(From left to right:) David Alan Mack, Will Sliney and DeCandido at a signing at Forbidden Planet in Manhattan, April 22, 2010
DeCandido was born in the Bronx in New York City, the son of Robert L. DeCandido and GraceAnne Andreassi DeCandido. He claims to have been a Star Trek fan even before his birth, as his parents were fans of Star Trek: The Original Series.[1]
DeCandido attended New Rochelle Academy and Halstead School, and then Cardinal Spellman High School in the Bronx before attending Fordham University. While attending Fordham University, DeCandido worked as an editor and writer of one of the college newspapers, called simply the paper.[2]
After graduation, DeCandido worked as editor at several publishing companies. Along with John S. Drew, in the 1990s he co-produced a public-access televisioncable TV show in Manhattan about science fiction called The Chronic Rift, which he also co-hosted.[3] DeCandido and Drew and others revived the show as a podcast in 2008.[4] DeCandido also used to host his own monthly podcast, Dead Kitchen Radio, on hiatus as of February 2019.
While DeCandido spent much of his career writing Star Trek fiction, he has written tie-ins for other popular sci-fi and fantasy series as well, such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Doctor Who, Supernatural, Stargate SG-1, Sleepy Hollow, Farscape, and Leverage as well as comic books (Spider-Man, X-Men), movies (Cars, Serenity, Alien), role-playing games (Dungeons & Dragons), and video games (World of Warcraft, StarCraft, Command & Conquer, Resident Evil). He has also written fiction in universes of his own creation: Dragon Precinct and its sequels, a high-fantasy police procedural; urban fantasy short stories set in Key West about a weirdness magnet named Cassie Zukav, who learns she is a Dís; the Adventures of Bram Gold, urban fantasy novels set in the Bronx; Super City Cops, novels, novellas, and short stories featuring cops in a city filled with superheroes; and Supernatural Crimes Unit, an urban fantasy series debuting in 2025 from the Weird Tales Presents imprint of Blackstone Publishing. He has also edited or co-edited various anthologies, including OtherWere (with Laura Anne Gilman), Urban Nightmares (with Josepha Sherman), Imaginings, Double Trouble: An Anthology of Two-Fisted Team-Ups (with Jonathan Maberry), The Four???? of the Apocalypse (with Wrenn Simms), the Doctor Who collection Short Trips: The Quality of Leadership, and the Star Trek anthologies New Frontier: No Limits (with Peter David), Tales of the Dominion War, and Tales from the Captain's Table.
In 2009, DeCandido was named Grandmaster by the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers.[5]
DeCandido is an avid baseball fan, particularly of the New York Yankees. He has contributed in the past to both the Replacement Level Yankees Weblog and Pinstripe Alley, and he currently serves as an occasional freelance editor for the Society for American Baseball Research.
Star Trek novellas, short stories, comic books, etc.
The Next Generation - Perchance to Dream (four-issue comic book miniseries, art by Peter Pachoumis and Lucian Rizzo, with Scott Benefiel, February–May 2000) -- collected in Enemy Unseen (2001), ISBN1-61377-131-2, alongside "The Killing Shadows" and "Embrace the Wolf"
"Horn and Ivory" in Gateways: What Lay Beyond (2002), ISBN0-7434-5683-1
Alien Spotlight: Klingons: Four Thousand Throats... (comic book, art by JK Woodward, 2009; winner, Best Single Issue of a Comic Book, TrekMovie.com) -- collected in Alien Spotlight Volume 2 (2010), ISBN1-60010-612-9, alongside Q,Romulans,Tribbles, and Cardassians.
"The Unhappy Ones" in Seven Deadly Sins (2010)
Captain's Log: Jellico (comic book, art by JK Woodward, 2010) -- collected in Captain's Log (2011), ISBN1-60010-887-3, alongside Sulu,Pike, and Harriman.
-30- (w/Steven Savile, 2012; reprinted in Without a License, 2015), part of the Viral series
Heroes Reborn: Save the Cheerleader, Destroy the World (2015; reprinted in Heroes Reborn Collection Two, 2016)
Super City Cops: Avenging Amethyst (2016)
Super City Cops: Undercover Blues (2017)
Super City Cops: Secret Identities (2017)
Systema Paradoxa: All-the-Way House (2021)
Short story collections
Ragnarok and Roll: Tales of Cassie Zukav, Weirdness Magnet (2013), ISBN0-9860-0856-7
Without a License: The Fantastic Worlds of Keith R.A. DeCandido (2015), ISBN978-1-937051-76-1
Ragnarok and a Hard Place: More Tales of Cassie Zukav, Weirdness Magnet (forthcoming)
Other comic books
Farscape: The Beginning of the End of the Beginning (cowritten with Rockne S. O'Bannon, art by Tommy Patterson, four-issue miniseries, December 2008-April 2009)
Farscape: Strange Detractors (cowritten with O'Bannon, art by Will Sliney, four-issue miniseries, April–July 2009)
Farscape: D'Argo's Lament (art by Neil Edwards, four-issue miniseries, April–July 2009)
Farscape: Gone and Back (cowritten with O'Bannon, art by Patterson, July–October 2009)
Farscape: D'Argo's Trial (art by Caleb Cleveland, August–November 2009)
Farscape (monthly series, cowritten with O'Bannon, art by Sliney, November 2009–October 2011)
Farscape: D'Argo's Quest (art by Cleveland, December 2009-March 2010)
StarCraft: Ghost Academy Volume 1 (manga, art by Fernando Furukawa, 2010)
Cars: Adventures of Tow Mater #1-4 (art by Travis Hill, four-issue story arc, August–November 2010)
Kung Fu Panda: Tales of the Dragon Warrior #1 (art by Massimo Asaro, backup story, 2013)
Icarus (cowritten with Gregory A. Wilson, art by Áthila Fabbio, 2020)
"Arms and the Man" in Untold Tales of Spider-Man (1997), ISBN1-57297-294-7
"How You Can Prevent Forest Fires" in Urban Nightmares (1997; reprinted in Ragnarok and Roll: Tales of Cassie Zukav, Weirdness Magnet, 2013), ISBN0-671-87851-4
"A Vampire and a Vampire Hunter Walk Into a Bar" in Amazing Stories #608 (2005; reprinted in The Town Drunk, 2006; reprinted in Without a License, 2015)
"Editorial Interference" in Circles in the Hair (2006; reprinted in Without a License, 2015)
"Sunday in the Park with Spot" in Furry Fantastic (2006; reprinted in Without a License, 2015), ISBN0-7564-0381-2
"Three Sides to Every Story" in BattleTech: 25 Years of Art and Fiction (2009)
"Letter from Guadalajara" in More Tales of Zorro (2011)
"Under the King's Bridge" in Liar Liar: Short Stories from Members of the Liars Club (2011; reprinted in Without a License, 2015)
"Ragnarok and Roll" in Tales from the House Band Volume 1 (2011; reprinted in Apocalypse 13, 2012, and in Ragnarok and Roll: Tales of Cassie Zukav, Weirdness Magnet, 2013)
"The Ballad of Big Charlie" in V-Wars (2012; reprinted in Without a License, 2015)
"I Believe I'm Sinkin' Down" in Tales from the House Band Volume 2 (2012; reprinted in Ragnarok and Roll: Tales of Cassie Zukav, Weirdness Magnet, 2013)
"The Stone of the First High Pontiff" in Defending the Future: Best-Laid Plans (2013; reprinted in Without a License, 2015)
"Undine the Boardwalk" in Ragnarok and Roll: Tales of Cassie Zukav, Weirdness Magnet (2013; reprinted in Bad-Ass Faeries: It's Elemental, 2014)
"Love Over and Over" in Ragnarok and Roll: Tales of Cassie Zukav, Weirdness Magnet (2013)
"Cayo Hueso Part 1: A Farewell to Cats" in Ragnarok and Roll: Tales of Cassie Zukav, Weirdness Magnet (2013)
"Cayo Hueso Part 2: The Buck Stops Here" in Ragnarok and Roll: Tales of Cassie Zukav, Weirdness Magnet (2013)
"Cayo Hueso Part 3: Twisting Fate" in Ragnarok and Roll: Tales of Cassie Zukav, Weirdness Magnet (2013)
"God of Blunder" in Ragnarok and Roll: Tales of Cassie Zukav, Weirdness Magnet (2013)
"Stone Cold Whodunit" in With Great Power (2014)
"Fish Out of Water" in Out of Tune (2014), a tale of Cassie Zukav, weirdness magnet
