About Dakota

(Eugene) Dakota Orlando

I write almost exclusively about empowered women and girls who strive to break glass ceilings. I have many books that are being revised and will be available from 2021 on. Many are available in Amazon’s Vella platform. (see Welcome page for a single link to my booklist.

Writing seriously since 1998, I penned my three-millionth word in December of 2016, and have written another 400,000+ since then with the Albacron series. (I specialize in fiction from chapter book to adult readers. Short stories, too. I’ve also written a ton of poetry, some screenplays, and stage plays. (I started my writing journey with playwriting and studied under professional playwright T. Dianne Anderson while minoring in theater at the University of South Florida, Tampa campus.)

I’ve received six Writers Digest honorable mentions and ten Royal Palm Literary Awards (five for first place). In 2009, I received the president’s award from the Florida Writers Association for assisting other member writers. I’m a lifetime member, and a former board member for the FWA. Having attended dozens of writing conferences, I’ve also presented at four.

I’m well-versed in The Chicago Manual of Style.  While it existed, I had lent my services to the Florida Writers Association’s Editors Helping Writers program. I also volunteer my time to the FWA’s RPLA annual writing contest as a judge and have done so since 2008.

I hold a master’s degree in computer science education and retired after 28 years of teaching the mentally handicapped and computer applications for at-risk, high school students in Tampa, Florida.

My last wife died in 2011, which led me to the West. I met my current wife, Dodie Orlando, in Walla Walla, Washington. We married after moving to Reno, NV in 2013. Three months later, Dodie contracted stage-four, gynecological cancer and beat it by July of 2014. She’s been cancer-free since. Click on her link (name) to read about our cancer journey. We moved back to Walla Walla in 2022 to be closer to Dodie’s family whose parents are in their 90s. Her mother recently passed away on June 2, 2023.

All books, Albacron or otherwise, will be published by:

How to Contact Me

dakota [at] DakotaOrlando [dot] com (replace [at] with @ and [dot] with a period. Make sure there are no spaces. Example: ferdinand@thebull.com

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