Robert E. Balmanno was born in Sunnyvale, California in 1951.

Balmanno earned his bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of California, Santa Barbara, receiving Highest Honors. He attended the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, where he did post-graduate work in Politics, International Relations, and Philosophy. Later he attended postgraduate studies at the University of London, King’s College, Department of War Studies.

He served in the Peace Corps in Dahomey in West Africa (now known as Benin) from 1973 to 1975. He worked training bulls to plow fields and pull carts in a region where no outsiders have ever been before—the place where the New World practices of voodoo originated among the Adja people (the forest people) of West Africa.

Between 1975 and 1978 Balmanno traveled extensively through Europe and Asia. Over a period of two decades, he dedicated his life to producing contemporary literary fiction. He has written seven full-length novels. Recently he switched to the genre of science fiction. During the last 19 years he also worked as a library specialist in the Sunnyvale Library. His novel titles include Gist from the Mill, Day from Night, The Calf of Anatolia, Julian Street, Strike the Match, September Snow, and Dog Hair Island. Balmanno has also written some short stories.

Balmanno is presently working on his latest book, Runes of Iona, second of what will be a futuristic quartet, The Blessings of Gaia Series. The first book of the quartet is September Snow; the second book is Runes of Iona; third book is Embers of the Earth; and the last book is Auger’s Touchstone. With any luck this futuristic quartet might take its place next to Herbert’s Dune and Asimov’s Foundation series or George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty Four.

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