Meet The Author
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| THERESA JENSEN LACEY PO Box 1175 Fairhope, AL 36533 Email Me! |
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I knew the great feeling of giving something of one's own creation when I was eight years old. I wrote a story about a ballerina for my younger sister's birthday. My older sister did the illustrations and we bound it with the cardboard backing from a legal pad.When I gave that "book" to Patti, I felt as if I received a gift, myself, and knew then that I would write as a profession.
Those first years of breaking in to the profession--or art or craft, depending on which writer you talk to--was difficult. My first real writing job was when I was 16. It was with a newspaper, and I was going to turn the journalistic world upside-down! Then I discovered what it was they wanted me to write.
This is an example of my first few lines for that newspaper (The Huntsville News): "Sally Smith, aged 84, died peacefully in her home on Saturday...." Yes, that was humbling, my first "assignment" was, writing the Obituary column! I did learn a great deal about writing from my work there, however, and kept my ears open whenever I was around the other ("real") journalists.
My first published poetry was in a magazine called The Phoenix. That was in high school when I was in my senior year, and was themed on "what if Christopher Columbus came back today?" It was not a very good poem and I am amazed in retrospect that the magazine published it.
When I began writing for an international trade journal (with my job at the Alabama International Trade Center), I was challenged by taking dry-as-dust business facts and making them interesting to the reader. I contributed to that journal over a period of four years, while I was at the AITC.
Then, after marriage and moving to Tennessee, I began writing for several newspapers and actually broke into writing for magazines. One magazine piece was fiction, and was a story about a young man's dealing with his parents' breakup. I sent the published "clip" (as we call them) to Kimberly Kirberger, who is Jack Canfield's sister and has helped edit many of the CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL books. She loved it and asked me to write more, so that is how I became a regular contributor, more or less, to the CSFTS books.
Whenever I read about another book they're planning on publishing, I write a story for it, and as you can see from my Books page (go to Publishers Section for this info), I have several out there with the "Chicken Soup" people. Besides writing those kinds of stories, I have found a great deal of enjoyment writing articles that make a difference. I like to write stories about people who have overcome adversity, defied the "odds," or who are what I refer to as homestyle heroes. Many church periodicals have published my works (see my Resume), and even if I'm writing a business article, I look for people within the organization who are doing something to make a positive difference in the world...even if it is only their little corner of it. (BTW despite other figures in my website, my articles now number over 600!)
My greatest inspiration? My kids, definitely. Seeing the world with them, and being around them and their friends and classmates, is wonderful. That's one reason I'm also involved in education: I believe we need to contribute to the world in every way we can while we are on this earth. Tomorrow is not promised to us, only this moment. What will you do with it?
Readers are wonderful, too, for without you, writers wouldn't be needed! Keep on reading! Thanks for taking the time to read this!