Pages & Author Page

[KamiZomby]

Hi, I've tried to use _index.md in /content folder to create a new page, but it doesn't seem to work and the menu won't link to it.
How can we create a new page that doesn't feature any posts, but a standalone page instead?
Same question for Author page = In the post-meta, how can we create a link to the author page of that name?

Hope this makes sense
Thanks!