Dan O’Brien can’t sing. Not wanting to disappoint his mother the singer, he decided to write. O’Brien is now the celebrated author of five books and a winner of the prestigious Iowa Short Fiction Award. He is coming to Ames to present a reading of his current novel, Brendan Prairie, tonight at Big Table Books.

Cheryl McGough, the publicist for Big Table Books, is excited about O’Brien’s appearance. “We’re really looking forward to it because he’s a short fiction award winner. The writing community really appreciates an interesting author and someone they can network with,” McGough said.

O’Brien is quick to share any praise of his work with his primary writing inspiration: the American countryside.

“My family and I first came to South Dakota when I was a little kid, and I just fell in love with the Black Hills. I spent the next 15 years trying to figure out a way to get back,” O’Brien said.

Originally from Ohio, O’Brien achieved his goal and has been living on a ranch in South Dakota for 25 years. “I do all my writing here at the ranch. I can hole up here for months and have no complaints,” O’Brien said.

Although he is enthralled with the Dakota region, O’Brien is looking forward to the trip to Iowa. “It’s an inspiring drive down. I love to think while I drive. I’ve decided that drinking beer and driving are my two favorite things,” O’Brien declared.

Granted, beer drinking is a noble pursuit, but this talented storyteller also has deeper aspirations. As a struggling writer trying to make a living, O’Brien landed a job as a biologist working with endangered species.

“I traveled all over the Rocky Mountains. I would work all summer long, and then come back to the ranch and try to write,” O’Brien said.

Surprisingly, his day job encouraged his passion for storytelling. In his current novel, O’Brien writes of endangered lands set in the alluring South Dakota landscape.

“Brendan Prairie is a compelling story about ordinary human beings caught up in something bigger than their everyday lives. O’Brien has given life and voice to a part of America that others have overlooked… [it] is his best book yet,” a recent press release stated.

O’Brien is proud of this novel because it is so true to life. “Brendan Prairie is set close to my house. The characters and the situations are fairly autobiographical. I can really identify with it,” O’Brien explained.

His novels weren’t always so easily composed. “My first one took 10 years to write, mainly because I didn’t know what I was doing,” O’Brien said.

Four publications later, he is quick to see how his career as a writer might never have happened. “I was young and trying to write and nothing was working. I decided that I had to do something for a living, so I got accepted to law school. I went to tell my mother and she was able to talk me out of it. She told me to keep writing. So I did and it all worked out,” O’Brien said.

O’Brien appreciated his mother’s advice so much that he dedicated Brendan Prairie to her.

Of course, he may have started writing anyway, law school or not. “I’d always thought I could change the world for the better. I tried to figure out a way a person could do that, and writing seemed like a good way to do it. At least you had a chance,” O’Brien said.

O’Brien will be at Big Table Books tonight at 7:30. The event is free and open to the public.