Stop Child Abuse Now (SCAN) - 2656

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.