Debra Doyle was born in Florida and educated in Florida, Texas, Arkansas, and Pennsylvania—the last at the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned her doctorate in English literature, concentrating on Old English poetry. While living and studying in Philadelphia, she met and married her collaborator, James D. Macdonald, and subsequently traveled with him to Virginia, California, and the Republic of Panamá.

Doyle and Macdonald left the Navy and Panamá in 1988 in order to pursue writing full-time. They now live in a big 19th-century house in Colebrook, New Hampshire, where they write science fiction and fantasy for children, teenagers, and adults.

They have collaborated on many novels, including the Circle of Magic series: (all Troll Books, 1990), School of Wizardry, Tournament and Tower, City by the Sea, The Prince’s Players, The Prisoners of Bell Castle, and The High King’s Daughter; the Mageworlds series: The Price of the Stars (Tor, 1992), Starpilot’s Grave (Tor, 1993), By Honor Betray’d (Tor, 1994), The Gathering Flame (Tor, 1995), The Long Hunt (Tor, 1996), The Stars Asunder: A Novel of the Mageworlds (Tor, 1999), and A Working of Stars, Tor, 2002. Other novels include Timecrime, Inc. (Harper, 1991), Night of the Living Rat (Ace, 1992), Knight’s Wyrd (Harcourt Brace, 1992 Mythopoeic Society Aslan Award, Young Adult Literature, 1992), the Bad Blood series: Bad Blood (Berkley, 1993), Hunters’ Moon (Berkley, 1994), and Judgment Night (Berkley, 1995), and Groogleman (Harcourt Brace, 1996). Books written under the name Robyn Tallis are Night of Ghosts and Lightning (Ivy, 1989), and Zero-Sum Games (Ivy, 1989). Pep Rally (Harper, 1991), was written as Nicholas Harper. Books written as Victor Appleton are Monster Machine (Pocket, 1991), and Aquatech Warriors (Pocket, 1991). Books written as Martin Delrio are Mortal Kombat (Tor, 1995), Spider-Man Super- thriller: Midnight Justice (Pocket, 1996), Spider-Man Super-thriller: Global War (Pocket, 1996) and the Prince Valiant movie novelization (Avon). Under the pseudonym Douglas Morgan, they published the military technothriller Tiger Cruise (Forge, 2000) and a collection of annotated sea chanties What Do You Do With a Drunken Sailor (Swordsmith Books, 2002). James D. Macdonald is also the author of The Apocalypse Door (Tor, 2002).

Their short stories have appeared in Werewolves (Yolen, Greenberg, eds.), Vampires (Yolen, Greenberg, eds.,), Newer York (Watt-Evans, ed.), Alternate Kennedys (Resnick, Greenberg, eds.), Bruce Coville’s Book of Monsters (Coville, ed.), Bruce Coville’s Book of Ghosts (Coville, ed.), Bruce Coville’s Book of Spine Tinglers (Coville, ed.), A Wizard’s Dozen (Stearns, ed.), A Starfarer’s Dozen (Stearns, ed.), Witch Fantastic (Resnick, Greenberg, eds.), Swashbuckling Editor Stories (Betancourt, ed.), Camelot (Yolen, ed.), The Book of Kings (Gilliam, Greenberg, eds.), Tales of the Knights Templar (Kurtz, ed.), On Crusade: More Tales of the Knights Templar (Kurtz, ed.), Alternate Outlaws (Resnick and Greenberg, eds.), Otherwere (Gilman and DeCandido, eds.), A Nightmare’s Dozen (Stearns, ed.), and Not of Woman Born (Ash, ed.).

Their most recent works include Mist and Snow, an alternate-historical naval fantasy set in the Civil War, (Eos, December 2006), and the short story “Philologos: or, A Murder in Bistrita” (forthcoming in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction).