About Me – Dante

I’m not keen on this part, because I tend to be someone who hides away from the limelight (clearly not true). So, I’ve waded through the web, and the layout of the information below is basically adapted from one of the millions of Robert Pattinson fan sites. (Ermm, who would have thought he needed more than one?)

Name: Dante Harker (I’d like to claim that I was born with this name, but sadly I had to steal it off of a pensioner – she’s dead now).

Height: 6 foot – or at least I used to be, in my special shoes, which I’d had for years! Until Alex crept down in the night and burnt them as a sacrifice to the orthopaedic fairy!

Born: At home, in a dark, almost black, mining village, which like the black mountains in Wales is not actually black. (There is a very cool story about my birth, it involves angels – I’ll blog it sometime). So, I was born somewhere in the north of England, near Sheffield, though not near enough that I have a case of the de-dars i.e. ‘Dhey don’t do dat, do day?’.

Favourite food: Hard to say, my taste buds are a little lacking so I tend to just shovel food in – not really big on the tasting part!

Favourite drink: It used to be diet cola, until I realised that I was spending £100 plus a month on it. At the minute I still don’t have one – suggestions? I have been diet coke free since 2009!

Pets: No. My sister got me a hamster, but she posted it to me and after she’d hit it with a hammer to get it in the envelope, it wasn’t much use.

Pet hates: The fact that I can never spell ‘favourite’ or ‘available’ – what’s that about? Or that people can’t answer more than one question at a time if you put several into emails.

Writings: This website; my first novel ‘Hell Unleashed’ (not yet published – not enough commas), ‘Therapy’ (better now it has enough commas), Tarnished Knight – fun tale of being single at 30 and the Good Book, a collection of my best short stories – some are amazing!
I am now writing a fortnightly travel column for The Lombok Guide and I am a regular contributor to The Journey magazine.
I have an ebook on Gay Dating for the Modern Man at the final edit stage and I am a third of the way through my 5th novel.

Work: Hard to say, other than I work really hard on whatever my mind locks on to!

So far I’ve been a: a landscape gardener, garden centre worker, Rentokil Plant Technician (looking after house plants), Befriending Co-ordinator, Director of a Mental Health Charity, Private Counsellor and Counselling Tutor, Fundraising Manager, Student Placement Manager, Manchester Team and Regional Fundraising Manger for The Big Issue (my longest job title yet).

I am now a diving instructor – yay! I run with Alex, Karang Divers, a cute little dive shop on the tiny island of Gili Air, Indonesia.

Countries Visited: UK (England, Scotland and Wales), France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Holland, Sweden, Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Switzerland, Portugal, Turkey, Cyprus, Egypt, Thailand, Laos, Malaysia, Indonesia (including Komodo Island), Philippines, Australia, North America, Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Guatemala, Ireland and The Vatican.

Place I’d most like to visit: Hard to say, the world is such a big and exciting place. I would guess it’s a toss up between Bora Bora – or Madagascar – I really want to see all those cartoon animals!