March First is Self-Injury Awareness Day

I’m the stepfather of a cutter. I belong to a Shoutlife.com group where I can use my experience to help people with the issue of self-injury. It's not always abusive parents at the root of the problem. When my stepdaughter’s mom and I found out in the late 1990s, we were surprised and worried. We attended church and sent her to a good Christian school—all the right things.

Self-injury victims are people with whom you and I socialize. It’s a sad social commentary on our culture that so many in this generation become hooked on physical pain by emotional suffering.

Then there are other cases. Secret child abuse, even in some houses with Bibles on coffee-tables, is beyond ugly. Neighbors have no idea. It needs to be discussed, revealed, and healed, not gossiped, lampooned, or closeted. Because of people like two Shoutlife friends who are open about their cutting on Shoutlife blogs and groups, there is now far more awareness and even Websites dedicated to cutting. If you know anyone who needs Biblical advice, send them to speakdontbleed.com

I've dedicated War of Attrition: Book Two of the Underground to cutting and child abuse victims, and name four individuals. They are: my step-daughter, Shoutlife's Annie-Bannannie, Cassandra, and a third Shoutlife member, Tiffany, who's been open about her childhood sexual abuse. In fact Tiffany’s full name will become public on the dedication page, at her request, when the book is released. I gave one of my Characters, Corazon Forrero, AKA Lethe, a backstory based on Tiffany's.

If such small things as the dedication page and character backstory in a novel can raise awareness for such hurting people, I’m sure all my literary friends I don't name won’t mind if I shine a little bit of God's healing love into these dark places.