ABOUT

...after he resigned from the United States Air Force Academy in 1973. In preparation, he studied English at the University of Puget Sound where he also played defensive tackle on the UPS “Logger” Football Team. Upon graduation, Dave actually became a logger and found himself living in a logging camp on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington. Thinking that it was only going to be a short term job, the physical nature of the work hooked him, and its seasonal aspect gave him time to write. Rowan alternated between those activities for nine years. However, unable to sell his work, realizing his vocation wasn’t a good path to old age and beset by the urge to have a family, he went back to college. After earning a degree in Civil Engineering, he worked 28 years for Seattle City Light helping to take care of their dams and other facilities. As much as he enjoyed designing and building things, he never considered it more than a day job. There was no way he could resist getting up at

4 am to continue writing about the characters and issues alive in his head before going to work.  

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During the spotted owl crisis, being an ex-logger allowed him to freelance articles to The Seattle Times, The Post-Intelligencer, Seattle Weekly, and Northwest Editions. In 2008, he self-published the guide book Around the Edge of the Olympics on a Mountain Bike. REI carried the book until his distributor, Partners West, went out of business. Rowan retired in 2018 and two years later, Cirque Press published his first novel, Loggers Don’t Make Love. Cirque Journal then included his short story, Idaho, in their February, 2023 issue. Currently, Dave is finishing a novel about the United States Air Force Academy titled Bright Power, Dark Peace and beginning the search for a publisher.

 

Dave Rowan is a native of Seattle and now lives with his wife in his family’s old beach cabin. He has two children and two grandchildren. His passion for the woods and writing, as well as other forms of art, have never left him.