Judy Emerson

Judy Emerson always wanted to be a writer. She learned good writing at the knee of master writers, authors she acquainted herself with beginning at age six, and continuing a love affair with beautifully crafted evocative phrases until this day. But she didn't write for a very a long time. She spent her first forty years mired in depression and procrastination before the work she did in psychotherapy to recover from child abuse brought her lasting healing. Her struggle through the raw and vulnerable experience of therapy prompted the journals that became her first book, In the Voice of a Child: One Woman's Journey to Healing from Sexual Abuse (Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1994). She had no idea that in the very same year a new company called Amazon was being launched. Eventually used copies of her book showed up on Amazon from third-party vendors.

Here's a review of that original memoir:

5.0 out of 5 stars:

"Reading and rereading Judy Emerson's book is a healing experience. Her courage in sharing her story inspires me to face my own pain and shame and do whatever it takes to heal and grow. She helps me see myself in a more empathetic way. This book gives me hope. Of all the books I've read on sexual abuse, this is the one I would most highly recommend." -Amazon review by “justme”

Since then, she turned her attention to making her life and family function better, in practical ways. For the past three decades she’s been a self-starter, a leader, and a positive presence in the world, creating a career in a helping profession that made a difference for those she served. But she rediscovered again and again that perfection didn’t exist for anybody. The mistakes she made along the way were often humbling, but eventually showed themselves to be wake-up calls, bringing her to deeper healing and increasing trust in her own soul-journey. She’s come to treasure those messy lessons and the wisdom they brought. She always meant to re-publish In the Voice of a Child. Now she has, in an updated 30th Anniversary edition.

After her retirement, Judy began serious work on a story that tugged at her heart for years. It’s become the literary fiction/suspense novel Sack of Wrongs, about a family not so different from her own family of origin—but their fictional story is not her autobiography. There’s resonance between the child she had been, in the pages of her memoir, and the character of Katie in the novel, and you’ll notice Katie and Ben’s parents have some familiar traits. But Katie’s teenaged brother Ben tries hard to be a good guy. Every one of these characters craves the experience of being seen and understood. Don’t we all want wrongs righted? Judy brings to life her understanding of family dynamics (so VERY many books, and hard-won understanding) in the creation of Sack of Wrongs, telling the truths she knows about families in the riveting fictional story of Ben’s quest to lay down that sack of wrongs he’s had strapped to his back.

Sack of Wrongs, a novel: on Amazon, in eBook and paperback formats:

When he fails everyone who matters, will he turn into the thing he hates the most?

Ben Keegan despises his parents. Even after five years with these mean drunks, the teenager is still shocked that his beloved Nana had denied him the only home he’d ever known. But when his brutal stepfather beats him senseless and casts him out on the street, Ben vows to become a very different kind of man.

Tortured by the desperation in his little sister's eyes as he leaves her behind, he forces his broken body to make it all the way across town, to the only people who might help. But with his growing rage threatening to erupt, Ben fears he could bring ruin to the people who’d put him back together again. And now someone is twisting Ben’s worst blunder to an ominous purpose.

Can Ben overcome someone’s shadowy plot to subvert justice, and make peace with all the wrongs done?

Here's an early review:

Sack of Wrongs is character driven with plenty of suspense. It’s a slow build as characters are developed and background established, but with rising action and conflict come surprising turns. This hooks the reader to keep reading page after page.

Ben dearly wants to care for and protect those he loves. He often draws on the wise words of his Nana – his beloved maternal grandmother – as a guide to do what’s right. Yet he’s tormented by anger and shame as he grows… [carrying] his sack of wrongs, as Nana described it. I think we can each see ourselves in Ben. No matter… what burdens we’re dragging, [we can] begin anew.

It’s a beautiful story, well written, and fun to read!

-Nicole Lind

Look for it on Amazon!