By BARBARA WALKIN

FN Night Editor

barbara@nasguard.com

The Autobiography of Anita Analiza is a reader's delight and a must have for avid book-worms. Written by Terry Denise James-Moss, the story spawns a "fictional tale" of a teenage girl/woman, who makes some untoward choices throughout her life and suffers the consequences, despite making a 360 degree about turn in her early 20s.

If you are not captured by the cover– which depicts very intense light green eyes in a female face surrounded by darkness – then the story of Anita will touch you.

In an interview with The Freeport News James-Moss tells how she got into writing and how Anita Analiza, her first published book came about.

"It's probably a cliché story, but I was pretty bored when I was younger. I started writing to entertain myself and keep my mind busy," she remembers. James-Moss, who lived with her grandmother throughout most of her teenage years said, "I lived apart from my parents, so being in that situation with a much older guardian ... not being around children, hardly ever, I had to find a way to keep myself entertained, so reading was the way."

She added eventually that led to writing and writing became a way to do something and then it became something else ... "it became a hobby and then it was like I took it from there."

From an author's eye, James-Moss described the character of her first published book as 'gutsy.'

"As an author when I judge her, she is very indecisive, very risqué and not very good at seeing how choices lead to consequences, and I think one of the reasons why I kept this particular character – because I have some other books that I am not looking at revising or ever publishing – is because I think that her personality relates to a lot of the young girls today," explained James-Moss.

"You know they don't see all the way out to the consequences, they see only to right now, what is good for right now ... am I going to get into this for right now and they don't look far down the road, like if I do this what demands will be made on me later."

James-Moss said that Anita Analiza took 13 years before she was released to the public. "When I went back and looked at the book a couple years ago, it was actually in a binder, I said to myself that this is actually relevant."

Haven written the original copy at age 13, James-Moss said that the pages were revised over and over again, cut down and a lot of pages were taken out.

"A lot of unnecessary things were taken out just to get to the story, which is you follow this girl, she grows up in a house where standards are not necessarily taught and she just finds her own way."

James-Moss said it is not as if Anita doesn't know better (about the things she does or the choices she makes), but she just chooses to go and do it her own way.

"She knows that there are probably some consequences, but she doesn't see the extent of them until it is too late ... so that is the story in a nutshell," she smiled.

Some readers may think that, maybe, James-Moss is telling her life experiences through Anita; however, the author quickly dispels that thought.

She admits that Anita has some of her character traits, "I can be a very in your face kind of person (like Anita); however, I am glad that I am not indecisive.

"I have made some choices in my past that I wish I hadn't made, but none as extreme as hers ... but the lesson I think we have in common is that there is an understanding that even once you make a change, you don't always escape all the consequences," reflected the author.

"That's the way it is in everything that you do, whether you've over eaten for a year and gain some weight, or you waited too late to turn in an application and you didn't get a job or didn't get into a school."

She said it is just the idea that your choices may have immediate and long-lasting consequences and it can throw everything off.

"We have that in common, in that this choice can lead to – as she says in the book – "I let go of a demanding profession, before all the demands are met."

James-Moss said that it is an understanding that when you make a choice, demands come with it and when you don't fulfil them sometimes there are negative consequences.

As for having a book, telling a "risqué story" of a young woman like Anita out there, James-Moss said that it is nerve-wracking, "because it is really uncomfortable stuff, but I feel good about it because that's real stuff, that is what is really going on.

"Women are going through and living similar lives to that of Anita, and are suffering the consequences," she added.

James-Moss said there may be some repercussions for writing a book like this with "those types of things in it," but she doesn't apologize for them.

She maintains that it is real, it is what is happening today on our society.

Anita is aggressive, brazen and does what she wants to do and of course she suffers the consequences. This book is a must read and although not yet in book stores locally, Anita Analiza can be found on ebay.

Moss is hoping to have the book on local shelves very soon.