Kara Dalkey's intricate fantasy fiction novels have attracted a devoted readership due to their blend of intriguing characters, otherworldly elements, and genuine period detail. Hailed by critics as a consummate storyteller, Dalkey weaves historical intrigue into plots featuring classic elements of the genre, including journeys into other worlds and powerful, destiny-shaping magic potions and powders. Often she draws upon the folklore of India or Japan for inspiration, and brings mythic figures from these realms to life as secondary characters. Her "Blood of the Goddess" series, set in seventeenth-century Mughal India, was deemed a "brilliant trilogy" by a Publishers Weekly reviewer, and even earned comparisons to Cervantes' Don Quixote, the classic quest novel.

Dalkey was born in Los Angeles in 1953, and grew up to study anthropology at the University of California. She also attended the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, and moved to Minneapolis in late 1970s. There...