As the photo attests, books have been a part of Debra’s life since she could hold one in her hands. A journalist and essayist by trade, it was not until she was in her 40’s that she decided to write a book. And, actually, that first book — This Jewish Life: Stories of Discovery, Connection and Joy — decided on her one November afternoon in a NYC Barnes & Noble. Waiting to meet up with a friend, she was ambling through the Jewish section, looking for a book of uplifting portrayals of contemporary Jewish life. Finding nothing remotely similar, she heard a little voice in her head chide, “Nu, Debra? You’re the writer. Write the book.” And so This Jewish Life was born.

Debra’s essays and feature stories have appeared in dozens of mainstream and Jewish presses including Moment, Hadassah, the Forward, Newsweek, Detroit News, and Detroit Free Press. In addition to writing for JBooks.com and OU.org, Debra’s parenting column — Life in the Jewish Lane — was a regular feature on jewishfamily.org. Her work appears in five anthologies, the latest of which — Jewish Stories from Heaven, and Earth: Inspiring Tales to Nourish the Heart and Soul — was published by Jewish Lights in September, 2008.

Once her kids were of age (in other words, cognizant that the stuff of their sweet lives was the stuff of their mother’s columns) Debra realized she needed to move into other fertile writing terrain. If her 40’s were devoted to non-fiction; the 50’s are turning out to be the fiction decade. SWALLOWING GLASS, Debra’s soon-to-be-published first novel (soon-to-be-published as in: as soon as an agent expresses contract in addition to expressing interest), traces the life Gloss Steeley a comfortable socialite who has it all — designer house, successful husband, high-achieving adolescent son. Gloss and three friends run a gift and housewares shop whose customer base reaches three counties in every direction. These ornaments obscure her truer reality — Gloss Steeley’s trophy life is hanging by a thread. When the thread breaks — her son dies, her husband goes to prison — Gloss must face her own hand in her fate and rebuild her life.

Debra has begun a second novel — tentatively titled HOLDING GARDEN — and plans to return to the characters and locale encountered in SWALLOWING GLASS before her 60’s arrive.