Born in Redondo Beach, California, Teri lived the beach life for a few toddler years before her family moved to Wenatchee, Washington where she grew up living among the apple orchards. Her parents, Ethel May Krockenberger and Leo Bellisine, met in Los Angeles, Ethel having come from Rochester, New York; Leo from Buhl, Idaho. By the time she was nineteen-year-old Ethel had lost both her parents, her dad to cancer when she was fifteen, and her mom recently to pneumonia. Ready to begin a new life, Ethel and three girlfriends drove from Rochester, New York to Los Angeles by way of Route 66. In November 1947 Ethel arrived in Hermosa Beach California with three girl friends. Photos and a narrative of Ethel’s journey are part of the “America on the Move” exhibit in The National Museum of American History in Washington DC.
In LA, Ethel got a job at General Telephone Company (now Verizon) where she met Leo. They married in 1949, had daughter Tracy in 1952 and Teri in 1955. In 1958 Leo took a job transfer to Wenatchee, Washington, the "Apple Capitol of the World," where the girls grew up. Teri and Tracy spent their summers in southern Idaho, living with their Grandmother in Jerome and spending weeks each summer at their cousins’ ranch in Carey Idaho. You’ll find the essence of those summers in scenes in The Clovis Dig.
After graduating from Central Washington University Teri worked at a community college, teaching computer applications classes and working in the library. She left to become a high school librarian and, later, technology coordinator for a K-12 district in East Wenatchee. She wrote articles for national magazines during this time, both academic and popular. In 1998 she decided to make a living writing. She left education and became a corporate writer and web manager for a regional medical center. She went on to manage communications, news, and social media for a large school district.
She kept writing during these years and had her first novel, Invisible by Day, was published in 2016; The Clovis Dig in 2020. Teri’s writing has won awards for both fiction and nonfiction. She’s a member of the Pacific Northwest Writers Association and the Write on the River organization. Teri and her husband Don left Wenatchee in 2018 and now live on the shores of beautiful Lake Chelan in Washington State. Teri wrote much of Invisible by Day at a remote lake cabin, pictured above.
Awards
In LA, Ethel got a job at General Telephone Company (now Verizon) where she met Leo. They married in 1949, had daughter Tracy in 1952 and Teri in 1955. In 1958 Leo took a job transfer to Wenatchee, Washington, the "Apple Capitol of the World," where the girls grew up. Teri and Tracy spent their summers in southern Idaho, living with their Grandmother in Jerome and spending weeks each summer at their cousins’ ranch in Carey Idaho. You’ll find the essence of those summers in scenes in The Clovis Dig.
After graduating from Central Washington University Teri worked at a community college, teaching computer applications classes and working in the library. She left to become a high school librarian and, later, technology coordinator for a K-12 district in East Wenatchee. She wrote articles for national magazines during this time, both academic and popular. In 1998 she decided to make a living writing. She left education and became a corporate writer and web manager for a regional medical center. She went on to manage communications, news, and social media for a large school district.
She kept writing during these years and had her first novel, Invisible by Day, was published in 2016; The Clovis Dig in 2020. Teri’s writing has won awards for both fiction and nonfiction. She’s a member of the Pacific Northwest Writers Association and the Write on the River organization. Teri and her husband Don left Wenatchee in 2018 and now live on the shores of beautiful Lake Chelan in Washington State. Teri wrote much of Invisible by Day at a remote lake cabin, pictured above.
Awards
- First place, nonfiction, in the Pacific Northwest Writers Association Literary Contest 2011 for My River Sava, the story of an elite Yugoslav athlete interred in a prison camp during the Bosnian War.
- Finalist in the San Francisco Writers Contest 2013 for My River Sava.
- First place, Write on the River Writing Contest 2014 in fiction, Ghosts of my Countrymen, a short story of intrigue.
- Finalist, short story, Pacific Northwest Writers Association Literary Contest 2015 for Ghosts of my Countrymen.
- Finalist, Tucson Festival of Books Literary Awards January 2016 for The Clovis Dig.
- Best in Category for Writing, Washington State School Public Relations Association, 2018.
- Finalist, Beverly Hills Book Award for Invisible by Day, 2018.
- Top 5 Finalists for Literary Fiction, Kindle Book Awards, Invisible by Day, 2019.
- Pinnacle Book Achievement Award, Fiction, 2018