A Writer in the Works by Olivia Stark

A writer in the Works

By Olivia Stark

There have been many stops and starts, not to mention set-backs, for this aspiring author; but she continues to endure.

Born to a young mother, and adopted at three days old by Harold and Helen robinson, Krystina Grant grew up in San Diego, California as an only child. She had four older siblings, three brothers and a sister, who had already grown, at least physically.

She never quite fit in with her adoptive family. She also wondered why there were never any pictures of her mother pregnant with her. Yet she didn’t learn of her birth parents until age 28, when she discovered a legal document of her father’s, which listed her as an adopted daughter. “It never came up, and when my nephew told me I was adopted, I apparently flipped out,” Grant said. “I’m thinking this was around the time my friend, Diane, was in the foster care system, and the people that were taking her in decided they didn’t want her and sent her back.”

Later in life, she started to believe she might have been the product of one of her father’s many affairs. But at 28, the truth finally came out.

“I was house-sitting with my then husband and our children, and they had a living trust done for them, and it was delivered by one of my brother’s girlfriends at the time. And I thought, okay, I don’t know what this is about and I don’t  care if I’m in it, but I wanted to find out how these kinds of things break down, so I decided, okay, I’m gonna read it.”

That was when the revelation came. “My name popped up on the first paragraph, and it listed me as “an adult adopted daughter.”

This time, her parents had no choice but to tell her the truth. Within a month, she found her birth mother. Within eight months, she located her birth father. She re-united with both parents, at least temporarily.

Grant’s passion for writing began at age 11, when she was assigned a two-chapter story. She wrote a twist on “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” called “The Nine Critters. The characters were based on the stuffed animals on her bed.

The following year, she and a friend were roll-playing a story. Her friend suggested they write it down. From there, she began script writing. 

“I could write for “Fantasy Island”, I could write “Battlestar Galactica”, I actually combined the two of them – it was a lot of fun.”

At 15, she began writing free-verse poetry, along with a comedy play she wrote with her best friend, Nicole Renee Bissett, that could have earned the two of them millions. It was called Love On the Socks”. Sadly, it never made the stage – yet.

Later in high school, she tried her hand at romance novels. She amused her class mates by writing short romance fictional stories coupling them with their favorite musicians or movie stars.

“I had a mad crush on Tom Selleck,” recalled her long-time best friend, Nicole Renee Bissett. “She wrote a really cool story about how I was a journalist and got together with him writing a story on him. Ironically, that was long before I ever even thought about becoming a journalist. Those were some fun times, and we needed fun times back then.”

Grant’s nine year marriage, which was stormy from nearly day one, ended in divorce. But out of it, she got two grown children, Jordan and Cassandra. She is currently living with her good friends, Jason and Susan Schneider, and her daughter, Cassie, in Spring Valley, California. She continues to edit her first novel, and is excited about the prospect of publishing.

To chat with Grant personally, you can email her at lillyblade@gmail.com