Teria Robens co-hosts “Wednesdays Are for Writers"

Dr. Cheryl Woodson, writing as Teria Robens, is presenting her new romantic novel – “What the Mirror Sees,” at "Wednesdays Are for Writers" at the Eastgate Cafe, 102 Harrison Street, Oak Park, IL on August 7 from 6:00 to 8:00 PM.

“Wednesdays Are for Writers,” is a bi-monthly series of presentations that support the literary and performing arts community in the Oak Park. These events give authors an opportunity to meet each other, share their work, get advice from their peers and feedback from their readers while ordering from the gourmet menu and full bar of the Eastgate Café.

"What the Mirror Sees" is the life story of Deidre Davenport, a forty-eight-year-old divorced mom as she reclaims love with the gorgeous and younger JR Stone. But first, she’ll have to overcome a 10-year separation, emotional scars from a demeaning marriage and threats to her company that could get them both killed.

As the author, Dr. Woodson, explains, “’What the Mirror Sees ‘is the first in a series of novels I’ve written as Teria Robens, about women who start out as doormats but learn how to be divas as they learn how to empower themselves after a lifetime of caring for others.”

Dr. Woodson comes to fiction-writing as a second career. Although she had written stories since childhood, her only published work was non-fiction. Her book, “To Survive Caregiving: A Daughter's Experience, A Doctor's Advice on Finding Hope, Help and Health” was published in 2012 and was extremely well-received. But it covers her real-life experience as the caregiver of an aging and ailing parent in addition to being a physician specializing in geriatric medicine.

She describes her transformation from Dr. Cheryl Woodson to Teria Robens this way, “Several years ago, i locked myself into a hotel room to study for a re-certification exam. After a week of focusing on professional information, I found that I couldn’t hear the fictional characters that had always been part of my life before. I began to panic because I realized something – I wanted to be a successful fiction writer more than I’ve wanted anything else in my life except my kids. Fortunately, my characters decided to returned in about six weeks and I adopted the pseudonym of Teria Robens or TR for short for my fictional writing.”

As Teria Robens, Dr. Woodson joined the Romance Writers of America and made lifelong friends in the Windy City Chapter. She started attending writers’ conferences, and entered her work to be admitted into several university-level master classes in creative writing. She spent years inside her characters’ heads before publishing “What the Mirror Sees.”

“What the Mirror Sees” is the first book in Robens’ Diva series with heroines who’ve been on the planet long enough to have developed some wisdom along with their insecurities. Like many women (and men too), these mature professionals struggle to achieve their bucket list of “must does” once they realize that it’s not too late to reach for their dreams.

While Dr. Woodson considers herself a “girly” girl, she also has plenty of grit and earned a 2nd degree black belt in Taekwondo. She and her husband raised two amazing young adults and live in the Chicago area with a cat who loves water and plays “fetch.” Living her dreams in retirement, in addition to writing, Woodson also travels to destination spas and takes voice lessons. She’s also improving her roller-skating skills and learning to ride horses and motorcycles. For more information about Dr. Woodson’s alternate personality, Teria Robens and her books, please visit www.teriarobens.com.