Freedman, Dave 1966-

PERSONAL:

Born 1966; married. Education: Princeton University, B.S.; Harvard Business School, M.B.A.

ADDRESSES:

Home—CA. Agent—Marly Rusoff & Associates, Inc., P.O. Box 524, Bronxville, NY 10708.

CAREER:

Writer, novelist, and financial professional. Worked in finance on Wall Street.

WRITINGS:

Natural Selection (novel), Hyperion (New York, NY), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

Author Dave Freedman was once a successful Wall Street executive. Though his business career brought him considerable financial success, Freedman longed to be a writer. To that end, he took a daring, risky step: he "walked away from a million dollar Wall Street career … to chase after his dream of becoming a published author," reported a biographer on the Marly Rusoff & Associates Web site. Dedicated to writing to the exclusion of almost everything else, Freedman literally moved into his parents' basement to write, concentrating on learning his craft and building his knowledge of the publishing industry. In 2005, Freedman was rewarded when his first novel, Natural Selection, was sold to Hyperion in a six-figure deal.

In Natural Selection, Freedman speculates that evolution continued in certain sea creatures, creating a species of gigantic, flying manta rays that have left the extreme depths of their watery home to escape a lethal virus. When the creatures break the surface, they discover a new world of easy prey—dolphins, sharks, and humans. Harry Ackerman is a millionaire, but a failed entrepreneur. His manta-ray theme park failed when all his captive creatures died. Now, Harry has heard rumors of enormous flying rays, and thinks these beasts may be potentially lucrative. He hires a team of marine biologists, led by the brilliant ocean naturalist Jason Aldridge, to check out the stories and bring back a specimen. The team soon finds that its target is not the languid, usually docile sea creature they expected, but a vicious predator with the potential to alter the balance of life on the surface of the planet. A Publishers Weekly reviewer called the novel a "farfetched but entertaining debut." David Pitt, writing in Booklist, stated that Freedman "takes his story well beyond the safety of camp; by making it believable, he makes it genuinely terrifying—and when that happens, large audiences follow."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, May 15, 2006, David Pitt, review of Natural Selection, p. 22.

Kirkus Reviews, May 15, 2006, review of Natural Selection, p. 483.

Publishers Weekly, October 3, 2005, Matthew Thornton, "A Natural Selection," p. 20; April 17, 2006, review of Natural Selection, p. 166.

ONLINE

Marly Rusoff & Associates Web site,http://www.rusoffagency.com/ (December 20, 2006), biography of Dave Freedman.

SFFWorld.com,http://www.sffworld.com/ (August 31, 2006), Arthur Bangs, review of Natural Selection.