Steve Benton
Born, raised and educated in Portland, Oregon, Steve Benton ditched law school for a computer - something he has never regretted. Starting as a graphical applications instructor, he maintained a list of famous clients, from Joe Barbera at Cartoon Network, to John Hench, V.P. at Walt Disney Imagineering, and many in between. From there he went on to write speeches for the C.E.O. of Nihon Kenko Zoushin Kenkyukai, Toshizo Watanabe, and traveled the world, creating multimedia extravaganzas at Watanabe's conventions and events.
Benton immersed himself in video games in his spare time - mostly in MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role-playing games) and enjoyed watching the interaction between the players. Inspired by the drama, combined with the fantastical environments in which they would play, he created a series of short stories on his blog, centered on the protagonist who would eventually become Max Gunnarsson.
A few years later he dissected his blogs, took what worked, deleted what didn't, and got to work writing. The end result is After Exodus.
Benton's universe is a new concept; a new genre in storytelling. While there have been some efforts to mix science fiction and fantasy, never before have the unknown and mystical been explained in such vivid detail as in Benton's books. For the first time, a reader learns what magic really is, where the gods come from, and how space/time functions. In short:
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
- Arthur C. Clarke
Steve likes to call this genre SCIENCE FANTASY, and the description is quite apt.
His first success as an author came when OMNI Magazine published his short story NOTHING BUT STARS IN THE SKY - a tale about an American Marine in Iraq who must rely on a local boy to survive. After a reorganization in the OMNI infrastructure, they published his second contracted short story, BITS 'N PIECES. Yet a third story, PRESENT REWRITTEN, is about a failed writer who discovers how to manipulate death. He wrote numerous other shorts for OMNI before it finally went offline.
Benton lives in Southern California, has been married for nearly forty years and has two adult daughters. He is a polyglot, fluent in a handful of languages, which comes in handy as he is also a prolific traveler, as well as an expert-level snow skier, and loves mountain biking.
His direct Benton line first came to America in 1638, from Essex, England, settling in New Haven, CT.
Before arriving in the Americas, his ancestors consisted of a town sheriff and two knights. Oddly enough, DNA analysis shows he is mostly Scandinavian. Upon learning this particular fact he took a trip to Sweden and Denmark to meet any possible relatives. He found none, but the beer was great.
