Heroes, Heroines, and History: Author Spotlight: Terrie Todd, a Late Bloomer!

Me in Grade 3

Growing up in a small town in Manitoba, Canada, as the youngest of five kids, I loved nothing more than imaginary play by myself. I’m grateful to have been raised in a family that loved Jesus. I attended church regularly, and the annual week at Bible camp during summer break was the highlight of my year. My earliest recollection of being drawn to the world of books was when our second-grade teacher read to us from Fingerling: Just a Little Man. I loved the story so much I borrowed it to take home and conveniently forgot to return it for a year or more! I’ve since learned that the book was originally written in Dutch by Dick Laan and is extremely hard to find. It was my seventh- and eighth-grade English teacher, Mrs. Armstrong, who first made me believe I might have a knack for writing.

Grade 10 at Sunshine

Influenced by our pastors’ family, whose daughter was a good friend, I attended high school at Sunshine Bible Academy near Miller, South Dakota, because I loved the idea of learning from Christian teachers and being surrounded by like-minded friends. My four years there were a wonderful experience where I grew in my faith and expanded my horizons. That’s also where I met my future husband, a South Dakota boy named Jon Todd, whose parents had meanwhile moved to Manitoba! We married four months after my graduation in 1977.

October 1, 1977

We spent our first five years of married life in Longview, Texas, where Jon attended LeTourneau College (now University), where we made more lifelong friends, and where I worked at a McDonald’s restaurant for a year and then at a swimming pool company. By the time we returned to Canada, our first son was born, and our daughter was on the way. Another son was born in 1986. We’ve stayed in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, all these years. We now have five grandsons added to the family, and we’re a little more geographically spread out than I’d like.

Our family in 2022. Our 45th anniversary.

Although I loved being a stay-at-home mom, financial reality had me trying a variety of careers. I cleaned homes for a decade, was a clerk at a community college for four years, followed by 14 years on staff at my church as an Administrative Assistant and Creative Arts Director. Drama was a huge part of my life during those years, and I later published some of the scripts I wrote for our church drama team. I’m still involved in my local community theater group.

An Easter monologue in 2013. Photo by G. Loewen Photography

My "Covid" project

In 2009, at the age of 50, I decided that if I wanted to pursue writing, I needed to carve out time and get serious. I left my full-time job at the church and took a part-time position as an Administrative Assistant at city hall, another wonderful learning opportunity. With more free time, I began working on my first novel. I chose the historical genre because it seemed like it would be easier to get my characters into trouble, and I made this first project split-time because that’s what I loved reading. I joined writers’ groups, read books on the craft, attended conferences, and entered contests. During those years, I began writing a weekly faith and humor column for our local newspaper, which continued for 14 years and financed my writing habit. In 2020, I published a volume of my most popular columns, called Out of My Mind: A Decade of Faith and Humour.

Mom (80) and me at the Christian Writers Guild conference in 2012. My novel was a finalist, but my friend Peter Leavell won.

From the time I began writing my first novel, The Silver Suitcase, it took four years to land my first agent, then another two years for her to find a publisher, and another year before I could hold the book in my hands. My second and third novels quickly followed.

Author photo by G. Loewen Photography, with some AI magic I added for fun.

At age 60, I retired from city hall to write full time. It’s been much harder than I imagined, but I am pleased to currently have ten novels and a nonfiction book published, with a few nice awards won along the way. On the Acknowledgments page of each of my books, you’ll see the same closing line: “Above all, my thanks are due to my Redeemer, Jesus Christ, master storyteller and main character in the greatest story ever told.” Jesus understood better than we do how the power of story can break through barriers and reach hearts. My prayer, first and foremost, is that my stories will do just that.