About the Author                                   

                                                                                                                                                

Therese Heckenkamp, eighteen when she completed the first draft of Past Suspicion, has been writing stories since before she could spell.  Born June 6, 1981 in Taree, New South Wales, Australia, Therese arrived in the U.S. on her second birthday.  Her mother is from Australia and her father, an American, served as a Ranger in Vietnam from 1968-69.

Therese (nickname, Tess) has one older brother, Jerome, 23, and two younger sisters, Monica, 17, and Cassandra, 14.

A homeschooled student, Therese received numerous writing awards while growing up.  She graduated with an Associate of Arts and Science degree from UW-Waukesha in 2001.  Therese, now 22, is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.  She lives in Pewaukee, Wisconsin, a charming town from which she drew much of her novel’s setting. 

 

Besides writing, she enjoys reading, baking, biking, snowboarding, walking, sightseeing, and listening to Country music.  She holds a day job in a bakery, where she cake decorates.  Therese has a Siamese cat who mostly ignores her, but when he’s asleep she’ll swipe him into her room so he snuggles on her bed while she writes.  Past Suspicion is her first novel . . . the first of many, she hopes.  

 

Therese’s List of Writing Awards & Publishing Credits:

 

1994   Won a microscope and ant farm in national science project contest for an essay about raising monarch butterflies.

 

1995   First place in Hopscotch magazine adventure story contest for “Night Star’s Daring Climb” (story published in August/September 1995 issue).

 

1996   Won  a complete 1994 commemorative stamp collection in Hartland, WI post office essay contest.

 

1999   Second place in Cricket magazine’s Cricket League poetry contest for “Illumination” (poem published in September 1999 issue).

 

2001   Won $125 August Derleth Writing Award (competition open to UW College students) for submission of creative work (up to fifteen pages worth) of poems and short stories.

 

2003   ■  YA suspense novel, Past Suspicion (PublishAmercia, September 2003).

           ■  Short story, “Think Like an Inventor” to be published in October 2003 issue of Boys’ Quest magazine.          

 

2004   ■  Article, “An Ageless Path to Publication” to be published in “Breakthrough” department of January 2004 issue of The Writer magazine.

           ■  “A Princess of Ballet,” an article about Anna Pavlova, to be published in August 2004 issue of Hopscotch magazine.

 

2005   “Brothers in Fame,” an article about how the relationship of brothers helped them to achieve famed success, to be published in February 2005 issue of Boys’ Quest magazine. 

 

Contact Therese: tessheckenkamp@hotmail.com