Strength. Compassion. Empowerment. These are qualities to celebrate this holiday season. Qualities that translate into gifts that will do more than bring a fleeting smile. At the Somaly Mam Foundation Empowerment Store, you can purchase a survivor-made product and help a survivor become financially self-sufficient as she embraces her new life.
What did she survive? Sexual [...]

Somaly Mam was tricked into becoming a sex slave when she was a 12-year-old Cambodian orphan by a man who said he could find her parents. Instead he dumped her in a brothel. She suffered the life for ten years then escaped. Today she is the founder of the Somaly Mam Foundation and committed to [...]

To me, characterization is more important than plot.
With three protagonists I strive to make them not only different physically but also emphasize their cultural differences. Each one comes from a singular economic background which reflects her speech, manner of dress, education, facial expressions, the way she walks, what she likes to eat—her attitude toward [...]

News stories like this one from today’s New York Times turn me violent:
“More than 600 women and girls were recently raped along the Congo-Angola border during a mass expulsion of illegal immigrants, according to the United Nations….’What worries us is that rape seems to be becoming endemic in several parts of Congo,’ Mr. Giuliano [United [...]

The annual Lunch with Carolina Authors held on the UNC Wilmington campus today was entertaining and educational. Sponsored by the American Association of University Women, the luncheon raises scholarship money for women pursuing non-traditional college degrees (mostly math and sciences).
Four North Carolina authors talked about their books and writing in general to a packed audience [...]