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    Memories of My Childhood
    Memories of My Childhood
    Memories of My Childhood
    Ebook84 pages1 hour

    Memories of My Childhood

    By Kathryn Meyer Griffith

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    About this ebook

    Have you ever wondered what a writer’s childhood was like?

    Well, wonder no longer. These stories are about my childhood. I began writing when I was twenty-one in the year 1971 and have since seen not only the world change dramatically but the publishing world as well. When I published my first novel, a horror yarn titled Evil Stalks the Night in 1984 with Leisure mass market paperbacks, I was a loyal worker bee of the big publishing houses with a stingy boiler contract and a whopping 4 percent of the royalties…now thirty-two years later I am self-publishing and am finally making a living at my craft for the first time in forty-five years of writing; with 24 novels, 2 novellas and many short stories to my name. Three of the four short stories in this collection were the VERY FIRST stories I ever had published and they were printed in my local newspaper between 1977 and 1979 after the one titled Michael, a tale about my youngest brother who was murdered in 1971, won their short story contest over two hundred other submissions. I illustrated all the stories for the newspaper then and have included those original drawings in this book. The fourth short story was just recently written and is a composite of some of my childhood Christmases. All four are loosely based on my childhood in the 1950’s and 1960’s. After my musician/singer/songwriter brother Jim passed away last year from cancer I felt the intense need to revive these old stories and memories and put them out there for all to read as a tribute to him and my family. These are my stories, my childhood and some of my fondest memories.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherKathryn Meyer Griffith
    Release dateOct 21, 2016
    ISBN9781536574814
    Memories of My Childhood
    Author

    Kathryn Meyer Griffith

    About Kathryn Meyer Griffith...Since childhood I’ve been an artist and worked as a graphic designer in the corporate world and for newspapers for twenty-three years before I quit to write full time. But I’d already begun writing novels at 21, almost fifty years ago now, and have had thirty-one (romantic horror, horror novels, romantic SF horror, romantic suspense, romantic time travel, historical romance, thrillers, non-fiction short story collection, and murder mysteries) previous novels and thirteen short stories published from various traditional publishers since 1984. But, I’ve gone into self-publishing in a big way since 2012; and upon getting all my previous books’ full rights back for the first time have self-published all of them. My five Dinosaur Lake novels and Spookie Town Murder Mysteries (Scraps of Paper, All Things Slip Away, Ghosts Beneath Us, Witches Among Us, What Lies Beneath the Graves, All Those Who Came Before, When the Fireflies Returned) are my best-sellers.I’ve been married to Russell for over forty-three years; have a son, two grandchildren and a great-granddaughter and I live in a small quaint town in Illinois. We have a quirky cat, Sasha, and the three of us live happily in an old house in the heart of town. Though I’ve been an artist, and a folk/classic rock singer in my youth with my late brother Jim, writing has always been my greatest passion, my butterfly stage, and I’ll probably write stories until the day I die...or until my memory goes.2012 EPIC EBOOK AWARDS *Finalist* for her horror novel The Last Vampire ~ 2014 EPIC EBOOK AWARDS * Finalist * for her thriller novel Dinosaur Lake.*All Kathryn Meyer Griffith’s 31 novels and 13 short storiesare available everywhere in eBooks, paperbacks and audio books.Novels and short stories from Kathryn Meyer Griffith:Evil Stalks the Night, The Heart of the Rose, Blood Forged, Vampire Blood, The Last Vampire (2012 EPIC EBOOK AWARDS*Finalist* in their Horror category), Witches, Witches II: Apocalypse, Witches plus Witches II: Apocalypse, The Nameless One erotic horror short story, The Calling, Scraps of Paper (The First Spookie Town Murder Mystery), All Things Slip Away (The Second Spookie Town Murder Mystery), Ghosts Beneath Us (The Third Spookie Town Murder Mystery), Witches Among Us (The Fourth Spookie Town Murder Mystery), What Lies Beneath the Graves (The Fifth Spookie Town Murder Mystery), All Those Who Came Before (The Sixth Spookie Town Murder Mystery), When the Fireflies Returned (The Seventh Spookie Town Murder Mystery), Egyptian Heart, Winter’s Journey, The Ice Bridge, Don’t Look Back, Agnes, A Time of Demons and Angels, The Woman in Crimson, Human No Longer, Six Spooky Short Stories Collection, Haunted Tales, Forever and Always Romantic Novella, Night Carnival Short Story, Dinosaur Lake (2014 EPIC EBOOK AWARDS*Finalist* in their Thriller/Adventure category), Dinosaur Lake II: Dinosaurs Arising, Dinosaur Lake III: Infestation and Dinosaur Lake IV: Dinosaur Wars, Dinosaur Lake V: Survivors, Dinosaur Lake VI: The Alien Connection, Memories of My Childhood and Christmas Magic 1959.Her Websites:Twitter: https://twitter.com/KathrynG64My Blog: https://kathrynmeyergriffith.wordpress.com/My Facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/KathrynMeyerGriffith67/Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/kathryn.meyergriffith.7http://www.authorsden.com/kathrynmeyergriffithhttps://www.goodreads.com/author/show/889499.Kathryn_Meyer_Griffithhttp://en.gravatar.com/kathrynmeyergriffithhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/kathryn-meyer-griffith-99a83216/https://www.pinterest.com/kathryn5139/You Tube REVIEW of Dinosaur Lake: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDtsOHnIiXQ&pbjreload=101

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      Book preview

      Memories of My Childhood - Kathryn Meyer Griffith

      Memories of

      My Childhood

      By Kathryn Meyer Griffith

      (Four short stories of my poor but loving family of seven siblings in the 1950’s and 60’s. Originally the first three of these were the very first stories I ever had published in my local Belleville News-Democrat newspaper between 1977 and 1979, after winning their short story contest, along with the original illustrations I drew for them back then...the last story, Christmas Magic, was written in 2016 but its illustration is also from 1977.)

      For my beloved brother Jim Meyer...who was the best musician and songwriter I’ve ever known, and always my best friend. My life wouldn’t have been half as rich without you having been in it. I love you, brother! Here’s his music: http://tinyurl.com/pytftzc

      Other books by Kathryn Meyer Griffith:

      Evil Stalks the Night

      The Heart of the Rose

      Blood Forged

      Vampire Blood

      The Last Vampire (2012 Epics EBook Awards Finalist)

      Witches

      The Calling

      Scraps of Paper

      All Things Slip Away

      Ghosts Beneath Us

      Egyptian Heart

      Winter’s Journey

      The Ice Bridge

      Don’t Look Back, Agnes

      A Time of Demons and Angels

      The Woman in Crimson

      Four Spooky Short Stories

      Human No Longer

      Dinosaur Lake (2014 Epic EBook Awards Finalist)

      Dinosaur Lake II: Dinosaurs Arising

      Dinosaur Lake III: Infestation

      Dinosaur Lake IV: Dinosaur Wars

      *All Kathryn Meyer Griffith’s books are also available now in paperbacks and audio books.

      Night Sledding

      Originally written and published in 1979.

      Sarah stood firm against the cold bitter wind and pulled the woolen cap over her ears. Her long brown hair whipped across her face. She laughed softly at her son as he fell at her feet in the snow.

      Take it easy, sport! Save some of that energy for school tomorrow, she said, smiling, but her green eyes were unhappy. She’d been sad since her husband of eight years had left her for someone else. Sadder still, he’d left both her and Jeremy. He was never around anymore because the new wife, jealous of them, wouldn’t allow it. Sarah hated her ex-husband for hurting their son more than for hurting her.

      Ah Mom. He grinned as he grabbed at her coat trying to pull her into his play.

      Jeremy, no! She laughed as he dragged her into the snow. Then he jumped up and ran out of her reach.

      You can’t catch me! Can’t catch me! he taunted as he ran across the snow-covered field. Come on Mom, catch me!

      She stood up slowly. Her son looked so small against all the white.

      Sarah sighed. It was so cold and it had snowed for days now. She didn’t think it would ever stop. There were mountains of the stuff. She hadn’t seen so much snow since she was a child.

      That one strange winter....

      Jeremy, come on, I’m too old for this, she complained. Yet patience and love was in her voice, not anger.

      Ah, mother, he pleaded and stomped his feet impatiently in the snow. You’re not that old. Tommy’s mom is twice as old as you and she goes ice skating with him all the time. She plays soccer, too.

      Oh, a Wonder Woman, huh?

      No. She’s just his pal, he said in almost a whisper.

      She’s just crazy if you ask me, Sarah teased.

      Ah, Mom.

      Ah, Son. She stood with her mittened hands on her hips, her feet planted apart, as stubborn as her seven year old.

      She reached out and patted him gently on his cheek. They were friends. Maybe she sometimes treated him a little too much like an adult. Sometimes she forgot he was only a child.

      They laughed then and made faces at each other. Two children.

      Look what I found, Mom. Jeremy’s voice ended her daydreaming. He cradled a sled in his arms. The sled they had bought him last Christmas. Last Christmas when her world had still been happy and the three of them still together. Don’t think about that now.

      I almost forgot I had it. I bet it beats anything on the street. His bright blue eyes gleamed at her as he wiped his nose with his coat sleeve.

      I bet. Where did you find it? Sarah ran her hands along the sleek sides that were so shiny. The new sled seemed flimsy and small to her and not like the giant sled she remembered sharing so long ago with her six brothers and sisters.

      It was out in the shed. Just now. I knew it was out there somewhere. His tilted face was bathed in a soft reddish glow from the setting sun. The whole world, the snow and the trees, was tinted pink. It was beautiful, but it meant it would soon be dark.

      And suddenly, the look, feel and smell of the coming evening somehow reminded her of other cold winter nights when she’d been a child. When her family, all nine of them, seven siblings, mother and father, had lived in that big old rambling drafty house on Concord in St. Louis. The house on the hill surrounded by endless fields; with her maternal grandparents, a curmudgeon grandfather and a loving grandmother, living nearby. The memory made her smile.

      I thought you said you wouldn’t ever go in that old shed because of the spiders and bugs?

      He cocked his head. He was deathly afraid of those things, but he wouldn’t admit it. Like he was afraid of the dark in his room at night. He said it was too creepy, too quiet.

      "Nah, spiders don’t like winter, Mom. It’s too cold. They freeze.

      Mom, let’s try out the sled now, please? It won’t take long. There’s a great hill right down the road. It’s slick as ice. I promise I won’t take long, and I’m not even cold yet.

      It’s late. She peered into the fading sunlight. And it’s almost dark and it’s getting colder.

      Please? Just a few minutes? He had taken her hand and was gently leading her down the snowy streets. Sarah gulped in deep whiffs of the sharp winter night air. The smell of pine and frozen things. A smell full of the

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