About
I've enjoyed writing as a child. While my classmates groaned when our teachers assigned book reports, research papers, and essays, I had to hide the spark in my eyes and the giddiness in my voice. From adolescent poetry to short stories, writing was a creative escape for me, a shy little girl who tried to keep my voice under wraps.
As I became a working adult, I always gravitated to the jobs that allowed me the freedom to express ideas, working in administrative positions where I could write company policies and employee handbooks. Then I "graduated" to marketing work where my blood truly began to boil. Ad copy, catalog descriptions, marketing collateral, company newsletters.
One day after reading a book titled "To Be a Slave" (by Julius Lester), I was especially angered by one account of particular cruelty. It was the story of infanticide carried out on a plantation where there was a surplus of slave babies. In that moment, I knew that I had to craft a story and that this "scene" had to be woven into its fabric. Over two years later, my first novel, "The Secrets of Heavenly," was born.
Known as "Teri" in my private life, I live in Indiana with my husband Karl. We are parents to two wonderful adult daughters, Kayla and Abbey, and grandparents to one adorable baby boy named Luke Elliott. My day job consists of teaching career skills to adults, as well as writing training curriculum.
