Monthly Archives: October 2014

Show Me the Gold Giveaway on Goodreads

Carolyn Mulford Posted on by

Want a chance to win an advance copy of Show Me the Gold? 

I’m offering five copies on Goodreads.com from now until November 29. If you’re not a member of this huge site for readers, you’ll have to join (pretty simple) before you can sign up for the giveaway.

If you’re already a member, go to https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22945313-show-me-the-gold.

The third book in my series, Show Me the Gold will be released in hardback and e-book December 17. You can read chapter one and a summary on this site (go to Show Me Mysteries).

—Carolyn Mulford

What I Learned in the Peace Corps

Carolyn Mulford Posted on by

To take part in a panel on the Peace Corps Then and Now, I had to think about the lessons I learned during my two years teaching English in Ethiopia. In doing so, I realized that the experience affected not only my attitudes and interests but also the jobs I held in the years after that and the fiction I’m writing today.

In September1962, the Peace Corps responded to Emperor Haile Selassie’s request for secondary teachers by sending in 275 volunteers. We doubled Ethiopia’s secondary faculty. I taught eleventh grade English at the only high school in the mountainous Wollo province. We had approximately 1,100 students from grades seven to twelve.

From the beginning, the Peace Corps has been known as the toughest job you’ll ever love. We lived that slogan. Almost no one quit. Why did we go, and why did we stay? Adventure and service dominated for almost everyone. Add to that, some men wanted to avoid being sent to Vietnam, some volunteers saw the Peace Corps as a career stepping stone (one volunteer was aiming for the Presidency, and took a shot at it), and some wanted to clarify what they wanted to do. A number became teachers.

The crucial thing that kept us there was that we were going to, not escaping from.

For me, the Peace Corps wasn’t a career move. I had long planned to be a writer and editor. After I left, I didn’t stand in front of a classroom for many years. When I did, I taught writing and editing in graduate continuing education programs. Still hard work, but not nearly as hard as teaching in that high school.

The general lessons that I learned served me personally and professionally. Here are some of them.

Keep your head and cope with whatever impossible challenge arises. When you don’t have what you need to do the job, figure out another way to do it.

All peoples and individuals are different, all peoples and individuals are the same. If we listen and look for commonalities, we can work and play together with people of all races, cultures, and creeds. (Some of that creeps into my mysteries.)

Americans take for granted our nation’s privileges and resources, from our rich farmland to our Constitution to our diverse population

I acquired lifelong interests, including folklore (folk tales reveal culture and values even better than history does), international affairs (leading me to work for the United Nations and follow international news), travel (roughly 70 countries so far), and how governments work (and don’t).

I also have been enriched with lifelong friendships. What’s more, almost any gathering of returned volunteers gives a feeling of fellowship and commonality that I’ve felt with no other group, not even writers.

The experience also had direct affect on my professional life, beginning with winning my first job as n assistant editor on a national education magazine. The Peace Corps line on my resume continued to interest people as I applied for jobs and, as a freelancer, went after contracts. One contractor told me never to take off my resume that I helped build a school in a leprosarium. My carpentry was irrelevant but memorable.

The Peace Corps experience made me willing to take chances on being able to survive as a freelancer and being able to sell novels. I was unwilling to view money as more important than boredom.

—Carolyn Mulford

High Season for Sexual Assault on Campuses

Carolyn Mulford Posted on by

Fall is high season for rape on college campuses because new students haven’t yet learned their geographical and social way, but sexual violence and harassment last all year.

Recent events have raised awareness of the severity of the problem locally and nationally, so my branch of the American Association of University Women scheduled the topic for its October program. I “volunteered” to moderate it, and I’m sharing my preparatory notes here.

One in five women suffer rape in their lifetime. Almost 80% of those victims are raped before the age of 25, and 40% before the age of 18.

Senator Claire McCaskill has led an effort to learn the extent of the problem on campuses in Missouri and around the nation, bring it to administrators’ and the public’s attention, and sponsor the Campus Accountability and Safety Act.

In July 2014, she released the results of the first-ever survey on the topic. Four hundred forty diverse four-year institutions responded.  The survey carries validity (I don’t know the margin of error) for colleges around the county.

The survey found that many institutions continually violate the law and fail to follow best practices in nearly every stage of their response to these crimes.

Perhaps that’s why only 5% of the victims report the crime.

The executive summary notes eight areas of concern, including the following highlights.

1. A Lack of Knowledge About the Scope of the Problem

The best way to learn the scope is to conduct climate surveys, but only 16% of the respondents were doing that.

2. A Failure to Encourage Reporting of Sexual Violence

Only half of institutions provided a hotline for survivors, and only 44% provided the option to report sexual assaults online. Roughly 8% did not allow confidential reporting.

3. A Lack of Adequate Sexual Assault Training 

More than 20% of institutions provided no sexual assault response training for faculty and staff.  More than 30% provided none for students.

4. Reported Sexual Violence Goes Uninvestigated 

Despite a federal law, more than 40% of schools had not conducted a single investigation in the past five years.  !!!!!

5. A Lack of Adequate Services for Survivors

Only 51% of schools reported offering the diverse services needed. Most institutions also failed to provide access to a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner.

6. A Lack of Trained, Coordinated Law Enforcement 

   Law enforcement officials at 30% of institutions received no training on how to respond to reports of sexual violence, and 70% of institutions lacked protocols on how campus and local law enforcement should work together.

7. Adjudication Fails to Comply with Requirements and Best Practices

More than 20% of institutions gave the athletic department oversight of sexual violence cases involving student athletes.

8. Lack of Coordinated Oversight

Institutions are required to name a Title IX coordinator whose responsibilities include coordinating any investigations of sexual harassment and sexual violence.  More than 10% did not have a Title IX coordinator.

You can download the full report from http://www.mccaskill.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/SurveyReportwithAppendix.pdf.

And this doesn’t end with college. In researching my next mystery, I ran across some statistics about the long-term effects of sexual violence.

A survey conducted for the Centers for Disease Control found that women and men who experience intimate partner violence, sexual violence, and stalking suffer lasting health effects.

In women, those effects include increased rates of asthma, diabetes, and irritable bowel syndrome.

In men and women, those effects include more instances than other people of frequent headaches, chronic pain, difficulty with sleeping, activity limitations, and poor physical and mental health.

Time to get over the boys-will-be-boys mentality and assault the problem.

—Carolyn Mulford