Kinston Author, Mike Parker, Holds Book Signing for New Release

Wednesday, July 14th, Smith’s Café hosted a book signing for local author Mike Parker. 

Parker spent the morning with his readers visiting and sharing the stories that inspired his new book, “Sprinkling Stardust: The Delights of Grandchildren.”

For 24 years Parker has been writing columns based on his experience with his grandchildren. 

“I took all of them and put them in one book. The very first one is in 1997 because that’s when my first granddaughter was born,” said Parker.

The title was inspired by a quote from American Writer, Alex Haley.

“Alex Hailey said grandparents sprinkle stardust on the lives of little children, so this is about me being a granddaddy,” said Parker.

Parker’s first granddaughter, Kaitlyn, passed away when she was 14 months old from  Osteoporosis Imperfecta. The first three chapters are about her. 

He hopes this gives his other grandchildren some insight into what their cousin was like.

Parker has been a nonfiction writer for years and these columns about his grandchildren had  “the most positive responses in all my years of writing.” 

The columns are arranged chronologically, and are perfected versions of the originals.

Parker noted that while editing the columns into a reader friendly format, he came across many mistakes.

He quoted American Poet, Donald Hall, “Writing is never perfect, we make it as good as we can before the deadline.”

Mike Parker will be at the Neuse Regional Library on August 12th from 6:30-8 pm with his new book.