Bedford woman has 1st book published

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Submitted photo Theresa Tucker, a Bedford resident, recently had her first book, "Saferwaters," published. She is currently working on her second book, which she said is geared more toward men and women, while she thinks the audience for her first book is directed more at women.

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Submitted photo Theresa Tucker, a Bedford resident, recently had her first book, "Saferwaters," published. She is currently working on her second book, which she said is geared more toward men and women, while she thinks the audience for her first book is directed more at women.

Enlarge

Submitted photo Theresa Tucker, a Bedford resident, recently had her first book, "Saferwaters," published. She is currently working on her second book, which she said is geared more toward men and women, while she thinks the audience for her first book is directed more at women.

Enlarge

Bedford resident Teresa Tucker was considering retirement when she ran head first into a blossoming writing career.

“I’ve always wanted to write so I thought I would give it a shot. It was an experiment, really,” she said.

Writing began as a hobby. Still working as a full-time lawyer at Grossman, Tucker, Perreault & Pfleger, an intellectual property law firm in Manchester, Tucker struggled to find time within her schedule to write. Instead, she opted to take an evening class at a local community college and devoted her evenings, weekends and vacation time to her fiction writing.

“One of the exercises (at school) was to write paragraphs about characters,” Tucker said. “It just got me started because as I started writing about different characters, I wanted to know more about them.”

As she expanded on the assignment and further developed her characters, Tucker decided to create a story that would allow her characters to interact.

“I had no particular story or plot in mind when I started,” she said. “But the characters basically guided me toward what would happen as if I was reading a book rather than just writing it.”

It took nearly two years, but in May, Tucker released her first book, “Saferwaters.”

The story follows 40-something Anita Batchelder, the wife of a successful and conservative Boston architect, as she carefully conceals the secrets of her colorful California youth. As her fears mount, she finds herself thrown together with five ambitious, young men, each with his own intentions, on board a cruise ship bound for the Caribbean. As she gives into temptations similar to those of her past, Anita grows more concerned that her husband will learn the truth.

As tensions mount and new relationships form, the secrets held by each of the characters begin to unravel.

Tucker derived the title of her book from the song “Saferwaters” by Chevelle.

“The lyrics of the song sort of gave me an idea of the character trying to escape to a more comfortable place,” the author said. “In the song, the character wants to get to the ocean, back to before we evolved; before we were human. To get away from the intensity of the city.”

A number of song lyrics equipped Tucker with a vision for each of her characters. Sticking with her favorite band, Chevelle, songs like “Comfortable Liar” and “Closure” gave her inspiration for a couple of her male characters.

Though Tucker has been on nearly 25 Caribbean cruise vacations, the book is far from autobiographical.

“I did use the setting of a cruise ship because I think that people are forced together,” she said. “You meet new people and you are together for a week and things can happen. It was intriguing to me to develop the plot around that sort of interaction.”

Though Tucker continues to practice law and a full-time writing career is yet to be seen, she has already begun her second novel.

“I’m 80 percent through with the first draft,” she said. “It’s different. It has a different flavor to it. It’s darker, there’s more action … it’s more for men and women where I think “Saferwaters” was geared more toward women readers.”

Similar to the process of writing her first book, Tucker had no particular story line when she began. The plot originally involved a female protagonist, but has since been replaced with a minor male character. And unlike “Saferwaters,” which follows the trials and tribulations of a female character on a path to self-discovery, her latest book will center around a male.

“Just like when writing “Saferwaters,” I am expecting the unexpected,” she said. “And for me, that makes writing an adventure like no other.”

Tucker resides in Bedford with her husband and in her spare time enjoys travel and writing fiction. To learn more visit www.copiousbeast.com.