Biography

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Reared in a small town in central Iowa, Terry Dodd  comments that he doesn’t think any one thing has been as much of a catalyst for either his imagination or his writing as his childhood challenge of reading every science fiction book in his hometown library during his sixth grade year.

He married his high school sweetheart, and through forty-five years of marriage they raised three children while living variously in Iowa, Texas, Florida, Wisconsin and Ohio, before a final move to Georgia.

Sadly for Terry and their adult children, after Judy valiantly battled  non-smoker’s lung cancer for nineteen months God called her home in 2005. She had unselfishly but confidentially prayed with her hospice nurse that after she passed Terry would  find another wife. That prayer was answered as he later met and then proposed to Helga in the course of their mutual service as Stephen Ministers. Today she is his new life-partner.

Until the age of fifty-eight Terry was a Christian-in-name-only. In other words, his faith was luke-warm, i.e., half-hearted and self-sufficient, neither hot nor cold. In fact, the apostle John was given to write in the book of Revelation that such a condition was “wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked,” and that such persons needed “to put salve on their eyes so that they can see.”

Terry is quick to point out that even though he was raised in the church until age eighteen, not enough evidence existed to convict him of believing in Christ Jesus as his LORD and Savior. In the process of writing his second book (The Foursome), however, he began to search for truth, and God revealed Himself. If you are interested in that surprising story, please go to his Personal Testimony page.

Earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in Geology after having served two years in the U.S. Army Signal Corp, he began what would be a forty-year career in advertising. At the same time he merged his voracious reading interest with a developing talent for writing. His subject-interest areas ranged broadly from science fiction in his early years to theology and evangelism in later mid-life. Over a seventeen-year period his writing turned exclusively to Christian books and a bi-monthly Christian newsletter (see his New Day Newsletter page).

Early in 2010 he felt led to reprise a long-dormant and modest talent which resulted in developing a forty-five minute juggling-and-humor program for residents of senior living facilities. This Christian ministry is called Juggling for Jesus.  (Read more of this on another page by the same name.)

Terry is the author of ten self-published books in a variety of genres. (See both his Books and Book Club pages.) He and his wife, Helga, live in the northern Atlanta area and enjoy being as involved as possible with their seven grandchildren. His retirement interests aside from family include church, writing, volunteer work, and juggling, in that order.

He was named winner of the 2012 Eric Hoffer Book Award Legacy Fiction category for his title, The Foursome.