We were lucky to catch up with Theresa Read recently and have shared our conversation below.

Theresa , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

I am writing a young adult novel series, The Guardian Chronicles, with two books out so far, Ranger Nader & The Sunstruck Phantom, and Ranger Nader & The Unsolvable Riddle. The series calls out Gilgamesh, an ancient demigod/king for clear-cutting the Cedar Forest, causing a great flood, and killing my ancestor, the forest protector. In The Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh seeks fame and glory by cutting down Lebanon’s cedar forest.
My grandfather’s family, the Karems, immigrated from B’shari (Becharre) Lebanon in the early 1900s. B’shari is a mountain-top town surrounded by ski slopes and the vestiges of what long ago were tremendous swaths of cedar trees. These historically famous forests are mentioned in the Bible and Quran numerous times, and the most famous grove, located just outside B’shari, is called, “The Cedars of God.” Some of these trees are believed to be 3,000 years old.
According to my grandfather, our family, along with other B’shari residents, served as “Keepers of the Cedars.” I am a great lover of trees, forests, and all things green, and these family stories about our historic role stayed with me over the years. When I read Tablets 4-6 of The Epic of Gilgamesh in junior high school, I was horrified to learn that Gilgamesh was celebrated killing Humbaba, that generations forest keeper, and chopping down The Cedar Forest—the very forest my ancestors worked for thousands of years to protect.
For a long while, I had a slow burn against this ancient king and a system that valued, and continues to value, large-scale environmental destruction as “progress.” With the advent of social media, I learned that residents of Lebanon, including B’shari, are still fighting to restore the Cedar Forest, so I am writing the series to cast a light on their hard work restoring their beautiful country.

Theresa , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

With an English teacher for a mom and a grandmother who was a lawyer, I was fortunate to have distinguished career women for role models and was practically pre-ordained to become a lawyer-writer. Once my three kids were old enough to be able to do their homework on their own, I’d do my “homework” writing middle grade and young adult novels. During the day, I worked, and still do, as an attorney at my law firm, The Read Law Firm, P.C., but as I delved more into writing and my children became occupied with their own commitments, I joined several writing groups.

I am currently a proud member of Southern Breeze region of The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) where I serve as Critique Group Coordinator and as Local Liaison for SE Atlanta. SCBWI has been a tremendous help in the development of my writing style and my writing career, and I would encourage anyone interested in children’s writing to check it out.

Having grown up in a household that encouraged community involvement, I’m also a member of the Olde Town Merchants Association in Conyers, Georgia, where my law office is located. Olde Town Conyers is a cute, historic district, recently famous for being the site where The Original’s vampire series was filmed, along with many other shows. At the merchant group’s meeting, I met the owner of our new indie bookstore and proposed a book festival. Together we decided to make it happen, and this will be The Conyers Book Festival’s second year where it will feature approximately 100 authors and vendors with an expected crowd of a thousand.

My award-winning book series, The Guardian Chronicles, has the first two books currently out and I am working on the third. In Ranger Nader & The Sunstruck, Ranger inherits the title of “Forest Keeper,” a magic ax, and the family feud with Gilgamesh, the infamous clear-cutter. While training to be a spaceship captain, Ranger battles the evil demigod to save the forest and the world. In Ranger Nader & The Unsolvable Riddle, Ranger loses his crew and his spaceship command when he makes a series of bad decisions. Ranger Nader & The Sunstruck Phantom has been honored by six awards. It won its category in the International Book Awards, won a gold medal in the Global Book Awards, and was a finalist in the IAN, Wishing Shelf, Readers’ Favorite & Indie Excellence Awards. Ranger Nader & The Unsolvable Riddle has had five 5 starred reviews from Reader’s Favorites. You can find them on Amazon here: https://tinyurl.com/rangernaderseries

My next appearances will be at The Conyers Book Festival on April 20th, 2024, and then on May 18th, 2024, I will be at The Fairview Public Library in Stockbridge, Georgia where I will lead a discussion on book marketing.

I encourage anyone interested in writing fiction to incorporate your other interests into your books. To make your writing fresh and meaningful, explore your heritage and flip your family mythology to take a stance on issues that are important to you, I hope I have accomplished this with my writing to date, and will continue to strive for this in my future works.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I am very proud of my Lebanese heritage. My grandfather and his family came to the Unites States in the early 1900s after a conflict with an Ottoman tax collector. They settled in Louisville, Kentucky where my grandfather became an attorney and a judge, and the whole family prospered. In college I was a Political Science Major and an International Studies minor, in part so that I could learn more about the Middle East and Lebanon’s role in it. Politics these days have polarized public opinion to such an extent that many folks have only stereotypical ideas concerning the human beings living in other countries and their day-to-day struggles. Lebanon is a beautiful country with a population as varied as its terrain. It has a mediterranean coast, snow-covered mountains with ski-slopes, valleys with vineyards and olive groves, and big, cosmopolitan cities like Beirut and Tripoli. Most of the people living there have very little participation in the political conflicts that propel Lebanon onto the world stage. I hope that in a small way, my books cast a positive light on the Lebanese and the hard work they have undertaken to restore their magnificent forests.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

My beautiful, intelligent, enlightened mother, Virginia Camilla Karem, was stricken with Alzheimer’s in her 80’s. She was always my number one fan and became the first beta reader for Ranger Nader and The Sunstruck Phantom. While I had long dreamed of following a traditional publishing path with the book and then of being able to place a copy in my mother’s hands, as my mother’s condition progressed, I realized that dream could not be realized in its entirety. Traditional publishing’s timeline did not line up with Mom’s prognosis. Because I wanted to be able to give her the book when she could still understand what it was, I set the first part of that two-part dream aside and self-published it. Self-publishing a children’s book comes with many marketing hurdles; however, nothing will replace my memory of my mother holding my book and realizing that I had published it using a version of her name as my pen name! I have learned a lot about marketing since then and have had some success with The Guardian Chronicles. Enough that I can now give a talk on the subject sponsored by the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, and that right there is another form of success that I will treasure.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.tkread.com
• Instagram: @t.k._read
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tkread/
• Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/tkread
• Twitter: @tkread
• Other: https://www.facebook.com/TheGuardianChronicles1/ www.readlawfirm.com www.conyersbookfestival.com