Author Spotlight: Jessie Terwilliger

Name: Jessie Terwilliger

Books: The Fight for Golden Dawn (novel, fiction) and Eat Your Colors (nonfiction)

Current Projects: Bombshell (novel, fiction, to be released 2/2009), A Powdery Tattoo (novel, fiction, to be released 2010) and four others in progress that are all novels.

Use three words to describe a bit about yourself: wry, open, and determined

Tell us a bit about yourself: Jessie Terwilliger is a young and up and coming author from Beaumont, California, a small suburb in the Inland Empire. Jessie has a very down to earth style, and a wry sense of humor which shows very strongly in her writing. Her first step into the published author world was taken with "Eat Your Colors," a guide on teaching parents how simple it is to get their children to eat healthy. Jessie's debut novel, The Fight for Golden Dawn was released in May of 2008. Jessie keeps a personal blog that is updated daily at Davidsdoll.com

Give us a blurb about your latest release: Rachel and Steven Kade's two-year-old daughter Danica has been taken by Child Protective Services for what Rachel believes is a mistake. Dani is placed in the care of her Aunt Brooke, Steven's younger sister. In the beginning of the ordeal, Rachel is panic stricken and desperate to get her daughter back, but Steven has other "priorities," including smoking pot with his friends, telling anyone who will listen to his conspiracy theories about anything from aliens to the Freemasons, and he and Brooke's mother who is dying of liver disease in a nursing home after a life of alcoholism.

Brooke attempts to sort through the resentment that she has for her brother while caring for his daughter, but finds it almost impossible to even entertain the idea that the man is even sane and stable enough to be a father in the first place! She soon finds that even Rachel is not as concerned as she first appeared to be in fighting to get her daughter back, as she seems more interested in shopping on her mother's dollar and forgiving Steven for his courtroom outbursts, outrageous antics, and his desertion as a father and husband.

After his mother's passing, Steven delves deeper into insanity, and tries to convince Rachel and Brooke of his belief that Danica is the second coming of Christ and that the Freemasons were the ones behind her detainment. Steven believes that if he doesn't save her they will kill her. Now everyone is headed their separate ways, Steven trying to save Dani from the Freemasons, Brooke trying to protect Dani from her unfit parents, Rachel trying to save her marriage to Steven, meanwhile a shady and deceitful social worker is trying to pull Danica away from everyone she's ever known by placing her with some hopeful adoptive parents.

In this cautionary tale of the fate of a small child, you will find yourself questioning parental rights, and you'll be torn between anger, fear, and sympathy for all who are involved. The Fight for Golden Dawn is a story that will give you a new perspective on foster care and parental rights, and just how much the government should or shouldn't be allowed to intervene in a child's life. What makes it stands out amongst the crowd?:

Which book of yours would you describe as your favourite?: Bombshell, the book that I am releasing next year. It's the best story that I've ever written, and I absolutely fell in love with the characters. It's now the first book in a series because I loved the characters so much that I had to continue on with them.

Why do you write?: I started off wanting to do nonfiction, how to books and self help sort of things. But then I realized that my real passion is fiction novels.
Could you give us a spoiler perhaps even a snippet about your current project?: You can read the first five chapters of both The Fight for Golden Dawn and Bombshell at my website http://Jessie-Terwilliger.com

What kind of Author do you aspire to be?: One who may not be well known, but adored by the few people who read my books.