Local Palmer author published her first book

PALMER — Longtime Palmer resident Toni Truesdell recently published her first book, “Tessa Speaks Her Truth,” and after a book signing at Fireside Books and selling out her first bundle of online sales, she is eager to keep writing.

“It’s never too late to follow your dreams,” Truesdell said.

Truesdell said that she spent about four or five years writing this coming of age story geared toward youth, parents and educators and everyone else in-between.

“I found myself locked in my office for hours, tap tapping until 2 or 3 in the morning,” Truesdell said.

The story is set in Palmer, the place Truesdell learned to call home after moving there almost 50 years ago from Oregon. She said that her origins in Oregon and life here in Alaska are both present in the book and the setting involves both places that locals will recognize.

“It deals with real issues but isn’t too dark,” Truesdell said.

Similar to the Hardy Boys or Harry Potter, Truesdell set out to tell an entertaining story that follows young characters that for the most part, face serious and very real problems in a mostly lighthearted adventure.

“I’ve been writing since I was 5 years old,” Truesdell said.

Truesdell said she retired after teaching children with special needs for more than 15 years. During that time, she encountered an array of family related issues which she applied in her book, but only as inspiration and used that insight as pure fiction.

“I just look at young people today and they deal with a plethora of issues,” Truesdell said.

Truesdell said that she used that and several other real life experiences to fuel her story without explicitly using any real people. She said that she hopes her book “opens that conversation” as a reflection of Mat-Su Valley life, Alaskan life and beyond.

“Tessa Speaks Her Truth” follows the story of 10-year-old Tessa, her friendship with a shy boy names Sam from Unalakleet and her golden lab named Mili. The protagonists’ summertime adventures follows an ominous death, which at first considered an accident, resolves to a murder and ultimately leads to Tessa learning how to “speak her truth without apology.”

“I felt like it was a book that needed to be written,” Truesdell said. “It’s a way to deal with contemporary issues and challenges that our youth face today.”

Truesdell said that she’s written for several magazines, newspapers and newsletters and she is eager to start submitting her opinions again to her hometown newspaper.

“It really is therapeutic,” Truesdell said.

Truesdell said that as a former educator, she hopes her juvenile fiction book will find its way to local classrooms to discuss the real problems children’s face with an approachable overtone. She said that depending on the reception of her book, she may write a sequel but regardless, wants to keep writing more.

Truesdell’s books can be found at Fireside Books in Palmer, Amazon and Barns and Noble’s online library. She is set to host another book signing at the Palmer Senior Citizens Center Inc.’s annual holiday bazaar on Dec. 8.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman reporter Jacob Mann at jacob.mann@frontiersman.com