David F. Balog was born, raised, and still lives in the Greater Cleveland are with his wife and cat. He grew up in the libraries of Lakewood and Parma, and his babysitters were the creatures of the Cleveland Aquarium; he had a special fondness for the giant octopus. Ever inquisitive, he dove deeply into science, paranormal studies, mathematics, and mythology at an early age, and never let go of the idea that they, and other studies, were all tightly connected.
His fascination with fables and mythology led him first to Dungeons & Dragons, then other role-playing games. Here, he learned to hone his talent for character creation, world building, and storytelling, more so as individual games extended into long campaigns. Over time, basic concepts became fully realized, and months and years spent focused on a single character gave time for them to develop depth.
An avid reader, particularly, but certainly not limited to, science and science fiction, David always sought to learn more about the world. In his youth, he went to the Gifted Challenge Institute, essentially a summer camp for knowledge set on campus at local colleges, where he studied mathematics, biology, and physics far above his grade level. This had the unfortunate side-effect of putting him off traditional academia for a time, as regular classes were not available at his age to continue with his accelerated learning, causing his grades to slide from boredom.
Years later, he would attend Cuyahoga Community College, Ursuline College, and Cleveland State University, eventually earning a Bachelors' Degree in both History and Social Studies, and a Master's Degree in History. All through his studies, he continued to focus on the theology, mythology, and fables and how they connected societies throughout time and regions. Though the stories and characters change, the underlying truths always remain the same: primarily, the constant striving of individuals to become better people.
At long last, it fell on David to contribute his own stories and mythologies to the public consciousness. With the experience of developing characters and worlds combined with writing numerous research papers, David began work on his first novel: Necromancer's Lament, the first in a planned trilogy.
Athina Paris lives in South Africa but spent her formative years in Mozambique, where she was born and went to school. Years in convents and boarding schools prompted a deep curiosity and the need to liberate her mind, which quickly developed into an avid interest in reading and storytelling and led to a lifelong obsession with the written word and books. By fifteen she had read most of the classics, discovered ancient civilizations and became fascinated with various mythologies; a love she has kept to this day.
Raised in a culture where meddling is seen as 'caring', she became a spectator of human nature. Quiet and shy, she preferred recording conduct rather than participating in what she calls familial mass hysteria, and so built a treasure-trove of relationship observations from which she eventually drew backgrounds for the characters in her romantic novels.
She studied Interior Design, but soon felt the pull of her dormant talent and turned to Creative Writing, as she realised the significance of those note books packed with ideas. She soon followed it with Scriptwriting.
Set in faraway and exotic places, Athina's epic romantic work takes her characters on voyages of self-discovery while dealing with catastrophic love lives and an imperfect world. Her first novel Love & Madness, layered and complex, is the story of a family tested by selfish ambition, misplaced passions and an exploration of the recesses of the human psyche.
A stint as a high school English teacher polished her skills. However, she has recently vacated the position to concentrate on her professional goals of writing, editing and proofreading. Athina has joined RockHill Publishing LLC as the Editor-in-Chief and author.
