Meet Mystery Author Don Kaplan

Mystery Author Don Kaplan is a fellow member of the local chapter of the Mystery Writers of America, and has a new book out. He's an interesting character, as you can see.

He had a recent book launch at the New England Mobile Bookfair for Thief Executive Officer, the second book in his Dizzy Gillespie series.

If you'd like to catch Don in action,  he'll be at the Library Room of the Historic Hawthorne Hotel in Salem, MA on March 15, 2018, from  6:30—8:00 pm.
He'll offer Readings, Signings, Live Music, Q & A, and Refreshments.

So let's find out more about him and his work, in his own words.

Background
Briefly, I started as a high school teacher (history, social science, constitution, etc.) and loved it. However, I promised myself that I wouldn’t limit myself to one defining role in my obituary because I’d never know what else I might love. I wanted to keep informing, teaching, and writing, so I got into publishing shopper’s guides where I wrote articles and reviews. I had to create and sell advertising advertisers to generate revenue. My customers liked the ads so much that they asked me to develop all their ads. I started full service advertising agency and called it Kaplan & Stuart Inc.  We grew from one to ten people and worked with hundreds of clients over a 10 year period. I wrote all the copy, directed the creative, developed and produced TV and radio ads.

In the early 90’s, I decided to expand the epitaph one more time and became a strategic marketing consultant. I fed my writing addiction by creating strategies, ads, and a blog called DK4M which is now in its third decade.

In 2003, I began research on a little known, long-ignored incident in American history when Andrew Jackson murdered two British traders. Work and life intervened I and in 2013 I realized while important, the story might not interest a lot of readers. I also realized that mysteries were a great diversion that I had in common with a lot of people. So I wrote The Devil’s Jury. I liked the lead characters so much I wrote TEO: Thief Executive Officer.

Themes
A number of issues intersect in Thief Executive Officer.  It explores the complexity and risks of whistle blowing and the ethics of business as well the ease and dangers of producing and distributing opioids and counterfeit prescription medicine.

Storytelling
I think like most authors of fiction I could imagine and wish that my books could be made into movies.  Unreasonable dreaming can be motivating.  Beyond storytelling, I have discovered that developing this story has intensified my interest and probably knowledge of human nature.