SIDNEY — Sidney author Terry Pellman has released his seventh work of fiction. “Mating For Life” is his first book based within a local setting.

Described by Pellman as a “relationship drama,” the story chronicles the star-crossed love affair of two 1972 graduates of Houston High School. The novel traces their lives from the pivotal evening when they connect just months after graduation in Bud’s Bar in Minster, Ohio, to the present day.

Rob Gregory has lived his entire life in the same home on his family’s farm several miles west of Sidney. He has no plans to do anything other than continue to work the family farm for a lifetime.

Pamela Freeman had come to Houston High School with just months remaining until graduation. Her life had been a disorienting carousel of moves from one school, one state to another as her highly successful father traveled wherever he was assigned to open up new markets to agricultural products, before relocating over and over.

The young woman has endured a lifetime with emotionally indifferent parents. There have been brief psychiatric hospitalizations and medications for anxiety and depression. Now she has finally found someone who makes her feel safe and protected.

Initially cautious, the couple suddenly find themselves falling rapidly and deeply in love. And it all crashes one night when Rob finds the Freeman home vacant.

The story is one of a woman attempting to come to grips with the lingering effects of her neglect, and a man’s refusal to abandon her while coping with his own loneliness and tragedies.

Mating For Life is now available on Amazon.com in paperback and ebook forms. It will be available locally at Gallery 2:TEN on Fair Road in Sidney, as are all of Pellman’s books.

Anyone interested in contacting the author can do so by phone or text at 937-726-9542, or at [email protected].