MAY 3, 2025

speaker: TERRY MCDERMID

TOPIC COMING SOON

About Our Speaker

Writing under the names Terry Zahniser McDermid and Tessa McDermid, Terry enjoys creating stories about women and men who fall in love. Not that she makes their lives easy! Ups and downs are part of life and Terry/Tessa makes her characters work for that first step of Happy Ever After. She's been with her own hero for years. After years of living on both coasts of the US and several places in-between, they've settled in the Midwest. With their sons off to university or work, they now live with an Australian shepherd who spends her days protecting them from squirrels and other possible dangers and a few lizards and fish to keep life interesting.

Tessa McDermid has been telling stories since she was little - or so said her mother! Her first remembered written story was in fourth grade. Her teacher suggested she think about being a writer and so. . . Terry (as she's known by her friends and family) decided to give it a try. She submitted her first story at age 11 (and has the lovely handwritten rejection note from the editor in her scrapbook - "Too long for the junior page but please keep writing.") and had a poem published when she was 15.

Since then, she's written hundreds of articles, started more book ideas than she can remember, and published material for teachers, worship devotions, and presented workshops and classes for writers and those wanting to write. Her favorite time is spent creating lives for her characters and putting them in precarious situations. Her family knows that writing time is as necessary as breathing to her -- and provide her with alone time on a regular basis!

May Meeting Details

ORA meets the first Saturday of every month at the TBD.

Business meeting: 10:30 a.m.

Speaker: 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

Room: TBD

GUESTS ARE WELCOME!

2025: THERE WILL BE NO JUNE MEETING AS WE’LL BE ATTENDING BETWEEN THE PAGES WRITERS CONFERENCE.

THERE WILL BE NO JULY MEETING IN HONOR OF THE 4TH.

ORA meets the first Saturday of every month at the Library Center.

Business meeting: 10:30 a.m.

Speaker: 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

Room: The Library Center ROOM A

GUESTS ARE WELCOME!