On Nov. 14, 2013, Edina High School was fortunate enough to be able to welcome acclaimed novelist Heather Terrell to our hallways. Heather Terrell, Magna Cum Laude Graduate of Boston College, spoke to students about her new book “The Relic.” Originally intending to be a history major, Terrell attended Boston College and eventually Boston University School for Law in order to become a corporate lawyer for twelve years. “As a history major people will often ask you: what are you going to do with that, and isn’t law school a great choice?” remarked Terrell.

Throughout her career however, Terrell longed for more in life. “As I practiced law I was still always drawn to history and myth…and I was trying desperately to find some way to marry the two,” she said. Terrell began taking classes at NYU on top of her hectic work schedule in order to fulfill this desire. However, she knew that she needed more. “I still wasn’t doing my storytelling,” Terrell commented. So she found a way to incorporate her studies into her novels. She realized that as a lawyer, she was taking facts, applying law, and creating legal stories from what she had gathered which doesn’t differ much from her historically based works of fiction.

Terrell’s rebellious nun of an aunt helped shape her future career by giving her amazing books as presents, and one book in particular changed her life: “Mists of Avalon,” by Marion Zimmer Bradley. “It was transformational for me…it was one of the first books that took an iconic mythological account and told it from a different point of view, Arthur’s wife. In changing the perspective it completely changed the tale and really made me change the way I began to think about everything I read.” Inspired by this theme of a new perspective, the idea of hidden truths and manipulation of myths became the foundation for her writing.

Having written six books and received enormous praise from her readers, it’s hard to think of Terrell as anything other than an author. As she talked about writing, her passion was evident. Her face lit up and her vivacious energy filled the theater in a way that inspired those around me in a way I was unfamiliar with. In previous encounters with authors I had always found them to be rather disconnected and unapproachable – no matter how brilliant their writing was. Terrell however is a completely different story; her personality is extraordinary and altogether completely refreshing.

“What’s happening in the marketplace is that they are trying to package you like everyone else…where I’ve been lucky is that my publisher sees that my genre is not like anyone else’s. My publisher truly markets it as what it really is,” Terrell said.

In Terrell’s book “Relic,” she attempts to explain the effects of perspectives in history. It is written with hopes of taking the reader on the same journey she took as the little girl when she received “Mists of Avalon” from her aunt, just shown through the eyes of the protagonist Eva.

The book is set in The New North, an arctic area of land that happens to be the only place left on earth due to global warming and massive flooding called “healing.” All citizens choose to live in a medieval way because they believe all modern things are evil and led to the collapse of society. They also participate in an event called “Testing,” which is a dangerous journey across the taiga and tundra to the testing site. There, they hold archaeological excavations to uncover artifacts from civilization pre-healing that washed up on shore and were frozen into the ice. After they uncover the artifacts, they create chronicles based on what they find which gives the reader insight to the civilians’ views of the past. “As the main character goes on her exhibition, she finds artifacts and something happens to Eva. She learns something different from what her understanding had been. She must ask herself if she needs a new prism to look at her society and herself… to cut out the lens forced upon her and reevaluate what she knows,” commented Terrell.

Terrell’s love of her work is evident, and she encourages questions from students and interaction. “Books affect young adults in a greater way. This is a time in which they are opening their eyes to the world and I want to be able to help them with that.” Terrell shares that talking to students and connecting with them is what means most to her. It is evident that she’s found the right path in her life that encompasses all she loves. “I always wanted to be a time traveler as a kid and I think I finally found the best way to do this.”