Tonight's special guest is Denise Bossarte from Houston, Texas, abused by her maternal grandfather beginning in elementary school. She explains, "I was always afraid to be alone around my grandfather although I never really understood why as a child. I went from an outgoing, creative kid to a shy, ashamed kid afraid of people. The abuse lasted until I was in high school." Denise says, "I still carry a lot of stress in my body, my body remembers being afraid and is constantly prepared for getting hurt again. I am no longer in therapy but went through individual and group therapy in college and grad school." Denise is one of two daughters. "My father was an M.D. and my mother has a graduate degree and ran a dog kennel as I was growing up. I was deeply ashamed and felt I was a bad kid and that it was my fault; there was something really wrong with me for it to happen. My grandfather got prostate cancer and died when I was a freshman in high school." Denise is quite the author, as explained by her web site, 'Thriving After'. Whether writing on overcoming trauma in her nonfiction work or recasting her real-life experiences into award-winning dark urban fantasy in four novels—Glamorous, Beginnings, Return, and Readings—Denise tackles the dark side of things with courage, fearlessness, and compassion. Her self-published book Glamorous was a bronze medalist in 2019's The Wishing Shelf Book Awards in Adult Fiction, and her success with Glamorous earned her membership into the Horror Writers Association and the International Thriller Writers.
