system and watched in horror as they came close to releasing
her attacker on technicalities. She advises others to maximize
their input in the proceedings to insure their assailants are
locked behind bars and kept there.
While Sharon tirelessly uses her experience to help others,
her story continues to spread. Radio stations have interviewed
her, and CBN’s The 700 Club filmed Sharon and aired the
episode more than once. Movie companies
approached her before her book was even ready for a
publisher’s eyes. Kyle Idleman (author of Not a Fan) asked
her to participate in his latest video teaching series, Grace Is
Greater: God’s Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain,
and Rewrite Your Story. This summer, Sharon appears as a
legal expert on a tier-one cable network true crime show and
hosts a podcast to accompany it. Kidnapped by a Client is
coordinated to release with the program’s launch.
Many people would be satisfied with these
accomplishments but not Sharon. Her dream of promoting
safety has yet to be realized. She wants to convert her family
farm into an event venue that also hosts victim counseling
groups and provides law enforcement training. She envisions
setting up hypothetical crime scenes and drilling new officers
on how to protect evidence—something she saw woefully
lacking in her own case.
10 Southern Writers
Though it has taken years to become a reality, Kidnapped
by a Client is one more step toward Sharon’s goal of
preventing others from undergoing the nightmare she lived
for one terrifying car ride and seven grueling years. A sidebar
on her website home page quotes Matthew 10:16 in which
Jesus informs his disciples he is sending them out like sheep
among wolves. Sharon wants to make sure as many people as
possible “purposely and proactively prepare” themselves for
the “reality of living among wolves,” defending themselves in
whatever way necessary.
This is one sheep who learned to fight back. n
Tracy Crump’s devotions and articles have
appeared in numerous publications, but she is
best known for more than two dozen stories
in Chicken Soup for the Soul ® and other
anthologies. Her course, “How to Write for
Chicken Soup for the Soul” is one of Serious
Writer Academy’s top sellers, and she teaches
workshops and webinars on writing for the
series. She speaks at writers conferences, edits a popular
writer’s newsletter, The Write Life, and serves as registrar for
the Mid-South Christian Writers Conference. Her editing clients
include the Farmers’ Almanac. Visit Tracy at TracyCrump.com
or WriteLifeWorkshops.com.