Philip R. Dunn - 1962
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San Pedro High School in San Pedro, California
I. Biography
Philip R. Dunn was born in 1962 in Albuquerque, New Mexico on the Air Force Base. He lived there for a year. He also lived in Phoenix, Arizona, and Fairfield, California. His family moved out to Fountain Valley, California, when he was about four. Dunn has always liked sports such as basketball, tennis and football. He also describes himself as "kind of fanatical about baseball" (Personal interview, April 2, 1999). He also likes surfing; two surfboards stand in the corner of his living room. Additionally, Dunn has a new interest in ice hockey.
When Dunn was about eight, his parents were divorced. His father moved to Newport Beach and left Dunn and his sister, who is two years older than he, to live with their mother in Costa Mesa. He describes his upbringing as split between the two parents. Dunn is not married yet, but he is engaged. He plans to be married in October.
Dunn likes to travel. He traveled with his Grandmother to the Galapagos Islands when he was fourteen. Dunn spent two weeks in the Galapagos, and along the way he stopped in Mexico City, Equador and Peru. This trip was very important to him, and says it was "pretty much the best thing you could do at age fourteen…" (Personal interview, April 2, 1999). Dunn describes the Galapagos as "a natural outdoor zoo" setting. Four years ago, he traveled to Europe for a month with a friend who was from England. He went to the English countryside and London and lived in a small resort town near Alicante, Spain on the Mediterranean Sea for a while.
Dunn is well educated. He went to Newport Harbor High School. After he graduated from there he went to U.C. Berkeley and majored in history. Dunn focused on the United States in the 20's. While he was at Berkeley, Dunn became interested in writing. His major involved studying about the popular culture, movies and texts from the time. He heard about a writing class offered at Berkeley. The only catch to be in the class was that one had to be selected by the teacher, Leonard Michaels. In order to be selected, Dunn had to write a story. That story got Dunn into the writing class and this was how his writing career started. After graduating, with his new found interest in writing, he decided to go to U.S.C. to get a master's degree in journalism.
The most memorable event in Dunn's life was his trip to the Galapagos. He had not traveled any place else at that time. He thought that seeing people in Mexico living more publicly in cities was very different than living in small towns in California. He also saw demonstrations there; the US Embassy was under siege. He did not know exactly what was happening, but it was fascinating to him. He had always lived here, in Southern California, and felt that everything was okay, being an American, but then seeing such unrest was intriguing. Travelling to England and Spain four years ago was also very memorable. Graduating from college, even though it was a miserable rainy day, was also an unforgettable and very proud moment for Dunn. Of course, he adds, meeting Annette, his fiancée, and getting engaged were also pretty exciting.
II. Current Work
Dunn is currently a writer for Viking Components, Greco Ethridge Group, Computer Associates, Hewlett Packard, 3Com, CMP Media, VARBusiness Magazine, eFunds Corporation , Inline, ComputerEdge Magazine, WWWiz Magazine and Coast Magazine. He writes marketing materials, customer success stories, newsletters, and brochures, press articles and research for primarily computer companies. He also writes about hospitals and nature. He does magazine articles as well as Internet Web pages and articles. He wrote a CD-ROM encyclopedic reference on "Butterflies in North America" and he was a writer for the Daily Trojan at USC.
Dunn also developed software and was a salesman in his early career. In addition, Dunn has also done some ghostwriting on real estate. He is skilled at using many computer software programs.
III. Literary Works
Dunn has been writing fictional stories for about fifteen years. He wrote a murder story called Walla Walla Pepper Man Murder. It was supposed to be a short story but it was actually longer. It was about a student at Berkeley whose friend tried to kill him because his friend thought that he deserved to be killed, because he, the victim, said that he had killed someone (but he hadn't).
Dunn says that deception comes up a lot in his books and short stories. He also wrote The Stomach Ache which he describes as being about the "…momentary torturous, mental things that go on, short periods of introspection that are sometimes useless and frustrating. [It is] kind of [a] vivid story of a guy in a house where it got out of control" (Personal interview, April 2, 1999).
Dunn also wrote The Magic Pen. It is a half-adult, half-child story, about a boy who finds a 'magic pen' on the streets of Los Angeles. After having it a while, the pen starts to write on its own. The pen is more intelligent than the boy's 2nd grade thoughts. The boy's teacher gets mad at the boy because the pen starts to criticize the educational system and how the class is going.
Dunn also wrote Hot Synapse, which is about a trip to Mexico gone wrong. Dunn doesn't like that story and says, "it will never see the light of day" (Personal interview, April 2, 1999).
He is currently working on a novel called The Wrong Castle. This is a farce modeled after The Castle by Franz Kafka. Dunn is pleased with this novel and has sent it to an agent.
Dunn says that he would like to be able to write novels, but that, for now, technical writing is what brings in the money.
IV. Influences and Inspirations
Before Dunn writes a story, he does a chapter storyboard of each chapter. Here, he begins the overall plan of the novel. When he writes, it is usually at home in his office. Sometimes he goes down to a little café or public place to write. He likes to watch people and their mannerisms. He thinks that writing is the real challenge.
Dunn explains that some of his friends have written screenplays of their works, but he hasn't done that for his works and doesn't think he will because it is torturous to actually see your own work come to life.
Many things influenced Dunn's life. Reading was the primary influence on his writing. He was in a program in high school in which he read novels. He liked the books, he found them exciting, and the teachers were "inspiring". He liked the authors and has always "worshipped" people with interesting ideas.
Going to UC Berkeley also influenced him because it was the most "…alive, effervescing community in which you could go to college. It's got everything. It's got street derelicts, bums, and outrageous political speakers, and not so outrageous [speakers], and tons of students. It's just packed. [It has] crime and tough living conditions, all that stuff." He says that all of that is great if you are an author.
All of his stories are set in California or Mexico. He was also influenced by California and by other authors from California. Two such authors were Charles Bukowski and John Fante. Both of these authors wrote in California and described the California experience, the day to day or street life, in different ways. Bukowski wrote in the twenties or thirties. John Fante wrote, Ask the Dust in the forties and fifties. Two other authors that had an influence on Dunn were Kurt Vonnegut and John Irving. (For a list of the works of these authors and reviews of their works refer to Web address,
http://www.amazon.com.) Dunn, like these writers, also seems interested in the daily struggles of life.V. Dunn on the Web
Dunn can be reached through his Web address
http://www.qualitywriter.com or his e-mail address: phil@qualitywriter.com.VI. Literary Works
Year Ahead/what to Expect in IT in 1999 (December 1998)
Caught in the Web
Bizz Buzz
Butterflies of North America
The Walla Walla Pepper Man Murder (unpublished)
Malromancer (unpublished)
The Stomach Ache (unpublished)
Hot Synapse (unpublished)
The Magic Pen (unpublished)
The Magic Castle (unpublished)
VII. Sources
Dunn, Philip R. Personal interview with Matthew Proctor. April 2, 1999.
Dunn, Philip R. Home page:
This essay was submitted by a student of Kathy Honda Stein, a teacher at San Pedro High School in San Pedro, California.