Amanda Downum is an American fantasy author born in Virginia and now resident in Texas; she spent time in Indonesia and Micronesia, and those experiences influence her work. She's published two novels as of January 2011, The Drowning City and The Bone Palace, with a third in this series, Kingdoms Of Dust, in process. They share the same protagonist, the necromancer Isyllt Iskaldur, and the same world, but are set years apart and have largely stand-alone plots. In addition, she has published a fair number of shorter works.