Carol Lynn Luck

MY STORY

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Some authors know writing is what they want to do when they are four. After nine careers and millions of experiences, at the age of 64 I began writing novels. Grandma Moses who did artistic works all her life only discovered painting in her later years. Similarly, I have been a storyteller for many years.

 

Storytelling goes back through the centuries. Life’s lessons were passed down from one generation to the next with legends. Today our rushed lives involve disconnected families, organized activities, technological isolation, and schools subjected to an obsession with data comparisons among those of the same chronological age. Where’s the time for learning the lessons that really matter?

 

My childhood was filled with teachers who had the time to care, relatives and neighbors who taught us many things and parents who had their own ways of teaching us lessons. My favorite was a kindly neighbor we called Aunt Helen.  Even though I was only ten, she’d serve me real coffee and tell stories at her big oak kitchen table. They all started with “When your Aunt Helen was a little girl…” Through the years I have spent many hours at kitchen tables of friends, relatives and neighbors, totally engrossed in the stories of their lives.

 

Now it’s my turn to pass along legends and lessons, novels based on true stories. My first novel is based on stories told by relatives and friends about surviving in World War II, in Siberia and elsewhere in Europe. “Heroines of the Kitchen Table” tells of kind and clever actions amidst fear, separation and terror. It gets to the hearts of real people and highlights the dangers of propaganda spread by those who are hungry for power.

My second novel is Gym Class Klutz, in which poor scrawny Kenda starts as that little accident-prone kid and meets up with Miss Ditch. This merciless gym teacher pushes her beyond her capabilities into discovering that life is not about being normal but about finding your own unique strengths and not taking yourself too seriously.

Magnolias Don't Bloom in September is about teaching in Mississippi in the year the schools were forcibly integrated. State inspectors were more interested in how the students were seated in the classrooms than what they learned. But some teachers realized the importance of doing what was really important for their middle school kids: teaching them to read. Many more stories are in my head, waiting to come out.

 

The stories I tell are intended to make readers think, feel, laugh and cry. These emotional connections enable them to grasp ideas and to understand the lessons of life that are needed to empower our next generation.

 

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My family has provided a wealth of stories; 28 years ago my husband promised me there would never be a dull moment. After our two children and milions of funny incidents and crises, this is still true. Framingham Massachusetts is our home.