In order to respond to a recent blog posting by a survivor, I got out a book I wrote and published in 2014, and re-read it. Because the world is so threatened by anything that smacks of sex offending or incest, it’s basically never been read. I published it through Create Space and did nothing to publicize it. Oh, I sent a note to the local paper which was discarded, but I write, I don’t push. After 4 years I have only 282 blog followers, but I love them all. My county library was disinterested in helping to sponsor a presentation on the book, and I didn’t push. A follower wrote something positive about the book but I didn’t know enough to pick up her review and run with it (thank you).
But the thing is, it’s good and valuable and I’ll soon be 83 and no one will have profited from it. Sooo–I’m going to try and schedule a discussion of it at the county library, knowing that the incest offenders, for whom it was primarily written as well as survivors who I also believe can profit from it but are ashamed, will probably not show up. I have one friend who I believe will attend–won’t you, Alexa?
The discussion will be based on the book Fallout: A Survivor Talks to Incest Offenders plus her journal including dreams, drawings, and reflections. I treated sex offenders at Hocking Correctional Facility for 12 years, and spent two or three years researching the literature. At first I began to write on just my experience as a survivor, and the damage incest causes, but then I realized that would be too easy to discount, so I began the research.
Since I used to be a clinical psychologist before I got too old, the session will hopefully involve give and take more than preaching.
I’m kinda scared to do it, but I figure if I announce I’m going to do it I’ll follow through.
(I think I can.)
SCHEDULED THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1 st, 6:30p.m. Big Meeting Room, Library,
Athens, Ohio, but they want a sponsoring organization so I’ll push through that situation.