Ilka Stitz was born in 1960 and lives in Cologne. She studied art history, German literature and classical archaeology and then trained as a journalist specializing in press and publicity work. She presently works as a freelance journalist and author.
She has written numerous historical novels together with Karola Hagemann, occasionally using the pseudonym Malachy Hyde. Most recently Grafit Verlag has published The Secret of the Mithras Temple and Those Whom the Gods Love Die Young. Defying Fortuna is the first novel she has written on her own.
http://www.hagemann-stitz.de