Photo:
Christos Drazos
- Putting God into your everyday life brings heaven down to earth
Heaven by Toni Ndikanwu
Hello and welcome!
Teresa O’Driscoll is a writer and self-development facilitator. She writes books and articles, gives inspirational talks, and presents workshops. More details on other pages. For day to day thoughts and schedule updates please see (Dear) Diary and her Blog
Bio
Teresa was born in Cardiff, capital of Wales. She loves being Welsh! Also, her surname reveals paternal Irish roots (ancestors moved to Wales over 150 years ago), while her mother is Scottish. She feels that this all-round Celtic heritage both enlivens her work and adds its own mystical touch.
Writing
She has been an avid reader from a small child, when her library ticket was well-used! At school, aged seven, her class began a daily diary. It was love at first write! She immediately started penning a novel. But, petered out after a few chapters… She realized she needed to live more to write more. Soon, though, she made her first foray into journalism: the South Wales Echo published her letter highlighting a dearth of local play parks.
Encouraged, she persisted!
If it wasn’t a play she was writing, it was a poem or a song or a short story. But it was much later that she finally completed her first novel and then another. Eventually, in 1992, she knew the time had come to focus on her writing.
Many friends and colleagues though, tried to pour cold water on her plans to take a career break from her job as an IT trainer manager with the Civil Service. They insisted that, as it was so very difficult to be published it was silly to even try (!). Her rejoinder, “before authors were published they were unpublished”, was irrefutable. She followed her heart and went ahead.
She never looked back!
Within weeks she was holidaying on the Greek island of Corfu and ended up spending the whole summer there. In the autumn she moved to Athens where, as a manager for MCM television, she worked with the stars of Greek popular music. She soon started interviewing these for Athenscope, a city scene magazine. When the magazine invited her to become their contributing editor she jumped at the chance.
She had a baptism of fire producing 12+ articles weekly - including reviews of art exhibitions, films, books, restaurants and bars, plus travel features and profiles. Over a period of two years she clocked up a whopping four figure portfolio of article, writing under a variety of pseudonyms.
Then, she took a break from the slog by freelancing for just about every publication in English in the city (and some Greek ones) including The Athenian, Hellenic Star, Odyssey and Insider, and became a columnist in the Athens News.
Through her columns, The Feel Good Factor and Body Works, she explored her interest in beauty, health and fitness. She examined a wide variety of alternative therapies, remedies and disciplines, as well as trends in the beauty industry.
She also worked as Rewriter for the award-winning international fashion magazine, Next Fashion, turning the in-depth but Greek-lish and French-lish catwalk news and features into smoothly flowing English.
Through her work she always aims to inspire, and as well as profiling many successful and heart-warming people, she enjoys showcasing organizations making a positive difference in the world.
Workshops
In addition, since the late 90’s she has been presenting her series of self-development workshops called Be The Best You Can Be, Mind-Body-Soul. For these she draws on her management experience, personal development skills (begun with managerial training and honed by the many and various challenges of living and working abroad), and her journalism (which enabled her to move in the golden circle peopled with glittering stars, the fabulously wealthy, diplomats, politicians, and a variety of other people at the top of the game in their chosen fields).
Her wide writing experience also led to another series of workshops called Be the Best Writer You Can Be, which encourages both the published and beginners to take their talents to the next level.
Books
Her first non-fiction book 9 Days to Heaven, a course in spiritual development was born out of the Be the Best You Can Be workshops. People find the book especially useful during difficult times and readers in many countries email her with their thanks. She wrote the book in Athens where she lived close to the sea, and nature has a very strong role in it.
She continues her editorial work. Among her published commissions are two books: Athens 4 Kids! and Corfu 4 Kids! These are travel guides showing details of hundreds of venues where kids are welcome.
Teresa - A quick Glance
Pet likes:
- smiling people
- cats
- sunshine
- hot buttered toast and English Breakfast tea
- poppies in cornfields
Pet Dislikes:
- bad manners
- cruelty in any form
- tomato soup