J.D.Matheny was born in the Pacific Northwest and moved around in his youth until he was settled down in a small logging town in Washington State. There, he lived in a ghost town through his time in high school. During his senior year, a trip to Europe would ignite a passion for travel. He would gravitate toward tropical environments, including Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Colombia, Curacao, Honduras, and Fiji. It was in Fiji that he was inspired to finally fulfill a lifelong dream of penning a full-length novel. The result was the Dark Island series, consisting of the Torchbearer, Cave of Bones, and a final novel currently in progress.