Delaplaine lives on South Beach, Miami’s Billion Dollar Sandbar.  He writes in widely varied fields: screenplays, novels (adult and juvenile) and  journalism. 

He has written and directed three features (one doc, two narrative features), and won several awards for his film work. (See www.imdb.com for details).  His latest film, “Meeting Spencer,” starring Jeffrey Tambor, won the prestigious Milan International Film Festival Award for Best Screenplay.  He has recently formed a company that finances and produces low-budget horror movies, though he doesn’t write or direct them.

Born in Coconut Grove, Delaplaine grew up in the backwaters of South Carolina, at Edgehill Plantation overlooking the Wateree Swamp between Columbia and Sumter. After college, he worked in a variety of fields, for Saks Fifth Avenue in New York, for “The State” newspaper in Columbia, and in various advertising and PR positions.  He got into travel writing when still in his 20s and has written travel articles and books ever since. He writes a series of “Long Weekend Guides” covering some 75 of his favorite cities around the world. 

In the late 1980s and into the 1990s, he and his sister Renee were part of the hardy group that helped South Beach turn the corner from slum to international destination (which has its good as well as bad angles to explore—it was a lot more fun when it was a slum).  They owned a popular restaurant (Scratch), a weekly newspaper (The Wire) still published today, and a famous nightclub (The Warsaw Ballroom). Renee’s daughter Sophie owned The Passport Café on Collins Avenue, around the corner from the famous Mac’s Club Deuce, and was with them for the whole bumpy ride.