Story Behind The Book
When I started writing RUNT, it was going to be a story about an abused mountain boy during the WWII era when child abuse, whether physical or emotional, was a simple and approved method of correcting or bring up your children. In fact, I felt as a child that if I wasn’t screamed at, cussed, whipped or walloped upside the head when I did something wrong, or in some cases didn’t do something, my parents didn’t love me. It was during my research process that I learned I was dyslexic. I had spent a lifetime thinking my slow reading and atrocious spelling and writing skills were attributed to my lack of ability to get the basics of these things down when I was a child. I didn’t like going to school and took every opportunity that came along to not go. Besides, education didn’t seem to be of much importance to my parents; out of seven of us, only one made it through high school.