Writer/ Author
Terry D. Williams
About me
I’m a psychologist who, a little over ten years ago, stopped practicing psychology so I could realize my dream to be a full-time writer. At the present time I am completing an action- adventure thriller set in 1980s Chile during the reign of the dictator Pinochet.
My story
How did I get here?
Ever since I can remember, I’ve wanted to help people struggling with the many challenges life presents. Along with that goal, I’ve always wanted to write—to tell human-centered stories that highlight the courage, resilience, and ability to grow in the face of adversity that I saw all around me. I also harbored a desire to learn more about Latino culture and improve my Spanish. As a newly minted psychologist, I hit upon what I thought would be the perfect situation: I would work part time as a Spanish-speaking psychologist and write part time. But then, real life—with mortgages to pay and children to raise—intervened. I took a full-time position as a psychologist and wrote when I had the energy at night and on the weekends. Energy, however, was often in short supply given the demands of career and family. Luckily, those things made for an exceptionally gratifying life: my family is a loving and accomplished one, and my psychology practice allowed me to interact with hundreds of people who bravely shared their struggles with me, honored me with their trust, and inspired me with their strength, even amidst devastating loss and disruption. In the late 1990s, I hit a trifecta: I found work as a bilingual school psychologist in an urban school system in Connecticut, and as a result, I was able to put my Spanish to good use and learn more about Latino culture. I also had summers free to write. Ten years ago, I quit my school psychologist job to write full time. In 2015 I received Honorable Mention in a Glimmer Train writing contest and in 2019 had a short story published in Fiction of the Web. In 2017 I met David Oyanadel, a native Chilean whose family had come to the U.S. in the 1980s. He explained that when he was a young boy his father, an inspector general, had been assigned to conduct a corruption investigation that resulted in credible death threats, forcing the family to flee their home and city. As he related his tale, I was riveted, and I knew others would be too. We decided to co-author a YA near-historical thriller based on his experiences and entitled it "Veins of Betrayal." (See below.) Our goal with the present project is to both inform and entertain. We hope that as our fictional characters overcome very real adversity and learn new things about themselves, our readers will realize they can do the same.
Veins of Betrayal
Genres: Historical Thriller
Sonia refuses to believe that her father had anything to do with the murder of her best friend’s family.
Eighteen-year-old Sonia Ruiz, a confirmed homebody who has devoted her life to taking care of her father, is best friends with Angie Gonzalez, a bookish classmate with aspirations of someday working as a writer. Angie calls Sonia to tell her about her next writing project. Angie calls Sonia to tell her about the next book she is writing—a story gleaned from eavesdropping on her father’s conversations about a top-secret investigation into corruption at La Misteriosa copper mine in Rancagua. Sonia hangs up but discovers that her Papi, who works under Angie’s father at the comptroller’s office, was listening on the other line. A couple days later, a bloody rat splayed on a cross crashes through Angie’s front window with a note threatening death for the family if her father doesn’t stop the investigation. He refuses. A week later, Sonia and Angie watch in horror as Angie’s family perishes in a firebombing. Sonia pushes from her mind the thought that her father may have had something to do with it. But finding surveillance photos of the members of Angie’s family in her father’s workroom shatters Sonia’s denial. Her father, along with criminal associates, are responsible. Now that she knows the truth, and that those men will be hunting for them, they must leave the country. The route they must take is through the Atacama Desert—the driest desert on the planet.
Short Stories
Buddhist Parrot
Tommy’s been laid off for six months. He spends his time eating junk food and complaining to his wife Jane about how his life no longer has purpose. His busybody neighbor introduces him to a Buddhist Parrot which says only one thing: “Is all weve prsnt the.” After going on a spiritual journey of self-abnegation at the hideous Nighty-Night Motel, Tommy unscrambles the bird’s gibberish. What he doesn’t realize is how his odyssey of self-discovery has impacted his marriage.
Alex's Dilemma
Alex, a gay millennial, is enamored of his best friend Tara’s fiancé, Peter. Days before his wedding to Tara, he catches Peter cheating on Tara with another man in a pub. Peter sees Alex and says he’ll never do it again, if he promises not tell Tara. Alex promises, but then has second thoughts about it. He then is faced with the dilemma of keeping his promise to Peter or letting his best friend know of what she’s getting herself into.
Black-out
It’s pitch black in Queens, New York as the Great Northeast Blackout of 1965 enshrouds the city. Sixteen-year-old Joey Davidson pleads with his disabled father to trek alone to the deli to buy milk and bread. His father insists on going. It’s not only that Joey’s ashamed of being seen with his father—he doesn’t want his father around when he runs into teenage thugs who want to annihilate him when he gets there.
Honorable Mention "Glimmer Train" Writng Contest
Once a dreamer
Mitchell, a single newspaper reporter in his 60s, meet his former lover, Becky, at a Town Hall meeting he’s covering on Connecticut’s Gold Coast. Mitchell, who had been demoted from his former role as the paper’s principal investigative reporter, hopes to “coast” his last couple of years until retirement. Becky, who is married to an absentee-husband who directs reality shows, asks Mitchell to investigate mob-related corruption in the town’s waste management service. Mitchell agrees because he hopes to rekindle things with Becky, but believes such an investigation to be fruitless and possibly dangerous. Mitchell proceeds with the investigation and things don’t work out as he expected.
Published in "Fiction on the Web"