About The Author

Here's the quick summary:

Born:  Philadelphia, PA

Elementary School:  St. Matthew Elementary, Philadelphia

High School:  St. Hubert High School, Philadelphia

College:  LaSalle University, Philadelphia

Law School:  Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, DC

Home:  I live just outside of Philadelphia with my husband Gil and our three children, Jennifer, Michael, and Mary Kathryn

I grew up in a row house in Northeast Philadelphia in a neighborhood called Mayfair.  That's a picture of my old house to the right.  My daughter Jennifer is sitting on the steps.  I loved growing up in Philadelphia.  I could walk to the playground, the park, my school, stores, and all my friends' houses.  I lived with my parents and my three brothers and two sisters.  Our house was very full and it was never boring. 

If I did a good job describing it in the book, you might recognize my house from reading Kat's Surrender.  I used my old house as the model for Kat's home.  Kat and her friends played wire ball in the street right out front of the house in the picture and that is where the accident happened as well.

The picture to the left is St. Matthew Elementary School which I attended from first through eighth grades.  Though I gave it a different name in the book, I used St. Matthew as the school Kat, Paul, and Maggie attended in Kat's Surrender.  This picture is of a portion of the front of the school. 

When I was in elementary school, we didn't read books in school.  At least I can't remember any.  We had readers with stories in them.  In case you didn't know, a reader is a text book filled with stories.  Our English classes were mostly about grammar and spelling.  I loved to read, though, and sometimes I tried to write my own little stories. They weren't very good and I didn't save any of them.  I also had a diary that I liked to write in.  I filled a couple of those up and then I switched to writing in copybooks.

I went to St. Hubert High School.  There were 700 students in the freshman class alone.  It was an all girls school and we wore uniforms.  But I still liked it there!  English was always my favorite class.  So when I went to college, I majored in English.  I spent four fun years reading great books and writing papers.  Then I spent three years in law school and became a lawyer.

I have been writing in some form or another all my life.  After my children were born and I stayed home from my job, I started writing Kat's Surrender.  I wrote it in bits and pieces over the years whenever I got a free moment.  As soon as it was finished, I started The Secret Within.  Even if no one ever read any of my books, I would still keep writing them.  When I am writing well, everything around me seems to disappear.  It is like I become the character and  am a part of the story.  I especially enjoy writing a character who is very different from me, like Lindy in The Truth About Twelve.  Lindy is so brave and tough, at least on the outside.  Since I am a quiet person and was even quieter when I was twelve, it was fun to be Lindy, to speak out and not be intimidated by anyone.

Ten Things You Might Be Surprised To Know About Me

1.  I have never had a pet (unless goldfish count).

2.  I didn't go to pre-school or to kindergarten.

3.  I like to golf.

4.  I am the worst artist in the world.  I can't draw anything.  (I can't sing either)

5.  My favorite sport is baseball. (Go Phillies!)

6.  I am very messy.  (You can't even see the top of my desk)

7.  I eat my cereal dry.

8.  I like to run.

9.  My favorite food is chocolate.

10.When I was little, I thought Shakespeare was a pirate.

Have any questions that I didn't answer here?  You can e-mail me at theresagolding@gmail.com.  I look forward to hearing from you.

Theresa Martin Golding

Author

This is a picture taken of St. Matthew from an airplane.  The church is the building with the peaked roof.  The rest of the buildings are the school, the convent, and the rectory.  As you can see, St. Matthew's is a very big school.  It was crowded many years ago when I went there.  There were over 70 children in my first grade class and just one teacher. Imagine that!

I used to play softball on the field you see in this picture.  I wasn't very good, but I had a lot of fun.  My favorite position to play was second base.

Photo by Joseph Nonemaker