Slack, Teresa 1964-

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Slack, Teresa 1964-

PERSONAL:

Born 1964, in OH; married; husband's name Ralph; children: three. Hobbies and other interests: Reading, writing, travel, crochet, and animal rescue.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Hillsboro, OH. E-mail—teresa@teresaslack.com.

CAREER:

Writer, 1999—. Worked as a preschool teacher for five years in OH.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Bay Area Independent Publishers Association award for best new fiction, 2005, for Streams of Mercy.

WRITINGS:

A Tender Reed (novel), Tsaba House (Reedley, CA), 2005.

The Ultimate Guide to Darcy Carter (novel), Tsaba House (Reedley, CA), 2006.

"JENNA'S CREEK" SERIES

Streams of Mercy, Tsaba House (Reedley, CA), 2004.

Redemption's Song, Tsaba House (Reedley, CA), 2006.

Evidence of Grace, Tsaba House (Reedley, CA), 2007.

Author of Joy in the Journey Web log. Contributor to Tsaba House Authors Web log.

SIDELIGHTS:

Teresa Slack is the author of A Tender Reed and other works of Christian fiction. "Writing was a dream of mine since I was just a kid," the author wrote in an essay on Shoutlife. On her Web site, Slack recalled that she would often make up stories with her friends and family and then act them out. "Even back then," Slack remarked, "I couldn't imagine doing anything besides writing. I used to hide notebooks behind my textbooks and write stories during class. I remember walking down the hallways of my school scribbling furiously into a notebook and crashing into other students." In 1999, Slack decided to write full-time, and she published her first novel, Streams of Mercy, in 2004.

The first book in Slack's "Jenna's Creek" series, Streams of Mercy concerns Jamie Steele, a seventeen-year-old who learns that her father may have been connected with the disappearance of a woman twenty-five years earlier. Slack has published two other works in the series, Redemption's Song and Evidence of Grace.

In A Tender Reed, Michelle Hurley finds herself thrust into the role of mother after her reckless sister, Nicole, leaves her two children in Michelle's care. The author's "feel for her Ozarks setting and her knack for drawing minor characters" drew praise from Booklist contributor June Sawyers. A successful author of how-to books needs help with her personal life in The Ultimate Guide to Darcy Carter. When her editor asks Darcy to write The Ultimate Guide to Finding Mr. Right, she balks at the assignment, convinced that there is no Mr. Right. Slack's narrative "has enough oomph in it to keep readers turning the pages," wrote Booklist critic John Mort.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, October 1, 2005, June Sawyers, review of A Tender Reed, p. 24; January 1, 2007, John Mort, review of The Ultimate Guide to Darcy Carter, p. 58.