116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Author Profile: Dan Healy — Turning the page
Writing was a release for Dan Healy, a musician and retired police detective
Dan Healy wrote four books over the past five years, but don't call him an author.
"I'm not an author. I'm an Irish storyteller," is his usual response when the author tag is hung on him.
Like it or not, Healy, of Bertram, IS an author, using the pen name, D. Austin Healy. But Healy has been much more than an author in his life. He spent part of his 20s as an area “rock star” with the folk rock group, Austin & Garf.
When that faded, he served as a Cedar Rapids Police officer for years. Music lured him back after awhile. He quit police work and drove a cement truck by day and played music at night. Later, Marion was looking for officers. Healy decided to give law enforcement another shot and won a job with Marion police, serving 23 years, retiring as a detective.
His police duty the last few years of his police job included child sex abuse cases. Working with such cases, Healy found he needed something — a release to help him cope. With his Irish gift of gab, he tested writing as a form a personal therapy and found it gave him the job stress relief he sought.
Retirement let him concentrate on writing. Right out of the box he hammered out a highly descriptive and entertaining fictional trilogy: “Callahan Book 1, The Trip to Fort Union,” “Callahan Book 2, Devil's Gate,” and “Callahan Book 3, Coyote Trace.” The frontier life trilogy opens on a northeast Iowa farm in the 1830s, then tracks the adventures of Ray Callahan as he moves into the Western wilderness.
Healy's fourth book, “The Quiet War 9 Clicks East” is completely different. A modern day spy thriller.
Healy does considerable background work on his plots before writing, making the books as accurate and time sensitive as possible.
Healy's varied life began in the Dubuque County town of Farley. He was in a band during high school and admits he dreamed of becoming a rock star. He also loved cars.
“I had a fast car and every state trooper (in the area) knew me on a first-name basis,” Healy said. So it’s a bit of irony that he would later become a cop.
Moving to Cedar Rapids in the ‘60s, Healy worked at Wilson Foods and construction jobs. With the draft looming and Vietnam War raging, Healy joined the Navy reserves in 1964. He later found himself off the Vietnam coast for eight months as a radio operator on a destroyer.
Healy's rock stardom nearly didn’t happen. Discharged from the Navy in late 1969, Healy was accepted by the Orange County, California, Sheriff Department’s academy training program.
“I’ve always been drawn to law enforcement,” he said. “But I wanted to go home first. Then I met up with Dick Freeze,” another Farley native and musician.
They relocated to Cedar Rapids and formed Austin & Garf, with Freeze as Garf, a name tag from collage. Tim Canfield, whom Healy calls a remarkable musician, joined and played bass. The Orange County California Sheriff lost a recruit to rock ‘n’ roll.
Austin & Garf played rock, folk, ballads, some country and original songs. The group enjoyed immense popularity in Eastern Iowa.
“We hit the scene at just the right time. We heard people saying — we filled a (musical) void. We played six nights a week for over three years. Sometimes we would play at weddings during the day and clubs at night. Our strong point was our three part harmony,” Healy recalled.
Healy recalled a memorable experience of opening for the Carpenters at Coe College. “During rehearsal the group (Carpenters) had miserable colds. In an effort to get the sound just right they exchanged harmony roles to accommodate their octave range. They’d sing a few lines then swap roles and do it again. It only took 15 minutes to manage remarkably tight harmony. We were impressed!” Healy said.
Austin & Garf cut a few single records. One, “Mary Nell Blair,” got much local radio airplay, especially on KLWW AM in Cedar Rapids, then the city’s top rock station. Healy said they also recorded an album but only a few demos were later released.
After about three years, the band decided to grab for the musical “brass ring.” Healy said California beckoned with promoters’ promises of stardom. The band went into debt, buying a new truck and equipment and it was of to San Francisco. They had a decent following in ‘Frisco, but their stardom dream busted.
The contacts failed to “hold up to any of their promises,'” Healy said. There were high points. The good public following, meeting Bo Diddley and jamming with Carlos Santana’s brother, Jorge.
Healy also shopped songs to ABC records, hoping for a contract as a singer. The label rep, Healy said, pitched an impossible deal. He wanted an album of songs, full publishing rights, and asked Healy to put up “the first $100,000.” Healy obviously declined.
Despite their popularity in California, Austin & Garf decided their “brass ring” appeared unattainable. The trio folded in 1973. Freeze did a singles act and returned to California working within the music/film industry. Healy and Canfield settled in Cedar Rapids. Canfield is a member of the Iowa Rock Hall of Fame three times over. Freeze and Healy remain good friends. Freeze helps Healy with book publishing through Freeze’s Peruse Publishing Co. Healy admits missing the entertainment spotlight but said he has no regrets.
While Healy conceives plots and does research and writing, he said he has “a secret weapon” that turns his prose into flowing, readable, entertaining copy.
“My wife, Shirley, is a terrific editor,” Healy said. “I tell her stories and she says, ‘Now let’s put that in English.’”
“I tend to use cliches a lot. She watches and makes sure I don’t and tells me if you’re going to use something, put it in your own words,” he said.
He’s extremely proud his books are not littered with profanity, sex or constant violence.
Why a frontier trilogy set in 1830s to 1840s?
“I’ve always been a cowboy at heart. And my dad wouldn’t let me buy a horse,“ Healy said.
Healy isn’t writing for fame or fortune.
“I’m too old to be in anything for the money — but I’ve got to try to cover expenses,” he said. So far, promotion has been minimal as it also can be expensive. Healy is learning ways to self-promote.
Healy also talks of perhaps forming a small band to jam with later on. Meantime, he’s kicking around several ideas for future books, perhaps even continuing the trilogy’s story. He’s also thinking of another topic.
“The American Indians have always fascinated me. If anybody in this country got a raw deal, it was the American Indian,” Healy said.
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