Kate Elliott is the pen name of Alis A. Rasmussen, who was born on July 27, 1958 in Iowa. She graduated from Mills College in Oakland, California, and went on to work for the BBC in London and at Keyboard Magazine in Cupertino, California before becoming a full time writer. Her first book, The Labrynth Gate, was published in 1988. She wrote four novels under the name Alis A. Rasmussen before using the pen name Kate Elliott. Her other works include the Spiritwalker Trilogy, the Novels of Jaran series, the Crossroads Trilogy, the Crown of Stars series, and Court of Fives.