Biography

CHRISTOPHER MCKITTERICK is an author, editor, tech writer, college teacher, back-yard engineer, and sometimes lunatic. If you want to get to know him, check out his LiveJournal blog, which is full of cool stuff he finds on the Web, thoughts about the meaning of life, videos of cute hamsters, and so on.

He has published short work in Analog, Artemis, Captain Proton, E-Scape, Extrapolation, Global Warming Aftermaths, Locus, Mythic Circle, NOTA, Ruins: Extraterrestrial, Synergy: New Science Fiction, Tomorrow Speculative Fiction, various TSR publications, Visual Journeys: A Tribute to Space Art, a bowling poem anthology, and elsewhere. Chris hopes to have his first novel out this year - keep an eye on the Novels page for updates!

Technical-writing projects have included a weekly astronomy newsletter, science articles, and software-related documentation and advertising materials. Until recently, he had been a long-time editor, writer, and documentation manager for the Microsoft Windows Resource Kits, which technically makes him a best-selling author. He doesn't like to think too much about that. On the other hand, his contributions to those projects helped win a bunch of STC awards in technical communication, which he thinks is kinda cool.

Chris is Associate Director of the Center for the Study of Science Fiction, where he is currently developing a program to get science fiction into the hands of young people. If you are interested in helping keep our genre vital through the influx of new readers, and you want to help youngsters enjoy the thrill and sense of wonder you remember, get involved! He's also helped launch a new program through the Center called AboutSF.com - check it out. Other CSSF duties include serving as nominations director for the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for the best short SF story of the year, and as juror for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for the best SF novel of the year. He is also the guest editor for the upcoming World Literature Today special science fiction issue (go here to see the call for submissions).

As a young'un, Chris started the Ortonville space program - whose most successful launch only reached about 30 feet - as part of the Ortonville Science Society (yup, the OSS), and edited the monthly journal. He has also built nearly 100 telescopes. Currently, he teaches technical-writing and -editing at the University of Kansas, where he developed a certificate program in technical communication.

He lives in Lawrence, Kansas. Pets include cats: Tatsuko (a.k.a. "Neko no tatsuko shikibu," who has her own LJ) and a three-legged terror (Sanju, a.k.a. Peep); a silver mouse (Sophia); a hamster (Hammie-Boy, who followed Chloe, who also had her own LJ); and a whole lotta vehicles.

RIP to their beloved dog (a.k.a. "Sid, Dog of Peace"); their collie-dog Hope, whom they rescued from the Lawrence Humane Society (here's another shot of Hope with a little monster they fostered for a while); Chris's kitty Helen (a.k.a. "The Great Helen of Peerless Whose Face Could Launch a Thousand Combines"); Spot the Mouse and other lovely mice (no photos, sorry!); and Kosmo the aquatic frog. He owned all these pets with author Kij Johnson, who currently lives in Seattle. Somehow they never owned a monkey.

Current hobbies include astronomy, LiveJournal, restoring old vehicles, gaming with friends, building a land-speed-record 50cc scooter, and many other things he'd like to be doing but doesn't have time to do. Ain't that always the case.