I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and had a typical 80s/90s childhood spent riding bikes and creating imaginary worlds with my friends to entertain ourselves. I learned to play the piano as a child, and throughout middle school and high school I participated in band, playing the flute and later the baritone horn. I also joined the choir and was accepted into the prestigious Main Street Singers, our high school touring choir, my senior year. With that group, I was able to tour Europe and sing in some breathtaking spaces.

I went to college in Utah and received my bachelors degree in audiology and speech-language pathology. I got married while still in school and instead of going into the work force upon graduation, my husband and I decided to start a family. I had always wanted to be a mom and we were lucky that my husband's job out of college allowed me to stay at home. We moved across the country for said job and settled in Connecticut. We ended up having five kids and I was able to stay at home with them for seventeen years. To this day, raising those babies was the hardest thing I've ever done. Now that they are mostly grown into amazing humans that I genuinely love being around, it's easy to say it was also the most rewarding.

During the time when our babies were little is when I started writing in earnest. I needed something that was mine, and writing allowed me to hold onto myself while also giving so much to the little ones in my life. I joined a writing group, attended some conferences, and my writing career unfolded from there.

We loved living on the East Coast but moved to Kentucky when our oldest child started high school. I am a California girl at heart, after all, and the East Coast winters were hard for me. We've now found a new area of the country to love, and the experience of living in so many different places has expanded my perspective in beautiful ways. I’m now working part time as an orthodontic assistant and preparing to start grad school for my masters in speech pathology, as my kids are slowly turning into adults. One might look at my life and call it quiet and unremarkable. I've done things a little differently than many others my age have chosen to and that's okay. I'm so proud of the things I've been able to accomplish and the good I try to put into the world each day.

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Books by Teresa Richards