McKiernan, Dennis L. 1932-

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McKiernan, Dennis L. 1932-

PERSONAL:

Born April 4, 1932, in Moberly, MO; married; wife's name Martha Lee. Education: University of Missouri, B.S., 1958; Duke University, M.S., 1964. Hobbies and other interests: Scuba diving, dirt-bike riding, and motorcycle touring.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Tuscon, AZ. E-mail—dlmck@worldnet.att.net.

CAREER:

Engineer and writer. Bell Telephone Laboratories, researcher, c. 1958-89. Military service: U.S. Air Force, served four years during the Korean conflict.

WRITINGS:

"IRON TOWER TRILOGY"

The Dark Tide, Doubleday (Garden City, NY), 1984, published with Shadows of Doom and The Darkest Day, Roc (New York, NY), 1988.

Shadows of Doom, Doubleday (Garden City, NY), 1984, published with The Dark Tide and The Darkest Day, Roc (New York, NY), 1988.

The Darkest Day, Doubleday (Garden City, NY), 1984, published with The Dark Tide and Shadows of Doom, Roc (New York, NY), 1988.

OTHER

Trek to Kraggen-Cor ("Silver Call Duology" series; also see below), Doubleday (New York, NY), 1986.

The Brega Path ("Silver Call Duology" series; also see below), Doubleday (Garden City, NY), 1986.

Dragondoom, Spectra (New York, NY), 1990.

(With Alex Nino), The Vulgmaster (Tales of the One-eyed Crow) (graphic novel), Roc (New York, NY), 1991.

The Eye of the Hunter, Roc (New York, NY), 1992.

Voyage of the Fox Rider, Roc (New York, NY), 1993.

Tales of Mithgar (stories), Roc (New York, NY), 1994.

Caverns of Socrates, Roc (New York, NY), 1995.

The Dragonstone, Roc (New York, NY), 1996.

Into the Forge ("Hel's Crucible" series), Roc (New York, NY), 1997.

Into the Fire ("Hel's Crucible" series), Roc (New York, NY), 1998.

Silver Wolf, Black Falcon, Roc (New York, NY), 2000.

The Silver Call (contains Trek to Kraggen-Cor and The Brega Path), Roc (New York, NY), 2001.

Once upon a Winter's Night, Roc (New York, NY), 2001.

Red Slippers: More Tales of Mithgar (stories), Roc (New York, NY), 2004.

Once upon a Summer Day, Roc (New York, NY), 2005.

Once upon an Autumn Eve, Roc (New York, NY), 2005.

Once upon a Spring Morn, Roc (New York, NY), 2006.

Once upon a Dreadful Time, Roc (New York, NY), 2007.

Work represented in anthologies, including New Stories of Horror and Suspense, edited by Al Sarantonio, Avon, 1999; Spell Fantastic, edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Larry Segriff, DAW, 2000; and Treachery and Treason, edited by Anne Gilman and Jennifer Heddle, Roc, 2000.

SIDELIGHTS:

In addition to his ongoing career as an engineer, fantasy writer Dennis L. McKiernan has published a long list of titles. McKiernan, who had always enjoyed science fiction and fantasy, began writing novels in the 1970s while recuperating from an accident. He was riding his dirt bike when he was hit by a car, which resulted in his being encased in a body cast that covered him from his armpits to his toes. On McKiernan's home page, he explained that he decided to write a novel "simply to stay sane while in effect living in a cement block." The author went on to write: "For sixteen hours a day while lying there in cement, I rode, swam, climbed mountains, fought desperate battles against perilous foes, saw fantastic vistas, listened to elves and dwarves tell tales to chill the heart or to warm it, and traveled through a wondrous world. All of it, as I said, while lying flat on my back in a cement block. I don't believe any other genre of literature could have done that for me."

Many of McKiernan's tales take place in the land of Mithgar. In addition to his novels, he has published story collections, including his Tales of Mithgar, in which the eleven stories are told in an inn named the One-eyed Crow. Booklist contributor Roland Green wrote that McKiernan "reveals an unexpected deftness at writing short fantasy stories." Another story collection, McKiernan's Red Slippers: More Tales of Mithgar, contains twelve stories told at the Red Slippers Inn. A Publishers Weekly contributor commented that the tales that range from tragedy to humor "entertain while touching on complex moral and philosophical issues." In reviewing the book, Green wrote that readers "who seek long, absorbing yarns in the classic mode will honor and enjoy it."

Among McKiernan's novels is Caverns of Socrates, the story of a group of virtual gamers called the Black Foxes, who become threatened when an artificial intelligence takes on a life of its own. In The Dragonstone, the elf Arin and warrior Dylvana are seeking a talisman that will protect the land of Mithgar from the dragons that have appeared in visions. Booklist contributor Roland Green commented that "the level of world building rises in each Mithgar novel. The land and its history now have a very lived-in quality."

Into the Forge and Into the Fire comprise the "Hel's Crucible" sequence within the ongoing Mithgar saga. Green, who described characters as "Tolkienish," added that McKiernan has "sufficient originality so that his Warrows do not come off as recycled Hobbits." Green also wrote that in these novels McKiernan "demonstrates that he has come a long way … in terms of realizing a major fantasy." Library Journal contributor Jackie Cassada called Into the Fire a "lavishly told quest." Silver Wolf, Black Falcon follows the past and present struggle of the inhabitants of Mithgar against the dark forces that would take over their land.

Once upon a Winter's Night is a romantic fantasy filled with mythical creatures. In the novel, which is based on a classic fairy tale, Alain, a prince in Faery, falls in love with a beautiful maiden who lives in the mortal realm. His love, Camille, agrees to marry Alain sight unseen when he promises wealth for her poor family. Because of a curse, Alain lives in the body of a bear during the day—in his case, a bear that changes color depending on the environment—and he collects Camille, handing her a note from the prince, and takes her to his castle on his back. Camille falls in love with her prince but is allowed to be with Alain only in the evening when he resumes his human form. Warned never to look upon his face, Camille brings a curse on the household when she does so. Alain returns to his bear form, and Camille's family disappears, leaving the woman to search for her lost love. To do so, she must search the world to find a place that is east of the sun and west of the moon within one year and one day. Kliatt contributor Ginger Armstrong commented that the collection of characters that Camille meets on her journey "is vast, and her visit with the Fates is intriguing. The author does not simply rely on the seasonal divisions in Faery to provide a sense of place, and each of Camille's destinations is unique."

McKiernan has continued to contribute to his series of fairy tales based on classic stories as in Once upon a Winter's Night, which retells "East o' the Sun and West o' the Moon." In Once upon a Summer Day, McKiernan borrows from the tale "Sleeping Beauty" and presents Prince Borel, who keeps dreaming of a beautiful maiden held prisoner in a tower and pleading to him for help. Assisted by a sprite and a bumblebee, Prince Borel sets out to rescue the maiden as he and his helpers battle assorted villains, including trolls and sorcerers. Booklist's Paula Luedtke wrote: "McKiernan's magic invites readers to dive completely into the story." Jackie Cassada, writing in the Library Journal, commented that the story is "steeped in tradition and timelessness."

Based on "The Glass Mountain" fairy tale and the Scottish ballad of Tam Lin, Once upon an Autumn Eve is another story of a princess in danger, this time from trolls. However, in a twist on conventional tales of this kind, it is the princess who fights and saves a knight, once from the trolls and then from an evil witch. "No one beats McKiernan at the traditionally styled adult fairy tale," wrote Paula Luedtke in Booklist.

In Once upon a Spring Morn, the author presents his version of the combined stories of "Childe Roland" and "Le Bel Inconnu." The story features a princess rescued by a mortal man from assassins. She then accompanies the mortal man as he attempts to rescue his sister and two brothers from the Lord of the Changelings. "To these tales' outlines, the author adds his own distinctive wit," wrote Jackie Cassada in the Library Journal. Booklist contributor Paula Luedtke commented that the author "seamlessly sews together two fairy tales and adds unique twists and enhancements."

McKiernan once told CA: "I originally got interested in writing when I was about twelve or thirteen years old. I had been an avid reader, and a friend and I decided that we would write a novel about a lost race. But after we designed the place where they now lived, we discovered just how difficult the actual writing of a novel was. Besides, hiking and swimming and fishing got in the way, along with other interests, and so we dropped it. However, when he was on leave from the USAF during the Korean War, my dad and I wrote a humorous detective story (it was perhaps 10,000 words long), and we had so much fun that in later years we wrote another one with the same character. I also wrote several how-to tech articles for dirt bike magazines, along with guest editorials and humorous stories, but that was before the car ran over me, and before I settled down to write a full novel.

"Of course, when I first started out, J.R.R. Tolkien was a great influence. But then, so was Robert E. Howard and others. I did set out to write a sequel to the ‘Lord of the Rings,’ but quickly became my own writer. You could say that Dragondoom was my break-away-from-JRRT novel.

"I like to have the thread of the story in mind before I begin (see my FAQ's on my Web site for my definition of a story ‘thread’). I like to know where the story is headed, and so I know what the main climax will be before I begin. I use all sorts of references, and when necessary, I do additional research. Ninety-five percent of my research does not appear in the story, but that which does is accurate (so that some reader somewhere doesn't throw the book across the room and yell ‘that jerk doesn't know what he's talking about’). As far as the actual writing itself, well, after I know the main thread of the story, I simply sit down and work at it hours a day for five days a week (I take weekends off). I do what is known as a ‘rolling edit’ on a chapter-by-chapter basis (editing and rewriting each chapter until it's what I consider to be ‘finished,’ and then moving on to write the next chapter, and then edit it, etc.). I do read every chapter out loud, for the ear hears what the eye misses.

"The most surprising thing I have learned as a writer is that writing, although it's hard work, is fun, and I love to create.

"Which of my children's books is my favorite? They each have their merits. I do think that Dragondoom is perhaps the one I offer to someone who has not read my works before. In The One-eyed Crow, a Yahoo message board dedicated to discussion of my works, there is at times a debate as to which one is the best, and it causes a stir, for several of my books are proffered as favorites.

"I hope my books will have an effect on readers in three ways: 1) I have a number of readers who write or e-mail me and say that before they came upon my books, they were non-readers, but since reading my books, they have become avid readers. And so, that's one of the things I hope to accomplish with my books—to make readers of non-readers. 2) In each of my books there are philosophical and moral issues, and these catch the interests of my readers. And so, I like to proffer various issues that cause people to consider these ideas and come to conclusions about them. Such things as environmental issues, the nature of evil, the nature of reality, whether or not people have souls, and so on, are the kinds of metaphysical, philosophical, real-world, ethical, and other issues that the characters struggle with in the stories. However, these issues are embedded in what I hope is a thundering good adventure. 3) And finally, I hope that I have told a good story well, so that the reader is entertained."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Analog Science Fiction & Fact, December 1, 1991, review of The Vulgmaster (Tales of the One-eyed Crow), p. 161.

Analog Science Fiction—Science Fact, February 1, 1985, Tom Easton, review of The Dark Tide, p. 185.

Booklist, September 1, 1994, Roland Green, review of Tales of Mithgar, p. 28; December 15, 1995, Roland Green, review of Caverns of Socrates, p. 689; October 15, 1996, Roland Green, review of The Dragonstone, p. 408; September 1, 1997, Roland Green, review of Into the Forge, p. 67; September 1, 1998, Roland Green, review of Into the Fire, p. 73; April 15, 2000, Roland Green, review of Silver Wolf, Black Falcon, p. 1532; May 15, 2001, Paula Luedtke, review of Once upon a Winter's Night, p. 1739; May 1, 2004, Roland Green, review of Red Slippers: More Tales of Mithgar, p. 1552; March 15, 2005, Paula Luedtke, review of Once upon a Summer Day, p. 1274; April 1, 2006, Paula Luedtke, review of Once upon an Autumn Eve, p. 28; September 15, 2006, Paula Luedtke, review of Once upon a Spring Morn, p. 34.

California Bookwatch, December 1, 2006, review of Once upon a Spring Morn.

Kliatt, November, 2002, Ginger Armstrong, review of Once upon a Winter's Night, p. 26.

Library Journal, May 15, 1986, Jackie Cassada, review of Trek to Kraggen-Cor, p. 81; September 15, 1992, Jackie Cassada, review of The Eye of the Hunter, p. 97; September 15, 1993, Jackie Cassada, review of Voyage of the Fox Rider, p. 108; September 15, 1998, Jackie Cassada, review of Into the Fire, p. 116; May 15, 2000, Jackie Cassada, review of Silver Wolf, Black Falcon, p. 128; April 15, 2004, Jackie Cassada, review of Red Slippers, p. 129; April 15, 2005, Jackie Cassada, review of Once upon a Summer Day, p. 79; April 15, 2006, Jackie Cassada, review of Once upon an Autumn Eve, p. 70; September 15, 2006, Jackie Cassada, review of Once upon a Spring Morn, p. 54.

MBR Bookwatch, April 1, 2005, review of Once upon a Summer Day.

Publishers Weekly, May 25, 1984, review of The Dark Tide, p. 52; August 3, 1984, review of The Darkest Day, p. 56; May 9, 1986, Sybil Steinberg, review of The Brega Path, p. 250; August 24, 1992, review of The Eye of the Hunter, p. 76; October 21, 1996, review of The Dragonstone, p. 74; August 31, 1998, review of Into the Fire, p. 52; June 25, 2001, review of Once upon a Winter's Night, p. 55; April 26, 2004, review of Red Slippers, p. 46; March 14, 2005, review of Once upon a Summer Day, p. 50; February 13, 2006, review of Once upon an Autumn Eve, p. 67; August 14, 2006, review of Once upon a Spring Morn, p. 184.

Science Fiction Chronicle, November, 2001, Don D'Ammassa, review of Once upon a Winter's Night, p. 40; February, 2002, Don D'Ammassa, review of The Silver Call, p. 58.

Voice of Youth Advocates, December 1, 1986, review of Trek to Kraggen-Cor, p. 239; February 1, 1992, review of The Vulgmaster (Tales of the One-eyed Crow), p. 385; October 1, 2005, review of Once upon a Summer Day, p. 326.