Child Abuse Effects dot com Announcement and Regarding My Comments

by Darlene Barriere - Webmaster
(Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada)

Announcement and Information I Want You to Know

To My Visitors: 
I'm so excited to announce that as of two days ago I started writing my next book, Healing from Child Abuse: Affirmations, Validations and Words of Wisdom. This book has been in the planning stages for about a year and a half now, but there have been so many responsibilities associated with my website that, beyond chapter ideas and a basic outline, I have not been able to actually sit down to do any serious writing.

In order to get to the actual writing, I've had to make some very difficult choices; choices that I've been holding off on for at least a year.

Many of you may have noticed that I've only posted 1, perhaps 2 stories on any given day during the past week or so. What you don't know is that I always have a minimum of a dozen waiting for my approval to go live on the site. At this point in time, with the occasional exception, it takes more than a week for me to post a story. That means that if you send me a story today, I won't be able to get to it until this time next week, perhaps even later, depending on how many story contributions I receive daily. This isn't fair to those who have so courageously written their stories for myself and others to read?and thus validate?on the site. I've always prided my site as a place where child abuse survivors will be heard. A week or longer is way too long for my visitors to wait.

I must now balance my time between the needs of my visitors, the maintenance responsibilities of my site, my desire to publish books that help survivors heal from the effects of child abuse, and the needs of my own personal life. The first two have grown exponentially over the past 2 years; and that is where I must make the most difficult choice of all.

I can no longer keep up with the submissions in queue and also continue to comment individually on each of them. Certainly not to the degree that I have in the past. Nor am I in a position to keep trying; not if I want to publish books and also have a quality of life to enjoy with my husband. Therefore, I can no longer leave in-depth comments for contributors to my site.

I sincerely hope you understand that this is a necessity for me, and is in no way meant to discredit or minimize what each of you have lived through and the pain you are in right now. In the absence of my comments, I encourage you to read and re-read stories from other visitors, and then also read the comments I've left for them in the past. You'll find that many of those comments are every bit as valid for you as they are for the person I (and others) wrote them to.

I thank you all for your tremendous support, and I do hope that my decision does not dissuade you from leaving your own validating and encouraging comments to the visitors who continue to send their stories to me for posting.

One last thing before I sign off...

I have recently opened a Public Profile page on Facebook, where visitors can follow my book-writing progress, read my musings, concerns, and even join in discussions. You can follow me at Healing from Child Abuse. I look forward to "seeing" you there.


Darlene Barriere
Webmaster: www.child-abuse-effects.com
Violence & Abuse Prevention Educator
Author: On My Own Terms, A Memoir