Author Bio: Debra grew up in Southern California. When she did a stint in Houston, Texas, she prayed daily to return to the west coast, closer to family and away from flying cockroaches. She hadn’t specifically requested living at Lake Tahoe, just some place she’d love. When the phone rang one October morning in Houston and her husband was offered a job at the lake, she knew it would be the start of something beautiful. And so it was. 

Professional Experience: Debra enjoys writing middle-grade and young adult novels and currently has two, one set in rural Southern California and the other in the Lake Tahoe area where she now lives. She's working on a third novel, this one for an adult audience, where the older lives and problems of the characters in her previous novels intertwine as they navigate adulthood.

Debra also writes nonfiction and her personal essays have appeared in the Christian Science Monitor, skirt! Magazine, Sasee Magazine and Chicken Soup for the Soul. She also wrote a monthly column in the North Lake Tahoe Bonanza. Her current nonfiction manuscript, Sift & Shift, combines personal narrative with insights gleaned.

One of the highlights of her writing career was working at Maxis, a game company (now owned by Electronic Arts) writing teacher's guides, humorous manuals and on-screen text for the Sim games (SimCity 2000, SimFarm, SimPark, SimTower, etc). She is no longer paid to play games.

Awards: Debra won two grants from the Nevada Arts Council for work on her young adult manuscript.

Education: MBA, San Diego State University; BA, University of California at Riverside