Debra (Debbie) Whittall is a former Toronto journalist (CFRB) and provincial government speech writer born and raised on a farm in Southern Ontario. She lives and writes near the Bay of Quinte, within the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe territories of what is now called Belleville, Ontario, with her husband, Doug, and two deeply, deeply disinterested cats, Frankie and Sammy.

In addition to interviewing politicians and movie stars on the radio, and writing speeches for Ontario cabinet ministers, Debra has made the beds of celebrities as a chambermaid, and spilled coffee on handsy customers as a waitress. Due to a fear of heights and mossy roofs, a career as a chimney sweep was short lived. A graduate of Elmira District Secondary School, and Fanshawe College’s Broadcast Journalism program, Debra has lived in BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Nova Scotia. In fact, she’s slept in a bed in nine out of ten Canadian provinces and napped on a beach in Manitoba before family and familiarity brought her back to Southern Ontario. These experiences, places, and a healthy dose of feminine rage inform her short stories and novels.

Scrabble aficionado, lover of ellipsis and interrobangs, and moderate supporter of the Oxford comma, Debra is a voracious reader. When she is not hunched over her laptop, she can be found with a good book in the garden she hates to tend.