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Terri Reid is an American author famed for writing Mary O’Reilly Paranormal Mysteries among many other best sellers. Her genres are paranormal, mystery and romance. She specialized in the genres as a natural transition from her childhood interests. As a toddler, she used to horrify her mother with scary pranks. Her mother tells of how Terri would sit in a highchair, looking past her and into the dark back porch and say “Look. Man”. Her mother would turn in horror and the whole scenario was simply amusing to the young Terri. Hardly had she know that the level of creativity in developing scary scenarios would propel her to the top ranks of novelists who specialize in horrors and mysteries.
Born in Honolulu, The US, Reid is an indie author who says she has been influenced by great artists and authors such as Louisa May Alcott, Walter Farley, Ray Brad, Stephen King and Nora Roberts. By the end of 2012, her book “Loose Ends” was ranked as the number one bestseller in Amazon’s Ghost Stories in the Book/Literature & Fiction/Genre Fiction/Horror/Ghosts section. At the same time, it was ranked number two in the same section in Kindle eBooks.

According to Reid, her Irish-Scottish heritage made it normal to tell and listen to stories of ghosts and moving shadows whenever there was a family gathering. Growing up in such an environment played a major role in shaping her writing career. As she grew, she started collecting stories of paranormal activities in the Freeport area in a bid to nullify the belief that people should not talk about or believe in ghosts and ghost stories. Later on, she gave the collection to a local historical society as a token for fundraising. The stories have performed outstandingly well and are now in their third printing.

An interesting fact about Reid is that she lives in the same area as her Mary O’Reilly character in Freeport, Northwest Illinois. She lives on a 5 acre piece of land in a farmhouse that is 100 years old. The 57 year old lives with her husband (Richard) and their seven children (Jennifer, Christopher, Nathan, David, Katie, Sarah and Andrew). They pet dogs and cats and they also rear chicken. She is a grandmother of fourteen and she enjoys keeping some of her pets as companions during the writing process. She identifies her Bernese Mountain dog, Riley; Hans, a German Shepard and McDuff, a Siamese cat as her constant writing companions. She also tends to keep most of her personal life out of the limelight.

She wrote her first novel titled “Loose Ends: A Mary O’Reilly Paranormal Mystery” in 2010. The reception was extremely good to the point that the single novel blossomed into a whole series of 15 books. She is planning to take a hiatus after the 15th book.

Professionally, Reid has a background in marketing and public relations. She worked with the local paper as a freelance journalist for a while. During the period, she wrote and publicized the Halloween feature. This probably played a role in imparting her with knowledge and skills that she now uses to ensure that her books appear among bestsellers constantly. She credits her success to her constant interaction with fans; especially through the social media. She has a Facebook page and an email address which she shares with her fans for communication purposes. In a number of interviews, she has contrasted the platforms she has as an indie author with those of other authors who are marketed by big companies. She asserts that her success comes from the fact that she has a loyal fan base that keeps her ranks in Amazon at a desirable level always. Her books have managed to surpass Stephen King’s a couple of times and she says that such times humble her to tears.

Good as it may be, being ranked highly at Amazon comes with more pressure. Reid is always forced to have a new book published every 3 or 4 months just to keep her fan base satisfied. This also goes a long way in sustaining her good rank. As of now, all her books have exceeded 440,000 sales in e-copies. One of her current projects is popularizing print copies of the same books. She attends a number of book signings in order to encourage her fans to get the print copies as well. In 2013, she released the initial copies of her series in soft cover.

Her success at Amazon and other online platforms has earned her a place at the Beta program where books of selected authors are translated into other languages. The program also ensures that audio copies of best selling books are produced. At the moment, Reid’s books have been translated into Spanish and Portuguese and she is already working on the audio book for “Loose Ends.” Such steps are meant to propel her novels to greater heights by reaching a fan base that cannot understand her native language of English.

Reid’s success extends beyond making sales and interacting with customers and fans. Two of her stories have made their way into the Stephenson County Historical Museum. They earned the spot following their popularity during the Halloween period. This has made her to become an icon of mystery and paranormal art and thus she has joined the ranks of her idols (like Louisa May Alcott).

When she is not writing or telling a scary story, Reid enjoys doing Christian work according to the Christian doctrine. As a believer of the Christian faith, she believes in God and passes the same message to a congregation of women two Sundays a month. She also incorporates life skills in her religious lessons by simplifying the gospel message to fit the typical lives of her audience. Her experience in writing is a definite boost in such situations. She also does follow up on women learners through a church program that is called Visiting Teaching. The program involves visiting women who have been taught to ensure that all their follow up questions and issues have been addressed.

This only shows that Reid is not only a talented author of best selling books but also a human being with empathy and sympathy. She can tell a scary story but still manage to integrate within the society in a non scary manner. To her fans, she has promised a start of a new series after the 15th book of the Mary O’Reilly series.

One Response to “Terri Reid”

1. Elaine Lindsay: 2 years ago

   Are there any more books with the character Professor Elaine Wright?

   Reply