Don DeBrandt is a Canadian science-fiction author, who also writes under the pen-names Donn Cortez and DD Barant. Born in Saskatchewan, he currently lives in Vancouver, British Columbia. In addition to North America, his books have been published in Germany, France, Italy, and Russia. His influences include Spider Robinson and John D. MacDonald, among others.
As DeBrandt, he has written numerous essays, short stories, plays and comics. His first novel, the cyberpunk The Quicksilver Screen was part of Del Rey Books' 'Discovery' line, and featured a cover by classic Science-Fiction painter Vincent Di Fate. This was followed by work for Marvel Comics and a novel in the series of book tie-ins for the Angel TV series.
As Donn Cortez, he took a darker turn for The Closer, a hard-edged story about a serial killer hunting other serial killers. His follow-up, The Man Burns Tonight (set at Burning Man) was written in his more light-hearted style. This was followed in rapid succession by five CSI: Miami tie-in novels.
He has also contributed several short stories and non-fiction articles to numerous publications, writing on such diverse subjects as Angel, Firefly, The Golden Compass, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, CSI:Miami, King Kong, X-Men, Wonder Woman, Star Wars, and Star Trek.
Currently as Cortez, he has recently taken over writing the tie-in novels for the original CSI series, with two new books in the series forthcoming. The first, entitled Killing Jar is due for late 2009. Dark Sundays was released in early 2010.
In 2009, DeBrandt began writing a series of Supernatural Crime Procedurals, entitled The Bloodhound Files, using the pen-name 'DD Barant' to distinguish the lighter tone of the books from his work as Cortez. The first of three books, Dying Bites was released in July 2009, with the follow-up, entitled Death Blows out in 2010. Killing Rocks, the third title in the series is scheduled for release in late 2010/early 2011.
Writing as Donn Cortez:
Writing as DD Barant: