Kim Harrison

Dawn Cook
Harrison during a Q & A at a book-signing event for A Perfect Blood, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Born	1966
Pen name	Kim Harrison
Occupation	novelist
Nationality	United States
Period	2002 to present
Genre	Fantasy
Website
www.kimharrison.net

Kim Harrison is a pen-name of American author Dawn Cook. Under the name of Harrison, she is best known for her Rachel Morgan urban fantasy series set in an alternate history where a worldwide pandemic caused by genetically modified tomatoes led to the death of a large portion of the world's human population. Under the name of Dawn Cook, she is best known for her Decoy Princess and Truth series, published in the first few years of the 21st century. Harrison has received praise from fellow authors, and has reached the #1 spot on the New York Times Best Seller list.

Kim Harrison was born and raised in the Midwest. A self-proclaimed "former tomboy," she grew up the only girl in a family of boys. Despite her love of writing, she took an unorthodox approach to it, and claims to have avoided English courses beyond the basic requirements in high school and college.

Harrison began her career with writing traditional science fiction, but began writing contemporary fantasy after deciding to focus more on character development. She spent the better part of a decade struggling as an aspiring author before meeting her current agent at a writing convention. He then introduced her to Diana Gill, who became Harrison's editor. Together, they produced Dead Witch Walking, and her first book was published in paperback by HarperTorch in 2004. Since then, she has written twelve more books, two graphic novels, and extensive world book in the Hollows series, also called the Rachel Morgan series, (most with titles punning off Clint Eastwood movies) and contributed to multiple anthologies, with prequels to the Hollows books, and one with a young adult story.

After the success of her first novel, Harrison was able to resign from her day job, devoting herself to writing full-time. Her favorite author is Ray Bradbury. She references music as one of her strongest writing influences, providing song lists for several of her characters. In her spare time, she communicates with fans via her self-maintained website and blog.