Born in Omaha, Nebraska, Ryk E. Spoor and his family moved around the country quite a bit before settling in upstate New York. A long-time fan of SF, fantasy, and roleplaying games, Ryk Spoor became a playtesting consultant and writer for the Wizards of the Coast, the leading publisher of role-playing games and related novels while earning his masters degree in Pittsburgh. He now lives in Troy, NY, working as a technical proposal writer for a high-tech R&D firm, and spending his non-writer time with his wife, two sons, two daughters, and a small poodle.

Mr. Spoor is the coauthor, with New York Times best seller Eric Flint, of the popular Boundary series of hard science fiction novels and Castaway Planet, a YA SF novel set in the same universe. Spoor's solo novels for Baen include urban fantasy Paradigms Lost, epic-scale space opera Grand Central Arena and its sequel Spheres of Influence, and the epic fantasy trilogy The Balanced Sword, which includes Phoenix Rising, Phoenix in Shadow, and now Phoenix Ascendant. In addition, he self-published his Oz-based novel Polychrome in 2015 after a very successful Kickstarter campaign. Future projects include another Arenaverse sequel, Challenges of the Deeps, a sequel to Castaway Planet titled Castaway Odyssey, and a new unique fantasy in the magical girl genre, Princess Holy Aura.