Theresa B. Cyr - Author Page

Don't get me wrong, I love teaching. It's been a passion of mine since I can always remember, but like all passions, they can become draining and overwhelming. As stressful as working with students can be, my students feed my soul. I can wake up grumpy in the morning, but feel my sprits lift once I see them walking down the hallway. Of course there are days that this doesn't happen, but that's such a small amount of time that it barely even counts. Usually by the time lunch rolls around, one of my students has made me smile. I started my teaching career in Aroostook County, Maine, the St. John Valley to be specific, and we always had a 2 week break about a month after school started for the potato harvest.  This doesn't exist in Western Maine, so that means the stretch from the first day of school until Thanksgiving feels so long from what I was accustomed to. Then there's the month between Thanksgiving and winter breaks. For some reason, that stretch feels lik...

This past year was a busy one.  Between my actual job as a teacher with all that it entails, writing my mental health book, I Am Not Okay , publishing my grandson's book, The Kindness of a Friend , and finishing my latest book,  Garnet, in the process, I attended quite a few events. The events were a mixture of different formats. Each of them were unique and interesting. It allowed me to visit different places in Maine that I've never been before. And because I attended them alone, it also forced me to step outside my comfort zone driving to unfamiliar places. Thank goodness for navigation apps. As we wrap up 2025, there's so much to process. After this last event this coming weekend, I will have driven over 1,200 miles this year just to attend events. I've traveled up north to Bangor several times, east to Waterville, and south to Lewiston and Searsport. I've met some terrific and supportive vendors and event planners, and had some great conversations with the att...

Promoting yourself isn't easy.    Promoting yourself requires you to step outside of your comfort zone and reach out to people who could help promote your product. In my case, my product is my Unintended Travelers book series . I'm very proud of my books, but extremely humble about them, too. I want people to buy my books and enjoy them, but convincing them to do so is the challenge. I've worked for a long time developing the characters of Brooke and Bently, Henry, Pete, Father Ted, Liz, and even Fenton. Even now that I have been working on another book unrelated to this series, I can't help but continue to think about these characters. Each character has a characteristic of someone I've known over the years, and I've met and worked with many, many people throughout my 54 years of life. Even Jazmine and Golden, Liz's horses, were named after the two horses that my husband and I had several years ago. I used them as one way to pay homage to these sweet horses...

"Change begins at the end of  your comfort zone."  ~ Roy T. Bennett There have been many changes this past year and a half. Life has been a whirlwind between relocating to Western Maine, starting a new job, and adjusting to my new life. Now that I'm on summer break, the dust is settling and I can reflect on the past year and on all that I've managed to accomplish as well as plan what the next steps can be. I began the year publishing my last book in the series called, Unintended Travelers: Pete .  It took longer than the first two books primarily because of the moving, but also because I wanted the book to end the series a certain way.  Pete ties together the first two books, provides a continued story about the time portal, and gives some closure to what happens in the second book, Henry , and the series as a whole. Book Signing After I announced its release, I ended up doing my first book signing at the Fort Kent Public Library at the end of March. This was defini...

  We have a winner! Congratulations, Cecile Roy who won a signed copy of my second book, Unintended Travelers: Henry's Decision .  I hope you enjoy your copy!

Whether or not to write a sequel to a book was something I didn't take lightly. I knew it was going to be a commitment if I decided to do it, and I worried whether I'd follow through with it or not, but apparently, I did. To begin with, I like reading books about alternative universes or being able to go back in time. I've always been intrigued by the concepts of these stories and the many possibilities that can result from them. When I started Unintended Travelers , Brooke and Bently weren't going back in time but went through some portal that brought them to an alternative universe instead. I got pretty far into the book, about 2 chapters deep when I decided that I didn't like where it was going and switched gears.  I didn't like where the story was going. It wasn't flowing as well as I had hoped, and I wasn't enjoying writing it at all. So, when I switched to them going back in time instead, it felt like it took on a life of its own. It just flowed so...

Writer's Block Like anyone else out there who writes, I get writer's block, but fortunately, I do have strategies that help me work through it. Sometimes my strategies work and sometimes they don't, which is why I need several in my tool kit to choose from. There are times when I can write for several hours straight without interruption, and end up with 3 to 4,000 words in one sitting. Other times I can write and meet my 1,500-word goal for each session. Then there are the times that I can only get a paragraph or two done, or tweak what I've already written and call it a day. I'm not always able to write every day. I work all week as a teacher, so when the end of the day arrives, sometimes the last thing I want to do is think or plan, or write. Some evenings I don't have the frame of mind to do anything other than watch mindless TV and veg for the night. This means that I could go a whole week before working on my book again. Before I can get started writing I o...