THE TEAM

RHETT C. BRUNO

CEO

Rhett is a USA Today bestselling and Nebula-nominated hybrid author who has been writing Sci-Fi & Fantasy since before he can remember. On the editing side, he has collected works for numerous anthologies through Sci-Fi & Fantasy Bridge and served as the lead editor of the bestselling Bridge Across the Stars Anthology. He also served for a period as a consulting editor for ASIM magazine and as a freelance editor on Upwork, and has earned a Certificate in Screenwriting / Storytelling from the New School in NYC.

Rhett is passionate about science fiction and its role in our fast-moving society. He wants stories that focus on characters but also present the kind of concepts that keep readers up at night, dreaming of potential futures.

STEVE BEAULIEU

PRESIDENT/CCO

Steve is a Washington Post, IPPY award-winning, and Audie award-nominated author (writing as Jaime Castle), editor, and producer. Before founding Aethon Books, he worked as a pastor and graphic artist. His work with numerous businesses and corporations, serving as both a designer and creative director, gives him an experienced eye at ensuring our covers and the books within are the best they can be.

Steve’s love has always been Fantasy. There isn’t an R.A. Salvatore book out there he hasn’t read or listened to, and his obsession with audiobooks gives us a leg up at pairing our authors with the best narrators in the business.

JOE HEMPEL

CO-EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Joe is an award-winning narrator born in Cincinnati—a total eighties’ kid with a fascination for an eclectic array of shows that would later shape his performances in the audiobook world.

Best known for his captivating, rich narrations and uncanny ability to pull listeners into an immersive experience, Joe has entertained listeners with almost 700 audiobooks, carving a path to being the most in-demand narrator in the business.

Joe Hempel is a 2018 Independent Audiobook Award-winner for best horror, a 2021 Independent Audiobook Award-winner for best horror as a publisher, and a 2022 SOVAS award-winner for best voice-over in an anthology for the thriller Hotel California.

Joe also runs the #1 and award-winning horror audiobook company Fright Night Audio. Bringing new listeners to the genre and making available audiobooks that may have never seen the light of day

ANDREW NAJBERG

CO-EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Andrew is an award-winning author, editor, and board game designer best known for the sci-fi horror novels The Mobius Door, Gollitok, and Extinction Dream, as well the short story collection In Those Fading Stars, the YA fantasy The Neverborn Thief, and the choose your own adventure novel Try Not to Die in the Shadowlands. His board game The Bad Side of Town is scheduled for a 2026 release through Beyond Killer Games.

A full-time college teacher for almost two decades with a specialty in Japanese literature, he received his MFA in poetry from Spalding University and an MA in English from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. Having played games of all kinds his entire life, his ultimate goal in DnD is to bring a monk character to level 20 and beat Tiamat to death with his forehead.