Athina Paris was born and went to school in Mozambique. Living her formative years in the confines of strict convents and boarding schools, she escaped by dreaming of faraway exotic places, and it created a deep curiosity about life and people. Feeling the need to liberate her inquisitive mind from conformist restraints, she took refuge in libraries and bookstores, leading to an avid interest in reading, storytelling, and a lifelong obsession with the written word and books.

At age fourteen, she joined her family: father, mother, and a younger brother in South Africa, where she continued her schooling. Now able to read English, she quickly went through most of the classics, discovered ancient civilizations, and became fascinated with various mythologies; a love she has kept to this day. After her father left the family, she went to college to study Interior Design, but the pull of her true talent took her into Creative Writing. She followed that with Scriptwriting.

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 participate in what she calls ‘familial mass hysteria’, building a treasure-trove of relationship observations from which she eventually drew backgrounds for the characters in her novels.

Her 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.

Knight Kisses tells the story of a young woman thrust into a life with a scoundrel of a father she never knew after her mother’s death from cancer. Gabrielle must deal with loss and mistrust and turns to keeping secrets, the only thing she knows how to do.

Her third novel, shifts focus from heartbreak to empowerment. Dani, the heroine of When Dani Smiled, is smart and self-assured, desires to be a fashion designer, and is blessed with a beauty that can turn any man’s will into putty. Ironically, it’s not her looks or designing ability but computer programming skills that land her a job in the high-pressure world of fashion, where she is soon pursued by two men; the rich playboy and heir to the company, and her jealous high school suitor, who is determined to possess her.

Athina has recently vacated the position of high school teacher, where she polished her skills to concentrate on her professional goals of writing, editing and proofreading. She has joined RockHill Publishing LLC as Editor-in-Chief.