Writer James Killus Dies

Writer James Killus died 23 September 2008 of cancer. Dave Smeds has a full report on the medical causes here. Born in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1950, Killus was an sf author, as well as a chemist who specialized in the field of smog analysis and research. He earned a BS in Engineering and an MS in Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, then moved to the San Francisco Bay area in the mid-1970s.
Killus was the author of two sf novels: Book of Shadows (Ace, 1983) and SunSmoke (Ace, 1985), the latter of which was reissued in 2003. He also had nearly two dozen stories published between 1981 and 2007, including “Flower in the Void”, which I published in the Summer 2002 issue of Artemis Magazine. His scientific papers are more numerous, and his web site has many of them available as pdfs.
He is survived by his wife, Amelia “Amy” Sefton.
Dave Smeds wrote this remembrance of Killus, which is followed up with this one by Joel Richards.
I’m sorry I didn’t know him other than through the mail in an editor-author relationship. If you knew Killus, and want to offer some words about him, or a link to your remembrances elsewhere, please comment below or use the “Contact Us” link above.