I’m a writer based in southern California. This site is mainly an archive of my work from newspapers, magazines and books over the years. It also contains news and notices of what I’m doing and a heavily-edited account of what others have to say about my work. That work has ranged around the globe and across the encyclopedia of subject matter. It’s been a great ride so far.
I was a reporter at newspapers and magazines for 30 years, most recently at the Los Angeles Times where I was a national reporter based in L.A. I’ve covered county zoning boards, state legislatures, and the culture of the Los Angeles Police Department. I’ve specialized in long-term projects, often immersing myself in an assignment for months or occasionally years. I’ve written on an enormous range of subjects: radical Islam; the financing, design and construction of skyscrapers; the search for a rare blood molecule; the California Dream; and growing coffee in Indonesia among them. I try to write stories that are heavily reported, textured, place-based and complex, written in a strong, distinctive voice. I’ve won numerous journalism awards from a variety of organizations, including those that honor writing about economics, science and foreign affairs.
I’m a native of Iowa. In addition to journalism, I have worked as a carpenter, a political campaign manager and an interpreter of satellite reconnaissance imagery in the U.S. Air Force. I have a graduate degree in urban studies. While a metro columnist at the Seattle Times, I published a serial mystery novel about the disappearance of Bill Gates. I live in southern California.
The directory to the right contains links to more of my pieces than any sane person could possibly want to read. First person who claims to have read it all gets a beer. I like to drink beer with insane people so we’ll have fun. You can reach me through the Contact Me form on the directory. I’m buying.
MY BOOKS
OFF SPEED: Baseball, Pitching and the Art of Deception
Now available in paperback!
George Vecsey says Off Speed is “a literate and knowing little gem. ”
“What lover of the game will not delight in McDermott’s field-of-dreams nostalgia for the baseball he played and watched growing up in his small Iowa hometown? No one passionate about America’s national pastime will leave these pages disappointed.” – Booklist starred review.
“Off Speed is baseball magic. As soon as Terry McDermott set down thirteen deft definitions of pitches with which I happily began to quibble, then gave me Willie Stargell likening the attempt to hit Sandy Koufax to trying to drink coffee with a fork, I fell into a flow state that held to the last chapter.” —David James Duncan, author of The Brothers K
“Terry McDermott’s little gem, Off Speed, captures how to watch the game with the heart. I loved, loved, loved this book.” – Washington Post
“Providing both insight into the art of pitching and a memoir on the role of the game in the life of a baseball fan, this work will be enjoyed by all lovers of the sport.” – Library Journal
“McDermott’s deeply felt portrayal of the men on the mound is informed by an awareness of how much of what they do takes place in their head.” – The Atlantic
Off Speed is “entertaining and wistful. . .. McDermott demystifies baseball, illustrating the game’s “secret beauty” from being built over a very long time.”- Publishers Weekly
“The narrative is filled with passion and insight into how the game’s measured pace can seem both out of touch with fast-paced contemporary life and a temporary corrective to that fast pace.” – Kirkus Review
Long-listed for the PEN Literary Non-Fiction Award.
See more at: off-speed.com
Order here: Powells, Amazon ,Barnes & Noble
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THE HUNT FOR KSM: Inside the Pursuit and Takedown of the Real 9/11 Mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, co-authored by Josh Meyer
The definitive account of the decade-long pursuit and capture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
Named one of the best books of 2012 by both the Washington Post and Kirkus Reviews!
“Superlative storytelling and crackling reportage define a pulse-pounding narrative.” — Kirkus Reviews
“A flat-out thriller.”
— Los Angeles Times
“Eye-opening investigative reporting. . .”
— The Boston Globe
“The two authors of “The Hunt for KSM” have reconstructed an almost decade-long clandestine manhunt in exacting detail, an undeniably impressive feat of sleuthing.”
— The New York Times Book Review
“One of the most revealing dispatches yet from the war on terror.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Fabulous reporting and great storytelling make it one of the best thrillers I’ve ever read.”
–bestselling author Michael Connelly
“McDermott and Meyer have given us a fact-filled inside account, in the voices of those on the job.”
–Seymour Hersh of The New Yorker
“Reads like a real-life episode of the show ’24.’”
–bestselling author Jane Mayer
AMAZON Facebook Barnes and Noble Powell’s
Perfect Soldiers: The Hijackers – Who They Were, Why They Did It
“The definitive book on the nineteen men who brought such devastation and terror to this country. . . . A well-told, meticulously researched cautionary tale.” —Washington Post Book World
“Absorbing. . . . [A] richly textured narrative full of the sort of small, telling details that turn these men from faceless figures of evil into individuals.” —New York Times
“Fascinating. Perfect Soldiers is a simultaneously passionate, compassionate, and dispassionate book that neither indicts Islam nor excuses the terrorists’ crimes but draws a chilling, clear, and cautionary map of the small, fateful steps with which ordinary men cross the dangerous line between faith and fanaticism.” —Francine Prose, O, The Oprah Magazine
101 Theory Drive: The Discovery of Memory
“101 Theory Drive is compelling ride.” – Providence Journal
“McDermott is a total bad ass, and his writing is a high-wire balancing act of providing the perfect mix of candy and vegetables.” – Corduroy Books