PATRICIA L. O'NEILL
Patricia L O'Neill was born and raised in a small town outside Chicago. She earned a B.Sc. in biology from the University of Illinois and a Ph.D. in biology from the University of California at Los Angeles. Her career as an academic scientist took her to universities throughout the U.S. and to the remote deserts of Africa.
In 1986 she moved to Western Australia to continue her scientific research and began writing science articles for Australian magazines. After winning several national awards for her short fiction, she decided to write full time, and concentrated on historical fiction so she could combine creative writing, research skills and a scientist’s eye for unsolved mysteries. The enigma of the female Pharaoh Hatshepsut ignited a passion for ancient Egypt which culminated in Her Majesty the King, which won the NSW Writers’ Centre & New Holland Publishers Genre Fiction Award for 2008.
Patricia is an Executive of the Ancient Egypt Society of Western Australia, where she lectures on ancient Egypt and teaches Egyptian hieroglyphics. She is also the science columnist for Aurealis Australian Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine. She lives in the hills outside Perth, Western Australia.