By STEPHANIE BUNKER
Moapa Valley Progress
Former Logandale resident Elliah Askeroth Terry explored a less trodden path recently when she wrote a book on Tourette Syndrome. But this unique topic may have brought success she was hoping for. Her novel, Forget Me Not, was released last week at all major book retailers. The novel, geared toward kids age 10-13, tells a story about a girl that has Tourette Syndrome and tries to hide it.
“This is a new thing to talk about,” Terry said. “It’s so personal to me, and maybe that’s why it sold.”
Terry’s journey researching Tourette Syndrome began when her 10 year old daughter was diagnosed with it. Tourette’s is a common neuropsychiatric disorder characterized by multiple motor and vocal tics.
“She is a huge reader and always turned to books,” Terry said of her daughter. “So I looked for books she could read and identify with the characters.”
Terry recalled finding only one book where the character had Tourettes, and it was written 20 years earlier. Not satisfied with the results Terry decided she would write a story for her daughter.
As she was researching the syndrome for the story, she began to put pieces together from her own childhood and suspected she had Tourettes as well. Terry then visited a neurologist and was also diagnosed.
“At the end of the appointment there was something that the doctor said that stuck with me,” Terry said. “He said, ‘If I were you, I wouldn’t tell everyone you have Tourettes.’”
Terry said that she was curious why he would warn her of that.The doctor explained that Tourettes has many negative connotations attached to it.
Weeks passed and Terry dwelled on that statement. “I thought it was an odd thing to say, and if I don’t say anything I will be contributing to that,” she said. “I want people to read the novel and have them understand Tourettes better.”
Being able to relate to the story, Terry said that writing the novel became therapeutic. But, strangely, it also made her tics become worse.
“I was thinking about them all of the time which made me do them,” she said
All of the tics that the character displays in the book are tics that Terry and her daughter have experienced.
Forget Me Not is not the first novel Terry has written; in fact it was her 5th. Ever since she was a girl she had the dream of being a published author. She wrote poems as she was growing up and, as she became an adult, she became curious of the process to publish a book. That was when she began her journey.
It has not been an easy road for Terry. She has written 40 children’s picture books but hasn’t had much luck selling them to publishers.
Terry began writing Forget Me Not in August of 2013 and was able to sign with an agent in May, 2015. It only took one month for the book to sell to MacMillan publishing.
The daughter of Todd and Michele Askeroth of Logandale, Terry spent a period of her childhood here in Moapa Valley. Her friends know her as Elliah, pronounced AYLEE. To lessen confusion Elliah simplified her pen name to Ellie Terry.
For more information visit ellieterry.com.
