"Glass Castle" author Jeannette Walls on her childhood: "Pretty wicked"

(CBS News) Jeannette Walls' childhood memoir, "The Glass Castle," became a No. 1 New York Times best-seller in 2005. Now, she's written her first novel, called "The Silver Star," about sisters who have to take care of themselves after their mother leaves. It's published by Scribner, a CBS company.

When Walls was growing up, she was molested; the family moved 27 times in five years. On "CBS This Morning," Walls called her childhood a "pretty wicked" time that she tried to hide for a long time.

"It was a source of shame for me," she said. "It's so ironic to having finally told it. Because, you know, I ran from my past and then when I was finally able to confront it, I found it was the best thing I had going for me."

Walls, who was a gossip columnist who revealed other people's secrets, was keeping her own secrets. "CTM" co-host Gayle King asked, "Hypocritical, maybe?"

"Beyond hypocritical. And shame on me," Walls said. "And when I was finally able to look at it and confront the truth, the truth will set you free. But the truth is complicated. And it can't be condensed into a snarky little paragraph like I was trying to do. Sometimes, you got to look a little deeper."

To look a little deeper into Walls' story and find out more about her new book, now available in stores, watch her full interview in the player above.