life rattle show no. 1371

Presented on Thursday, april 14, 2016

hosted by laurie kallis

featuring

"Drawing"
"Combination to My Heart"
and
"Joanna"
by Kristen Ladas

tonight's Show

features three stories by new Life Rattle writer Kristen Ladas.

Kristen Ladas was born in 1996 in Mississauga, Ontario. Kristen’s grandparents and parents, originally from Greece, settled in Canada in their early adulthood. When Kristen was two years old, her parents divorced. She and her mother lived with her grandparents for nineteen years, until they recently moved out on their own.

Kristen loves to write. Friends, family and imagination have influenced her to write stories about her life and the lives of those she loves. She is currently working on a young adult novel. Apart from writing, Kristen is happiest when she is dancing or singing.

It’s a good thing for us that Kristen loves to write—because her writing provides us readers with some fantastic material. With a masterful hand, Kristen brings us into the life of a young child, a girl just beginning high school and a university student. At each stage of life, the language, dialogue and details are so natural that you can easily slip into the skin of the narrator. The subtle nuances, especially apparent in our first two featured stories, gives us the psychic space to experience the happenings in a way that allows us to find ourselves in the characters depicted.

"Drawing" plunges us into the final stages of a young family’s dissolution. A child’s longing for her father is palpable and her innocent expectations when he arrives for a visit simply deepen the sorrow that arrives with the news he has come to deliver.

"Combination to My Heart" will raise your heart and let you feel the excitement and self-conciousness that comes with the first day of high school, especially if you are lucky enough to be seated beside an attractive classmate with the bluest eyes and excellent penmanship.

"Joanna" is a touching tribute from Kristen Ladas to a dear friend of hers who died at far too young of an age, just over a year ago. Her story matches a beautiful depiction of a group of five young women just entering adulthood to the painful, tragic loss of one of their circle...known as The Fabulous Five.