AUTHOR

Larry Terhaar

LARRY TERHAAR

Thanks for viewing my website! Here is a little bit about me.

I grew up in Westport, CT, where I married Beth, my high school sweetheart. After a few different work experiences in my twenties, I started a new career as a home builder in my thirties. This business grew into real estate development, and by 2004, I was building condominiums.

Beth and I had two boys in the 80s and raised them in Fairfield County, CT, primarily in Danbury and Newtown. Both our sons are now married, and we have been blessed with two wonderful grandsons. 

By 2000, I had become fascinated with ocean sailing. We have owned three sailboats since then and have sailed the western Atlantic and Caribbean seas multiple times from Maine to Grenada and every place in between, living aboard for much of that time. 

I retired from the building/development business in 2016, sold the boat, and purchased a beachfront condominium in Jensen Beach, FL. We are now “snowbirds,” spending our summers in CT and winters in FL. In 2018, I was recruited to join the Board of Directors of the condominium association, where I served for six years.

In 2021, when the Champlain Towers in Surfside, FL, collapsed, killing 98 people, I felt compelled to write about it and began researching the tragedy. Using my construction knowledge and experience with the condominium board, I initially thought I’d be writing a non-fiction account. But soon, my imagination took over, resulting in my first novel, OCEANSIDE.

There was quite a learning curve, but after working with some professional editors, I came to love writing, re-igniting a passion from my youth. I wake up each morning with a scene or passage that I just have to get down on paper. Since OCEANSIDE was published, I have written two Private Detective novels, the genre I enjoy reading most. They feature Dan Burnett, a retired NYPD detective living on a sailboat in Long Island Sound. You can expect more titles in that series, but currently, I’m working on a Bahamas sailing story, again using my experience to tell a fictional story.