Andrew Keith
| Andrew Keith | |
|---|---|
| |
| Birthday | August 31, 1958 |
| Roles | Author, Heart of the Tiger, False Colors |
"I will remember him as a promising writer tragically just on the verge of breaking out into a larger world, as a brilliant armchair historian, as a gentle friend, and as a loving brother. Damn it, I miss him." – William H. Keith, Jr.
John Andrew Keith (August 31, 1958 – August 7, 1999) was the author of Heart of the Tiger and False Colors.
Keith began his career in tabletop games, writing extensively for GDW on the Traveller series. (This background is also shared by David Ladyman who, like Keith, also went on to work at FASA). While much of his independent work was in military fiction, according to his brother, fellow author Bill Keith, "his real interest, as mine, was in SF". His works in the genre include the BattleTech novel Blood of Heroes, a collaboration with his brother, and the short story The Legacy of Leonidas, set in Keith Laumer's Bolo setting.
Keith's contributions to Wing Commander were the novelization of Wing Commander III, Heart of the Tiger, and False Colors, an original story set between the events of Wing Commander III and IV. On both of these he collaborated with William R. Forstchen. His experience in writing the series Carrier (credited as Keith Douglass) can be seen in the meticulous descriptions of flight operations in both books. Keith's work on False Colors is notorious for a printing error that saw his brother Bill's name printed on the cover, although Andrew was properly credited on the title page.
Keith was involved with the Clan Keith historical society and his writings often reflect an interest in Scottish and Celtic history, such as the protagonist of Leonidas, David Fife, Alexander Carlisle in Blood of Heroes, and Aengus Harper and Douglas Scott Graham in False Colors. He dexcribed the Kilrathi prince Murragh as a "Bonnie Prince Charlie"-type character.
Keith died suddenly of double pulmonary thrombosis in the lungs at the age of 41. At the time, he had two books completed but unpublished. Keith had plans for a sequel to False Colors which would have focused on Prince Murragh and the Landreich, but those plans were dropped following his death and the ending of Baen Books's licensing deal shortly after. A lifelong bachelor, he was survived by his brother, author William H. Keith.
Autobiography
Andrew Keith provided this capsule autobiography to the Wing Commander Home Sector in 1997.
J. Andrew Keith - Biography
J. Andrew Keith was over a week late at birth in 1957, and has been falling further behind ever since. Born and raised in Western Pennsylvania, he was forced to follow his family to the suburbs of Chicago when he was nine years old. He quickly realized he did not like Illinois at all and took prompt steps to return to his home town, a move which somehow took twenty years to accomplish.
In the meantime, he became a writer. His first novel, now thankfully lost, was begun as a 7th grade class project, but was not actually turned in until over a year after the assignment was actually due. In 1978 Keith began writing professionally to support a dangerously expensive Gaming habit. He wrote articles, adventure modules, supplements, and other material for a number of role-playing games, including Traveller; Star Trek: The RPG; Doctor Who; and BattleTech. He also produced an RPG design of his own, Freedom Fighters, which was chiefly notable for having a character generation process that lasted longer than the average Italian government.
Keith became a "real" writer in 1988. Over the past eight years he has written, either alone or in collaboration with his brother Bill, over twenty novels and two short stories in fields ranging from historical sagas to men’s action-adventure to technothrillers to science fiction. His work has been compared (though it was never specified whether the comparison was favorable or otherwise) to Jerry Pournelle and David Drake. At present he is behind schedule on two novels and any number of other projects, and trying to figure out where the Rest Stop is on the Information Superhighway.
Andrew Keith, now aged 38, is unmarried. He lives in a small town in Western PA with two computers (unless you want to count the Apple IIe he can’t seem to get rid of); several hundred books, games, and videotapes; and two cats who claim he is dreadfully slow serving their meals. His chief hobby is taping movies and television shows which he rarely gets around to watching. Politically, he veers from staunch support of the Libertarians to an extreme right-wing conservative streak (he’s been heard to complain about "that pinko Rush Limbaugh"), but deep down he’s a Jacobite Scot who firmly believes in the Divine Right of Kings. His chief religious inclination is to re-found the Celtic version of the Catholic Church which went out of style roughly eight hundred years ago. He suffers from a rare form of multiple personality disorder which makes his brain the second most crowded place on Earth (right after the offices of Mumbo Jumbo Airlines, Goma, Zaire), so he always has somebody to talk to. Depending on who he is on any given day, Keith may be a fanatic Scots Nationalist, a merciless RPG Gamemaster, a ruthless Diplomacy player, or a Somewhat Creative Anachronist. Unfortunately, he usually tends to shift into any given persona several days after it is appropriate to his surroundings.
Although he gets along with just about everybody (only feeling the need to kill every third person who disagrees with him), Keith has been engaged his whole life in a bizzarre form of sibling rivalry with his brother Bill, who always seems one step ahead of him. For instance, after Andrew rented a townhouse in his old hometown, Bill returned and purchased a mountaintop refuge nearby. When Andrew finally attempted to achieve parity by acquiring two cats, Bill escalated to four. And don’t even ask about the number of books they’ve each written!
Attempts to obtain photographs of J. Andrew Keith hardly ever work, since he’s usually late for the sitting.
Bibliography
Novels
Combat Command
- In the World of Jack Williamson's The Legion of Space: The Legion at War (#5) (Ace, 1988)
Freedom's Rangers (with William H. Keith Jr., writing as Keith William Andrews)
- Freedom's Rangers (#1) (Berkley, 1989)
- Raiders of the Revolution (#2) (Berkley, 1989)
- Search and Destroy (#3) (Berkley, 1990)
- Treason in Time (#4) (Berkley, 1990)
- Sink the Armada (#5) (Berkley, 1990)
- Snow Kill (#6) (Berkley, 1991)
Carrier
- Carrier (#1) (Berkley, 1991) (with William H. Keith Jr., writing as Keith Douglass)
- Viper Strike (#2) (Berkley, 1991) (with William H. Keith Jr., writing as Keith Douglass)
- Armageddon Mode (#3) (Berkley, 1992) (with William H. Keith Jr., writing as Keith Douglass)
- Flame-Out (Carrier #4) (Berkley, 1992) (writing as Keith Douglass)
The Fifth Foreign Legion
- March or Die (#1) (Roc, 1992) (with W.H. Keith Jr.)
- Honor and Fidelity (#2) (Roc, 1992) (with W.H. Keith Jr.)
- Cohort of the Damned (#3) (Roc, February 1993)
BattleTech
- Blood of Heroes (#11) (Roc, 1993)
SEALs: The Warrior Breed (With William H. Keith Jr., writing as H. Jay Riker)
- Silver Star (#1) (Avon, 1993)
- Purple Heart (#2) (Avon, 1994)
- Bronze Star (#3) (Avon, 1995)
- Navy Cross (#4) (Avon, 1996)
Wing Commander
- Heart of the Tiger (#4) (Baen, 1995)
- False Colors (#7) (Baen, 1999)
Short Stories
"Rendezvous With Death" in Amazing Stories (Vol. LXVI, No. 1, May 1991)
"The Legacy of Leonidas" in Bolos, Book I: For the Honor of the Regiment (Baen, 1993)
Roleplaying Games
Supplements
Star Trek: The Role Playing Game (FASA)
- Demand of Honor (1984)
- Margin of Profit (1984)
- A Doomsday Like Any Other (with L. Ross Babcock III, and Forest G. Brown, 1986)
- The Dixie Gambit (1986)
BattleTech (FASA)
- The Return of Kerensky: Technical Readout 3050 (1990, with Jim Musser)
Articles
"The Contact Team" (Stardate Magazine, Vol. 1, #3/4, January/February 1985)
"Orion Rising" (Stardate Magazine, Vol. 2, #10, February 1986)
"Howl of the North Wind" (BattleTechnology, Issue #0203, January 1988)
