Dan Carlson

Dan Carlson's life would be best viewed as a web instead of a linear path. He grew up in Minnesota where he graduated from Normandale Community College, the University of Minnesota, and attended Bethel Theological Seminary. He later studied meteorology at Mississippi State University, oceanography at Portland State, and ministry at Global University's Berean School of the Bible.

He was a TV weatherman at WCCO-TV in Minneapolis for eight years, and spent three years in Twin Cities radio as a Program Director at KYCR-AM before moving to South Dakota's Black Hills and continuing in broadcasting at KSLT-FM in Spearfish. He later went on to become Chief Meteorologist at KEVN-TV in Rapid City where he became a popular fixture in Black Hills media. It was there Dan branched out by taking side gigs in forensic and fire meteorology. He also started writing weekly newspaper columns about fishing, hunting and the outdoor lifestyle. Those activities led to him being recruited by Cabela's in western Nebraska where he worked as a senior copywriter, corporate meteorologist and as part of the company's marketing team.

In 2008, Dan's dream of becoming a published book author became reality with the release of "Trophy Bucks in Any Weather" by F+W Publishing. It was the first book written by a meteorologist to explain how weather influences the behavior of deer and other animals. But Dan's goal of becoming a fiction writer wasn't realized until 2019 when he self-published his first sci-fi thriller "Species Unknown" on Amazon. It went on to top the charts in the Christian Fantasy genre. The sequel to "Species Unknown" was released in September 2021 and is titled "Species Unleashed."

Today Dan lives with his wife, Karen, in the northern Black Hills of western South Dakota where he is pastor of a non-denominational church and has a freelance writing business. When he's not writing books or working on projects for clients, Dan is enjoying the great outdoors. His interests include fishing, hunting, military aviation history, UAPs, cryptozoology and storm chasing.