About
Deborah O’Neill Cordes is a screenwriter and novelist of speculative and historical fiction. Her childhood was divided between big city and small-town America; in the summer before sixth grade her family moved from Staten Island, New York to Flagstaff, Arizona. Both of her hometowns nurtured her love of science and history. Afternoons spent fossil hunting on the Staten Island shore gave way to exploring Northern Arizona’s ancient ruins. She went on to earn 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, also from NAU. After teaching secondary school for fourteen years, she turned to writing full-time. She is also a dedicated genealogist; the Dragon Dawn and Alienne Mine heroine and hero’s surnames – McAdams, Stroganoff and Granberg – having been the last names of three of her ancestral lineages.
In addition to Dragon Dawn and Alienne Mine, Deborah is the co-author of the #1 Amazon best-selling and award-winning Morgan O’Neill time travel novels, which she writes with Cary Morgan. Several of Deborah’s works have been optioned by Hollywood, while many others are award winners, garnering finalist placements in the Pacific Northwest Writers’ Conference Literary Contest, 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. She resides on the East Coast with her husband, spending her days writing, swimming, and beachcombing – the search for the elusive Megalodon shark’s tooth a top priority.
