Announcing the DucKon 21 Klingon Special Guest,
Keith R.A. DeCandido
Keith R.A. DeCandido erupted on the Klingon scene in 2001 with the Star Trek: The Next Generation novel Diplomatic Implausibility, and was immediately asked to clean up the mess. That novel chronicled Worf's first mission as Federation Ambassador to the Klingon Empire following Deep Space Nine's finale, and also introduced the crew of the I.K.S. Gorkon. Klag and the gang would return in the novels The Brave and the Bold Book 2, A Good Day to Die, Honor Bound, Enemy Territory, A Burning House, and A Singular Destiny, as well the short story "loDnI'pu' vavpu' je" in 2005's Tales from the Captain's Table.
Keith also chronicled eighteen years of Klingon history in the epic Lost Era novel The Art of the Impossible, dealt with Klingon politics in the time following Star Trek Nemesis in the groundbreaking novel Articles of the Federation and the aforementioned A Singular Destiny, told a three-part Kang story in the comic book Alien Spotlight: Klingons, and provided the first meeting of Kang, Kor, and Koloth in the novella "The Unhappy Ones" in the Seven Deadly Sins anthology. He's written plenty of stories that focus on Worf: "Broken Oaths" in the DS9 anthology Prophecy and Change, "Revelations" in New Frontier: No Limits, the TNG comic book miniseries Perchance to Dream; the TNG novel Q&A; and the USA Today best-selling A Time for War, a Time for Peace, which told the story of how Worf wound up back in Starfleet in Nemesis. As the editor of the monthly Starfleet Corps of Engineers series, Keith also oversaw the chronicling of the first Klingon-Jewish wedding in the story Creative Couplings. He even did Mirror Universe Klingons in the anthologies Obsidian Alliances and Shards and Shadows. Keith chalks up his Klingon fascination to being blown away by Michael Ansara's portrayal of Kang in "Day of the Dove" when he was young and impressionable.
Amazingly, Keith actually has written Star Trek fiction without any Klingons in it (cue gasps of astonishment), and has also written a ton of other work. He's chronicled tales in the universes of Leverage, Doctor Who, Farscape, World of Warcraft, StarCraft, Dungeons & Dragons, Cars, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Kung Fu Panda, Marvel Comics, Serenity, Resident Evil, and much much more. Other recent and forthcoming work includes his series of high-fantasy police procedurals, Dragon Precinct, Unicorn Precinct, and Goblin Precinct; his SCPD series about cops in a city filed with superheroes, including The Case of the Claw and the upcoming Avenging Amethyst; stories in the anthologies More Tales of Zorro, Dragon's Lure, Bad-Ass Faeries 4: It's Elemental, Tales from the House Band, and V-Wars; two novels and several stories in the science fiction shared-world storyline "Tales from the Scattered Earth"; and -30-, the lead novella in Steven Savile's thriller series "Viral." He also keeps his hand in Trek by providing the twice-weekly Star Trek: The Next Generation Rewatch on Tor.com.
Keith has become quite the podcaster in recent times. He's one of the regulars on the pop-culture extravaganza The Chronic Rift (for which he does TV reviews, interviews, and leads panel discussions), provides voices for the audio dramas Gypsy Cove and the Parsec Award-winning HG World, and does his own twice-monthly Dead Kitchen Radio.
A professional percussionist since the 1990s, Keith has been a member of the parody band Boogie Knights since 2006. His work has been recorded on five CDs, with a sixth to come in 2012. He also is an avid baseball fan and a black belt in Kenshikai karate. You can find out less about Keith at his official Web site at www.DeCandido.net, read his inane bloggy ramblings at kradical.livejournal.com, or follow him on Facebook (facebook.com/kradec) and Twitter (@KRADeC).