INTERVIEW: Teri M. Brown – A determined writer

Born in Athens, Greece as an Air Force brat, Teri M Brown came into this world with an imagination full of stories to tell. She now calls the North Carolina coast home, and the peaceful nature of the sea has been a great source of inspiration for her creativity. 

Not letting 2020 get the best of her, Teri chose to go on an adventure that changed her outlook on life. She and her husband, Bruce, rode a tandem bicycle across the United States from Astoria, Oregon to Washington DC, successfully raising money for Toys for Tots. She learned she is stronger than she realized and capable of anything she sets her mind to.

Q: You won the First Annual Anita Bloom Ornoff Award for a short story about your grandfather’s life. Was that the first validation of your writing ability, or had that come to you differently?

I began writing for small businesses – articles, blog posts, emails, website content, and ebooks in 2000. By the time of the Anita Bloom Ornoff Award, I felt very capable of writing in this niche. However, I was living in an emotionally abusive relationship. I had been told, and unfortunately, believed that just because I could write non-fiction didn’t mean I had the talent to write fiction. After reading the piece I wrote on my grandfather for his funeral, a group of online friends suggested the contest. At their urging, I revised it for the contest but had no expectations of winning. When I won, I was ecstatic. My abusive husband shattered my joy by suggesting it was a tiny contest with few entrants, so it didn’t mean anything. However, a little piece of me began to wonder if I could write. When I was given a chance to go to a writer’s retreat, I took it and wrote my first novel. Although it wasn’t very good, it was enough to realize that I was capable. I left the 14-year marriage two weeks later and haven’t looked back.

Q: In 2018, you wrote ‘Sunflowers Beneath the Snow,’ appropriately relevant today due to its historical setting in Ukraine. Could you elaborate on how the story came about and what made you decide on the setting?

Two of my daughters worked as counselors for several summers at a summer camp. The camp hired several international students each year, and one was a Ukrainian girl named Ksenia. My girls met her in 2013 and again in 2014. However, when she was ready to go home in August 2014, she had no home to return to. Russia had invaded Ukraine, and her parents lived right on the front line of the conflict.

Ksenia was given an extended work Visa and began working with a lawyer to remain in the US. The process took a long time, and her lawyer suggested she would have to go to a refugee camp in Poland. She was 19, knew no one in Poland, and didn’t speak Polish. So, she went to New York City and disappeared into the Brighton Beach area, where she continued working with a lawyer. Within six months, she was given legal status to stay in the US.

In 2016, she came to our home to visit for my youngest daughter’s birthday and told me an incredible sliver of a story that happened to her in NYC. I had trouble believing what she said was factual and assumed that we were having a communication issue, so I repeated everything I thought I heard. It turns out that the incredible story was true. I felt it needed to be told, but I was still in an abusive relationship and didn’t believe I was the one to tell it.

Then, in 2018, I went to another writer’s retreat and used that little sliver as a basis for a novel. I based the story in Ukraine to stay true to the teller and created 82,000 words of fiction to get to that ending. The last three pages of the last chapter—not the epilogue, which is all fiction again—is true. 

Q: What’s your writing style like, and how do you balance life and writing?

I’m a binge writer. I love to have a long time to write, and then I immerse myself completely. I’m also a panster, preferring to let my characters dictate the story as I go. I usually have a vague idea where the story will end, but not always.

As an older binge writer with no children left in the home, balancing writing and life isn’t too tricky. I have remarried, and my new companion encourages me to do what I need. So, I typically go on two writer’s retreats each year and disappear into the upstairs office for a day or two when the writing mood strikes.

Q: You rode a tandem bike across the US with your husband Bruce during the height of Covid, raising $34,000 for Toys for Tots in the process. Either of those two alone is noteworthy, but together seem to reflect your attitudes about life. Would you say this is accurate, and if so, why?

That’s interesting. I hadn’t looked at my adventure from that angle. I was hungry for an experience to prove to the world that I still had worth. In actuality, I needed to prove that to myself. However, the idea of riding across the US just for me or just because it was a dream of my husband’s didn’t seem like enough. So, we added in a fundraiser component. Doing it “for the kids” was a great way to keep going when the days got tough, and there were many tough days. I emerged from the adventure a different person. I now realize that I can do anything I set my mind to, which is something I believed long ago but had forgotten. 

Q: I read that you wrote 50,000 words during a week of NaNoWriMo. That’s a lot. How many hours each day were you writing, and how did you avoid getting burned out?

When I binge-write, I tend to write between 8 and 10 hours a day. I don’t burn out because at the end of the session, I don’t write again until the writing bug strikes. That could be a week or three months, but eventually, I have a character yelling in my ear, so I find another block of time.

Q: How do you see yourself as an author, and what new challenges are you looking forward to?

As a debut author, I feel as if I am still evolving. I know that I don’t want to be pigeon-holed into a niche. Although I have a historical fiction out and another one on the way, I don’t think so much about the genre as I write character-driven fiction. The setting isn’t as important if the characters are believable and evolve.

With that said, I have an idea for yet another historical fiction, but I also have a rom-com floating around in my head, as well as a memoir-type book based on my tandem bicycle ride and two children’s picture books. 

Q: Ballroom dancing?

I love music and love to dance. When my husband and I were dating, he pulled me into his arms and said, “I want to dance in the kitchen with you every day for the rest of my life.” The senior center started offering ballroom dance lessons right after we married, so we began taking them. There is a great organization called the Ballroom Dance Preservation Society that offers several dances each month. I’m not very good, but we have a great time.

Q: Anything that I have not asked you would like to touch on?

I am so grateful for readers, and I love interacting with those who love books. I try my best to respond to anyone who reaches out to me, so if you have questions about me, the book, or writing in general, I’d love to hear from you.

You can find Teri M Brown at:

Web: https://www.terimbrown.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TeriMBrown1

Facebook: https://facebook.com/teriMBrownAuthor

Instagram: https://instagram.com/terimbrown_author

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/TeriMBrown

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/terimbrownauthor

Email: brown.teri.m@gmail.com