David Cleden lives in the United Kingdom with a demanding family of cats, children and wife (mostly in that order). From an early age, he immersed himself in science fiction. During weekly trips to the local library with his father, he discovered his ABCs—Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke—and all the rest of the author alphabet followed on from there. After eventually realizing that his dream job (being Isaac Asimov) was already taken, he became deeply interested in science, eventually gaining a degree in physics from Imperial College, London. It taught him a new respect for the beauty of mathematics—which sadly, isn’t shared by the rest of his family or circle of friends—but gave him the genesis of the story that follows.
The author would like to stress that he is not a trained practitioner of arithmos and has not personally encountered the Dark Equations referenced in this story. Readers are urged not to undertake similar mathematical experiments except under strict supervision.
David now writes business proposals and technical documents by day while actively pursuing the dream of science fiction and fantasy writing on weekends. He can’t stress enough how important it is not to muddle them up. He is the 2016 winner of the James White Award, and last year won the Aeon Award. David can be reached at www.quantum-scribe.com or on Twitter at @DavidCleden.
Vytautas Vasiliauskas, or Vytas, was born in 1990 in Kaunas, Lithuania.
As a child, Vytautas was always interested in drawing and creating various card and tabletop games and comics, not surprisingly inspired by what he saw in popular culture at that time. Later he went on to get a bachelor’s degree in fine art and illustration in Coventry, United Kingdom, to gain knowledge about the art world and industry.
Always surrounded by Japanese and American influences, Vytautas continues to study these alongside new contemporary interests. He is mostly self-taught, using his own analysis of classic masters in addition to many online tutorials. Vytautas continues to find new ways of expressing himself through his art and to push his craft in new directions to discover what truly might be his unique take. www.vytautasart.com