User:Mattinkent/Andrew Killeen

Andrew Killeen
Occupation	Novelist, Children's Services for Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council
Nationality	British
Genre	Historical fiction
Website
www.fatheroflocks.com/%20http://www.thespidermonkey.co.uk

Andrew Killeen (born in 1966 in Meriden, West Midlands, United Kingdom) is the Birmingham based author of 'The Father of Locks' series of books, historical fiction based on the life of controversial Islamic poet Abu Nuwas. He is also a DJ and musician under the name 'The Spidermonkey'.

Early Life

Andrew Killeen was born in the Midlands of English / Irish parents

He attended King Edwards School, Birmingham and went on to study English at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge where he was a contemporary of children's author SF Said.

and has spent most of his career working with homeless and disadvantaged children.

He is a supporter of Birmingham City FC, something he describes as "karmic punishment for sins in a past life"..

The Father of Locks

A sequel, "The Seven Voyages of Abu Nuwas" is due to be released in early 2010.

Bibliography

Novels

1. The Father of Locks. Dedalus, 2009. ISBN 978 1 903517 76 5
2. The Seven Voyages of Abu Nuwas. Dedalus, 2010. ISBN 978 1 903517 97 0

External links

• [2] The Father of Locks Website
• [3] The Spidermonkey Website
• [4] Dedalus Books Website

Works

Reynolds wrote his first four published science fiction short stories while still a graduate student, in 1989-1991; they appeared in 1990-1992. In 1991 Reynolds graduated and moved from Scotland to the Netherlands to work at ESA. He then started spending much of his writing time on a first novel, which eventually turned into Revelation Space, while the few short stories he submitted from 1991-1995 were rejected. This ended in 1995 when his story "Byrd Land Six" was published, which he says marked the beginning of a more serious phase of writing. As of 2008 he has published over thirty shorter works and eight novels. His works are hard science fiction veiled behind space opera and noir toned stories, and reflect his professional expertise with physics and astronomy, included by extrapolating future technologies in terms that are consistent, for the most part, with current science. Reynolds has said he prefers to keep the science in his books to what he personally believes will be possible, and he does not believe faster-than-light travel will ever be possible, but that he adopts science he believes will be impossible when it is necessary for the story. Most of Reynolds's novels contain multiple storylines that originally appear to be completely unrelated, but merge later in the story.