Deborah D. “Deanne” Rhoades, was born in Mobile, Alabama in 1967, to a teenage girl who was living with her grandmother and sister. Writing her book Finding Faith in a highly fictionalized manner gave her flexibility to tell her life story in a way that she believed everyone could relate to. Even though she encountered difficulties throughout her life, she counts those all as joys now believing that she could not be the person she is today had she not had those trials. Today, she lives happily in South Georgia with her husband of 20 years and her 16-year old daughter. She has a 28-year old son who is currently serving in the U.S. military.
Deanne’s second novel, Send Me A Song, is also loosely based upon family–one of her biological ancestors. As a means of discovering her ancestry after finding her biological family, Deanne began working in genealogy. While working on her biological mother’s maternal genealogy she came across the story of her 4 times great-grandfather, Robert W. Cocke, who was born to Richard Cocke and a slave woman named Rebecca “Becky” Short in Colonial Tidewater Virginia. It was an unusual relationship because Richard, who had never been married, appeared to love Becky, who was married and had two children by her slave husband. Richard took steps to take care of his child. He wrote both the child and his mother into his Last Will & Testament, legitimizing his child, freeing both upon his death, which occurred in 1801, and providing financially for Robert. Moreover, he provided that Robert would go to live with his sister and her husband, Elizabeth and William Taliaferro. It is not clear if Robert knew of his racial heritage as he lived his entire adult life as a white man. She knew this would make for a very interesting fictional story.
Writing historical fiction wasn’t always an interest for Deanne. In fact, she once avoided all creative type writing because she enjoyed academic research and writing, having been a political science major in college. She has degrees in political science, international affairs, and criminal justice, and she served in the United States Army in the Military Intelligence Corps as a Counterintelligence Agent. She always knew that she wanted to write a book about her life, so after writing Finding Faith, new stories began to run through her head and so that began her love for historical fiction. Deanne discovered that writing in this genre allows her to incorporate her enjoyment of research. She can spends hours, days, weeks, or months researching the time periods, people, and places that she wants to write about. It seems that once she finishes one story, the next story is right there in her head ready for her to start the next process.
Her next novel is underway so stay tuned!
Author. Political Analyst. Family Historian 