Katherine Kurtz

American author of fantasy and science fiction. Her popular "Deryni" series was based on her documentation of an extremely vivid dream from 16 October 1964, and she later developed a magazine called the "Deryni Archives."

Kurtz was born in Coral Gables, Florida during a hurricane. Her father was a radar technician and her mother a teacher and legal secretary. She learned to read as soon as she could walk and it is said that she recited the entire poem, "Little Orphan Annie," for her grandparents on her second birthday. Elementary school didn’t provide much of a challenge, and during primary school, she requested permission to read more difficult books, such as "The Black Stallion." Permission was granted, and Kurtz went on to read everything in the school library and the local public library. She entered the Westinghouse Science Talent Search when she was a high school senior and became a regional semi-finalist. As a result, she won a four-year scholarship to the University of Miami, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry. She entered medical school at the University of Miami, but one year later, she dropped out to concentrate on her writing. Relocating to Los Angeles, she continued her graduate work in the field of English History and joined the Society for Creative Anachronism, a medieval recreation group.

Del Rey accepted her first novel, "The Chronicles of the Deryni" immediately upon submission. She finished the next two books of the trilogy while completing her studies at UCLA, and working as an administrative assistant for the Los Angeles Police Department during 1969. She later transferred to the Police Academy where she worked for 11 years as a Senior Training Technician. Although her early works were compared to Tolkien’s "Lord of the Rings," Kurtz soon defined and established her own sub-genre, called "historical fantasy," along with a second sub-genre she called "crypto-history.