Waxhaw resident Carolyn Digh Griffin spoke to the Brown Bag Book Club on Monday about how her health issues turned into writing novels, centering on God.
The Club met in the Privette Room of the Hampton B. Allen Library to hear Griffin talk about her experiences as a self-published author, storyteller, blogger and speaker.
Griffin retired from Union County Public Schools, where she worked as an administrative assistant. Before entering her mid-60s, she caught whooping cough, which led to other health issues throughout the past decade of her life.
Griffin is also trained in piano and voice, and used her gifts to travel with her father while he preached weddings and funerals. Since her speech comes and goes — one of her vocal chords being damaged — she now writes through her life experiences.
“I felt like I had a furball in my throat,” she said. Some of the sicknesses that came along with the whooping cough were shingles, mononucleosis, asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.
One day, while telling her husband Hoyle that she couldn’t get into a book she was reading, he challenged her.
Griffin began writing and her first book was published in 2008, called “Hope Returns.” She later started the Waxhaw Creek series, which consists of “Terror on Waxhaw Creek,” published in 2014; “Fireflies on Waxhaw Creek” in 2016; and her latest novel, “Unfailing Love” in 2018. She also published one other standalone, called “Family Secrets” in 2017.
Griffin said she used different moments of her life as inspiration for her novels. Some of those inspirations include personalities of her father and husband, used as personalities for the husband and wife in “Hope Returns;” a child from her church with down syndrome for a child in her book; and overall funny moments that happened to her family.
Being well-versed in history, Griffin also includes historical facts in her novels. The novel she is currently writing is based around genealogy, which she became interested in after her aunt introduced her.
Griffin said that God’s presence in her life, and His hands upon her life, has a lot to do with her journey and testimony. She includes her faith inside all of her works, because it is so important to her, personally.
“I wouldn’t trade anything for my journey,” Griffin said. “My testimony involves Jesus Christ, and I can’t not talk about it.”
Her southern Christian fiction founded works varies in sub-genres; consisting of mystery and terror, with a grasp on human relationships and a touch of romance.
“My stories always reflect the lives of ordinary people and their life situations,” Griffin said. “Being from the South, I always write about places that are familiar to me.”
She went on to say, “You write about what you know.”
Carolyn Digh Griffin speaks on why she started writing to the Brown Bag Book Club Monday.