Sunya Gail Kimberly Francis (August 1, 1927 â April 8, 2011) was an American writer based in Los Angeles. She wrote science fiction, horror, gothic romance, and young adult stories and novels in the 1970s and 1980s, and children's fiction for the Los Angeles Times between 1999 and 2003.
Kimberly was born in New York City, the daughter of Wilbert Ross "Kip" Kimberly and Evelyn Martha Cox Kimberly. Her father was born in Canada, and her mother was born in Scotland.
Kimberly was a secretary in Los Angeles and Pasadena, from the 1950s into the early 1970s. She wrote science fiction, horror, gothic romance, and YA stories and novels. Editor Roger Elwood selected stories by Kimberly for several anthologies. In the later 1990s and early 2000s, Kimberly wrote serialized short fiction for the children's page of the Los Angeles Times. She was a member of the California Writers Club, the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society, the Romance Writers of America and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.
In addition to works under her own name, Kimberly wrote young adult and gothic romance genre fiction under pseudonyms including Alix Andre and Dayle Courtney.
Kimberly married twice. Her first husband was Antonius J. Van Achthoven; they married in 1951, had two children, and divorced in 1974. Her second husband was Kellin D. Francis; they married in 1980. She lived in Michigan in the 1990s. She died in 2011, in Placentia, California, at the age of 83.