Born in Omaha, Nebraska, Ryk moved with his family to Vermilion, South Dakota, then Atlanta, Georgia, and to Latham, NY before ending up in Schenectady, NY. As an effort-induced asthmatic, he was often confined to the house and spent the majority of his time reading and, as time went on, writing (getting those first million words out of the way early!). While science books?especially those on volcanology?were a large part of his reading, the Oz novels by L. Frank Baum were his favorites in early life.

In junior high, a teacher gave him a battered, slightly scorched old copy of E.E. "Doc" Smith's Second-Stage Lensmen, which pegged his sense-of-wonder meter permanently and set him on an inevitably geeky quest to become a science fiction writer. In high school he discovered computers and RPGs, and ran the very first play-by-email (PBEM) roleplaying campaign in 1977?1980; it was during this time he first began using the online alias of "Sea Wasp," which he uses to this day.

Since then he acquired degrees in mathematics and science, psychology, and information science, worked everywhere from fast-food joints to an internet-bubble filesharing company to Borders Books, and now works as the R&D Coordinator for International Electronic Machines. Along the way he became a Usenet fixture, a RPG consultant and writer, an anime fan, and eventually achieved his ambition to be an SF writer when Baen Books published his first novel, Digital Knight.

Since then, he has published over 25 novels ranging from the grand-scale space opera Grand Central Arena and four sequels, the hard-SF Boundary series, epic fantasy in his Balanced Sword trilogy (Phoenix Rising, Phoenix in Shadow, and Phoenix Ascendant) and Godswar dualogy (The Mask of Ares and The Spear of Athena), a mahou shoujo or magical girl novel in Princess Holy Aura, and more. He also works with his wife Kathleen on her Fall of Veils series.

Ryk E. Spoor now lives in Troy, NY, with his wife Kathleen, four children, a bunch of chickens, and two dogs.