Kate Daniel has spent a large part of her life in front of keyboards, first the variety found on pianos, now the ones attached to computers. She started piano lessons as a child and focused on music, obtaining a degree in the instrument and spending several years as a piano teacher. These days the keyboard is attached to her computer Clio (named for the Muse of history) and instead of sonatas, she creates stories.

After college and a year in Mexico, she met her husband in Arizona. An interest in computers led to a brief career as a free-lance programmer. This led indirectly to her writing career, as she was invited to become a sysop (systems operator) on the Genie Computer Network based on her programming background. Reading and story-telling have always been as much a part of her life as keyboards. On Genie’s Science Fiction RoundTable, she was encouraged to put these stories on paper, leading to the publication of her first novel in April, 1992.

Ms. Daniel has had six YA mystery novels published by HarperCollins under her own name, as well as one for Ballentine-Ivy under a psuedonym. Her first novel, Babysitter’s Nightmare, went through eighth printings. Three of her novels were on Walden Books’ internal best seller list for Young Adult titles, and one of them was listed on a NPR Recommended Summer Reading list. The French translation of her second novel, Teen Idol, was suggested on a French-Canadian Recommended Summer Reading list as well. In addition to French, her novels have been translated into Norwegian, Swedish, and German.

Her first hardcover and her first adult novel was written in collaboration with Katharine Kerr, set in the universe Ms. Kerr created for Polar City Blues. She usually describes Polar City Nightmare as a science fiction mystery, with baseball. Despite the role played in the book by an American sport, it was published in Great Britain, by Orion Publishing. In addition to novels, Ms. Daniel has had a dozen stories published in various fantasy/science fiction anthologies and magazines.

Her short story “Kaleidoscope,” published in the December 1997 issue of Realms of Fantasy Magazine, was on the preliminary Nebula ballot for 1998. It is among the works offered by the Book View Café. Upcoming projects include another science fiction mystery, a book combining a ghost story with a multi-generational mystery, and a historical fantasy set in preColumbian Mexico, as well as various short fiction pieces. She also works one-on-one as a writing teacher through the Long Ridge Writers’ Group.