GROVE, Okla. – A popular best-selling children’s author made a second stop in the Four States.
On Tuesday, the author spoke with around 500 Grove upper elementary and middle school students.
On Monday, author Dusti Bowling visited McDonald County middle school students.
To those aspiring writers she told them to put down their “screens” and pick up a book, Bowling said.
“Reading increases your creativity,” she said. “Reading requires your brain to be a better writer.”
Bowling’s books center on children with physical disabilities or medical conditions.
“I wrote a book about a child with Tourette Syndrome because I wanted to give a more authentic representative of Tourette Syndrome,” Bowling told the students. “I never wanted to hurt a child with my work.”
Bowling spoke about growing up in a divorced home with alcoholic parents and some of her books deal with addiction.
Around 25 percent of children grow up with parents and other adults in their lives fighting addictions, she said.
When questioned about her books, Bowling commented “I don’t have a great imagination, but I pull from things in real life.”
Some of Bowling’s books include Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus, Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus, The Canyon’s Edge, 24 Hours in Nowhere, Across the Desert, The Day We Met, Aven Green Sleuthing Machine, Aven Green Baking Machine, The Boy Who Loved Me, Aven Green Music Machine and Grace and Daisies,
Bowling described all of her books written and explained to the students what “sparked” the idea for each book.
The authored also introduced the children to her latest book “Dust” which will be available in the future.
Writing has long been a passion for Bowling but she explained to the children the laborious process of writing her first book.
“It took 10 years and the book was rejected about 100 times” before a literary agent picked up the book Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus and the book being published, Bowling said.
Bowling’s books have won numerous regional and national awards.
She and her family live a few hours outside of Flagstaff, Arizona.