Theresa Dodaro, Author of Young Adult and Women’s Historical Fiction
Theresa Dodaro loves history. Not only does she write about it, she dedicates much of her time researching her family’s history as far back as the 1600s. She has also helped others discover their family lineage. “I especially enjoy uncovering the secrets and the untold stories. I’ve even been able to help some adoptees find their biological families,” she says.
Dodaro holds a BA Degree from SUNY Stony Brook University and has worked as an Editorial Assistant for the College Book Division of the McGraw-Hill Publishing Company in New York City. After her daughter was born in 1991, Therasa was able to leave the workforce and fully devote her life as a stay-at-home mother. Today, she is the proud mother of her daughter, Lauren, who is a Ph.D. candidate in cultural anthropology at Tulane University and her son, Scott, who is a senior accounting major at Pace University.
Dodaro filled the void of employment with altruistic acts of volunteering. She became the PTA President, a Girl Scout Leader, and later organized a support and networking group called Parents of Teens and Tweens.
In 2002, the author who loved learning about the past was faced with never seeing her future. Strep in her blood system put her into septic shock. Suddenly, all that she had put off for that “one day” was threatened to never be. She had to be placed on a respirator and in an induced coma. “Against the odds, I lived,” she exclaims, and that “one day” finally met its future. With a new lease on life, Dodaro pursued her dreams to become an author. “I knew it was one of the two things I needed to do with this extra chance at life.” The other “thing” was to finish raising her children who were only 6 and 11 at the time.
After recovering from the devastating illness, in 2006, Dodaro started writing her first novel. “I knew I wouldn’t pursue publication until my youngest child was in college. So I just kept writing and re-writing until I self-published it in October 2015. I was 57 by that time.”
Today, she’s written a trilogy called The Tin Box. In addition, “…I have just completed The Porcelain Doll which I hope to publish this year.” With three published books and one to be soon published, Theresa has no plans to rest her imagination and will be including a Fantasy Novel Series to her portfolio.
To purchase Dodaro's books, click on any book image. The Tin Box Secret is also available on audio.
Dodaro's books, The Tin Box Secret and The Hope Chest were both 2017 IAN Award Finalists.
Interviewer: Tell us about your the Tin Box Secret?
Dodaro: The Tin Box Secret was a cathartic re-working of my own childhood. It brings back memories for those who grew up in the late 60s and early 70s and introduces others to a time of great change in our society. The main characters are Julie, age 14 and her friends, Heather and Petra.
Julie and her friends find a tin box in an old treehouse that once belonged to Petra’s mother, Lydia. Lydia left Baldwin in 1943 after the untimely death of her own mother, Raven. (Raven may have died by suicide or it may have been something more sinister.) After Raven’s death, Lydia received letters from her grandmother, Charlotte, telling her about a family secret and a forbidden love affair from 1912 set against the building of the Ashokan Reservoir in upstate NY. Now in 1968, Lydia has returned with her own daughter, Petra, and the girls discover the rusted tin box and read the old letters. When they realize there might still be a danger for Petra’s family, they set out to find some answers. In addition, they are dealing with coming of age, friendships, first loves, and dysfunctional families.
One of the scariest stages of writing is revealing your work to the world and learning how others will respond to it. Dodaro shares her take on the not-so-flattering responses and feedback that many authors fear.
After receiving some rejections on The Tin Box Secret and subsequently self-publishing with CreateSpace, it didn’t make sense that a traditional publisher would pick up a second or third book of a series. So I continued to self-publish. Since then, the trilogy has become successful. Now that The Porcelain Doll is ready, I will try to find a Literary Agent who might want to take it on. If I don’t, I will self-publish again.
I see a negative review as someone who just didn’t get it. Not every book is for every person. My books are for the readers who get something out of my stories. For the rest, they need to read a different book.
Dodaro says she can spend the entire day writing, but there are times when “…months may pass without writing anything… When I write, I turn off the television and the radio. I need complete silence; I get distracted too easily when people are around.” Writing comes second to her family. “All my books (will be published) before my husband retires. I won’t be able to write with him around!”
Being an indie author has taught Dodaro a lot. She admits that if she could change anything about her first book, it would be the total number of words. “I would have made The Tin Box Secret shorter. It’s 106,587 words and 430 pages long.”
Another lesson she’s learned is the power of words. When she was in the ninth grade, she kept a journal. A notebook that held her thoughts, her emotions and secrets. The words she wrote in her journal helped her to deal with issues that were very difficult in her life.
Interviewer: What in your personal life have you included in one of your stories?
Dodaro: My struggle with my father who hit us with a belt for punishment, my struggle with my mother who had no say in our house, my illness that almost took my life, my mother’s struggle with Alzheimer, my struggle with feeling not good enough, my struggle with feeling survivor’s guilt.
Interviewer: What would you like to say to others who are still carrying their struggles?
Dodaro: When I sign my books, I always sign The Tin Box Secret with "Be Forgiving", I sign The Hope Chest with "Be Brave" and I sign Reawakening with "Choose your life." The first book is about forgiving those in your childhood for their own limitations and letting go of the hurt you have experienced in the past. The second book is about being brave enough to choose what you know your heart wants, even if it isn't the easiest road to travel. And the third book is about having the choice to choose your own life, regardless of what has come before, now it is up to you.
Dodaro’s history and life’s lessons have guided her life and given pearls of wisdom that she use to encourage others from her blog, RaisingDrama and from the pages of her books.
Theresa Dodaro’s work can be found on the following sites:
