Kara Dalkey

Kara Mia Dalkey (born 1953) is an American author of young adult fiction and historical fantasy. She was born in Los Angeles and has lived in Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, Colorado, and Seattle. Much of her fiction is set in the Heian period of Japan.

She was married to author John Barnes; they divorced in 2001. She is a member of the Pre-Joycean Fellowship and of the Scribblies. She is a graduate of the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in Los Angeles.

Her works include The Sword of Sagamore, Steel Rose, Little Sister and The Nightingale. The latter book is part of Terri Windling's Fairy Tale Series. Her short stories are featured in the Liavek anthologies, Firebirds: An Anthology of Original Fantasy and Science Fiction, and Firebirds Rising. Liavek was a shared-world series edited by Emma Bull and Will Shetterly. Ace Books published Liavek and thus many of the Scribblies' first short stories.

She is also a musician and has gigged extensively on electric bass (which she plays left-handed) and harmony vocals, with such bands as Runestone, the Albany Free Traders, and Nate Bucklin and the Ensemble (in Minnesota) and Relic and Voodoo Blue (in Seattle.) At different times she has also played drums, banjo and acoustic guitar. She is a songwriter, but her total output is low, and no CD or other album is in the works.

Dalkey

Dalkey (Irish: Deilginis, meaning "thorn island") is a suburb of Dublin and seaside resort just south of Dublin City, Ireland. It was founded as a Viking settlement and became an important port during the Middle Ages. According to John Clyn, it was one of the ports through which the plague entered Ireland in the mid-14th century. In modern times, Dalkey has become a thriving seaside suburb and a minor tourist attraction. It has been home to many writers and celebrities including Jane Emily Herbert, Maeve Binchy, Hugh Leonard, Bono and Van Morrison.

Etymology

The town is named after Dalkey Island, just off shore. The name is derived from the Irish deilg ("thorn") and the Old Norse ey ("island").

King of Dalkey

This putative elective monarchy is a tradition of the people of Dalkey. The freemen of Dalkey inherited the right to elect this King through the boredom of young bloods back in the Dublin of 1787. They formed a club into which they roped wits, poets and thinkers. They summoned "Pimlico Parliament" - named after The Liberties, Dublin, and from an Assembly Room they hurled broadsides at the country's humbug and the pomposity of the Castle (Dublin Castle) and its hacks.