Posts

Writers, AI, and Self-Respect

Image
Charlene pictured in a Winter Park, Florid, shop with copies of her memoir, Undertow, on the shelf. 2017 Hello, readers. Today's post is mainly for writers, but really, like all my posts, it's for all of you. What about writers and self-respect? Self-respect is connected to today's topic: writers and AI. Remember, AI stands for Artificial Intelligence. I know, I know. This issue of AI is all over the map. Some believe it's helpful in certain fields, like those pertaining to science and math. But if you ask some of us who care about literature, you might get a different response. We say something like this: If you want artificial novels, plays, poems, memoirs and articles spit out by a machine (in part or in whole), fine. But some of us don't. We don't want literature like that, and we sure won't write it like that. We refuse to use AI to create any literary works, i.e. poems, novels, plays, essays or ANYTHING else, including book reviews. We don't consi...
Post a Comment
Read more

From Cult NEWS 101 - Recognizing High-Control Groups

Image
Greetings, readers. Do you know a "high-control" group or a cult when you see one? From my 17-year experience in The Way International™, founded by Victor Paul Wierwille (1961-1985), I know first-hand what it's like to be in one of those groups. Their leaders, like Wierwille, and their recruiters, engage in usurping your life, not respecting personal boundaries, and making you feel powerless. They reinterpret this behavior to mean it's what God wants. This post gives helpful hints to avoid that trap. First, below is a valuable summary of such a group's tactics. It's published in the newsletter "Cult NEWS 101." One of the editors of the newsletter is Patrick Ryan. Years ago, Patrick provided a promotional "blurb" for my cult memoir, Undertow . At the end of this post, you can read the blurb.  Below that you'll find a great description of "reality bending" and the link to the Substack article where I found it. CultNEWS101 Articl...
Post a Comment
Read more

Blogspot Index: Charlene Edge Speaks about The Way International

Image
Greetings, readers. Perhaps the following list of my Blogspot posts about The Way, which I began writing in 2023, will be helpful. There is no other way to provide such a list on this site. Note : I do not use AI to produce content. First, the featured photo is from the late 1970s, at a meeting before I came on staff as a member of the Biblical Research Team. It's of a small group of us doing "biblical research" at Way headquarters in the old Biblical Research Center with Victor Paul Wierwille, founder of The Way (1916-1985). He is seated on the left at the head of the table. Walter J. Cummins, his research assistant and later my boss (see Undertow ), is right of VPW wearing a white shirt. Next to him, wearing a dark top, is Donna Randall, VPW's research secretary (1931-2023). I don't know who that guys is sitting back there in the corner wearing a tie. I'm next around the table on the right wearing a white blouse, with my head resting on my arm, looking a bit...
Post a Comment
Read more

Undertow Brings Home the Gold

Image
Greetings. If you're a reader who appreciates Undertow , today we continue celebrating its upcoming10th birthday by revisiting a breathtaking moment back in 2017 . Enjoy this blast from the past! 8/7/2017 How do you spell 'honored'? B-O-O-K  A-W-A-R-D. Undertow just won a Gold medal! I'm still weeping with joy. All my thanks go to Team Undertow : editors Mary Ann De Stefano and Alice Peck, copy editor Ruth Mullen, book designer Duane Stapp, artist Rachel Chase, all the "first readers," memoir professor Lezlie Laws, PhD, experts and authors who provided "blurbs," and my husband, Hoyt Edge, PhD, for his magic, love, and those home-cooked meals he put together for this writer when he preferred to watch basketball. I love you! For the record, books were judged by librarians--oh how we revere them. Here's the official announcement. Photo gallery below. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Ken Johnson, Committee Chairman Florida Authors and Publ...
Post a Comment
Read more

What’s Missing from Undertow?

Image
Hi, readers! Thanks for joining me in my continuing celebration of Undertow's 10th birthday coming up this November. That's when we sold it on my website and many readers got signed copies then. That offer continued for one month, then we "went live" on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online vendors. Undertow is still out there for sale in paperback (List price: $24.95) and eBook (List price: $9.99). Don't pay more! There are suspicious sellers asking for more, even for my second book, From the Porch to the Page .  What is in Undertow is not the whole story Undertow could not be "the whole story." Lots of events were left out. The story told in Undertow had to have a focus, a theme supported by particular, relevant scenes about salient events, etc. That took some heavy hours of contemplation and countless hours of editing, since the whole story about those seventeen years would have spanned who knows how many volumes and would have taken me...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review of Kristen Skedgell's memoir, "Losing The Way."

Image
Greetings, readers. The following is an important book review of  Losing The Way: A Memoir of Spiritual Longing, Manipulation, Abuse, and Escape. The book is a memoir by Kristen Skedgell, published in 2008. The review is written by Liz Childers, a former follower of a Way offshoot. I know Kristen and her story. What she reveals in her book is extremely disturbing. In my view, among other things, it shows Victor Paul Wierwille, the founder of The Way, at his worst: a depraved sexual predator. As I said, the book review was written by Liz Childers. On May 1, 2026, Liz published her review on her Substack account called "Finding My Way," and she gave me permission to published here. You can also read it on Substack at "Review of Losing the Way - by Liz Childers - Finding My Way." Note: the three memoirs Liz refers to that pertain to The Way are 1)  The Cult That Snapped   by Karl Kahler 2)  Losing The Way  by Kristen Skedgell (out of print). 3)  Unde...
Post a Comment
Read more