A Californian originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, Dana Michaels is the author of the later-in-life, contemporary romance novel In Your Dreams!.
Now retired, she began writing In Your Dreams! while writing and doing media relations for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. There, she was lead Information Officer at major oil and chemical spills throughout California until a promotion to Marketing Specialist allowed her to focus on rare, threatened, and endangered species and their habitats.
Before joining state service, Dana was a radio personality in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, Anchorage—and at Lake Tahoe, where she was also News and Public Affairs Director, then Program and Promotions Director. Seventy-five percent of her brain is filled with old Top-40 song lyrics.
During her two decades in Radio and Television, she was also a TV booth announcer, stand-in actor, and worked in news and TV production in Los Angeles, Sacramento, and Anchorage. She still does occasional freelance voice work and is a member of the (Sacramento) Valley Broadcast Legends. (That name is tongue-in-cheek! Members don’t think of themselves as legends, although some really are.)
Dana’s writing has been published in magazines such as Outdoor California, Fish & Game Today, OSPR News, and World Pipelines (about the effects of spilled oil on wildlife and ecosystems). She has won 19 awards for writing, public & media relations, and graphic design. Her Bachelor of Arts degree is in Behavioral Science.
When younger, she really wanted to sing and act, but you know how few people actually make it in those careers. She still plays guitar with friends. When not writing, Dana enjoys reading, movies, a few TV shows, and crossword puzzles.
In Your Dreams! – An Unlikely, Later-in-Life Love Story is the first novel in the Dreams series, available in digital, paperback, hard cover, and audio formats. Two more books starring In Your Dreams! protagonists Kat Mancini and Jamie Knight are works in progress.