About the Blogger

About me (Tessa)

My birth name is Theresa, but that is oddly a mouthful, so I go by Tessa. Growing up, I was also given the nicknames TeeCee, Teec, T, and Terri, but I dropped them immediately. Terri was fine, but it never stuck; just random people in college used it.

Tessa was a nickname given to me by my great-grandmother. The rest of my family assumed I hated it when I really liked it (and hated the name TeeCee that they gave me because my mom thought it was so cute). But that’s one of the perks of being an adult, right?

I majored in English at the University of Delaware and the University of South Carolina and earned my bachelor’s degree from USC. I went from being a Blue Hen to a fighting Gamecock and grew up in a town where chicken farms are every few feet. (That’s just a weird random fact and not one that has fortunately influenced my choice of books or my writing.)

I also earned my master’s degree in counseling from UNC, which speaks to my interest in characters as much as my desire to help people. I once spent a summer reading only books that used a character name as a title. There are a surprising number of them.

My interests run far and wide when it comes to book choices. I love mystery/thrillers and fantasy/sci-fi with romance-com palette cleansers, but it’s not unusual for me to pick up a women’s fiction story or any genre if the story intrigues me.

In the past, I have published articles in The Charlotte Observer, SVL FreeNews, and Iredell-Statesville Schools and Family Magazine.

I post every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday, so be sure to check back for my latest post.

What I Do

I am a certified counselor specializing in teenagers, and I currently work for a local nonprofit that helps members of our community who are struggling economically get back on their feet.