Deborah was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and has lived several places on the east coast. She earned a Masters in Learning Disabilities and Emotional Disturbances, Bachelors in English education, and minors in Linguistics, Religion and Philosophy at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. She stayed in Des Moines for 31+ years to teach high functioning autistic students, multi-categorical resource and English in junior high and some high school. She began writing at the age of 12. One poem in the collection, she wrote at the age of 14. She now lives in Charlotte, North Carolina and continues to write.