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Lark Griffing Posts

Lark Griffing is interviewed by Yvonne Mason

If you missed tonight’s podcast, you can listen to it here. Just click the link below. Yvonne and I talk about my newest books in my A Gone to the Dogs Camper Romance Series: Teardrops and Flip Flops and Teardrops and Rest Stops.

It was another delightful hour spent chatting with Yvonne. I hope you enjoy it. Tune in on March 1st, when I get to co-host with Yvonne. We will welcome Author J. C. Wing to spend an hour with us talking about her Goddess of Tornado Alley series.

Author Lark Griffing Checks in With Us 01/12 by Yvonne Mason | Books Podcasts

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/yvonnemason/2019/01/13/author-lark-griffing-checks-in-with-us

Girl in Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow absolutely wounded me

Girl in Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow

absolutely wounded me


I just finished reading an amazing book, Girl in Pieces by Kathleen Gasglow.  It wounded me, reminding me of my past students who were cutters. If you are a teacher who cares about the pain your students feel, a parent who watches your children or their friends worrying about what goes on in their heads, or just a person who believes in hope, you need to read this book.

Girl in Pieces will take you on a journey through the hell of Charlie’s life as she struggles with coping without cutting. The book is raw, not kind, but it doesn’t leave you without some kind of hope.  Glasgow weaves her story realistically.  As much as I wanted to tell myself that this doesn’t happen, the voice inside me murmured, you know it does.

Homelessness, abuse, addiction, cutting.  It’s hard to take in all of it, but Glasgow will capture you and draw you along through the story, sometimes gently, sometimes brutally.  At the end, she provides links for those who are seeking help.  She doesn’t leave you bleeding on the floor, but gives you the resources to heal and journey toward a better world.

You wish the characters weren’t believable.  You pray that these tortured souls are a figment of the author’s imagination, but the writing is compelling, and you know that these characters are too real.  You may even catch glimpses of people you know or have brushed against in the past.  You wonder if you looked through them and never noticed their pain.

Girl in Pieces is going to haunt me for a long time, and I will whisper, “sorrysorrysorrysorry” for all those past students who I missed seeing their signals.

 

 

 

Goodreads Giveaway: Enter for a chance to win!

Do you want a chance to win a paperback copy of The Last Time I Checked, I Was Still Here?  Enter to win at Goodreads starting June 15, 2017.

Disclaimer: There are no vampires or zombies. Also, this YA novel is devoid of throbbing romance and sex. It is a book about working through grief and becoming okay. 

Do I still have you?  If so, here is the pertinent information:

 

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Last Time I Checked, I Was Still Here by Lark Griffing

The Last Time I Checked, I Was Still Here

by Lark Griffing

Giveaway ends June 23, 2017.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

I Hugged a Child Today

I hugged a child today.  I am a teacher.  I am not supposed to hug children, but I did it.  I did it in the hallway, in front of the surveillance cameras.  There is evidence.  But I went ahead and did it.

She stood in front of me with tears in her eyes explaining to me why she didn’t get her homework finished.  I hear a lot of homework excuses.  I am usually ready for them, hardened and unmoving, but her face, the defeat and anguish in her eyes gave me pause.  She stood in front of me beaten, and frightened, and hurt.  She didn’t do her homework last night.  She couldn’t.  Her cousin died of a heroin overdose.  Last night.  My student, my young adult student, my junior year student, stood in front of me with tears in her eyes as vulnerable as a first grader and told me she didn’t do her homework because her cousin overdosed on heroin.

I hugged a child today, and I don’t care that I’m not supposed to.

Launching a dream

When I was a little girl, little as in 4th grade, I announced to myself I was going to become a famous author.  I began writing stories, vast tomes (four pages in pre-teen cursive, skip a line) about a wonderful palomino mare named, Golden Sunshine.  I shudder at the admission.
These stories started out wildly ambitious, but they died right after describing in glorious sensory detail my wonder horse.  I desperately wanted to ride off into the sunset, but I couldn’t figure out the words in between.

Fast forward to a much wiser woman whose horse days are behind her.  Yes, I acquired a majestic animal, an appaloosa gelding, mean as could be, but that is a story for another time.  Although the equine dreams faded, the goal of being an author never paled.   It rested, lying dormant and germinating until just recently.  After many false starts, a story took hold, and grew.  The in between was no longer an issue.  My fingers flew across the keyboard, no longer relegated to a number two pencil and wide rule paper, and I lost myself in the tale.  In the wee hours of the morning, I would have to stop to read what I just wrote, because I really had no idea.  The story became alive.  I was no longer in charge, but rather a muse deep inside me guided my creation.

They say write about what you know.  That was the problem with the child author.  Golden Sunshine was an aching desire, but I didn’t have the experience, nor the knowledge to fake it.  This time, I wrote about the things I love.  I wrote about teenagers and their hopes and hurts.  I wrote about the restorative nature of the mountains.   By channelling my inner transcendentalist, I gave birth to my first novel.

The birth of my two boys was difficult.  In contrast, the novel slid out easily.  Raising the boys has been a joy.  Editing the novel, a pain in the butt.  Yet, as I watch my boys grow into men, I understand that my novel will also mature.  It will take hard work and a strong will… and patience.  Ask my boys if I have patience.  They will laugh!