When I was a kid, nearly every summer my family packed up a station wagon or sedan and hit the road for a couple of weeks. Those trips sparked my curiosity about the world, a curiosity that burns just as brightly today as when I was that kid in the back seat.
I’m a full-time writer now, but that wasn’t my plan when I started college (or after I finished!). I spent much of my twenties training for a career that I eventually grew tired of. I’d become deeply unhappy, but it took a while for me to understand the source of that discontent: I felt cut off from opportunities to engage my curiosity and be creative. So I left.
Travel and writing restored my well-being. As I’ve followed my curiosity, my writing has evolved from travel guides and the Mississippi River to a mystery series to memoir. And now my curiosity is taking me in another direction: historical fiction.
Join my newsletter to follow along. Besides updates on my work, I often post about topics that inspire my curiosity. If you go to the Free Book page, you can sign up from there, plus I’ll send you a free book or chapter.
Dean Klinkenberg
Newest Book: Better Safe Than Sorry?
Now Available!
Check out my new travel memoir, Better Safe Than Sorry? Slow Boats, Chicken Buses, and the Radical Choice to Trust the World.
A book that asks, What happens when you stop asking “What if something goes wrong?” and start asking “What if everything goes right?”
The Frank Dodge Mystery Series
Frank Dodge walked away from a comfortable life as a therapist to chase stories along the Mississippi — trading billable hours for bar stools, backwaters, and the people who live on the margins. Trouble finds him everywhere he goes. With his best friend Brian Jefferson, a St. Louis homicide detective, at his side, Frank untangles murders rooted in family legacies, small-city corruption, boomtown greed, and long-buried injustice. Click on the image below to find out more.
Start the Frank Dodge Mysteries – Free!
He came for the story. He stayed for the murder charge.
Get Rock Island Lines, the first Frank Dodge Mississippi River mystery, free — and meet the travel writer who can read a river’s currents better than he can stay out of trouble. Sign up below.
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Travel Guides for the Mississippi River
I also write about travel along the Mississippi River. If you’re interested in exploring one of the most scenic and historic corridors in the United States, check out my Mississippi Valley Traveler website and my books about the river.
You’ve driven past the Mississippi River your whole life. You’ve crossed it on bridges, glimpsed it through trees, maybe watched it from a levee. But have you ever really explored it? I have. This book distills two decades of experience getting to know the people, places, and history of the Mississippi River.
Discover the amazing flora and fauna of the Mississippi River—and the best ways to explore it, state by state!
Where You Can Find Me
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