Patrick Quinlan (activist)

Patrick Quinlan is an American author, political activist, fundraiser, and briefly, a Green Independent candidate for Governor of Maine in the 2010 election. In the fall of 2009, he informed the Maine Ethics Commission that he was no longer seeking election.

Biography

Quinlan was born in the Bronx and raised both there and in Yonkers, New York. He attended public elementary and middle schools, and Regis High School, a tuition-free Jesuit high school in Manhattan. As a teenager, he held numerous jobs, including working for years as a caddie. His father was an alcoholic, which had a profound effect on Quinlan's development as a child and young man.

Quinlan began his career writing grant proposals and press releases at Greyston Bakery and Greyston Foundation, where he worked for Bernie Glassman, helping raise millions of dollars to house homeless families and homeless people with AIDS. Later, Quinlan worked in public relations for the National Science Foundation.

Quinlan's crime thriller, ''Smoked'', was published in the United States and Canada by St. Martin's Press in April 2006, and in the United Kingdom and many countries throughout the world by Hodder Headline in March 2006. It received worldwide critical acclaim, and has been translated into Portuguese, Italian, Spanish and Dutch. Film rights were optioned in 2007, and again in 2009. His second crime thriller, ''The Takedown'' (also published as ''The Falling Man''), appeared in May and June 2007, from both St. Martin's and Headline. His third crime thriller, ''The Drop-Off'' appeared in July 2008, and his fourth, ''The Hit,'' appeared in June 2009. Quinlan has written numerous books under pen names and as a ghost author.

Quinlan's 2014 thriller ''Sexbot'' predicts a dystopian future where people have sex with, fall in love with, and download their awareness into robots. Quinlan himself has indicated he believes that in the near future, people (men especially) will easily fall in love with realistic sex robots, in a similar but deeper way than they fall in love with other inanimate objects, like cars and electronic gadgets. Much of this will have to do with the release of endorphins during sexual activity, but also with the ability of artificial intelligence to seem compassionate or supportive through simple techniques like rephrasing a person's statements back to them.

Quinlan is the co-author, with ''Blade Runner'' film star Rutger Hauer, of Hauer's memoir, ''All Those Moments'', released by HarperCollins in May 2007, and which was a ''Los Angeles Times'' bestseller. He is also the co-author with Elena Nikitina of the 2017 memoir ''Girl, Taken'', Nikitina's story of being abducted and surviving the First Chechen War. ''Girl, Taken'' is available in English and Russian. After the book came out, the BBC World Service covered the story on their Outlook (radio programme) program, which took the story global.

In 2016, Quinlan contributed a chapter, ''The Rise of the Portland Greens'', to the political science book, ''Empowering Progressive Third Parties in the United States''. The chapter recounts Quinlan's experiences as an early member of the Green Party affiliate in Portland, Maine, that achieved unexpected electoral successes from the early- to the mid-2000s, and launched the careers of progressive politicians John Eder and Ben Chipman, among numerous others.

Quinlan has been featured or favorably reviewed in many publications, including ''The Los Angeles Times'', ''The Boston Globe'', ''The Times of London'', ''The Observer'', ''The Guardian'', ''The New York Times'', and ''Entertainment Weekly''. His writing has frequently been compared to that of Elmore Leonard, James Ellroy, and the movies of Quentin Tarantino.

Quinlan is known to be an avid traveler, and has visited dozens of countries around the world. His travel writing has appeared in ''Transitions Abroad'', ''Travel Smart'', ''International Living'', and ''Maine Ahead'', among others.

Politics

In 2002, Quinlan served as campaign manager for John Eder, who as a result of the election became the second Green Party member elected to a state legislature in the United States. Quinlan also served as a consultant to Eder's 2004 campaign, and as Eder's legislative aide at the Maine State House during 2004 and 2005. In 2009, Quinlan established an exploratory committee and began raising funds for a run for governor of Maine. Later, he withdrew, citing his recent divorce and need for personal time. In 2010, he worked with Ben Chipman on his successful run for State Representative. In 2016, he served as campaign manager during Chipman's successful primary race for the Maine State Senate.

Works

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Footnotes

External links

Quinlan's official websiteSmoked
at Google Books
Review of Smoked
at ''Kirkus Reviews''

at ''Book Lore''
Book review of Smoked
in ''Publishers Weekly''
Sexbots, Hairbrushes, Life and Death
interview on ''Gasm.org''
Book review of The Takedown
in ''Publishers Weekly''
Review of The Takedown
at ''Kirkus Reviews''
Review of The Drop Off
in ''Crime Time''
Book review of SexbotBook review and interview about Sexbot
and transhumanism at ''H+ Plus'' magazine
I Dream of Sexbots!
- interview on Robot Overlordz podcast
On CIA Sexbots, Mind Downloads and Immortality
at ''The Future of Sex''
Review of All Those Moments
on ''Vulpes Libris''
Three Weeks in China
in ''Maine Ahead''
Patrick Quinlan in ''ROOF Magazine''

A Fast Paced Thriller Set in... Maine?
- interview in the ''Los Angeles Times''

{{DEFAULTSORT:Quinlan, Patrick
Living people
Writers from the Bronx
Year of birth missing (living people)
People from Yonkers, New York
Maine Greens
American male writers
Regis High School (New York City) alumni
Activists from New York (state)