Dear Family and Friends,
I am honored and thrilled to be a part of Yvette Prior’s newly released anthology, This is How We Grow. She has worked hard with thirteen contributing authors to make this special book a reality. If you haven’t met Yvette, I encourage you to visit her wonderful blog. Below summarizes what you’ll find when you visit:
- Priorhouse blog is continuing with the interview series – the master page is HERE
- Priorhouse blog continues to join in with photography challenges, which mainly includes the Lens-Artist’s Photo Challenge (LAPC) and sometimes Thursday Doors.
- Priorhouse Street Shots continue to surface
- Other posts unfold naturally, which include book reviews, movie reviews, opinion posts, extra photo challenges (besides the LAPC), writing challenges, and the annual spring #Dickenschallenge.
Yvette also surprised me by inserting a plug for my new book, a poetry collection, Ever So Gently, which is available now, and I will do a post soon! Her book and mine just happened to release around the same time.
And now for Yvette’s interview:
Hello Readers,
Recently we introduced the book,THIS IS HOW WE GROW, and I will be posting about it on and off for the four weeks.
Today’s post is to share about Lauren Scott’s chapter, Numbers Lie
But first – let me share that Lauren has a collection of poems – hot off the press – in her book called Ever so Gently. My paperback copy is on the way and I look forward to reading it in August.
Ever so Gently is on Amazon here
Now back to today’s post.
Author Audio:
From Lauren:
Numbers Lie (fiction) –
She still cringes when she peruses old albums with photos of her as a young chubby girl. The memory of her ten-year-old self in the hospital after having her tonsils removed causes her stomach to somersault. Following the tonsillectomy, she rested in the recovery room with other children. A blonde-haired boy about her same age wore a wicked grin just before the words slid from his tongue, “Hey, fatso!” Those three syllables caused her to crumble into the white sterile bed sheets. Maybe they sparked her insecurities. Or perhaps the childhood chubbiness that dogged her footsteps into adulthood goaded the insecurities to surface.
Lauren’s commentary:
Keri’s narrative is fiction, but I can insert it into my life story for an accurate fit. When hurtful words are tossed at us, they remain audible. We cannot throw them back because their effect is branded in our psyche. Traumatic moments and events stick with us regardless of how vigorously we try to peel them away from our memory. I endured similar moments on the school playground as a chubby little girl. Throughout the years, I could gain ten to twenty pounds, then lose it, stare at my reflection, and still view myself as chubby. I dislike the word fat, so I never use it. No one deserves to be called fat.
Lauren Scott’s chapter in This is How we Grow is an engaging fiction followed by author commentary about the topic of weight, labels, and adjusting a critical spirit to become more accepting. Her story reminded us that empathy consists of both affective and cognitive components and Lauren reached a cultural artery as her wisdom reminded us that people are more than externals as we have “heart, soul, and beauty, inside and out.”
Bio:
Lauren Scott is an author, poet, and blogger who specializes in short stories, both fiction and non-fiction, about life reflections and finding joy in the simple things. Her new collection of poems, Ever So Gently, was released in July 2023 and her first children’s book will be released later in 2023.
She has published two poetry collections, New Day, New Dreams (2013) and Finding a Balance (2015), a memoir, More than Coffee: Memories in Verse and Prose (2021), was a contributing author in Poetry Treasures 2: Relationships, and was nominated “Author of the Month” May 2023 at Spillwords Press.
Lauren and her husband, Matthew, have two grown children and a Labrador named Copper. Her writing inspiration comes from family and the great outdoors while enjoying small-town living in Northern California. Lauren can be found online at baydreamerwrites.com.
Other social media links:
https://www.facebook.com/BaydreamerWrites/
https://www.instagram.com/baydreamerwrites/
This is How We Grow has 13 authors providing poems and personal stories:
- Dragonfly by Ana Linden
- Untangle & Learn by Mahesh Nair
- Made My Day by Sherri Matthews
- Beneath by Trent McDonald
- Ground Zero by Jeffrey D. Simmons
- Combatting Caregiver Burnout by Mike F. Martelli
- There’s No Return to Sender by Robbie Cheadle
- Numbers Lie by Lauren Scott
- Grateful & Graceful Grandparenting by Miriam Hurdle
- Seeing Through by Yvette Prior
- Winding Road of Writing by Mabel Kwong
- Blogging & Rekindling by Marsha Ingrao
- Right and Wrong by Cade Prior
Each author in this book hopes that you enjoy the personal narratives
offering unique outlooks and ideas about assumptions and cultural
differences and similarities. We hope these stories transmit important
information and values from one individual to the next because this is how we grow.
- This Is How We Grow is available here on Amazon & Kindle
- Profits go to Charity Water
- You can read the interview on Yvette’s blog to follow the conversation.
Thank you for stopping by to read and listen, and I encourage you to share any thoughts in the comments below.
~ Lauren ❤️
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Baydreamer Writes ~ Lauren Scott, Author & Poet 