In my mid-20s, I left the States to live, work, play, and grow-up quickly in France.  ASKEW is about the unique offers that motivated my move and the incredibly divergent adventures I experienced—from complete solitude in the snows of the Ardèche to love-crowded Paris; from embarrassing self-indulgence to accepting and enduring a most profound and ultimately tragic responsibility; from the possibility to hang with many of the best-known artists in Europe to living homeless in a leaky tent in the mountains.  In a series of inter-connected zipper poems, I describe and explore the best and the worst, the sexy, the suicidal, the sublime, the beautiful, and the ridiculous as honestly and as artfully as I can.

Where can you find the hottest place, the coldest place, the highest place, and the lowest place in the contiguous United States?  Where can you go surfing, snow-boarding, and desert-trekking, all within a few hours of one another? Where are there more different kinds of plants and animals than in any other place in the country? If you guessed “California” you’d be right. This collaborative effort from author Dan Harder and photographer Lawrence Migdale explores, from a child’s perspective, the fantastic land of contrasts that is California.  

From a sleepy outpost to a bustling gateway city, San Francisco has grown in less than 150 years to become one of the most important commercial and cultural centers in the world.  This splendid photographic tribute to America’s favorite city explores the grand and familiar icons of San Francisco as well as the intimate details that distinguish it so dramatically from the other cosmopolitan cities of the world.  Complementing the superb photographs by David Wakely are essays by Dan Harder, which reflect this incomparable city’s past and present with insight, intelligence, and love.

Had Jane Austen and Zane Gray come together to write a book, this might very well be the result.  “Rancho De Amor” is a funny, adventurous, and romantic story of a smart New York book editor who is sent out to the wild West to find Loretta de Bonnair, the aging, reclusive author of an extremely successful first novel.  What she discovers is not what she’d expected to discovery – about Loretta, about the west, and about herself.

"Romance, roadkill, and wicked wit—" 

--Yves Fey, Floats the Dark Shadow

"Dan Harder’s Rancho de Amor turns a beguiling mystery about a romance novel into a warm and witty tale of finding love in some very unexpected places.  Ingeniously devised and deftly plotted, it unfolds on a richly evoked Central California Coast of vineyards and cattle ranches, in a small town full of charming characters.  As the lovers stumble over each other and themselves, this book-with-in-book offers another kind of happy outcome – a reader’s delight in being swept away by a good story.

--Steven Winn, former Arts and Culture Critic, San Francisco Chronicle, and frequent host of City Arts and Lectures

"An entertaining, thoughtful take on the odd-couple romance."

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/dan-harder/rancho-de-amor/

An innocent bike ride turns into a hilarious obstacle course for Chris, who has not yet learned the most important skill involved in biking:  braking!  As his bike races out of control Chris manages to collide with plants, trees, animals and even some unsuspecting band members.

For everyone who has ever been to France – or wanted to visit, the photographs of Russell Lamb and the words of Dan Harder will evoke feelings of romance and nostalgia, the delight of revisiting old friends and meeting new ones, and the joy of immersing one’s self in the stunning photography and descriptions of France, one of the most beautiful and intriguing places in the world.