Hello Nancy, JJ, Dotsie, and others: Thank you for posting your responses to the book. As an artist/author, I have set goals for my work: I hope to evoke emotions, provoke memory, open lines of communication. If a reader benefits, that offers validation that my work may be worthwhile. By the way, I also happen to believe that art can be produced for its own sake, without purpose other than the process.

I might have preferred to be an actress (I have celebrity envy) but I was charged with this mission. I would have preferred to write romance or fantasy because those genres are “safe” in society but I was given the courage to write about controversial social subjects. I thought long and hard about how graphic the accounts should be. With shows like “Law and Order, Special Victims Unit” society may get the message that crimes have to be sensational in order to be heinous. In fact, the opening to L & O SVU is: “In the criminal justice system, sexual based offenses are considered especially heinous.” And every show has a sensationalized version of what story was “ripped from the headlines.” With the advice of my counselor, I decided NOT to minimize abuse and its ramifications, suicide attempts and addiction. Believe me, sometimes I cringe when I meet someone who has read my book. I think, “Oh my gosh, he/she knows THAT about me.” Yet, it was that shame that kept me from telling my story. And if I feel shame, then I am contributing to the shame based stigmas society holds on abuse. So…I swallowed my ego and the result is an actual, factual account of what may happen in real life, right next door, to the family that appears to be the model middle class members of society.