ABOUT
​Teresa Richards is an Award-winning and Amazon-bestselling author of Young Adult fiction. She’s a member of SCBWI and the Storymakers Guild, and works part-time as an orthodontic assistant. She lives in Kentucky with her family and divides her time between her own teens, the teens she puts braces on, and the fictional teens that populate her novels. It’s a toss-up which is the most angsty group.
Teresa’s novels have received Editors Pick, Best Book, and Top Pick distinctions. She's been a panelist at SOKY and NOKY bookfests, and presented to elementary through high school students in Kentucky.
Teresa is represented by
Kelly Van Sant of KT Literary.
FUN FACTS
I've loved to write for as long as I can remember. Through writing I can vent, celebrate, imagine, and create--I'd write all day long if I could, but life demands living and my writing is made better because of the time I spend engaging with other people.
Here are some more fun facts about me:
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--I grew up in California and I'm a weather snob
--I've also lived in Connecticut, Utah, and Kentucky
--I sing all the time, usually without realizing it
--I love rain, but I hate snow--I love loud music, especially alternative rock
--My favorite ice cream is Thrifty's Chocolate Malted Crunch and I would fly across the country just to get some
--I'm a BYU grad. My degree is in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology
--I spent fourteen years as a stay-home mom to my five kids before I went back to work
--I work part time as an orthodontic assistant in a braces office. My coworkers are my besties and emotional support humans.
--I play the piano, the organ, the flute, and I'm learning the bass guitar. Writing is my outlet, and music is my therapist.
--I don't like wearing black. I need color in my life!!
LONG BIO
Teresa Richards lives and breathes young adult fiction, either because she spends most of her time with teens (who call her Mom, that ortho lady, or master of the universe, depending on the day), or because she never actually grew up.
Her debut speculative YA novel, EMERALD BOUND, was released by Evernight Teen in 2015. EMERALD BOUND is an editor’s pick, and was nominated for a Whitney Award in 2016. It also won Book of the Month at Long And Short Reviews (LASR). TOPAZ REIGN, the sequel to EMERALD BOUND, was released by Evernight Teen in 2017. It received 5 stars from LASR and, in addition to being Book of the Month, it was also named a Best Book at the end of the year, a distinction reserved for only a few select titles. Her novella, YOU, ME, AND COMIC CON, was released as part of a YA romance collection by Teenacity Books in 2017. She also has several short stories published in ezines and anthologies.
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Teresa is a member of SCBWI, and was accepted into the Storymakers guild in 2016.
Teresa's first contemporary novel, THE WINDFALL APP, released in 2018 to overwhelmingly positive reviews. THE WINDFALL APP won a pitch contest before publication, which led directly to Teresa being able to secure literary representation for her work. Teresa's newest novel, FLIPPIN' SKATERS, won a first chapter award at the spring SCBWI conference (prior to publication) and achieved bestseller status in multiple categories on Amazon in the weeks immediately following its release.
Teresa has had manuscripts accepted into both Pitch Madness and Query Kombat, which are contests that focus on honing pitches, query letters, and first chapters. These experiences have helped her develop and perfect her editorial, pitching, and mentoring skills. In 2017, she was invited to be a Query Kombat judge. In this capacity, she critiqued pitches and first pages in order to help newer authors entering the querying space.
Teresa has attended several writing conferences, where she’s gained valuable insights into the publishing process, met agents, editors, and other publishing professionals, and studied craft from veterans such as Brandon Sanderson, Lisa Cron, John Truby, James Dashner, Ally Condie, and J Scott Savage. Teresa has a bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology, and her training included classes in technical writing. She’s been a panelist at both the Northern and Southern Kentucky BookFests, has attended book fairs and library conferences in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Indiana, and has taught writing workshops to elementary through high school kids. She also started a Read Local program for her region, and loves connecting with young writers.
When Teresa’s not writing or ortho-ing, she can be found driving one of her five kids around, dancing in her car with the music up too loud, or hiding somewhere in her house with a treat she’s not planning to share.