Deborah O’Neill Cordes

Deborah holds a bachelor’s degree in zoology, magna cum laude, from Northern Arizona University.  Just three credits shy of a double major in zoology and history, she decided to graduate on time and pursue history as a vocation by getting a master’s degree with thesis (emphasis in medieval and Asian history), also from NAU.  She spent thirteen wonderful years as a secondary school teacher (junior high!) and social studies department chairman in Arizona before devoting herself full-time to writing historical novels, speculative fiction and screenplays. 

Two of Deborah’s works have been optioned by Hollywood, while many others are award winners, garnering first and second place wins for the Mainstream Novel with Romantic Elements category of the Golden Rose Contest, two top ten finalist placements in the Pacific Northwest Writers’ Conference Literary Contest, a pair of semi-finalist wins in the William Faulkner – William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition, and the Metro Goldwyn Mayer Finalist award in the Seattle International Film Festival’s Perfect Pitch Forum.  Her work on the Morgan O’Neill Web site received a Silver Rose Award for Website Excellence/Finalist in the Home Grown Category.  Deborah’s professional affiliations include the Northwest Screenwriters’ Guild (Compendium member), Pacific Northwest Writers’ Association and Romance Writers of America (PRO member). 

Deborah has traveled for research and pleasure, with trips to such far-flung places as Russia, Mexico, Finland, Great Britain, Ireland, Lithuania, Canada and forty states in the USA.  The lure of the Almighty Snorkel has drawn her to the Virgin Islands (US and BVI), Bermuda, Puerto Rico, Maui, and Oahu, with multiple trips to Kona and Kauai, the most beautiful isle in the world.

She also enjoys genealogical research, which has provided the inspiration for several of her plots; discovering she is a 32nd great-granddaughter of Queen Adelaide and King Otto sparked the creation of “The Other Side of Heaven,” while finding a direct descent from King Alaric I of the Visigoths (50 generations) led to the story of Galla Placidia in “After the Fall.”  She recently learned that Eleanor of Aquitaine is her 23rd great-grandmother, rekindling a yearning to create a novel about her, which is still in the planning stages.

Deborah resides in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and West Highland White terriers.