Nov. 4, 2025
From Newsroom to Novels: John De Dedakis on Writing, Healing, and Finding Purpose
Send us a text In this engaging episode of Living the Dream with Curveball, we welcome John DeDakis, a seasoned journalist, novelist, and writing coach with an impressive 45-year career in journalism, including a notable tenure as a White House correspondent. John shares his unique journey from aspiring lawyer to accomplished writer, detailing how his experiences in the military and journalism shaped his creative voice. He discusses the evolution of journalism in the digital age, the challeng...
In this engaging episode of Living the Dream with Curveball, we welcome John DeDakis, a seasoned journalist, novelist, and writing coach with an impressive 45-year career in journalism, including a notable tenure as a White House correspondent. John shares his unique journey from aspiring lawyer to accomplished writer, detailing how his experiences in the military and journalism shaped his creative voice. He discusses the evolution of journalism in the digital age, the challenges of transitioning from reporting to fiction writing, and the importance of authenticity in storytelling. Listeners will gain insights into his six mystery suspense novels, which tackle themes of grief, resilience, and the complexities of female identity. John also opens up about his upcoming projects, including a memoir and his motivational speaking endeavors aimed at using writing as a healing tool for those facing grief. Tune in for a thought-provoking conversation that inspires creativity, self-expression, and the courage to share your story.
www.johndedakis.com
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Welcome to the Living the Dream podcast with Curveball. If you believe you can achieve. Welcome to the Living the Dream with Curveball podcast, a show where I interview guests that teach, motivate and inspire Today. Today I am joined by journalist, novelist and writing coach John De Daikis. John has had a, 45 year journalism career and he also had a stint as a White House correspondent. So we're going to be talking to him about his writing coaching and his career. So John, thank you so much for joining me.
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> John De Daikis>Thank you Curtis. It's good to be here.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Why don't you start off by telling everybody a little bit about yourself.
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> John De Daikis>Well, let's see, from La Crosse, Wisconsin along the Mississippi River. grew up there, did a stint in the army for about three, three and a half years during the Vietnam War era. I wasn't in Vietnam, but it was that time in the country's life. went into journalism, was a journalist for 45 years, covered Reagan during the last three years of his presidency. Went to CNN in 1988 as a writer, became an editor. And during that time I started writing fict. over the last 20 years I've got six mystery suspense thriller novels in print and I also became a manuscript editor, a writing coach, a writing teacher and I basically am also a motivational speecher, speaker, helping people use writing as a way to heal from grief.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Yeah, we'll kind of talk about, I guess as much as you can about your stint as a, White House correspondent. You know, kind of tell us how that was and what you did if you can.
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> John De Daikis>Well, I worked for the Christian, Broadcasting Network. Pat Robertson was the founder of that.
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> John De Daikis>And for two years I was a general assignment reporter at the network based in Virginia Beach.
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> John De Daikis>And then I became their White house correspondent in 1985. And so between 85 and 88, that's where I was. It also happened to correspond with the candidacy of my boss, Pat Robertson, when he ran for president, in 1988. And so that was kind of tricky, trying to play it straight as a reporter while there was a lot of pressure on me to get on board the Robertson for President campaign train, which I didn't do. But we played it straight and it was a good experience. It was it was, it's sort of the holy ho. Holies of politics back there in in the, in Washington and at the White House. So it was, it was a very instructive time. And I think the, you know, the one takeaway that I. That that has sustained me going forward is that the relationship between the press and the president is a, by definition, an adversarial relationship.
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> John De Daikis>You know, it's the press secretary's job to make the president and his policies look perfect. It's the job of reporters to find out what's really going on. And so no matter who's president, no matter what party they're in, there are a lot of times when they're not happy with their press coverage.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Well, for seven years, you were editor for Wolf Blitzer. So talk about how you feel like, journalism has evolved since that time and any concerns you might have and tell the listeners what Wolf was like working.
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> John De Daikis>Oh, excellent. Oh, well, I mean, Wolff was. That was an honor to work with him. I mean, Wolf, as far as I'm concerned, is a journalist. Journalist.
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> John De Daikis>He cares more than anything about accuracy. I worked with him for seven years, and I don't know what his politics are because his job was to inform, not persuade. Now, there are some people who may disagree with me. That's fine. They're entitled to their opinion. But I was up close and I. I saw him every day play it straight. And, so working with Wolf was. Was a great experience.
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> John De Daikis>That said, journalism has evolved. It's evolved over the hundred years or more, and it's often driven by technological advances. You know, the typewriter, the telephone, the, you know, all of these things have helped speed things up. And we're now at a point where we have the Internet, we have live television, and so basically, anyone with a telephone is a publisher if they hit post or send. But in most cases, there's not an editor on those people's shoulders asking them, where did you get that? How do you know it's true? And yet a lot of these influencers have hundreds of thousands and even millions of followers. So journalism has changed a lot because it's the wild west out there, and it requires a tremendous amount of diligence and discernment on the part of the news consumer to get information that is reliable as opposed to just reinforcing their political opinions.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Let's talk about, how you got into journalism and talk about, was it easy, to switch from journalism to being a novelist?
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> John De Daikis>That's really two questions. The first part of the question is getting into journalism in the first place. my plan was to go into law with my dad. My dad was a lawyer, and the plan was that I was going to go into practice with him and then use law as a stepping stone to get into politics. And so my plan was to become president. You know, I'd start with alderman, then mayor and then governor and so on for the good of the country. I decided to go in a different direction primarily because I was a student at the University of Wisconsin in Madison in the late 60s and early 70s when the Vietnam War was a big deal. It was in all the papers and they had a draft which meant that if you had a number below 150, you were going to Vietnam. You may have a student deferment for a while, but, that was only temporary. my number was 14, so it didn't look real good. I decided to enlist to avoid the draft because I couldn't in good conscience either go to jail or Canada for my beliefs, because I wasn't against all war. If, you know, when we were fighting Nazi Germany and Japan, you know, during World War II, that seemed to be a war I would be able to support, even though I'd certainly be worried about my well being if I'd, you know, gotten drafted. Drafted.
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> John De Daikis>So, I enlisted and, they had something called military journalism. And so I went to. My first formal journalism training was in the army. I did get orders to Vietnam, but they were changed at the last minute to Germany. And I spent two and a half years at the headquarters of the American Forces Radio and Television Network in Frankfurt, Germany, doing interviews for a special events radio unit. And, and the first interview I did was with Alfred Hitchcock, this legendary film director. I mean, maybe you've heard of him. And that was what sealed the deal. I found what I was good at and what I loved. And so when you put those two things together, you've got purpose and propulsion in your life. So when I got out of the army, I went back to journalism school at the University of Wisconsin. And the rest is history.
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> John De Daikis>I went and I stayed in journalism for 45 years.
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> John De Daikis>Now, the other part of your, the other part of your question was making the transition from journalist to novelist. That was tricky because while I was at cnn they made me an editor and that was, that paid well, but it was tedious, it was fault finding and I needed a creative outlet. And so I began to start playing with writing fiction, which was. It was difficult from any, for any number of reasons. One is that it was hard to give myself permission to make things up because in, at a reputable news organization, unlike what some presidents will tell you, it is a firing offense to make things up. But I finally figured out that I could make things up in my characters and, and create stories that were separate from, you know, covering the news on a day to day basis. So it took about 10 years for me to get the agent that I've got and get the publishing deal that I had.
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> John De Daikis>And and so it took a while to learn the craft and learn the business.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Well, just so, you know, jokingly, I have absolutely no idea who Alfred Hitchcock is.
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> John De Daikis>My goodness. Well, Alfred Hitchcock was especially big in the 1950s and 60s. his m. His, his films, are legendary. Psycho, north, by Northwest, Rear Window. He was considered to be the master of suspense.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Yep. And he used to give me a lot of nightmares at night.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>So let's talk about social, media and artificial, intelligence. Do you feel like they are, ah, blessing or a curse? She, you know, kind of go through that with the listeners. Blessing.
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> John De Daikis>Well, you know, they're, they're artificial intelligence and the Internet, you know, and social media. They are morally neutral. The problem is when you get people involved. And I mentioned the problem with people spreading falsehoods, on the Internet. and artificial intelligence is also here to stay. but it has strengths and weaknesses. You know, some of the strengths are that it can really provide you with a lot of information. You can use it as a resource tool so long as you check the sources that it provides you. It can be a great source in being able to take something that's very complex and synthesizing it down to a summary, in any number of ways of writing Succinctly. The, there are several problems with artificial intelligence though, at least when it comes to writing. I don't recommend it as a writing tool because artificial intelligence doesn't know you as intimately as you know you. And that is where your creativity resides in your personal experiences and your subconscious. Artificial intelligence can't access that. Consequently, the stories that it writes are bland and flat. And they don't have the emotional punch that you can bring to a story on your own.
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> John De Daikis>artificial intelligence is definitely a problem, when it's used as, let's say, a therapist. there are incidents where artificial intelligence has actually talked people into killing themselves. So there are some very serious problems with artificial intelligence. It is now able to create what they call deep fakes. In other words, using video that looks very authentic, making a politician say things that they never said or do things that they never did. And it requires a tremendous amount of discernment, for us to be able to tell the difference between what's real and what's fake. And then there's one other problem I see with artificial intelligence and that is the tremendous amount of electricity that it takes to to produce it. there, there are data farms that require just it's just a drain on the social, on the electrical grid. And that of course has ramifications for the the environment. Now will there be, you know, advances technologically that will, you know, make it much more efficient for artificial intelligence to operate? Perhaps, but right now there are some strengths. But I think that there are some big dangers that we need to be aware of.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Can you, can you tell us about your book? You know, kind of tell us about all of your books, what we can expect when we read them and where we can go get them.
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> John De Daikis>Sure. Thank you. I appreciate the question. I've written six mystery suspense thriller novels.
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> John De Daikis>They're a series but you don't have to read them in order, but I'll take you through them quickly.
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> John De Daikis>My protagonist, Lar chadwick, is a 20 something young woman. You'll notice I'm neither of those things. And the book starts in southern Wisconsin.
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> John De Daikis>She's a college dropout, the victim of sexual assault. And she's a little wobbly with her life right at that point and vexed about what she's going to do going forward. She writes what she thinks is the best, you know, the, the you know, the great American novel. It keeps getting rejected. And when she goes home to talk aunt who raised her from infancy to kind of consult about what can I do to get better, she finds the body of her aunt on the floor, the victim of carbon monoxide poisoning, an apparent suicide, which is very closely aligned with my sister's suicide back in 1980. Writers write what they know and that's what I did. And so that's the beginning of the series. Fast Track is the name of that book. Lark becomes a journalist when she solves the mystery of the car train collision that orphaned her as an infant. She hooks up with Lionel Stone, who's the newspaper publisher. He's a former editor at the New York Times, Pulitzer Prize winner and becomes her mentor. And his character parallels Lark going through all six novels. Bluff is the second novel.
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> John De Daikis>That too is set in southern Wisconsin. Lark in that book helps Lionel solve the mystery surrounding the death of his daughter along the Inca trail in Machu Picchu in Peru, which I hiked as part of my research book. Three Troubled Water takes place in, in ah, Georgia, where I lived for a while. Lark joins a weekly newspaper as the Cops and courts reporter and discovers a body of an, of a, of a serial of the work of a serial killer. And she has the inside track to solve the murder. the fifth novel, Bullet in the Chamber, fourth novel, Bullet in the Chamber, takes place in Washington.
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> John De Daikis>Lark is White House correspondent. Where did I get that idea? And she is, and that book is personal as well, because much of the backs, much of the subplot that's going on in Lark's life echoes and parallels the, time when my youngest son went missing and was found dead a week later of an accidental heroin overdose. So again, I write what I know and I poured my pain into the book, which was very cathartic and therapeutic. Book five, Fake Lark is still a White House correspondent, and she's the victim of fake news. We, the reader, know that what's being told about her that becomes national news is not true. And I wanted to tell a story that shows that lies have consequences because I was very concerned at that point when Donald Trump was talking about reporters as enemies of the American people. Book six, the most recent one, Larkin is now White House press secretary. She's pregnant, the dad is dead.
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> John De Daikis>Abortion, is a crime. She's ambivalent about becoming a single mom and a dictator becomes president.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Well, talk about why you decided to, ah, write as a woman.
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> John De Daikis>I thought you'd never ask. I get that question a lot. In fact, one woman at a book signing asked me, me, what do you wear when you write? I wear just regular clothes and I'm not, you know, in any way other than a straight male. But the reason I, I wrote as a woman was not in any kind of calculated way. When I started writing fiction back in the mid-90s, someone suggested that I should write in a way that stretches who I am.
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> John De Daikis>Never been a woman, at least not in this life. So I gave it a try and discovered that emotions, are not gender specific. Men and women have the exact same emotions. It's just that in my experience, the women in my life are more willing to share their emotions and they're more articulate about them. And so while I was at cnn, I was surrounded by young women in their early to mid-20s who would let me ask them questions about their jobs, their careers, their boyfriends, their parents, their, you know, all those kinds of things. And I learned what like to be a woman because I asked and then I listened. And so many, of these women became beta readers. They read early drafts of the manuscripts and gave me really helpful, constructive criticism on what was working. And more importantly, what was not working. And so there's a deeper reason I discovered that I write as a woman, and that is, it goes back to that, what I call the spooky power of the subconscious. And it wasn't until I went through grief counseling that I realized that the deeper reason that I write as a woman is to create a character in Lark Chadwick. That why that I wish my sister had allowed herself to become my sister who killed herself in 1980. was she. You know, she had tremendous potential. She could have been a concert pianist. She could have been a surgeon.
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> John De Daikis>But her husband said, what would it look like, you know, a surgeon married to a football coach? And one by one, she gave up her dreams. And so Lark, you know, still falls for the bad boys, but doesn't let a guy define who she is.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Well, as a manuscript editor, and you can. You can also use this to talk about your, writing coaching business. But as a manuscript editor, what is the biggest mistake you find that writers make?
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> John De Daikis>Oh, let me count the ways. I, think that. I mean, a lot of the mistakes writers make I never see because they have decided to quit before they've even gotten started. For some reason, they have this tremendously strong urge to write. They may even have a story to tell. But they get discouraged. Either they start writing, you know, white hot, and they get 50 pages in, and they realize they haven't thought it through, they're overwhelmed, and they give up. Or, or they compare their writing to someone who's really good and they feel that they don't have it in them to do it, and they quit prematurely. and so that's really, I think, a huge mistake, that, that, that would be authors make. once the manuscript gets to me, though, I do see a lot of the same kinds of mistakes, and probably the biggest one, one is that writers tend to tell their story instead of show it. You know, to get your characters talking, have them interact with each other, because then the reader can see them interacting in their mind's eye. And another big mistake that I think rookie writers make is that they throw too much backstory into the. Into the book prematurely.
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> John De Daikis>What they need to do is to get the story started and then sprinkle in the backstory as the story goes on, as opposed to. Opposed to do a data dump of context that, just confuses the reader because we don't really know what the story is.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Tell us about any current upcoming projects that you're working on that listeners need to be aware of three things.
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> John De Daikis>One, I've, I haven't published it yet, but I've written a memoir that is now I'm shopping it around to different publishers, and it basically highlights the pivotal moments in my life that brought me to where I am. And some of those we've talked about tonight. there's also my seventh novel I'm working on. My wife and I worked on book Six Enemies Domestic together. It's won eight awards so far. And so we're using that approach again. I'll do the writing. She'll be my alpha reader and give me, you know, guidance on where it can go from here. And then the third thing is that I'm widening the horizon, and doing much more motivational speaking, not just to the writing community, but to corporations that have wellness programs, veterans groups who are dealing with ptsd, hospitals that may have hospice, services.
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> John De Daikis>So I'm helping people who are struggling with grief to use writing as a way to heal. And I'm not just talking about writing, not just grief that where you lost, lost a loved one, but you can have lost a pet, a job, a relationship, your health, your innocence, any number of things. Grief is universal.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Well, so listeners can keep up with everything that you're up to. Throw out your contact info.
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> John De Daikis>You can contact me through my website, which is my name, dot com, John de Dacus dot com. That's J O H N D as in dog E D as in dog A K I. s as in Sam.
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> John De Daikis>John dedicus.com.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>All right, we'll close this out with some final thoughts. Maybe if that was something I forgot to talk about that you would like to touch on or any final thoughts you have for the listeners.
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> John De Daikis>Boy, I don't have any. I mean, you covered the ground. You're very thorough interviewer. I guess the only thing I would leave people with is just take a breath. We live life with more time, regretting the past and fearing the future and being ineffective in the moment. And I think if you take a breath and be more present in the moment, you'll be an agent, a potential agent for civility in our civil discourse so that you can help people. You can build bridges among people, in between people instead of walking.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>all right, ladies and gentlemen, John Dedicus Dot com. Please check out John's books and everything that he's up to and his, upcoming projects. Check out his website. Follow Rate Review Share this episode to as many people as possible and follow us on your favorite podcast platform. If you have any guest suggestions you would like to be a guest yourself? Any suggestions or feedback for the show, please visit www.craveball337.com thank you for listening and supporting the show. And John, thank you for all day you do. And thank you for joining me.
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> John De Daikis>Curtis thank you very much. This was a joy.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>For more information on the Living the Dream with Curveball podcast, visit www.craveballuh337.com until next time, keep living the dream.
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