Dennis L. McKiernan was born April 4, 1932, in Moberly, Missouri, where he lived until age eighteen, when he joined the U.S. Air Force and served four years spanning the Korean War. He received a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Missouri in 1958 and an M.S. in the same field from Duke University in 1964. He spent thirty-one years as one of the AT&T Bell Laboratories whiz kids in research and development before changing careers to be a full-time writer.

Currently living in Tucson, Arizona, Dennis began writing novels in 1977 while recuperating from a close encounter of the crunch kind with a 1967 red and black Plymouth Fury (Dennis lost: it ran over him: Plymouth 1, Dennis 0). Among other hobbies, Dennis enjoys scuba diving, dirt-bike riding, and motorcycle touring - all enthusiasms shared by his wife.