Theresa Wyatt Prebilsky finding success as an author
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Theresa Wyatt Prebilsky grew up three miles west of Chrisman. Now she’s located in Texas and is a successful author.
“I grew up on a farm with my mom, Mary Alice Wyatt who taught elementary school for decades, my father Bob Wyatt and my sister, Trudy. I loved the quiet and infinite horizons of the farm. I loved the seasons,” Theresa told us. “I loved the ‘smell of the grass and the corn’ and I loved my family.”
After graduating, Prebilsky attended Purdue University, then began working in Indianapolis. In her late twenties, with a broken heart, she made a big move to Houston, Texas.
Theresa worked for the next eight years in increasingly corporate worlds, wearing khaki dockers, pin striped shirts and color coordinating silk scarves. “I make a success of marketing computers, banks, barbecue, pizzas and Coca-Cola,” she said. “By age thirty-four, I crashed and began a new life in office administration and accounting.”
Though she hadn’t formally been trained in that field, it became a learning curve. “I learned to learn, paid my bills and eventually started my own small accounting business, ProfitLine Consulting in 2001.”
During that time, she met her husband, Les.
“For over twenty-five years, Les has been my rock, my faithful fan of my art and writing. So much so that by the time I retired, I began my first blog and art site (www.theresawyatt.com),” she said.
Prebilsky always had the desire to write a book, but didn’t become a serious reader until later in life. When she began reading in her thirties, she found herself inspired by teachers and authors as diverse as Anne Lamont (Bird by Bird), Thomas Merton (No Man is an Island, The Contemplative Way, The Wisdom of the Desert), St. Therese of Lisieux (The Story of a Soul), Zen Master Charlotte Joko Beck (Nothing Special and Every Day Zen) as well as writings from Philokalia, a collection of texts written between the fourth of fifteenth centuries by spiritual masters of the Eastern Orthodox Church mystical tradition.
As Theresa continued reading and her lifelong practice of journaling and the relatively new discipline of posting on her blog, her desire to be published became a passion.
“It followed after watching one of my favorite movies ‘Citizen Kane’ and I started saying out loud ‘I think it would be fun to run a publishing company’,” Prebilsky said. “The advent of self-publishing has made this possible for me.”
In June of 2020, Theresa started ‘Sacred Support Publishing LLC’ with a mission of encouraging and supporting artists and indie authors. With the advent of online capabilities to self-publish, a twenty year old evolving manuscript, a range of computer skills from her former professional life and YouTube videos, Prebilsky published her first spiritually-based memoir with poetry entitled ‘RoseTears’.
“A year later, I published a workbook companion to RoseTears in the form of what I call a discovery journal that allows the reader to write personal reflections,” Prebilsky said. “And in short order, I will be releasing my third book called ‘Carrot the Parrot and The Island of Letting Go.”
For Prebilsky, Carrot the Parrot has been an entirely different experience than writing RoseTears. In this book, Theresa takes the reader on a journey of healing, delight and rest. “I try saying that it is not about me, but it is,” Theresa said. “In each round of editing, I increasingly see me all over the story, pages and images. I’m a bit surprised by that.”
Prebilsky sees her using personal experiences as an invitation for the reader to see and hear their own story. Connection with the reader is her first desire and priority in writing. “Connection with the reader, and hopefully giving the reader an experience of greater connection and love for themselves and the God of their own understanding.”
Though she’s made a successful life for herself in Houston, her hometown of Chrisman has always been in the back of her mind. When asked if she would move back, her short answer is ‘no’. “As my father replied to me in 1991 when I asked about coming home to help with the farm, ‘It’s too late for that’,” Prebilsky said.
It’s the ‘quiet that your ears nearly hurt’, straining to hear something is what she misses. “I miss the easy cruise to and around the square. I miss my parents, my sister, the “little house” that is no longer there,” Theresa said. “I miss the earth-sounds of summer, autumn, winter and spring. I miss my cousins living across the field near Cherry Point, and driving home on the ridge at Woodyards and up the farmhouse lane. I miss everyone pretty much knowing my mom as Mrs. Wyatt and me as Bob and Mary’s daughter.”
With her success, Theresa plans to write until she drops because that’s who God made her to be. “He made some of us farmers, parents, teachers, industrialists, welders, truck drivers, and professional athletes and a whole lot of other talents and treasures designed right in our DNA,” Prebilsky said. “I have been lucky enough, with blessings of grace, resources and people to write and publish. In my process of writing and publishing, I have found with many tears, prayers and curses that the reason for doing this comes from the same place – me, my true self and my God.”
If you would like to purchase one of Theresa’s books, you can do so on Amazon and the Sacred Support Publishing website at www.sacredsupport.com or at the Chrisman Public Library.
