McKenzie, Nancy Affleck 1948-

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McKENZIE, Nancy Affleck 1948-

PERSONAL:

Born February 19, 1948, in Princeton, NJ; daughter of James G. and Callie K. Affleck; married Bruce Gordon McKenzie (an executive entrepreneur), June 10, 1972; children: Elizabeth, Catherine, Caroline. Education: Mount Holyoke College, B.A. (magna cum laude), 1970; Tufts University, M.A., 1973. Hobbies and other interests: Sailing, horseback riding, baseball, reading.

ADDRESSES:

Agent—Jean Naggar, Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency, 216 E. 75th St., New York, NY 10021.

CAREER:

Thorobrook Farm, Rye, NY, stable manager, 1986-90; president of her own desktop publishing company, 1989-2000. Writer.

MEMBER:

Authors Guild, Phi Beta Kappa.

AWARDS, HONORS:

"Discovery of the Year" citation from Del Rey Books, 1993, for The Child Queen; Washington Irving Medal from Westchester Library Association, NY, 1994, for The Child Queen.

WRITINGS:

The Child Queen (also see below), Del Rey (New York, NY), 1994.

The High Queen (also see below), Del Rey (New York, NY), 1995.

Queen of Camelot (contains The Child Queen and The High Queen), Del Rey (New York, NY), 2002.

Grail Prince, Del Rey (New York, NY), 2003.

Prince of Dreams, Del Rey (New York, NY), 2004.

Senior editor, Childbirth Instructor Magazine, 1994-99.

WORK IN PROGRESS:

A young adult series of novels about young Guinevere; researching ancient Egypt and the life of Akhenaten.

SIDELIGHTS:

Nancy Affleck McKenzie covers familiar ground in her novels, but she does so in innovative ways. McKenzie is the author of a series of books based on the King Arthur legends. In the case of her work, however, it is the important secondary characters—Queen Guinevere, Lancelot, and Galahad—who assume center stage and tell their versions of life in Camelot. McKenzie's debut novel, The Child Queen, explores Guinevere's childhood and young adulthood in the kingdoms of her father and uncle.

Young Guinevere is resourceful, intelligent, and brave, but she fails to see the enmity she has engendered in her cousin Elaine, who wants to be Arthur's queen. Locus reviewer Carolyn Cushman praised The Child Queen as "heavily researched, with a strong sense of history and legend." Voice of Youth Advocates correspondent Sarah Flowers felt that "the writing is lively and the characters likable and/or interesting."

In the sequel, The High Queen, Guinevere helps Arthur to rule Camelot and raises Arthur's illegitimate son Mordred as if he were her own. The High Queen also examines Guinevere's love affair with Lancelot from Guinevere's perspective. In her Voice of Youth Advocates critique of the novel, Rebecca Barnhouse concluded: "It's pleasant to get the old story from a woman's point of view." Both The Child Queen and The High Queen have been reprinted in one volume, titled Queen of Camelot. In a review for the online Crowsnest SF Magazine, Jacqueline Kirk commended McKenzie for portraying "a Guinevere that has more to her than just a pretty face."

McKenzie continues the King Arthur saga with Grail Prince, a retelling of the life of Sir Galahad, son of Lancelot and Elaine. Raised by his bitter mother and neglected by his father, Galahad grows up with a jaundiced view of women. Vowing celibacy, Galahad joins Arthur's court in time to witness the king's death and to be charged with a quest to unite the sword Excalibur with a grail and a spear that belonged to a prior king of Britain. For Galahad, the quest becomes an entrée into manhood and a means by which he finally prepares to fall in love. On the What You Need to Know about Sci-Fi/Fantasy Web site, Clara Null Houston wrote of Grail Prince: "This is not the dry as dust retelling of old tales. This is an epic adventure with believable people." Jennifer Baker in Library Journal called the book a "tale of abiding love and enduring hope," and a Publishers Weekly critic found it to be an "engrossing medieval fantasy." A Galacticum.com contributor declared: "Not since The Mists of Avalon has an author so brilliantly reimagined and brought to life the enduring Arthurian legends."

McKenzie told CA: "My favorite books are historical novels that envelope the reader in a different place and time, such as Middlemarch or The Jewel in the Crown or Tai Pan or The Game of Kings. Mary Renault's books are among my favorites—ancient Greece has always fascinated me—and so are Mary Stewart's four books about Merlin the Enchanter in the days of King Arthur. Mary Stewart's vision of fifth-century Britain inspired my Guinevere books (The Child Queen, The High Queen, and Queen of Camelot). I wanted to make this much-maligned legendary character accessible to modern readers.

"I like getting inside my characters and finding out what makes them tick, and all of my books are character studies at heart. But I also like plots that roll right along at a decent place, so the character studies are wrapped around a good story.

"I've always had an interest in the deeper questions posed by humans since time began: What is holiness? What are the forces that drive us? What makes a leader? What should we value? How should we behave toward one another? You don't need to read my books on this level, but you can.

"Thus far, my published books are all Arthurian adventures/romances, but I am deeply interested in ancient Egyptian culture and hope to write an archaeologically up-to-date life of Akhenaten in the near future."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, December 1, 2002, Margaret Flanagan, review of Grail Prince, p. 646; December 1, 2003, Margaret Flanagan, review of Prince of Dreams, p. 655.

Library Journal, November 15, 2002, Jennifer Baker, review of Grail Prince, p. 102.

Locus, July, 1994, Carolyn Cushman, review of The Child Queen, p. 35.

Publishers Weekly, July 18, 1994, review of The Child Queen, p. 241; December 23, 2002, review of Grail Prince, p. 50; November 10, 2003, review of Prince of Dreams, p. 46.

Voice of Youth Advocates, December, 1994, Sarah Flowers, review of Child Queen, p. 288; October, 1995, Rebecca Barnhouse, review of The High Queen, p. 235.