Debrah Williamson
Debrah, before she became addicted to reading and writing.
Debrah is a native Oklahoman. She shares her hometown, Claremore, with humorist Will Rogers, Patti Page the Singing Rage, and playwright Lynn Riggs, whose play Green Grow the Lilacs was the basis for Rogers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! Even though Debrah knows all the lyrics to the official state song---O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A!---do not encourage her to actually sing any of them.
She and her husband have three children. Their nest is currently—and with any luck, permanently—empty. She teaches writing through a university independent study program and adult education classes. Debrah’s roots run deep in her home state and she often uses the locales she knows best as settings for her novels.
Debrah grew up listening to her grandparents’ wild and wooly tales of days gone by. Her interest in storytelling quickly evolved into a love of reading and writing. She began keeping a journal in a Big Chief tablet to record elementary school angst and has been writing ever since.
A veteran romance novelist, Debrah has written professionally for twenty years. She made the move to mainstream fiction with the publication of SINGING WITH THE TOP DOWN, (NAL - September 2006), a coming-of-age story set in 1955.
Readers and reviewers alike have praised the novel, describing it with such terms as “delightful”, “charming”, “wise and witty”, “sparkling”, “masterful”, and “graceful.” Thirteen-year-old Pauly Mahoney, the book’s spunky protagonist, has been compared to two of the South’s most endearing child narrators--Scout Finch of To Kill a Mockingbird, and Will Tweedy of Cold Sassy Tree.
Early in her career, Debrah stumbled across a bit of sage literary advice that Charles Dickens once offered writers: “Make ‘em laugh, make ‘em cry, make ‘em wait.” Debrah took those words to heart. While it’s a lot trickier to make readers chuckle than it is to make them weep, she believes both emotions are critical in fiction. Novels enlighten our lives and make us view the world in a new way, but they must also entertain. As a writer, she strives to create engaging stories, populated by strong characters that readers won’t soon forget. Although she often addresses serious subjects, her “feel-good” style promises an uplifting reading experience.
Like a diligent hostess, Debrah wants her readers to have a good time. So help yourself to the story’s hospitality. Get comfortable and enjoy the ride.
The adventures have just begun.