Katherine Kurtz (edit name/settings)

Katherine Kurtz was born in Coral Gables, Florida during a hurricane, and likes to think this was an auspicious introduction to the world. She read honors humanities at the University of Miami, from which she received a B.S. in chemistry, and attended medical school for a year before deciding she would rather write about medicine than practice it. She completed an M.A. in medieval English history at UCLA while writing her first two novels and working as an instructional designer for the Los Angeles Police Academy, and continued her police work for the next ten years. She is also a professionally trained hypnotist, a student of comparative religion, a passable authority on heraldry and chivalry (she belongs to several modern-day orders of chivalry), a virtuoso at counted cross-stitch (in her copious free time), and an avowed cat person.

Besides the Deryni, Camber, King Kelson, and Heirs of Saint Camber Trilogies, (and a collection of short stories set in the Deryni universe, plus a book on Deryni magic), she has written a juvenile science fiction novel, Legacy of Lehr; a World War II thriller, Lammas Night, dealing with magic worked in the summer of 1940 to keep Hitler from invading England; and an alternate history of the American War for Independence called Two Crowns for America. A new Deryni novel is in progress (King Kelson's Bride), with at least two more trilogies projected for the future. Partnered with Deborah Turner Harris, she has written five books in her Adept series of occult detective thrillers set in modern Scotland; their next team endeavor will focus on the Knights Templar.

Her first editing foray, Tales of the Knights Templar (Warner Books, 1995), contains a solo Adam Sinclair story, in addition to an extensive history of the Templars interwoven in the introduction and connecting narrative. A second volume is in progress, following on the success of the first.

Ms Kurtz lived in a gothic revival house in County Wicklow, Ireland with author and screenwriter Scott MacMillan (her husband), four cats, and at least two resident ghosts -- the latter of whom seem to approve of the restoration work being done to "heir" house by the MacMillans.
She now lives in Virginia.

She was a member of the Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America (SAGA), a loose-knit group of Heroic Fantasy authors founded in the 1960s, some of whose works were anthologized in Lin Carter's Flashing Swords! anthologies. She also was an early member of the Society for Creative Anachronism.