National Human Trafficking Awareness Day

Today is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day. It's sad we need to have a day like this in 2023, but unfortunately the sale and exploitation of human beings is still alive and well. Too many people, specifically women and children, are bought and sold every day in countries, including the United States.

 

It wasn't until writing Slave (Finding Anna, Book, 1) that I realized how oblivious many were to this sad reality. I got reviews saying this type of thing didn't happen in America.

 

But it does happen in the United States. It's not only a third world problem. It doesn't only happen in other countries.

 

The inspiration for my Finding Anna series was a woman who was rescued after being held as a sex slave for almost 20 years. This happened in the US. She wasn't trafficked in the traditional sense. She was kidnapped and held captive.

 

As I listened to this woman's story as it unfolded on the news, I thought about the trauma and trust issues she would obviously, and rightfully, have. How would this affect her relationships going forward? Especially those with the opposite sex.

 

Just like Brianna in my Finding Anna series, the people rescued from these horrific situations need support. While researching my story, I came across an organization called The Polaris Project. They are working to try and stop human trafficking at its source.

 

"Human trafficking is the business of stealing freedom for profit. In some cases, traffickers trick, defraud or physically force victims into selling sex. In others, victims are lied to, assaulted, threatened or manipulated into working under inhumane, illegal or otherwise unacceptable conditions. It is a multi-billion dollar criminal industry that denies freedom to 24.9 million people around the world."  ~The Polaris Project

 

 Those individuals being trafficked are trapped. When I wrote Brianna's story, I wanted to given a realistic insight to what it would feel like for someone who'd had their humanity stripped from them. These people are no longer human beings with rights, needs, and desires. They are a commodity to be used for convenience and profit.

 

Brianna's story wasn't typical. She was only held captive ten months before she was rescued by Stephan. Many are trapped for years or decades. 

 

I pray for a day when we no longer need to talk about this. One where using and abusing human beings is a thing we only learn about in history books.

 

Monday Update - April 8, 2013

Happy Monday everyone. Spring has finally arrived here in Ohio. I was beginning to wonder if it would ever get here with the cold weather we were having, but alas it is supposed to be in the 70's all week. I can't wait!

The first part of last week was all about taxes. If you're in the US, you know that April 15th is approaching fast, and unfortunately Uncle Sam isn't going to take 'I have to write' as an excuse as to why my taxes aren't done on time. It put my writing on hold for three days, which sucked, but I did manage to make some good progress toward the end of the week.

One evening I was picking the brain of a consultant I use for my Finding Anna Series. He's a Dom, but he was also in law enforcement for several years. During our conversation, I had to go on Youtube and find a video of what he was talking about so I'd fully understand what we were discussing. My husband walked into the study and found me watching a video about gun holsters. LOL. Needless to say I had some explaining to do. ;)

Last night I finished up Chapter 19 in FA4, and sent that off to my beta. For now, my muse seems to be working with me, so I'm hoping to make some good progress on the manuscript this week. I've sitting at a little over 50K right now...it felt great to hit that milestone. No idea how long this one is going to be though, since I still know there is a ton of story to cover yet. I'm sure you all won't mind if this one is extra long, right?

 

The SUBCLUB's Spring Giving Event is still going on, and I've donated a signed copy of Slave along with 5 sets of signed bookmarks to the cause. I selected The Polaris Project as my charity for this event. If you don't know anything about them, please check them out. They help to educate, support, and advocate for victims of human trafficking around the word. As you know, this is a subject that is close to my heart. http://thesubclubbooks.com/?page_id=9835

As of April 2nd, TWCS announced that Red Zone (Daniels Brothers #2) is now available for download for only $6.99. You can get it at this new lower price from Amazon, iBooks, or direct from the TWCS website.

Thursday I was over at Naomi Shaw's blog talking about how I became a full time author.

On Friday, my editor featured me on her blog. Check out her post titled 'My First Pick...Truth by Sherri Hayes, Finding Anna Book 3!' Click here to read it.

Monday Update - April 1, 2013

Evening everyone. I hope you all had a great Monday. It's hard to believe it's April already. Time is flying, and when deadlines are right around the corner, that's not a good thing.

The good news is that this last week was my most productive in quite a while. I polished off three full chapters of Finding Anna, Book 4. Now, if I can just keep that pace up through April and May, I'll be in good shape. Right  now I'm brainstorming a plot line with a ex law enforcement officer. I know what I want to happen, I just have to figure out a believable way to do it. *sighs* The hardships of an author. ;)

There were some ready big highlights over the last week. First, and foremost was the reveal of the Truth (Finding Anna, Book 3) cover. What do you think?

I also released an exclusive excerpt over at The SUBCLUB. If you missed it, you can read it here.

For any of you going to the Lori Foster RAGT, I will be signing books on Friday night. B&N still shows my books as POD even though they aren't, so I'll be signing with the self published and ebook only authors. If you're coming on Saturday, send me a message, or leave a comment, and we can find each other at the hotel. I'll have my books with me, and be conducting my own sales that weekend.

I realized this last week that I've never actually went and looked at my Amazon author page. I've updated it, sure, but I've never actually clicked on it to see what it is readers see. If you haven't been to my Amazon Author page, you might want to check it out.

My Facebook page reached a milestone this past Friday by hitting 900 likes. Since Friday, another 20 have been added! Wow. Thanks everyone for your support and love of my stories.

Throughout the month of April, I, along with over 30 other authors, are participating in The SUBCLUB's Spring Giving Event. Each author has picked a charity, and have donated prizes. All you have to do is donate to the charity of the author's choice in order to enter the drawing. To find out all the official rules, click here.