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A Story from the Heart
The Press and Standard, June 2, 2006 by Joshua Bunton
After One and a half years of trying, Barbara DeGraw's book is being published. She is best known as the person behind the counter at her business, The Potting Shed, but that is soon to change. Soon after her sister's alcohol-related death at the age of 25, DeGraw, her husband Dave and her daughter moved to Walterboro in 1987 because of her husband's love of the South.
"I have found my Mayberry," jokes DeGraw.
DeGraw and her husband opened the POtting Shed in 1991 to continue her career.
"That's what I was doing in New York and when we got here there was no place to buy plants," said DeGraw about the decision to open the store.
In 2001, to better explain the dangers of drugs and alcohol, she started to write an essay to her daughter. She had to struggle to find the hours when she could write. Soon she found her essay had begun to evolve into a story. She finished her story, which she has entitled "The Thirteen Secrets", in 2004. DeGraw then began the long search for a publisher.
The book is the story os a 22-year-old girl fresh out of college who tries to get away from her dysfunctional family after her older sister commits suicide. She moves to her grandmother's old home in Brooklyn, NY. Soon she begins to dream things.
"The book is a horror with a few twists," says DeGraw. "It starts in 1985 but goes back to Biblical times."
On the inside cover a short note reads, "This book is dedicated to my sister's memory and to my daughter's life, and to those wondrous acts great sorrow and great joy can inspire."
DeGraw is being published by Publish America purely off her talent.
"The Thirteen Secrets" wit hit the shelves on July 3rd of this year. Anyone who would like to know more about the book or the author can visit www.freewebs.com/degrawbooks or go on up to the Potting Shed for a chat.
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