Author Lya Badgley was born in Yangon, Myanmar, and spent much of her life in Southeast Asia. She moved to the Pacific Northwest in the eighties, where she became a part of the Seattle arts and music scene.

In the nineties, she returned to Asia, where she opened a restaurant in Myanmar, interviewed insurgents for Human Rights Watch, and microfilmed documents at Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocide in Cambodia, helping to bring war criminals to justice. She's been an elected city council member and a dedicated environmental activist.

She is fascinated by the culture and customs of the region, which has been a huge inspiration for her writing. Tense war zones and insurgencies offer an intense backdrop for her stories. Political and social upheaval vividly mirrors the personal and sometimes violent transformations of her strong female protagonists.

Badgley lives in Snohomish, Washington with her Serbian husband.