Guest Profiles

Guest Profile: Deborah J Miller

Deborah J Miller was born in Edinburgh in the mid-sixties. She left school at the age of sixteen, although, as she says herself, I was a bookworm/comic collector/nerd even then!

Like most overnight sensations, Deborah has been writing fiction for almost twenty years. She somehow managed to avoid the usual list of odd jobs writers usually seem to have, so, rather than having been a vacuum cleaner engineer/ostrich tamer/Barbary pirate, she rather went for things like office junior and shop assistant. She did, however, pursue a course with the Open University, but, once she started writing, this went on the back burner, although she fully intends to finish her degree one day. She says I plan to be one of those 95 year old ladies who shuffle up on their Zimmer-frame to get their degree.

Deborah's earliest attempts at writing earned her a place on the 1993 short list for the Ian St James Award, which was subsequently won by Kate Atkinson. Like most writers, she has a hideous first novel, The Abax, chained in a chest in the attic, never to see the light of day. Deborah eventually found herself working as a Technical Editor until 1999, when she was made redundant just after she signed a contract with Simon and Schuster's Earthlight imprint, so decided to take the plunge, and became a full-time writer. Her first book, Talisker, Book One of the Last Clansman, was published by Earthlight in 2001, soon followed by Dark Thane (2002) and Lore Bringer (2004). These three books were published under the pseudonym of Miller Lau, and The Last Clansman trilogy was hailed by The Times as "evocative and powerful."

Deborah now writes under her own name, and Swarmthief's Dance, Book One of the Swarmthief Trilogy, was published by MacMillan in 2005, with the follow up, Swarmthief's Treason, due in 2008.

Deborah currently lives in East Lothian with her partner and daughter. She is a member of The Write Fantastic, as is fellow P-CON guest Juliet E McKenna. She has not only a website but also a My Space blog, although, like the rest of us, she doesn't update it as often as she'd like. She is also an Author Ambassador for Book Aid International.

We are very pleased to welcome Deborah on her first visit to P-CON.

Guest Profile by Pádraig Ó Méalóid