Local authors call marriage, books “labor of love”

For South Jordan couple Judeen and Terry Brewer, the story of their successful marriage was written in part by their shared desire to author books.

The Brewers, who’ve been married for 42 years, have been writing short stories, novels and books for children together for more than 20 years.

Recently, the couple released the first novel, “Calm Before The Storm,” of a series published with the pen name of J.T. Brewer (using the couple’s first name initials).

Terry Brewer said the couple began writing to reconnect after two decades of marriage. He said they needed to share a something other than routine daily activities and talk about the children.

“We started searching for something we could do together to build a better marriage,” he said, adding,” It really made us a strong couple.”

Over the last four decades, the Brewers have raised four children who’ve since moved but still make their homes in Utah.

For most of the time they’ve been writing together, more than 17 years, the Brewers have made their home at the south end of the Salt Lake Valley. The couple currently resides in the Daybreak community of South Jordan.

Judeen Brewer works as a public school second grade teacher and Terry Brewer is employed as a data systems analyst at J.P. Morgan Chase.

As the couple began searching for shared interests and activities after 20 years of marriage, they realized they were happiest while writing together.

Both loved writing when they were young and brought those experiences to the partnership.

Judeen Brewer was already a published author who had won several awards in local writing contests while growing up in Star Valley, Wyo.

Terry Brewer wrote fiction for his high school literary magazine before becoming a Russian linguist and intelligence officer for the U.S. Army Reserve.

Since the couple has begun writing together, they’ve worked hard to improve their writing skills by attending professional writers’ workshops.

They started by writing a number of short stories over the years before they began collaborating on a series of science fiction and fantasy-genre novels called ”The Stewards of the White Circle.”

The first book of the series, entitled “Calm Before the Storm,” was self-published and is available through Amazon.com books.

They’re also planning three more novels to add to the series.

In addition, they’re working on a children’s book called “Hoppin’ Jack and the Siege of Central Park.”

Terry Brewer said the couple is currently looking for a distributor for the books and has made plans to keep writing even after retirement.

He said whether or not the books are financially successful, the couple has still managed to co-author a strong partnership and will keep writing chapters in their happy marriage.

“Whether we sell another book doesn’t matter to our marriage,” he said.