Rose Island: An Almost Accurate Account of Days Gone By is my first historical fiction novel but certainly not my last. I’m currently waiting for the right Mr. DeMille to reach out and produce my original screenplay Rose Island as well, so if anyone out there can make that introduction, I would be eternally grateful! In the meantime, here’s a bit more about me!
My Left-Sided Brain
“I had a farm in . . . ” Well, that beginning worked well for Isak Dinesen, but my childhood wasn’t as exotic as living on a farm in British East Africa in 1913. We only had chickens and pigs, and I didn’t contract syphilis from my husband nor fall for a great white hunter out on safari. After all, I was only fifteen when I left there and moved to the big city of Waterloo, Illinois, population 3,739. School was twelve years of nuns and priests at a small Midwest Catholic school, and all I was charged to do was find a husband and live happily ever after. Wedded at 19, check. A child at 20, check. Widowed at 50, oh no! My “happily” had been there, but what happened to my “ever after?”
My late husband had encouraged me to finish college, so I had. There were lots of tools in my tool box to continue on after he was gone. I had garnered an extensive business and legal background over the years, having worked on every continent—except Antarctica—for almost thirty years before settling back down at home. I decided to start an upscale custom jewelry design business near Louisville with my very own “Prince” Charming. I am a card-carrying member of the Gemological Institute of America Alumni Association and a business graduate of Bellarmine University. I hold a strong leadership position in both the business and social scene in my community as well. I am a past president of the Prospect-Goshen Rotary Club and remain involved with many of their local and international humanitarian projects.
As a co-founder and past president of the Prospect Area Chamber of Commerce and founding director/actor of the Prospect Area Play Readers Community Theater, I am affectionately known as Miss Bossy Pants, someone who will take the lead and get things done. In my spare time I act as the communications officer of the Louisville Sail and Power Squadron, and am a current member of the Rose Island Yacht Club, Hunting Creek Country Club, and Prospect City Code Enforcement Board.
My Right-Sided Brain
I’ve been involved in some sort of drama my whole life; it’s just most recently I’ve had the time to harness some of that energy for more creative purposes.
I coined that phrase in 2008 after starting this local theater group. I tried to join another troupe but they weren’t taking new members. Since I had no prior experience, I started my own. I have since produced, directed, cast, provided staging, sound, music, lighting, and even acted in one when one of the leads fell ill the night before. Several of them actually raised money that provided for a child’s tuition and a clean water project.
Dancing Queen
Having two years under my belt as an organizer for a local fundraiser, I decided it was time to put on my dancing shoes. So in 2016, I took fifteen dance lessons and won “Best Dancer” for an outrageous Tango-Paso Doble fusion to “Roxanne” from Moulin Rouge that helped build a children’s playground at the Creasey Mahan Nature Preserve in Goshen, KY.
Find Terry Chambers online at www. terrychambers.net. You can find her book at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Carmichael’s Bookstore.
