Tim Dorsey
Florida's chronicler of whack-y crime

Featured Speaker/Presenter, Saturday, Oct. 4, EPAC
"Newsflash from Tampa: Writing Crime Novels Can Be Murder"

Dorsey comes from sunny Tampa, where the former crime and political reporter has written ten richly textured novels about Florida’s seamy, whacky underworld of way-out crime. Dorsey’s fictional anti-hero, Serge Storms, struggles with more weird personality “tics” than a psycho killer at a cheerleader convention. His latest novel, “Atomic Lobster,” is winning rave reviews. Born in Indiana, but living in Florida since he was a babe, Dorsey covered cops and crime for the Alabama Journal from 1983 to 1987, then worked for the Tampa Tribune from 1987 to 1999. At the Trib, he covered all sorts of general assignment beats, as well as writing about government and elections, and serving a stint as copy editor. His other books include “Florida Roadkill,” “Hammerhead Ranch Motel,”  “Orange Crush,” “The Stingray Shuffle,” “Cadillac Beach,” “Torpedo Juice,” “Triggerfish Twist,” “The Big Bamboo,” and “Hurricane Punch.” Not bad for a guy who started out in life with a Bachelor of Science degree in transportation and “college newspaper editor” on his resume. Dorsey hasn’t yet hit the 50-mark in the race for longevity and he shares his Tampa home with his family. His next Serge Storm novel, which will be published in January 2009, will be “Nuclear Jellyfish.”

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