Science fiction fans in town, unite.

Authors Kenneth Von Gunden and John DeChancie will be at Book Swap, 110 S. Fraser St., from 2 to 4 p.m. tomorrow to sign copies of their latest novels.

Both novels belong to series on which the authors are currently working. For Von Gunden, K-9 Corps is the first novel of a science fiction series, while DeChancie's Castle War is the fourth installment of the Castle Perilous fantasies.

K-9 Corps takes its reader several hundred years into the future to follow the adventures of Ray Larkin and his band of scout dogs. These dogs are by no means conventional. They are genetically altered and possess enhanced senses and the gift of speech.

"Larkin and the dogs travel to a planet that the government back on earth plans to develop because of its reported lack of unintelligent life. However, Larkin finds intelligent life present," Von Gunden said.

Larkin and his team must learn to deal with this alien life form and at the same time, confront a military plot from their own planet, he said.

DeChancie describes the Castle Perilous series as humorous fantasy.

"It's about what happens when you walk through the door and find yourself in another world. It's also about ordinary people getting into trouble," he said.

Castle Perilous contains 100,000 rooms and every room is another world. The castle is full of people who do not want to live in their own worlds and escape into these other ones, DeChancie said.

"Castle Murders is my next book in the series and it will be out in May. It's very much in the tradition of Agatha Christie. A murder occurs in the castle and it's up to the people inside the castle to solve it," he said.

Two of Pennsylvania's own, Von Gunden comes from Bellefonte and DeChancie hails from Pittsburgh. Each became interested in science fiction through film.

"When I was a kid the big thing on late night television was the Tonight Show with Jack Parr. But the other channels would show these old movies and that's what I was interested in, especially the science fiction ones," Von Gunden said.

Von Gunden did his undergraduate and graduate work at Penn State and looked toward producing and directing movies for public television. However, he opted for a writing career and even taught writing and film theory classes at Penn State. But he could never shake the film bug.

"I have a book coming out this year about Hollywood directors. It looks at people like Spielberg and DePalma and how they changed Hollywood," he said.

DeChancie became hooked on science fiction by watching the old Captain Video television show.

"Captain Video was on every week night for 15 minutes and I never missed it. I loved watching this guy fly around the universe after the bad guys. I remember that the first story I ever wrote was science fiction. It was about a trip to the moon. I was in second grade and I remember typing it out. I typed it out in all capitals because I didn't know you also had to use lower case letters," he said.

After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh, DeChancie did some business training films for public television. However, the lifestyle didn't fit him.

"I didn't like all the pressure. It was too much for the likes of me. The writer's life suits me better," he said.

As for their major influence, both of these writers turn to the work of science fiction author Robert A. Heinlien.

"I named one of the dogs in the K-9 Corps Anson. The middle initial in Heinlien's name stands for Anson," said Von Gunden with a laugh.

Von Gunden said there will be at least two more books in the K-9 Corps series. Under Fire, the second novel, will come out this summer.

"If the series gains popularity then there could even be a few more. I'm very comfortable with the characters I've created here," he said.

DeChancie said there will be two more books in the Castle Perilous series after Castle Murders. Then he would like to turn to a historical piece, he said.

"Some historians believe that the ancient Egyptians traveled across the Atlantic and had some influence on the Mayan culture. I would like to do a novel on that subject that reverses the situation. I would like to have the Mayans cross the Atlantic, but instead of landing in Egypt they will land in Israel," he said.