After graduation, he landed freelance filmmaking assignments from Prudential, New Jersey Bell, The United Way, and The Sierra Club.

Writing, directing, and producing the live-action film short, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, brought about notice of his storytelling skills and he moved on to screenwriting.

In pursuit of his writing career, John has lived in various locales around the world with notable stints in Los Angeles, Toronto, and London. His most memorable lodgings were on Lindisfarne (a.k.a. Holy Island) off of England's Northumberland coast. The island is the locale for his first sold screenplay. Due to family obligations, John currently resides in his hometown of West Orange, New Jersey, where his Italian ancestors settled more than a century ago and where his Irish ancestors had established themselves prior to The Revolution.

West Orange is the unlikely home of the world's first motion picture studio—"The Black Mariah"—built by Thomas Alva Edison and the site of so many landmark motion pictures. John's maternal grandfather worked as a personal messenger boy to Thomas Edison in the 1910's (a unique perspective which figures prominently in his 1940's West Orange-based mystery novels).
John is a member of the Mystery Writers of America and the author of six mystery novels. He has also written a biography, four children's histories, three non-fiction books, various magazine articles, and he is a recipient of several writing awards. He is the editor of an additional four titles and the ghost-writer of seven more. His photographs and illustrations have been published both here and abroad.

As a member of the Writers Guild of America, John has written the screenplays for Woden's Day (based on the British supernatural thriller, Dragon Under the Hill) and Michael for Amy International Productions in London; undertaken an adaptation of Scaramouche for Wolf Productions in Copenhagen; created screenplays from two of his own novels, Dead at the Box Office and Wind of Time, for Emmy Award-winning director Peter Brinckerhoff; consulted on the screen adaptations of a number of other novels; and served as a script doctor on numerous film and television projects.

Always fascinated with history, his writing always contains some element of it. John is often contacted about historical correctness in scripts and, when budgets are minimal, how locations can be suitably cheated to recreate a particular time-frame. His expertise about the medieval world, especially the Vikings (a passion since childhood), is often tapped by other writers and filmmakers.

One of his favorite historic places, Hammond Castle Museum in Gloucester, Massachusetts, is featured in his New England mystery novels (Wind of Time, Wicked is the Wind, and the forthcoming The Unbound Wind). He has also featured both the castle and John Hays Hammond, Jr. in his mystery novel, Dead by All Appearances, which is set during World War II.

John spent the summer of 2003 adapting the English mystery novel, A Wisp of Smoke. It is intended as the pilot for a British television series based on the Arnold Landon Mysteries by Roy Lewis. The nineteen (and counting) novels feature an amateur historian in present-day Northumberland. The project drew John back to England's northernmost county with which he is so lovingly familiar.

As a playwright, John is also a member of the Dramatists Guild of America. In early 2004, he began work on a play for New Jersey's prestigious Celtic Theatre Company, which was founded and is overseen by his college professor, Dr. James P. McGlone. Tales of a Public House: An Evening of Wild Imaginings & Traditional Irish Music—adapted from the short stories of William Carleton (1794-1869)—premiered in March of 2005.

That success was followed by The Intercessions of Father Brown, John's stage adaptation of three classic Father Brown Mysteries by G. K. Chesterton (also produced by The Celtic Theatre Company and co-sponsored by the G. K. Chesterton Institute). It debuted in January of 2007. My New Curate, adapted from the 1899 novel by P. A. Sheehan, and The Fallen Idols of Father Brown, which combined two more Chesterton short mysteries, were both premiered in January of 2008.

John is now toying with the idea of writing an original Irish murder mystery for McGlone and company.

In the meantime, he is currently at work on several other screen adaptations of the Arnold Landon Mysteries and two more of his own mystery novels.