The life of a young boy in small-town Nebraska was forever altered after one brief encounter behind a local swimming pool.
Michael Carnes is the author of “Call Me A Survivor,” a first-person account into his life as a survivor of child sexual assault.
Carnes was attacked as a 9-year old boy in the small town of Newman Grove, Neb., and the aftermath of what he experienced has been a tough one for him to live with. He describes it all in detail in his book, which is available on Amazon.com via print and e-book format.
“The idea to write the book was something that had been building inside of me for a long time, but it took a major news event and a trip to a friend’s house for it to really click,” Carnes said.
When news of the Jerry Sandusky scandal at Penn State University broke in the fall of 2011, it reopened some wounds in Carnes’ heart.
“All I kept hearing was how this was going to affect the football end of things at Penn State, and there was no questions asked of how this would affect the children whose lives were forever changed at the hands of the evil pedophile, Mr. Sandusky,” Carnes said. “I felt like I needed to do something.”
What that something was, though, took until the following summer after a visit to a friend’s house in Colorado.
“The air conditioning had gone out in his house, and we were in the middle of a heat wave where there didn’t seem to be any relief,” Carnes said. “One night, as I struggled to fall asleep, a voice awoke me with three simple words: ‘Write the book.'”
Carnes said that voice, what he called “a voice from God,” spurred him on to write about his experience. He has self-published his book and is speaking out publicly about his experience and encouraging others who have experienced child sex assault to do the same.
“Even today, almost 40 years later, I’m still dealing with the fact that I am a survivor of child sex assault, and some of the things that have been a part of my life that came as a result of this experience are only now being dealt with,” he said. “I don’t want others to have to wait that long . . . it’s important for them to tell of their experiences and to seek comfort in knowing that they are a survivor — not a victim — and that they are not alone.”
Carnes is a managing editor of a weekly newspaper in Wayne, Neb., The Wayne Herald, and has 30 years of experience in the newspaper industry. He is also a public speaker who is bringing his experience and his message as a survivor of sexual assault out to the world.