Having grown up in the suburbs of Kansas, but never having seen a full tornado or a yellow brick road, I have been told more than my fair share of times while traveling, ‘You’re not in Kansas anymore.’ I just respond, ‘Never heard that one,’ with a smile.

In the ‘burbs’ though, I found my passion for reading fantasy stories early. Reading books with elves, orcs and monsters took my young imagination to different worlds I wanted to live in.

Now, I create my own worlds. Not so much in the elves and orc vein, but more in the heroes versus dragons one– there’s a difference, right?

Yes, I grew up with The Lord of the Rings and tons of RA Salvatore books on my shelves, along with some cookbooks, comics, and a lot of video games too.

Other passions of mine are coffee, drawing, walking dogs and hanging around the gym.

C.K. Rieke is pronounced C.K. ‘Ricky’.