Fact or fiction?

Terry Gooch Ross publishes her second book in High Sierra Mystery Series.

Terry Gooch Ross didn’t plan on becoming a writer. But with the publication of her first book, “A Twin Falls,” in February, 2013, her second, “A Twin Pursuit,” in April of this year, and work beginning on her third, writing has become Gooch Ross’s passion.

She writes what she knows, and her High Sierra Mystery Series is set in Mammoth Lakes, featuring local establishments and characters.

“I love mysteries and I love Mammoth,” Gooch Ross said in an interview last week. “So how do you blend the two?”

Gooch Ross’s books are also autobiographical, at least in part.

“When we read fiction, how relevant is the author’s biography?” asked Adam Kirsch in a New York Times Bookends article on June 24. As readers, Kirsch argued, we should “use the life to clarify the factors that shape the work— to show how life and work were both shaped by the same set of problems and drives.”

In Gooch Ross’s case, the author draws from her personal experiences, heartaches, relationships, and love for Mammoth, to write.

The main character in her mystery novels is Janet Westmore, an alter ego of Gooch Ross herself. Gooch Ross created the name, and possibly even the character, while she was in high school.

“It was the name I used to use when I was a kid and I would get in trouble and someone would ask, ‘what’s your name?’ And I had to have a name just fall off my tongue like that,” she said, snapping her fingers. “I always used Janet Westmore.”

Westmore’s deceased twin, Mary, helps her solve mysteries throughout the books. Gooch Ross’s own twin sister, Mary, died in 2001 of a brain aneurism, ten years after her husband, Bob (also featured in the books) died of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

“People use the words soul mates and I think they use it way too much, but they were,” Gooch Ross said. “They are one of the only couples I’ve ever known who were.

“The big deal for me is that when Bob died, Mary wanted so much to have a memorial to him and we couldn’t figure out what [to do],” she said. “Once [the book] finally went on the Internet, I felt the biggest relief of my life because I had finally fulfilled a promise. And they both were immortal. They will be there forever. You can’t take them off. Publishing meant that it was the memorial.”

It took Gooch Ross six years to self-publish the first book, with the help of local Diane Eagle, who also published the second.

The idea to write a book came to Gooch Ross while she was cross-country skiing at Tamarack after Mary’s death. Her husband, Doug Ross, worked on Mammoth Mountain Ski Patrol for 18 years, and as a CPA, and Gooch Ross often found herself lonely and grieving. “[Mary] was my best friend and I was devastated,” Gooch Ross said. She initially started writing about Mary and Bob to spend time with them.

“I didn’t plan on writing a book,” she said. “I just sat down and loved it.”

As homage to her late sister, Gooch Ross references some of Mary’s favorite wines throughout the book. “Mary loved really good wines,” she said. “I’ve taken it upon myself to drink more. She used to love really good red wine and really good dark chocolate.”

As Gooch Ross began to write, the characters took on lives of their own: “It’s just so exciting. Something will happen, a character will do something, and I’ll wonder ‘well, why did they do that?’” Gooch Ross said.

“I have no idea why they do some of the things they do. It turns out to be the perfect thing, because then it leads into where we are going.”

There are several Mammoth citizens directly referenced in Gooch Ross’s book, including newly-elected Town Councilmember Shields Richardson and Mary Heller from Mammoth Hospital.

“People like reading about where they have been,” she said about setting the book in Mammoth. Tamarack Lodge, Side Door, Petra’s, Black Velvet Coffee, Mimi’s Cookie Bar and Roy’s Bench, which overlooks Lake Mary, are all featured in the book. “This is really a good tourism tool,” Gooch Ross said. “My big goal in life is to get this book at the Visitor’s Center.”

Gooch Ross moved to Mammoth in 1993, after first visiting the area in the mid-1980s with Ross while they were dating.

“I think when I came to Mammoth it was the first time I could breathe, contrary to what all believe about altitude,” she said. “Mammoth is the only place where twenty-somethings and eighty-somethings, those who didn’t graduate from high school and those who have Ph.D.’s, those who never have to think about money and those who struggle, are real friends.” This perception is demonstrated through Gooch Ross’s writing, as her characters represent a variety of professions, ages, and life situations.

Before moving to Mammoth, Gooch Ross was a Human Resources Director for a large corporation until she went out on her own as a HR consultant. “I go into a corporate office now and I get the willies,” she said. “Being on a schedule, not planning anything on your own, trying to figure out how to get days off—no thanks.”

For the last twenty years she has worked for herself, consulting with private non-profits and public organizations, helping with HR issues, sexual harassment and management training, and strategic planning.

“There probably isn’t a non-profit in Mono or Inyo County that I haven’t at least done their strategic planning,” Gooch Ross said.

“It’s fun, because there is always a new problem,” she said about her day job. “People are pissy; either the Board of Directors are pissy, or managers are pissy, or employees are pissy. When somebody is upset and they don’t know what to do about it, I go in and interview everyone confidentially and come up with a plan.” Now, she only works part time, and as her clients retire, so does she.

“I think I’m going to keep going,” Gooch Ross said about writing the High Sierra Mystery Series. “I really enjoy this.”

Gooch Ross’s books can be found at the Booky Joint and Tamarack Lodge, as well as booklocker.com and amazon.com. She plans on doing a book signing for “A Twin Pursuit,” at the Booky Joint sometime in July.