Deborah Williams was born in Cambridge, MA and grew up in the Buffalo, NY area where she attended the Buffalo Seminary. She received a BA from Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, MA and began her journalism career the day after graduation. She worked as a reporter and editor at the Buffalo Courier Express until it closed in September, 1982. She left immediately for a long planned trip to Africa and has been traveling and writing ever since. She enjoys gardening, sailing, swimming, scuba diving and playing with her Labrador Retriever Bart who also enjoys traveling, swimming and sailing but most of all--food of all kinds.The Erie Canal Exploring New York's Great Canals is her 4th New York State travel guide. She has also contributed chapters on New York, Bahamas, Canada and the Caribbean to Fodor's, Insight, Nelles and Debrettes guides. She is a member of the Society of American Travel Writers and the American Society of Journalists and Authors. She has won a number of awards for writing and photography including the Society of American Travel Writers Lowell Thomas Gold Award. As a young reporter she interviewed Lowell Thomas. Mrs Loretta Heatley, her fourth grade teacher at Lindbergh Elementary School in Kenmore, NY, predicted that she would become a writer and she has fulfilled her teacher's prediction.