To commemorate the launch of her non-fiction picture book GIRLS WITH GUTS: BREAKING BARRIERS AND BASHING RECORDS (Charlesbridge, 2019), Debbie hosted her own podcast called the Debcast. The podcast was dedicated to courageous female athletes of the past and present who demonstrate that playing like a girl means to approach sports – and life – with confidence, commitment, and drive in order to achieve any worthy goal! The Debcast explored what it means to be an athletic girl with guts. Debcast episodes are still available to listen, just click here for an earful!
Debbie once channeled her inner Mary Travers by playing guitar and singing "Puff the Magic Dragon" in a high-school talent show and won! She got a little bit of cash for the effort, too.
Debbie began participating in athletics after she was married. She played second base for a softball team called Gestalt Salon, goalie for a soccer team called the Sugar Cubes, and completed two Dallas White Rock marathons. Deb was even voted MVP for her softball team once or twice.
Debbie’s most favorite athlete in the world is Karl Malone, a legendary player for the Utah Jazz. She actually has a wristband with his nickname and number embroidered on it that he once wore in a game against the Dallas Mavericks. He had tossed it to his mother after the game. Debbie worked over-time to convince Karl’s mom that she had to have it because she was her son’s greatest fan, ever. Eventually, The Mailman’s mother gifted that sweaty wristband to Deb.
Debbie once directed an art program for kids that was featured on television on a show called P.M. Magazine, a program for which a very young Leeza Gibbons was a host. At lunch, the film crew started a grape-tossing food fight with the kids.
Debbie once worked as teacher for the Barney & Friends show. She taught a first grader, two second graders, a third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh grader in a one room school setting just outside the PBS program’s rehearsal hall. The Today Show stopped by for visit on the day Deb and the kids were making globes by covering balloons with paper mache. To this day, that “I Love You” song still haunts Debbie.
Although she is terrible at doing it, Debbie loves to knit. Over the years, she’s knitted seven Christmas stockings for family members, each measuring close to three feet long! You could say that she needs to work on knitting her stitches a little bit tighter.
By the time Debbie was about thirteen years old, she had lived in six different states – TEXAS, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Iowa, Colorado, and California. Though she will always love the great state of TEXAS best, Deb is now very happy living in Pure Michigan.
When Debbie was little one of her happiest places was the classroom. She truly loved her teachers, writing her own stories, coloring worksheets, classroom pets, sitting in her very own desk, and – most especially – brand new school supplies. Today, she is happiest when she’s sitting at her very own desk, with her sweet pup at her side, writing her very own stories and creating educational projects to compliment some of the greatest books ever written.