Tim Killen has spent much of his life in Bush Alaska. The peoples and ecology of the arctic feature in much of his writing. He attended both the University of Southern California and the University of Arizona where he earned degrees in Anthropology, Cinema, and a Masters Degree in Counseling Psychology.

He served as a Communications Officer in the Air Force during Viet Nam. At other times he directed a child protection agency for an Alaska Native Corporation, and produced several ethnographic documentaries with Native children as film crew.

He is a Third Degree Black Belt in Shotokan Karate. His wife is also a Black Belt and together they sometimes teach self-defense seminars for women and children.