Former student becomes published author
Debbi Needham tells how she fell in love with writing
Ashley Schenk
Issue date: 1/29/09 Section: Campus
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It may not look like it at first glance at her casual appearance, but former Pierce College student, Debbi Needham, has accomplished all this and more in her short years lived.
When it came to education and degrees, Needham went for it all.
Not feeling challenged in high school, she received her high-school equivalency degree during her sophomore year at the young age of 15.
"I think I was just done with high school. I was really bored with school," Needham said. "I had taken all the advanced courses until all I really had left to take were TA classes and study hall."
After growing up in Puyallup, Needham moved to Tacoma, when she started attending Pierce in 1989 to get her associates of science degree.
She later stumbled upon the student newspaper, The Pioneer, and become its editor in chief.
Now, Needham has two novels out called "Storm in Time: The Peddler's Tale" and "Born Between Times: The Salem Witch Trials."
Needham said that she fell into journalism because of a class she took at Pierce.
"I was taking Intro to Mass Media class where Mr. Parks found me. He noticed my writing talent and kind of recruited me by talking me into joining the class," Needham said. "Over the years I was a writer, photographer, news editor and then the editor-in-chief several times for their paper."
It was working at The Pioneer newspaper where Needhams's love for writing was rekindled.
"There were two things that I wanted to be at a young age: a genius and a writer," Needham said. "They said, 'You can't be a genius,' so I decided to be a writer instead. I would carry around a brief case and write about everything."
Not only did she write for The Pioneer and attend college courses, but Needham also worked as a freelancer for The Tacoma Weekly.
In 1992, she graduated with her degree and decided to spend a year at Temple University School of Journalism in Philadelphia. Not being particularly fond of the culture shock, Needham moved back to Washington to receive her bachelor of arts degree in anthropology.
Needham received her masters in teaching degree and now works as a public school teacher in the Challenge Program for the Intellectually Gifted.
"Throughout all this, I have been a single mom. I have a 12-year-old daughter in middle school that has trouble with autism," Needham said. "Because of her struggles, I couldn't make deadlines so I became interested in teaching. I love teaching now. I didn't think I would, but it uses all the skills and is similar to running your own small business."
In addition to teaching, Needham, who once was interested in becoming a vet tech, established a program in 4H to show fancy rats and then later became the president of it.
As a hobby Needham also breeds and sells rare and endangered animals such as a curly feathered geese and the world's smallest chicken to which she explained is the size of a soup can.
But most recently, Needham is the author of two books in a young adult series.
"I just kind of fall into these things," she said.
Needham said that the idea for her first book came from personal memories of when she was in sixth grade.
"I love the idea of kids going to an old wise guy with maps and then going on a journey," she said.
It's these ideas and personal experiences that gave her the premise for her first book.
When I was a kid, I would imagine what would happen if I went into the fog as if it took me to another location. In my first book, 'Storm in Time,' the kids encounter lots of fog."
Needham said that getting her novels published is an achievement she values greatly.
"To get a novel out would be the greatest accomplishment that I could personally get," she said. "The fame and money does not even come into play."
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