Category Archives: Miscellaneous

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Pedophiles Are All Around Us…

 

Hello World,

If anything good has come from this whole Penn State scandal, it is the awareness that pedophiles are truly all around us, and often they are people that are trusted and revered by others. Since the news of these allegations broke, people across the nation are admitting they were sexually abused when they were children and are no longer hiding in secret shame.

Here is one person’s story on NPR: Penn State Scandal Emboldens Other Abuse Victims

This summer when I attended the Greater Philadelphia Christian Writers Conference in August, I met Angela Williams, who shared her story of being sexually abused by her stepfather for 14 years. Williams, who lives in the metro Atlanta area, founded VOICE Today, a grassroots initiative to launch child sexual abuse as a highly visible public issue. It is a multifaceted program that engages all forms and outlets of media and is designed to bring about social change by increasing awareness and advocating PREVENTION education. Below are some alarming statistics about child sexual abuse from the VOICE Today website:

  • Numbers of children abused before they are 18 years old: 1 in 4 girls, 1 in 6 boys. Only 1 in 10 children tell.
  • 90 percent of children are abused by someone they know.
  • Serial child molesters may have as many as 400 victims in their lifetimes.

VOICE Today offers various services for child sexual abuse victims including education and prevention workshops and healing workshops. For more information, please go here.

I also met New York Times best-selling author Cec Murphey, who was a victim of child sexual abuse as well. Through his blog menshatteringthesilence.blogspot.com, he provides a safe place for other male victims of child sexual abuse to connect with each other. He is also the author of “When a Man You Love Was Abused: A Woman’s Guide to Helping Him Overcome Childhood Sexual Molestation” which is available on the blog site.

I pray that all of us, even those of us who are not parents, take care of our children…they need us…

Any thoughts?

 

 

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My Line Sister is a Two-Time Breast Cancer Survivor Under 40 years old…

Hello World,

Although National Breast Cancer Month is over, all women all of the time must continue to be vigilant about our health…Watch the story of my Delta line sister Lola Brown, a two-time breast cancer survivor, reported by Blayne Alexander of 11 Alive for The Grio.com. Her full story is featured in my book “After the Altar Call: The Sisters’ Guide to Developing a Personal Relationship With God.”

To celebrate Lola’s victory over breast cancer, friends and sorors participate in the “Making Strides Against Breast Cancer” walk (Lola’s team Brown’s Babes raised over $2,500) and go out for night on the town… We started this tradition last year. Below are a few photos from our walk last Saturday at Centennial Olympic Park and celebration this year…

Lola gathering the group for prayer before our walk last Saturday...

 

Lola and others lighting a flame in our of line sister Kim Causby, who passed away from breast cancer on May 16, 2005...

 

Michelle, Natalye & DeSean Givons came out to support Lola...

 

Me & my line sister K-Mu at the walk....It was very chilly...

 

Celebrating Lo's victory at Loca Luna...

 

Me & my line sister KeKe celebrating Lo...

 

Isn't Lola beautiful?...Isn't that cake beautiful?!

 

 

Any thoughts?

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I’m Bout It Bout It aka Marketing & Promotion Month 4…

Hello World,

It’s that time of the month! Time to update you on how I have been marketing & promoting my book  After the Altar Call: The Sisters’ Guide to Developing a Personal Relationship with God! And if you haven’t read my previous posts on this topic, check them out here: Month 1, Month 2 & Month 3.

First of all, I’ve got to thank God who has blessed me to take on this Herculean task! In true Jamerican form, I’ve got plenty jobs. I’m a full-time reporter, a part-time fitness instructor, a sometime market reasearcher, a freelance writer and an upcoming author/marketing & promoting professional…I’m so thankful that God has given me the energy to have all of these jobs…

However, to that end, I have decided to seek assistance as I continue to market & promote this book. No one accomplishes anything great without help anyway! And I sure could use some help! Another tactic I’ve decided to employ this month is to have my book postcards with me wherever I go – that’s right if you happen to see me at the dry cleaner, the hairdresser, the grocery store, you might get a postcard from me about my book. So you betta act like you know me when I walk up to you! 🙂

I met Demetria Lucas, the author of the book "A Belle in Brooklyn: Your Go-To Girl on Living Your Best Single Life" and a blogger at Blogalicious! Follow her @abelleinbk...

I have also decided to use Twitter more this month…I’m more of a Facebook fan myself, but I am learning that the power of the retweet is infinite! So I’ve been tweeting more, and following more folks in an effort to step up my Twitter status…so y’all please follow me @jackiehwrites….Right now, I only have 74 followers so I need some support. To that end, I attended Blogalicious 2011  in Washington, D.C. in which bloggers were identified by their Twitter handle so I can clearly no longer ignore Twitter…

.And speaking of Blogalicious, attending the convention was also a part of my marketing & promotion strategy for October. I started this blog in 2008 partly because I heard you could get a book deal through your blog, but I didn’t anticipate that I would love blogging almost as much as I love book writing! So I’ve decided to make this blog the best it can be so hopefully y’all will see some positive changes here as I incorporate what I learned at Blogalicious. If you haven’t seen my post about the convention, check it out here! And one of my new blogger buddies Ananda Leeke (@DigitalSisterhd) interviewed me at Blogalicious! Take a listen here….

I’ve also been working on some other behind-the-scenes stuff that I will share in the days to come…Very exciting stuff, I must say! God is good all the time, and all the time God is good….Let the church say “Amen!”

Any thoughts?

P.S. From time to time, head on over to the News & Events & Gallery pages on this blog…As T.I. says, big things poppin’! 

 P.P.S. I’m always interested in new marketing & promotion ideas, if you have any, e-mail me at jacqueline@afterthealtarcall.com.