Moody member turns "scribbles" into books

  • Published
  • By Capt. Gary Arasin
  • 23rd Wing Public Affairs
They just started as doodles. Not the pencil- or pen-scrawled sketches of a daydreaming student, but a drawing of words meant to help tell her thoughts.

Never in her dreams did Theresa Allen expect them to become a published book. The doodles then grew into a second and third book, with two more on the way.

"I had about 30 pages or so of my thoughts I had sent to a friend," said Ms. Allen, a human resource specialist with the 23rd Wing's Civilian Personnel Office. "My friend was so excited after she read my work, she said, 'You have to finish this book.'"

Before Ms. Allen was selling thousands of books, however, she was simply a young girl from Philadelphia who liked to write poetry. She reached a turning point one day as a teen when she read what she had written and decided the work wasn't very good. So into the trash her work went lost forever to the future author.

For most people that likely would have been the final chapter but the doodles continued, even as she encountered all of the experiences that accompany being a young military spouse in Europe. She started taking classes where she and her then-husband were stationed, enrolling in English 101.

"I remember the professor was so tough," said Ms. Allen. "I told myself if I got through that class, I would never take another English class."

Even though she received a "B" for the class, she planned to follow her own advice and didn't register for English 102 the next term. The professor had different plans, though, and cornered her asking why she hadn't registered. The "tough" professor made her an offer she couldn't refuse by registering and paying the course fees for the young spouse and mother.

"I didn't know I could have refused," she said. "It was part of how I was raised. This woman was my elder and I was supposed to do what she said."

And through a bright and disarming smile, Ms. Allen said her mother also provided a bit of motivation.

"She asked 'Are you silly, thinking about passing up an opportunity someone else is paying for?'" she said with a slight giggle.

While she learned enormously from her professor, Ms. Allen's breakthrough came after her move to New Jersey. Although her experiences in Europe had prompted her to reevaluate her thoughts on English and writing, she still continued on her path toward an education degree. In need of an elective, she chose a creative writing class.

But after hearing Maya Angelou's recite her poem at President Bill Clinton's 1993 inauguration, though, Ms. Allen said she felt puzzled and didn't understand the work. So her creative writing professor at the time provided an opportunity to clear the confusion - her assignment was to write a rebuttal to the poem.

"My professor liked my rebuttal so much, an interview with the local paper was arranged," she said. "The original plan was to run both Miss Angelou's poem and my rebuttal at the same time but after reading my work, they decided to only run mine."

Ms. Allen's New Jersey success, and her friend's prodding, pushed the young writer to finish her first book - Mama Said, Get in the House (Embracing the Wisdom of Mama & God.) Two events finally made Ms. Allen realize she was really an author, she said.

A call from her publisher told her the initial 6,000 publication run of her book sold out, prompting a push for a second edition.

The second event hit a little closer to home. Ms. Allen received a list of names of people who had bought the book, and much to her surprise her mother's name was on the list.

"She realized the book was much bigger than me," Ms. Allen said. "My mom said if she was willing to buy a copy, the rest of the world was ready to take notice."

The true telling of success hit Ms. Allen during a book-signing tour while stationed in Europe after moving from New Jersey. She arrived at the base in Italy and was preparing to settle in for the night, ignoring her agenda's notice of a VIP reception. A call to the hotel room told her she was late.

"I couldn't believe they were talking about me as the VIP," she said, describing the reception and seeing dozens' of copies of her book lining every inch of the windows in the bookstore where she would be signing.

The entire process of publishing her first book took a little more than two years including about a year to write. Ms. Allen closely guarded her age saying "she is young enough to be admired, and has been writing long enough to be admired," but said even after years of writing, editing is still the toughest part of the publishing process.

"The editing for my first book took about half of the two years and I felt like the editor was an English teacher sending me back a marked up paper," she said. "But I was lucky to have a great editor. One of the benefits of publishing the way I did was that I didn't have to agree and make the changes the editor suggested."

She said, though, her biggest challenge is finding the time to organize her thoughts. Before getting her laptop - which she never goes anywhere without - napkins, scraps of paper or whatever she could find served as her doodling pads until she could get her thoughts down through a typewriter or word processor. She keeps a fairly nondescript box which holds all of her transcribed doodles which she said spawned her other book ideas and the ideas are about as random as the original doodles, she said.

"What was actually my third book was published as my second because the order made a lot more sense that way," Ms. Allen explained.

For would-be authors with aspirations of getting published, Ms. Allen said self-publishing and the Internet make the process of getting your work seen much easier. These opportunities make it very easy for people to get their works before readers without selling out the original intent of their stories and reminded her of something her professor from Europe once told her.

"My professor said it is your choice to write above or at people's level, but don't ever let someone tell you how you need to write," she said.

The first three books have a recurring Christian theme, with her original intent focused on creating something lasting for the group she says is her biggest fans - her family.

"I may never get the chance to meet my great, great grandchildren, but I want them to be able to read my books," she said. "Though they may never meet me, they can hear my thoughts and get a glimpse of how things looked through my eyes, by what I've written in words."

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