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Interview/Bio Sheet: "Blah, Blah, Blah..." ABOUT THE AUTHOR/ILLUSTRATOR:

  DEREK ALEXANDER DIEDRICKSEN, AGE 32, WAS BORN AND RAISED IN THE SEASIDE TOWN OF MADISON, CT. AFTER GRADUATING FROM DANIEL HAND HIGH SCHOOL, and later BOSTON'S NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY (CLASS of '99- Summa Cum Laude), HE WORKED IN COMMERCIAL RADIO AT THE LEGENDARY CBS STATION 104.1 WBCN AS THE EVENING DJ (The Youngest Full Timer In the Country In A Top Ten Market, at the time). 
 Through WBCN, he worked with and hosted the "I Sold My House.com" Television show numerous times for the WB/Warner Brothers Network, appeared on the Playboy.com Channel as a host/interviewer, and hosted Nik Carter's nationally syndicated radio show (70 cities in the US) "Nothing Sacred". While simultaneously at WBCN and Northeastern, Derek's comic strip "The Warped Zone" ran for just under three years in the NU News, a weekly paper, and his subsequent strip "Slugs, Not Hugs" was featured through the well distributed Boston papers The Weekly Dig, and Soundcheck Magazine (R.I.P.). In radio, he additionally worked for WJIB, NU's WRBB, the legendary, corporate-free WNTN in Newton, MA, (where he had his REAL start in radio), and the pioneering BostonRadio.com. 
 His work (both art and carpentry/tiny house building) has also been featured in Worcester's Pulse Magazine, Tiny House Design Magazine, and on the concert venue flyers of many a band in, and beyond, the Boston area. 

Musically, having toured the US a few times in the past (Rochester NY's "Rail"), both in bands, and managerially (Boston's "Superkollider"), he now plays drums in the Tribute act Age Against The Machine (www.bostonrage.com), which doubles as the original act "Any Given Enemy". They've recorded and been involved with the WWE, ECW, The Cartoon Network's "G.I. Joe", Video Games, Indie Movies, and Boston Bruins NHL broadcasts. In January of 2009, their recording of WWE Wrestler Jack Swagger's arena and television entrance theme "Get On Your Knees" was selected by Columbia Records to be part of the cd "WWE: The Voices. Volume 9". The cd debuted on the worldwide Billboard Top 200 charts as the Number Eleven best-selling cd on the entire planet. It also debuted as the Number One selling Cd soundtrack on the globe, and stayed in the charts for close to a month.

Derek is also an Eagle Scout (MADISON CT's Troop 491), and credit's the Scouts with further strengthening his love of the outdoors, camping, conservation, and carpentry. He comes from a large family of Scouts, as his cousins Neil and Kurt Malek, also attained the Eagle Rank, and his Brother Dustin, the rank of Life.

Derek currently lives in the small Massachusetts town of Stoughton, with his wife, Elizabeth, and his two children, Jonas and Alexandra (and his dog Orzo), ten miles or so outside of downtown Boston. He longs to move, full time, to the woods of Vermont to focus on growing a beard, and losing his teeth.