There’s a phrase in the South: “telling stories”, which means telling lies. Growing up, Karen Metcalf told a lot of stories, which wasn’t always a good thing.
She was raised on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, where she spent most of her time reading science fiction and horror. She continues to explore those worlds through her writing, today.
Karen is 23 years old, and lives in Tucson, Arizona
I had the pleasure of reviewing Karen Metcalf's novella 'In the Storm' (you can read my review here!), and Karen was also kind enough to write up a guest post about libraries. I can tell you now that you'll love this story. Here it is --
Well, this is gonna make my mom cry!
I think it’s pretty much safe to say that reading runs in my family. My parents both enjoyed it, and shared that with their kids. My brother, sister, and I spent a lot of time in bookstores and libraries. However, I never knew anyone who read as much as my Grandma Hilda.
She is actually included in the dedication page of In the Storm. Growing up in a very small town, there was a teeny tiny library right down the road from her house. She took us there every summer. It was just the coolest place ever. I remember the shelves were built into the walls, almost in a circle; all displaying children’s books. There weren’t many regular shelves on the floor, so when you walked in, you were in a cocoon of books. As a kid, this was so magical. This was my favorite library, and we spent countless hours there. Unfortunately, I think a hurricane did away with it.
So the county relocated the library to the high school. This was a quite a distance away for my grandmother, and she didn’t like to drive too much. So the librarians started to bring her books. Huge bags of like 20+ books a week. I was so amazed by this! I thought there was no way she could read all of those in a week. But every time I saw her (if she wasn’t engrossed in her other “stories”- Soap Operas) her nose was in a book. They were all over her house. As we got older, she started to get them by mail from book clubs, and she shared them with us (especially “that Stephen King fellow”. She hated horror novels!). I would always leave her house with an arm-load. Grandma Hilda’s became the new library.
Unfortunately, her library closed in 2008 catching us all by surprise, and I would give anything to visit just one more time. I miss her so very much. Her's was, is, and will always be my favorite library in the world.
I can’t wait to make one of my own one day to share with my own kids and grandkids.
Karen-Metcalf.com
Facebook Author Page
In The Storm Fan page
Giveaway:Two lucky readers will win an eBook (epub, mobi, or pdf) of Karen's novella 'In The Storm'.
Simply leave a comment here (with a valid email address!) to enter.
Edited to add: I forgot to set a date for the giveaway to end on. So... you have a week (until April 6 at midnight EST) to enter. =)
I'd love to be entered in your draw. Thanks.
ReplyDeletewandanamgreb(at)gmail(dot)com
I've never actually been to a library for the purpose of checking out books I actually wanted to read, I've always gone for research purposes to write papers and things for school. I really should look into going to my local library now, I'm sure it would be a whole different experience:) So cool that the librarians brought her mom books! Very sad the library is now closed however, but hopefully she can still get lots of books through book clubs and things!
ReplyDeleteDon't enter me in the giveaway, I just wanted to leave a comment:)
Oh I love the story about the library. I used to go to the library a lot, I wish I had more time to go now.
ReplyDeleteThe book sounds awesome! Thanks for the giveaway!
danceislove27(at)gmail(dot)com
What a touching story. No need to enter me.
ReplyDeleteJenny, you should definitely check out your library. Libraries have so much to offer people, often stuff you're unaware of. Plus free books = awesome! =)
ReplyDeleteI totally agree. It was the coolest thing to me as a kid, and nothing since has held that sense of mystery, and that a journey is around every corner.
ReplyDeleteBest of luck to all who entered for the giveaway!