Did you know April is child abuse awareness month? This month is an important month for all abuse survivors. This is an excellent opportunity to help inform people of this epidemic...

Yes, I said epidemic! Child abuse happens daily, and not to just one or two children. Hundreds of innocent children are abused on a daily basis! Sweeping this epidemic under the carpet does not make it go away. Pretending child abuse doesn't happen, does not make it go away.

The majority of children who have been abused do not talk about what happened. They are afraid, and they have been brainwashed. An abuser will say and do anything to keep his/her victim/s quiet...the list of things said goes on and on, but it's all lies!

Children who have been abused live a life of fear. They feel worthless. They feel they do not deserve any better than what they have - they believe the abuse is (or was) their fault. Truth is, the abuser is one who is worthless! The abuser would go away for a very long time should their acts of abuse be discovered and reported.

My book, Bitter Memories: A Memoir of Heartache & Survival tells about my abuse that started when I was three years old after being kidnapped by my father. Daddy abused me in so many ways, but he also allowed others to abuse me. Daddy, among other things, was also bigamist. The woman he illegally married abused me, but she also sold me to her male friends for a bottle of booze and twenty bucks.

The abuse I lived through was extreme, but it doesn't take extreme to mess up a kid's head. Like many other survivors, I tried to take my own life several times. Luckily, I failed. But, this also gave me just another feeling of "failure" - I couldn't even do that right!

Victims of child abuse need your help! They need to be able to talk about their abuse and not be condemned by society's views. They need people to care! They need people to understand, and to love them for who they are -- innocent victims who deserves only the best in life!

My book Bitter Memories has helped many survivors find one thing they never had...they find HOPE! They find out they are not alone, there are people just like them who do understand. They find out their lives are worth living, but they also learn there's a path toward healing.

I receive emails almost daily from survivors who found my book, read it, and learned from my story. They write to thank me for being "brave" to tell my story, and for helping them. But, I'm not "brave" at all. I had to write about my life because I still hurt inside. The pain was so intense, I shut down for years. It wasn't until I wrote Bitter Memories that I found a path to healing my own scars of abuse.

I published my story in order to help other survivors, and from the emails I receive, I know I have. I've also made many new friends on this journey. Good friends who I cherish and am so thankful for the opportunity to know. These friends are the true brave ones! They took a chance on reading a book, my book, searching for answers, and in doing so, they found their voice. They can now stand up and say: "I am a SURVIVOR of child abuse"...

Just to have the courage, after so many hurtful years, to say those words brings a feeling that is so wonderful. It's like an enormous weight has been lifted, a weight that can no longer bring them down or hurt them ever again.

After Bitter Memories, I wrote two more books that continue my story. Trophy Murders, Book 2, takes you through my life after my mother dies and I go to live with her brother and his heavy-handed wife, a woman determined to "beat the meanness" out of me.

Cutter's Revenge, Book 3, is more fiction than truth, but it continues the story after my adoption. I write parts of this story the way I "wished" it could have been, but anyone who's read the other books will know what's true and what's pure fiction.

In both of these books I allowed my imagination to run free, giving my uncle, the cop, sadistic serial killers to catch and bring to justice. Trophy Murders and Cutter's Revenge brings excitement and terror throughout for a thrilling read.

Book 4 is being written now and it will complete the series. In this book I tell about my brother, and other areas of my life that I didn't even touch on in the first three books. This book will be available later this year.

To learn about other books I've written, please visit my website. And, of course, I love hearing from my readers, so don't hesitate to go to the contact page and send me a message.

http://sj2448.wix.com/suejulsen


In closing, this is a quote from my friend Annie O'Sullivan's blog. She says, "I dream and pray that there will come a day when we shine the light of the universe in all the dark places and children can be taught to talk freely about what is happening to them. They won't have secrets to keep, lives to hide, and broken hearts to mend. Maybe someday we wont have pin wheel gardens in the month of April. Maybe... Let it begin with me and with you..." Annie

Thank you, Annie. I couldn't agree more!



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