Local author writes stories for children
BY KADIE TAYLOR
THE LAFAYETTE SUN
LAFAYETTE — Local author Patsy Hood is aiming to reach local children and help them during trying times through her books “Waiting for Dad: For Every Child who Waited by the Window” and “The Boy From Heaven: The Forgotten Books of the Bible — The Lost Childhood of Jesus.”
Hood said “Waiting for Dad” was inspired by the true story of her son, and her hopes to provide a book to help other children navigate similar difficult situations to the one he went through.
“This is my son’s story — I made it into a story, because he would wait on his dad at the window, and his daddy wouldn’t show up,” she said. “[The book] is sad to start with, because he’s waiting on his daddy [and looking] out the window from morning to night — getting his suitcase ready. Then lots of weekends, [his dad] just didn’t show up. And a lot of children go through that. And they start ruining their lives because they got that emptiness in them — trying to fill up this void in them — to make up for what they went through. So I think it’ll help a lot of kids.”
As she began sharing “Waiting for Dad” with others, Hood said she was told the story resonates with readers who lived through other difficult childhood situations.
“There are a lot of children who go through that now, waiting for their daddy to come and pick them up,” she said. “And [there are] probably moms [who are] making them wait too. I went to the doctor, and I let this girl read the book — and I told her I wanted her opinion on it. And she told me, ‘I feel that.’ Because her daddy had died.”
In “The Boy from Heaven,” Hood said she tells stories from “The Infancy Gospel of Thomas,” which is Biblical apocrypha that depicts Jesus in his youth.
“In the stories told in ‘The Infancy Gospel of Thomas,’ [Jesus] isn’t sinning or doing evil,” Hood wrote in her foreword. “These moments remind us that life belongs to God alone. Jesus had the authority to give life and take it, just as His Father in Heaven does. I believe these stories show not cruelty, but holiness of His power, even when He was small.”
Hood said her books can be purchased locally, as well as online and having grown in confidence as a writer through her two books, she is beginning to work on her next idea.
“It has given me a confidence in myself — if they had the computer when I was young and if I had one, I would have probably started a long time ago on this,” she said. “You could get [my books] in a paperback, hard copy or online. Right now they’re being sold at Hood’s Pharmacy. I’m fixing to write up a journal for children — for prayer, giving thanks and writing verses. So a child can journal their day, every day, and get closer to God.”
Purchase “Waiting for Dad” on Amazon, at www.a.co/d/dvBuRyk, or “The Boy from Heaven” on Amazon, at www.a.co/d/3NROsgw.
