When asked the secret to finishing his 500 page masterpiece The Power of One, author Bryce Courtenay growled, “Bum glue!”

I waited in line for over four hours to get this mans signature on his latest book for my grandmothers birthday. I poped my eager young head around the corner to catch the sight of this amazing man that had create such amazing books. My pen and paper in my hand, something that was glued to me, jotting down ideas and thoughts as they filled my head. My worse fear was leaving the house with out something to write on. I was just a primary aged girl with big dreams of writing and he smiled at me. Every time I popped my head around the corner he was there with a little wave. When I finally got there he smiled at me, eying off my notebook- I told him I wanted to be a writer when I grew up and he smiled, passed me the pen he had been signing with saying " you will one day be as beautiful a writer as you are as a person, never give up" I walked away holding his still warm pen determined I would be a writer. Thank you Bruce Courtenay for lighting my fire xx

Squidoo Lens!!!!

Just discovered these really fun way of writing and getting your messages out there- about really anything you want- its called SQUIDOO!!!!

I feel like a kid in a candy store- its fun, easy and you can write anything. I did my first LENS and have already started on my second. I really recommend it. But I'm not here to sell it(but you can check out my first LENS on Dear Daddy).

Just wanted to share really :)

These are great- I am printing this and putting it on my wall.....

This is me today- I have a lot of work to get my first five chapters done today for a Hardie Grant  Publishing call out for manuscripts for the Young Adults market. But sadly today I have done no where as near as much as I wanted...but there is still hours in the day- lucky for me :)

Words – so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them. ~Nathaniel Hawthorne

Abuse goes beyond the scars

10% of each copy of Dear Daddy will go towards ASCA, Adults Surviving Child Abuse, a group that does amazing work supporting people who have their worlds pulled down around them and shaken up all while they are children. Child abuse, any abuse for that matter, shakes the core of who you are. For a life time after abuse, a shadow of fear follows you influencing your life choices and often make people feel alone. Doubt, depression, anxiety, relationship issues, trust issues, self medicating and many other problems can weave their way into a person life- affecting who they are as an adult long after the child abuse has stopped. ASCA does amazing working, reaching into the unknown and helping adults know its going to be alright.

Dear Daddy is based on a Lilly who is just on the brink of adulthood when she is brutally attacked in her own home, resulting in her being reliant on a wheelchair. Lilly is then torn from a father she has always known to a mother she barely knows. Dear Daddy is the series of letters Lilly writes to her father as she adjust to her new life, her chair and mother. Dear Daddy was written to represent that abuse does not always leave physical scars, but also can turn the mind of the person against itself and its body. Within Dear Daddy, Lilly deals with dissociation, depression and self hate also learning dark truths about her family and life. Abuse is nothing small and the damage it can cause goes way beyond skin deep.

I wrote Dear Daddy when I was 20, when trying to voice what abuse feels like, what it feels like to be trapped in a body that had once been used against oneself. The truth is there no easy way to explain it as there are too many elements.So  Dear Daddy was written to outline what abuse can do and Lilly was placed in a chair because I had felt the only way to show what effect abuse has on the inside was by showing on the outside something everyone could see. You feel damaged. Broken even. Lilly represents the pain within. But also the hope. Dear Daddy is not a true story by any means (but true to too many people out there) but more a representation of what abuse does to ones core. It took several years to amount the courage to release Dear Daddy. But now I am proud to say "Dear Daddy by Amelia Cole" is out and that's why I believe in donating 10% of Dear Daddys profits to ASCA. Because Adults shouldnt feel alone.