Greetings, readers! Happy New Year from your writer on the wing! I wish you and your family peace and good health in the coming year.
Important news
After ten years of writing to you here on the blog, I’ll be closing shop in September 2026. It’s then that my contract with the server for my website and blog is due for renewal BUT after much thought I’ve decided not to renew it.
Between now and September, my plan is to send you a post each month. Maybe two. Some may be reruns, like greatest hits from the educational “Caring for Mother Nature” series by my friend Peggy Lantz (1933-2025), or from the “Wednesday Words” series I wrote to share inspiring and motivational thoughts or posts I put together about fundamentalism and cults, or about places around the world I’ve visited with my husband, Hoyt Edge.
Find me at Blogspot
If you don’t know, I have a free Blogspot account (offered by Google) titled, “Charlene Lamy Edge Speaks about The Way International.”
My posts there are mostly ones I’ve already published here on this blog about my memoir, Undertow, about what cults and Christian fundamentalism are and why we should care, and about The Way International and its founder, Victor Paul Wierwille. That’s the Bible-based cult I was enmeshed in for seventeen years (1970 – 1987).
Who cares about The Way these days? MANY people have contacted me asking for help leaving it. It is still in business, headquartered in New Knoxville OH, with outreach around the world. I care about that and endeavor to deter vulnerable people seeking Bible knowledge from associating with it. Also, many offshoot groups still cling to Wierwille’s ideology. There are followers trying to extricate themselves from these groups but need information. I have a lot to offer them at Blogspot.
Here’s the link: Blogger: User Profile: Charlene Lamy Edge
Find Undertow
Also, if you don’t know, my memoir, Undertow: My Escape from Fundamentalism and Cult Control of The Way International is still for sale at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and many other places. It’s in paperback and eBook. It is selling every single month!
Here’s a search result showing where you can find it. Undertow: My Escape from Fundamentalism and Cult Control of The Way International – Search
Find From the Porch to the Page: A Guidebook for the Writing Life
And if you don’t know it, I’m so proud of this little gem—my second book. It’s got my heart poured into every page. If you’re interested in writing, this is for you.
Edge’s prose is crisp and to-the-point, her voice discerning yet collegial, speaking friend-to-friend, as she shares stories, realizations, and moments of beauty. At the heart of the collection are more than thirty short essays, containing insights into the writing craft, practical exercises, marketing tips, self-publishing advice, and recommendations of books on topics to nourish the emotional and intellectual lives of writers.
As well as exploring beloved authors and poets, Edge includes her own work to illustrate and enrich her essays: short-short stories about a character, Melanie Craven, who falls into sticky but enlightening predicaments; poems on themes of growth, love, loss, nature, travel, and being a writer; and a short story about her cult experience in her award-winning, book-length memoir Undertow: My Escape from the Fundamentalism and Cult Control of The Way International.
Beginning with “Readers Become Writers” and ending with “If You Want to Keep Writing,” Edge’s encouraging and gentle book guides us on a journey from porches to pages, as she highlights the vistas, detours, and delights on the writing path, along with truths we can all apply to poetry, prose, and life.
Thank you for subscribing to my blog. I wish you peace and prosperity in this new year, 2026!
Your writer on the wing,
Charlene
Kathleen Brandt
All the best to you and yours in 2026, Charlene!
Your posts will be missed but I certainly understand the decision.
Linda M Goddard
Dear Charlene,
Have a Happy, Healthy, anxd Hope-filled New Year 2026.