From bartender to carpenter, architect to dental instrument maker, Athol Dickson has experienced a life as varied as his stories. (He even lived on a boat for two years.)
A Texan recently transplanted to California, Athol’s now content to call himself a writer. As long as he can still get out on the water. Author of seven novels, including several award winners, he’s recently set sail on a new adventure re-releasing four of them in eBook form. River Rising, The Cure, Winter Haven and They Shall See God have all been tweaked and sport spiffy new covers as well as brand-new author introductions, where Dickson shares details about the books and what they mean to him.
“I’m not making changes to the stories themselves,” he says. “No new endings or anything like that, but readers may notice subtle differences in the phrasings and word choices here and there. They are just better written than ever because of the additional experience and practice that has improved my writing skills since these novels first came out.”
While all of Athol’s books could be classified as suspense, he’ll often sprinkle in surprises like Winter Haven’s gothic flavor and the supernatural elements of The Cure to set his style apart. “Before anything, I try to write exciting stories,” he says. “Readers tell me the novels are very hard to put down and often keep them up at night turning page after page. But readers also tell me they sometimes put my novels down on purpose, in order to stop and think about what they just read. That’s what makes my work unique, I think. The stories are tons of fun, but they’re also filled with interesting things worth thinking about. And never are they preachy in the slightest. I work extremely hard to avoid that.”