J.G. Backus writes from the edge of the Salish Sea on the North Olympic Peninsula, a landscape of salt-spray and bone-deep cold that serves as the atmospheric blueprint for the Scarred Realm. A lifelong resident of the Pacific Northwest, he crafts stories where the rugged grit of the coast meets the visceral darkness of high-stakes fantasy.

For decades, Backus acted as a Dungeon Master, helming an expansive homebrew campaign that functioned as the brutal testing ground for his world-building. This tabletop heritage is the engine behind his prose, blending the swashbuckling adventure of Edgar Rice Burroughs, the haunting beauty of Ray Bradbury, and the chilling suspense of Stephen King.

As the architect of the Yara Whitlock saga, Backus focuses on storytelling in a variety of formats—creating an immersive, IP-driven universe that includes novels, 5E-compatible adventures, and deep lore dispatches. When he isn’t documenting the ruin and reckoning of his characters, he can be found exploring the mist-shrouded forests of his home with his wife, Heide—the inspiration for Yara—and their family of dogs.