Theresa Weir (born 1954), better known by her pen name Anne Frasier, is an American author of numerous genres.

Anne Frasier
Born1954 (age 69–70)
Burlington, Iowa, U.S.
OccupationNovelist
Alma materArtesia High School
Period1988–present
GenreThriller, suspense, mystery, crime fiction, paranormal, horror, romance, memoir
Website
www.annefrasier.com

Biography

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Anne Frasier was born in Burlington, Iowa and attended Artesia High School in Artesia, New Mexico. Her parents divorced when she was six years old. The next twelve years of her life were spent in poverty, moving to and from Florida, Iowa, California, Illinois, and New Mexico. After graduating she worked as a waitress, a factory worker at Albuquerque's Levi Strauss where she sewed the Levi's logo on the back pockets of jeans, followed by a secretarial position at Wally's LP Gas in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She has started writing in her early twenties.

At age 21 she married her late husband whom she had met while working at her uncle's bar in Illinois. After marrying, she and her husband, who had a background in agriculture, moved to an apple farm. In an interview with Huffpost Frasier stated how "[she] had this idealized notion of getting back to nature and the land. I imagined myself barefoot with a baby on my hip, raising crops and canning organic vegetables."[1] However, she soon grew dispirited due to the ill effects of pesticides and the helplessness she experienced because of her inability to "[...] do anything about it".[1]

Frasier credits these negative feelings, as well as general isolation, as the spark that prompted her to start writing genre fiction. As an unpublished author without college education, she did not know anything about submitting manuscripts. According to Frasier, she began mailing manuscripts to publishing house addresses she found in books. Her first sale was to the American publishing company Simon & Schuster; The Forever Man was published on April 28, 1988, by the Silhouette Book Publishing Division of Simon & Schuster, which specialised in romance novels.[1] The Forever Man, which was published under the name Theresa Weir, is now out-of-print and has been removed from her bibliography on her official website, annefrasier.com.[2]

After writing fiction spanning numerous genres for over 20 decades, she textualised her experience of American farm life during the 1980s in her memoir The Orchard. Additionally, her second memoir The Man Who Left chronicles her strained relationship to her father, who had left the family when she was five years old and later developed Alzheimers.

As of 2022, Frasier lives in Southern California with her dog and frequently shares insights into her personal life as well as her stance on environmentalism via Instagram. She has previously stated that she is "addicted" to Facebook and Instagram.[3]

Career

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Since the publication of her first novel, The Forever Man in 1988, Frasier has written over 40 novels, novellas, short stories, and anthologies under both her real name, Theresa Weir, as well as her more commonly used pseudonym Anne Frasier. During her early career Frasier wrote exclusively under the name Theresa Weir and specialised in romance novels, such as her 1988 novel Amazon Lily, which won the Romantic Times Best New Adventure Writer Award and was a RITA finalist.[4]

In the year 2002 her novel Hush was published. This was the first instance of her using the pen name Anne Frasier.

In 2014, Frasier stated in an interview that she has written so many different genres that her "[...] brand was diluted."[5] In an earlier interview from 1998, she had already talked about taking an unconventional approach to writing romance fiction.[6] This was due to the fact that, while writing, she did not adhere to the conventions of the romance genre but rather wrote what she thought herself and a potential reader would enjoy. According to Frasier this had led to a lack of success in finding a publisher for her book, Amazon Lily.[6] According to publishers, her main hero was "unlikable" and therefore would not fare well on the market.

Even after the success of Amazon Lily, Frasier still was met with hostility from editors and publishers when querying her books. Her characterisation of dark subject matters such as traumatic experiences, eating disorders or phobias led to her publishers eventually asking her to "[...] remove the blood and bodies" from her books.[7] Instead she decided to take the opposite approach and removed the romance elements. Her first psychological suspense novel Before I Wake was published on January 1, 2005, under the name Anne Frasier. She has continued to write romance novels under her real name, Theresa Weir, but has stated in 2016 that she considers herself a crime fiction writer first and foremost.[5]

Frasier is a member of Sisters in Crime and International Thriller writers. She served as a hardcover judge for the Thriller category presented by International Thriller writers, and was a guest of honour at the Diversicon 16 mystery and science fiction conference held in Minneapolis in 2008. Additionally, she was a judge in the International Thriller Writer's 2005 Best Novel contest.

Her titles have been translated in over 20 languages.

She credits Dr. Seuss, Night of the Living Dead, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Nosferatu, as well as the works of Alfred Hitchcock and other black and white horror movies as influences on her career as an author.[7]

Her next novel Found Object is set to be released on October 18, 2022.

Bibliography

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as Theresa Weir

Year Title Series Publisher Notes and Awards
1988 The Forever Man Silhouette Publishing out-of-print
1988 Amazon Lily Pocket Books RITA finalist, Romantic Times Best New Adventure Writer award
1989 Loving Jenny Silhouette Publishing
1990 Pictures of Emily Silhouette Publishing
1990 Iguana Bay Silhouette Publishing
1991 Forever Molly Series Fanfare Publishing
1992 Last Summer Bantam
1994 One Fine Day Molly Series Fanfare Publishing
1995 Long Night Moon Fanfare Publishing Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Award
1997 American Dreamer HarperCollins Publishers
1998 Some Kind of Magic HarperCollins Publishers
1998 Cool Shade HarperCollins Publishers RITA winner in the category romantic suspense
1999 Bad Karma HarperCollins Publishers Daphne du Maurier award in the category paranormal
2010 Max Under the Stars self-published Short story published as an e-book
2011 The Orchard - a memoir Grand Central Publishing Oprah Magazine Fall Pick, received a B+ review in Entertainment Weekly, and was one of the Librarians' Best Books of 2011.
2012 The Man who Left - a memoir Belfry Press New York Times bestseller, Barnes & Noble bestseller, Amazon.com bestseller
2012 The Girl with the Cat Tattoo Cool Cats series Belfry Press
2013 Come As You Are City of Lakes series Belfry Press
2011 The Geek with the Cat Tattoo Cool Cats series Belfry Press
2012 He's Come Undone City of Lakes series Belfry Press

as Anne Frasier

Year Title Series Notes and Awards
2002 Hush USA Today bestseller, Daphne du Maurier award finalist, RITA finalist
2003 Sleep Tight USA Today bestseller
2004 Play Dead Elise Sandburg Mysteries series USA Today bestseller
2005 Before I Wake
2006 Pale Immortal Land of the Dead series
2007 Garden of Darkness Land of the Dead series RITA finalist
2009 Once Upon a Crime Anthology - Santa's little helper Short story
2010 The Lineup: Poems on Crime - Home
2010 Discount Noir Anthology - Crack House Short story
2011 Deadly Treats Halloween Anthology - The Replacement Short story, Frasier additionally was an editor of the anthology
2012 Once upon a Crime Anthology - Red Cadillac Short story
2012 Woman in a Black Veil
2012 Dark: Volume 1 Collection of short stories
2012 Dark: Volume 2 Collection of short stories
2012 Black Tupelo Collection of short stories
2012 Girls from the North Country Short story
2012 Made of Stars Short story
2014 Stay Dead Elise Sandburg Mysteries series
2014 From the Indie Side Anthology
2015 Pretty Dead Elise Sandburg Mysteries series
2016 The Body Reader Detective Jude Fontaine Mysteries series The first draft of the crime thriller was originally set in a post-apocalyptic world
2017 Truly Dead Elise Sandburg Mysteries series
2018 The Body Counter Detective Jude Fontaine Mysteries series
2019 The Body Keeper Detective Jude Fontaine Mysteries series
2020 Find Me Inland Empire series Amazon.com bestseller
2021 Tell Me Inland Empire series

References

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  1. ^ a b c Isler, Hilal (22 June 2015). "After 'Swimming in Pesticides' for 20 Years, One Woman Takes a Stand". HuffPost. Retrieved 9 September 2022.
  2. ^ "More Theresa Weir Fiction". annefrasier.com. Retrieved 9 September 2022.
  3. ^ Ius, Dawn (31 March 2014). "Stay Dead by Anne Frasier". The Big Thrill. Retrieved 9 September 2022.
  4. ^ "RITA Awards: Past Winners". Romance Writers of America. 2007. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2007-07-24.
  5. ^ a b "Anne Frasier: Five Things I Learned Writing The Body Reader". terribleminds.com. 23 June 2016. Retrieved 10 September 2022.
  6. ^ a b Marble, Anne (November 20, 1998). "Taking a Risk with Anti-Heroes". All About Romance. Archived from the original on 4 August 2007. Retrieved 2007-07-24.
  7. ^ a b Bexte, Martina (August 2006). "Anne Frasier Knows How to Make Your Skin Crawl". Book Loons. Retrieved 2007-07-24.
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