FULL BIO
Thais Derich was born in Carmel, CA. She graduated from California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo. Thais spent two years living in Belgium and France studying French, art, and theater before returning to Northern California.
In 2003, after working for large and small software companies using her Technical Writing Certification, Thais started her own software training business, allowing her to travel around the United States teaching software operations at Fortune-500 companies. She co-authored business books and taught at the University of California Berkeley Extension program.
A few years later, she and her husband decided to start a family, of which the effects written about in her book, prompted Thais to leave the business to stay at home full-time. During that time, she dabbled in her passion for writing by starting a successful food blog, as well as started a line of healthy granola bars sold at her local grocery store, and, most notably, she focused on writing Second Chance.
Derich’s work has been published in Salon, BlogHer, BabyCenter, Literary Mama, Wild Violet Literary Magazine, Forge Journal, SFGate, the San Francisco Examiner, among others and performed live at the Listen to Your Mother show. A chapter of Second Chance was a finalist for the Creative Non-Fiction Magazine’s anthology. She's been interviewed on NPR, KPFA, and KRCB radio stations and various podcasts including Dr. Berlin's Informed Pregnancy Podcast.
Thais coaches writers with a message for the world, runs the writing program at The Hivery in Mill Valley, CA, and speaks to groups big and small about her story – the intersection between childbirth and social justice and seeing choice where there appears to be none. She lives in beautiful Marin County with her husband and two kids, where she is writing her second book.