Carolyn L. Sorrell - Poet, Writer, Copywriter
Welcome to my site! My name is Carolyn but I often write under the name Anne Carol. I am a poet and writer and currently work as a free-lance copywriter. But also produce about 2 novels each year. Please check out my latest novel:
12 Years to Live
Charlene Jackson has come to the end of her life and is now contemplating all the ramifications of Death. Is it fair to cheat death and choose your own time & place? Or should you wait for death to appear in your doorway? She goes out into the world to observe humanity one last time and finds something truly unbelievable.
The sequel to above book is Ready NOW! Here it is! Hope you'll check it out. "11 Years to Live"
This story continues now with "10 Years to Live." Join these fun characters! Get involved in their zany lives. You'll love how the story and the characters are progressing.
My new book is on sale now at Amazon. It's a book about my sister and her sad life and includes anecdotes and stories about growing up in the 60's. It's a book that my sister's ghost told me I would write someday. It took many years for me to finally put it all together but here it is!
Fantasies of Light!
Available as a digital download or in paperback.
About My Work
Over the years, I've produced a great deal of web content, along with sales ads, brochure copy, press releases, and e-books. I love blogging and manage about 6 blogs. Please check out this one: PERFECT DAY
I've worked on a wide range of projects over the years and there's practically no topic that I have not written about. At the moment, I'm writing for a large electrical supply house in the Northeast, along with an OB/GYN in Atlanta.
As a professional writer, I often work in a number of areas including web content utilizing SEO techniques. I know my way around Internet Marketing and can offer advice on how to get started promoting your site or business.
I helped a Japanese translating service translate the book, "Great Work" by David Sturt into English. I advised translators on the meanings of common American slang terms. For instance, the word, "Americaints" appears in the book. The Japanese were mystified about what this word could mean. Another instance, the translators wanted to know the significance of the iconic photo of construction workers sitting on a steel beam eating lunch at Rockefeller Center in NY [circa 1932].
My Claims to Fame: I was a first responder to the Katrina disaster and Barack Obama follows me on Twitter.
Purchase a copy of this fast-moving thriller, "The Sea at Sunset" available at Amazon. View the Kindle edition on your PC Cloud Reader or Kindle product.
A few years back, I owned and ran my own publishing company and often work as an editor on books and any type of writing that might need improvement or corrections.My writing style is fresh and original and I always do all my own research. Though I really enjoy working on creative fiction, I often find myself working for hire on technical documents such as Cloud Computing or Symbian Application Development.
I am very creative, always thinking outside the box, have excellent grammar, spelling and English skills. I am very easy to work with and good at meeting deadlines. The trademark of my work is the passion I put into each project.
My sales ads convey strong, persuasive messages that get results. I write professional, effective articles that will enhance any website. I am a thorough editor with an eye for what works and what doesn’t.
For a listing of past work I've completed, please see the About Me Page.
Advertising is a valuable economic factor because it is the cheapest way of selling goods, particularly if the goods are worthless. Sinclair Lewis
Everyone is like this, no matter where you're from. WE ALL live in little worlds that we create with our minds, imaginations, past experiences etc - and we seek out only those ideals that will reinforce what we believe. We reject those that go against our beliefs. It's called "MINDSET" and its very hard to change.
A good copywriter tackles this problem head-on. We create a message that's catchy or fun to listen to. Then we design a great layout for the ad and decide the best places to advertise. Consumers need to hear the same message over and over at least 21 times for their minds to be changed.
My Time on Board the USS Comfort – Katrina Disaster 2005
By Carolyn L. Sorrell
I’ve worked for FEMA for 7 years now and I seem to have a psychic connection to US disasters. Also, I’m usually drawn to unusual things, like I’ll show up at the gas station at the very moment it catches on fire. Or I’ll arrive at the mall while its being robbed. I think of these things as “adventures” and even during big disasters, I seem to work the most dangerous areas.
Such was the case in 2005 during the Katrina disaster. I could have been assigned to many areas to work…the entire Gulf Coast from Texas to Alabama was affected…but NO! I got assigned to a coastal area of New Orleans….a little town called Chalmette, St. Bernards Parish.
You’ll probably recall this town from the news. There was a big oil spill there. Besides all the regular dangers of excessive debris, structures that were unsound, the break down of all law enforcement, dead animals and people, we also had the added concern of poisonous snakes (there were marshes and wetlands there) and toxic mud.
The Murphy oil spill dumped tons of benzene, cyanide, oil and other chemicals into the water, soil and air. The EPA tests were rumored to be coming back 300,000 times the acceptable levels in St. Bernards Parish.
Trust me…I went to my superiors and said, “Are you sure its safe for us to be out there 7 days a week, 12 hours a day?” And of course they reassured me that the govt would NEVER send people into an unsafe area.
Okay, I’ll give everyone a few moments to roll in the floor laughing!
I was inspecting a broken down mobile home one day. One of the things we have to do during our inspection is get interior and exterior photos. But the little porch was mostly collapsed. It looked dangerous but I whispered a prayer and tried to make my way up on it anyhow so I could get my pics. I had laid my Panasonic Toughbook down on the ground away from the porch. Even though they are said to be indestructible, they cost $1700 and I didn’t want to take any chances.
I carefully climbed the steps and almost got to the top. This guy had a metal gate across the top of the stairs. I tugged at it gently and then a little more firmly. In a split second, the gate came loose and flew to the right landing right on top of my computer. The whole screen cracked. Our IT people said they’d never seen one break before so they thought it was pretty cool. They put it on display for everyone to see in the tech room.
I flew off the porch and landed on the ground amidst tree limbs and wet furniture. When I got up, I checked for blood and didn’t find any. But my right wrist was aching. I fractured it.
The high school in Chalmette, which had been mostly destroyed, had been turned into a Red Cross Clinic where anyone could be treated. All the hospitals in New Orleans had been destroyed. I drove myself up there and they checked it out for me and said it needed to be X-rayed. Cool! Whatever!
The problem was that the only X-ray equipment within a hundred miles was on board the USS Comfort, which is a medical naval vessel out of Maryland which had come to help with the Katrina disaster. I told them, “Nevermind, I didn’t think it was that bad”…and wanted to just leave and get back to work. But they insisted. They also insisted that an ambulance take me out there.
The ambulance drivers had never been on board a medical naval vessel either so they were very hyped about getting to drive me out there. I was the only one who didn’t really want to go.
It was a long drive. Many roads had been severely damaged by the storm and some others had been cordoned off by the army and we were not allowed to use them.
But we finally arrived and they wheeled me on a stretcher (how embarrassing!) into the ship. The ambulance drivers hung around and got a tour of the huge ship and seemed really excited. I got seen by a doctor right away. They X-rayed my wrist and said it was sure enough fractured.
An orderly came over soon and put a cast on it. Then they sent me down to the infirmary where I got not one, but THREE prescriptions for pain killers. These really helped a lot over the next few weeks. My body was worn out and aching most days from the 100 hours of hard labor each week.
It was around 5 pm by the time I was all done and they came and said, “You can spend the night on the ship for free if you like. There’s really not any way to get you back to your car this late in the day.” (There was a strictly enforced curfew.)
I said, “Thanks for the offer but I left all my equipment and my car at the high school in Chalmette.” They said, “Don’t worry! The most highly skilled security force on the planet, Blackwater, is guarding that school.”
I said, “Yeah, I know. They’re guarding our compound up in Jensenville, La. I know a few of those guys personally, but I’d still love to get back to my car tonight if at all possible.”
They were so nice! They started calling around and finally found one guy who was operating an independent taxi service in the New Orleans area. They called him for me and I explained to him that I needed him to pick me up at the Port of New Orleans and take me to Chalmette as soon as possible.
He said, “I ain’t going to Chalmette. There was an oil spill out there. The whole area has been cordoned off by the EPA because it’s toxic.”
I said, “I know that! But my car is there. I work out there every day and so far I haven’t turned purple or anything.”
He said, “There’s an army checkpoint going into the city. They won’t let me in there.”
I said, “They will let us in. I’ve got a federal badge.”
Finally, I was able to talk him into helping me. He really didn’t want to at all but I promised I’d pay him well for the trip. It took him almost an hour to get to the Port of New Orleans where the USS Comfort was docked. Then it took us another hour to get back to Chalmette. So many roads were impassible. There were still hundreds of boats, cars, houses and debris covering roadways, even I-10, the main highway through the city.
It cost me a hundred bucks to get back to my car that day and I barely made it out of the city before dark and back to the compound north of New Orleans. There was a very strictly enforced curfew in the city for months and the army soldiers didn’t play around. They were carrying big weapons and had orders to use them at their discretion.
I was so grateful to get back to my car and my stuff. Looking back now, I wish I’d stayed on board the USS Comfort and spent the night there. It was a chance-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but I was just scared that my car would get broken into and thieves would steal all my equipment, which would cause some huge problems.
In New Orleans, right after Katrina, any ordinary day came with a long, long list of problems right from the get-go, so adding to that number in any way was best avoided if possible.
Here’s the link to the USS Comfort website in case you’d like to check it out. It’s a beautiful ship whose mission is to help people in times of major disaster.
http://www.med.navy.mil/sites/usnscomfort/Pages/default.aspx
Like Berries on a Bush
My life is like berries on a bush
Ripe and ready to pick
Like falling off a cliff where there's no ground below.
My life is like unnumbered days
Whirring by at vast speeds,
Like windstorms that wash your soul clean.
My life is like strong ocean currents
Carrying away mysterious remnants
Of a time long ago and far away,
A time that may or may not have existed,
Where wise men lamented for loss of truth and justice.
My life is full of uneasy lies and truths that don’t make sense.
My way is fraught with stubborn ghosts that won’t die.
I have gold in me but there’s also muddy water …
A Paradox that won’t be resolved,
Either in this life or the one to come.
Carolyn L. Sorrell © Copyright 9.27.15 – All Rights Reserved
My life is like berries on a bush
Ripe and ready to pick
Like falling off a cliff where there's no ground below.
My life is like unnumbered days
Whirring by at vast speeds,
Like windstorms that wash your soul clean.
My life is like strong ocean currents
Carrying away mysterious remnants
Of a time long ago and far away,
A time that may or may not have existed,
Where wise men lamented for loss of truth and justice.
My life is full of uneasy lies and truths that don’t make sense.
My way is fraught with stubborn ghosts that won’t die.
I have gold in me but there’s also muddy water …
A Paradox that won’t be resolved,
Either in this life or the one to come.
Carolyn L. Sorrell © Copyright 9.27.15 – All Rights Reserved
In this hilarious blog, we meet Cousin Jody, who has decided to become a perpetual game show contestant. Join in his outrageous antics in this blog: Cousin Jody Tries Out for Jeopardy!
You'll enjoy this chapter from my newly completed Autobiography-The Woman with Two Birthdays
Chapter 55
I got home just before Christmas and decided to take a few weeks off before doing the job search thing again. I had made thousands of dollars but it would go quickly … I knew that from experience. The rent, the electricity and the car payment came due every single month without fail.
God had begun to heal me of so many things and I marveled that we had come such a long way in only three short years. Sometimes, I’d just sit and weep when I remembered the deep, dark pit I had fallen into and how God had very kindly come over and pulled me out of it in spite of me kicking and screaming and saying, “Leave me alone! I want to stay miserable. I don’t want to be well!”
That’s one of the things you never figure out about humans. Sometimes we get so comfortable in our misery and pain that we refuse all help, including God’s. A few times in the New Testament, Jesus goes up to people that are blind, lame and sick and he says, “Do you want to be made whole?”
That’s such an important question. For some reason, God needs our permission to heal us. He can’t or won’t just do it because he sees that we need it so badly. He needs us to ask for healing and want to be made well. He needs us to do our part, to listen and obey his commands. We’re an important part of the healing process. It’s not just a one-sided journey where God does all the work and we just lay back and take it easy. We have to be a part of our own healing.
One of the most important turning points for me was forgiveness. I struggled for years to truly forgive my family who had hurt me so much and then abandoned me. Over and over in my mind, I thought about all the times I’d given them money, cooked and cleaned for them, loved and encouraged them and then they just walked away in my darkest hour. Even after eight years, they didn’t care if I lived or died. They never called, never remembered my birthday or Mother’s Day… how do you forgive that?
Instead, in my heart, I made little iron cages for each of them. I placed each person in a cage and locked the door tight. Then each day, I would go to the little iron cages and torture them for what they’d done to me.
One day in late December of 2008, the Spirit of God came and he showed me the cages and told me that I would not get well until I forgave each person and set them free. I struggled with this for weeks before finally, at last, finding the strength to forgive. I loosed each one of them and gave them to God. Each cage was opened and the prisoners were allowed to go free in spite of their crimes. This helped me so much. It was an important step in my healing and recovery.
Right after Christmas of 2008, God spoke to me again. He said, “I don’t want you to go back to work. Stay home and I will take care of you like your husband did when you were married. Let me be a husband to you.”
I thought that sounded nice but still called my rep up at the employment agency and told her I was ready to go back to work. She got me a great job at a communications firm in their accounting department. After only a week, they mysteriously let me go even though I’d done my work well each day.
I went to my prayer group and asked for prayer to get a job and sure enough the next week, I got a great job in the accounting department at a real estate management firm. I worked four days and again they mysteriously let me go. This happened two more times. Within just six weeks, I’d gotten and lost four great jobs.
Naturally, I went to God to find out what was going on. My heart was broken; why was God letting this happen to me?
He spoke very clearly (which he doesn’t always do). “Do you recall me telling you NOT to go back to work? To stay home and allow me to support you?”
“Well … sure, but how can I pay my bills?”
“You let me worry about that. You stay home and let me take care of you like your husband did … simple! What part of that do you NOT understand?”
I was so confused, scared, unsure about the future … but I knew that I’d heard God. I knew that He had told me not to work. I just didn’t know how He was going to pay my bills every month. I did stop searching for jobs though and started looking around to see what he could possibly use to support me.
Then I had a brilliant idea—“Why don’t you apply for unemployment?”
Sure enough, they gave me almost $400 per week just to stay home and do practically nothing. I still made the job search effort, as required, but God made sure that no one else hired me. I spent a full two years just praying, reading my Bible, going to church meetings and letting God complete the healing work in my heart and mind.
During this time, we had a big singles conference at my church. The singles pastor was a mighty man of God. He instructed everyone to fast and pray for the conference and we obediently did so. The first night of the conference, the single’s pastor came to the stage. He’d just gotten back from preaching in Australia. He stood on the platform and boldly made this announcement:
“I want everyone who is struggling with any kind of mental or emotional disorder to come forward. God wants to heal you.”
I ran to the front. I was tired of dealing with the multiple personality disorder, the fear, the anguish and regret of a broken and worthless life.
The pastor went down the line, praying for people and when he got to me, he slapped both my hands, which were raised in worship at the time. The Holy Spirit knocked me several feet backward to the floor and began to work on my troubled heart and mind. When I got up off the floor thirty minutes later, I was completely healed and delivered of an entire lifetime of depression.
That was probably one of the most significant turning points of my life. I didn’t even know what it felt like to live out from under the dark, foreboding cloud of depression. I had been struck with it at the age of 12 or 13 and had suffered and struggled for over 40 years. Suddenly, there was light above me instead of darkness.
This one event marked my life as I moved forward. It wasn’t difficult for God to come in and complete the healing. One day he visited me. I knew he had something on his mind that he wanted to talk about. He showed me the iron cages where I’d held my family in prison in my heart for so long.
Weeping, I said, “I let them all go like you told me, Father.”
“No, there’s still one person trapped and held captive in an iron cage in your heart.”
In the spirit, I looked closely and saw who it was: it was me! I had held myself in prison, in a little iron cage, punishing myself for all sorts of things that had gone wrong. I had not forgiven myself. I wept when God showed me this cage where I had been a prisoner for so long.
He also showed me that the blood of Jesus covers every sin. God continually forgives those who are born again. Whatever I had or had not done was under the blood and I just had to accept that fact and receive my forgiveness.
Even though God clearly showed me all these truths, I still found it harder to forgive myself than anyone else. Once I did, though, it was much easier to finally be healed completely of those lingering problems and issues I’d dealt with for so long. Once I truly forgave myself, I began to get completely free and walk out into the light of a brand new day.
During that two years, there was plenty of time to reflect on the years, the people and the events that had brought me to where I was. I learned so much about me, God and life in general. I began to figure out some very important truths about life. I searched my soul almost daily and found so many unusual and often amazing things there.
I truly got in touch with myself as a human being … not the person I dreamed of being or the person I longed to be, but my true nature and character. I learned extraordinary things that most humans never do learn about themselves or life. I saw things in my spirit that both startled and alarmed me about the human condition. We always think that evil and sin have gotten much worse in the last few hundred years but that isn’t so. We’ve always been like that as a race of beings. We have great potential but we rarely ever achieve greatness.
Instead, we wallow in sin and fleshly desires and that prevents us from truly knowing God and becoming the best version of ourselves. He still loves us though and even gives us gifts that no one else can give, such as time, good health or glimpses of eternity.
I journeyed into my innermost being and saw who I truly was and will always count that as an incredible gift from God.
I soon became aware that I’d spent my whole life always trying to get back there, to the country, to those memories of when life was simple, yet grand; beautiful yet serene. No distractions, no evil –no screaming parents or angry children. Just a little farm with trees and wildflowers and the scent of herbal grasses mingled with rich soil.
A great longing had always been present within me, a yearning to go back there, lay down on warm earth and inhale the beauty of a thousand oak trees and careless butterflies on a warm summer’s day. Lazy clouds drifting aimlessly across blue sky with no place to go.
That was always where I had belonged and what I’d spent my life trying to get back to. Perhaps because it was the closest thing I’d found here on earth to heaven itself.
Chapter 55
I got home just before Christmas and decided to take a few weeks off before doing the job search thing again. I had made thousands of dollars but it would go quickly … I knew that from experience. The rent, the electricity and the car payment came due every single month without fail.
God had begun to heal me of so many things and I marveled that we had come such a long way in only three short years. Sometimes, I’d just sit and weep when I remembered the deep, dark pit I had fallen into and how God had very kindly come over and pulled me out of it in spite of me kicking and screaming and saying, “Leave me alone! I want to stay miserable. I don’t want to be well!”
That’s one of the things you never figure out about humans. Sometimes we get so comfortable in our misery and pain that we refuse all help, including God’s. A few times in the New Testament, Jesus goes up to people that are blind, lame and sick and he says, “Do you want to be made whole?”
That’s such an important question. For some reason, God needs our permission to heal us. He can’t or won’t just do it because he sees that we need it so badly. He needs us to ask for healing and want to be made well. He needs us to do our part, to listen and obey his commands. We’re an important part of the healing process. It’s not just a one-sided journey where God does all the work and we just lay back and take it easy. We have to be a part of our own healing.
One of the most important turning points for me was forgiveness. I struggled for years to truly forgive my family who had hurt me so much and then abandoned me. Over and over in my mind, I thought about all the times I’d given them money, cooked and cleaned for them, loved and encouraged them and then they just walked away in my darkest hour. Even after eight years, they didn’t care if I lived or died. They never called, never remembered my birthday or Mother’s Day… how do you forgive that?
Instead, in my heart, I made little iron cages for each of them. I placed each person in a cage and locked the door tight. Then each day, I would go to the little iron cages and torture them for what they’d done to me.
One day in late December of 2008, the Spirit of God came and he showed me the cages and told me that I would not get well until I forgave each person and set them free. I struggled with this for weeks before finally, at last, finding the strength to forgive. I loosed each one of them and gave them to God. Each cage was opened and the prisoners were allowed to go free in spite of their crimes. This helped me so much. It was an important step in my healing and recovery.
Right after Christmas of 2008, God spoke to me again. He said, “I don’t want you to go back to work. Stay home and I will take care of you like your husband did when you were married. Let me be a husband to you.”
I thought that sounded nice but still called my rep up at the employment agency and told her I was ready to go back to work. She got me a great job at a communications firm in their accounting department. After only a week, they mysteriously let me go even though I’d done my work well each day.
I went to my prayer group and asked for prayer to get a job and sure enough the next week, I got a great job in the accounting department at a real estate management firm. I worked four days and again they mysteriously let me go. This happened two more times. Within just six weeks, I’d gotten and lost four great jobs.
Naturally, I went to God to find out what was going on. My heart was broken; why was God letting this happen to me?
He spoke very clearly (which he doesn’t always do). “Do you recall me telling you NOT to go back to work? To stay home and allow me to support you?”
“Well … sure, but how can I pay my bills?”
“You let me worry about that. You stay home and let me take care of you like your husband did … simple! What part of that do you NOT understand?”
I was so confused, scared, unsure about the future … but I knew that I’d heard God. I knew that He had told me not to work. I just didn’t know how He was going to pay my bills every month. I did stop searching for jobs though and started looking around to see what he could possibly use to support me.
Then I had a brilliant idea—“Why don’t you apply for unemployment?”
Sure enough, they gave me almost $400 per week just to stay home and do practically nothing. I still made the job search effort, as required, but God made sure that no one else hired me. I spent a full two years just praying, reading my Bible, going to church meetings and letting God complete the healing work in my heart and mind.
During this time, we had a big singles conference at my church. The singles pastor was a mighty man of God. He instructed everyone to fast and pray for the conference and we obediently did so. The first night of the conference, the single’s pastor came to the stage. He’d just gotten back from preaching in Australia. He stood on the platform and boldly made this announcement:
“I want everyone who is struggling with any kind of mental or emotional disorder to come forward. God wants to heal you.”
I ran to the front. I was tired of dealing with the multiple personality disorder, the fear, the anguish and regret of a broken and worthless life.
The pastor went down the line, praying for people and when he got to me, he slapped both my hands, which were raised in worship at the time. The Holy Spirit knocked me several feet backward to the floor and began to work on my troubled heart and mind. When I got up off the floor thirty minutes later, I was completely healed and delivered of an entire lifetime of depression.
That was probably one of the most significant turning points of my life. I didn’t even know what it felt like to live out from under the dark, foreboding cloud of depression. I had been struck with it at the age of 12 or 13 and had suffered and struggled for over 40 years. Suddenly, there was light above me instead of darkness.
This one event marked my life as I moved forward. It wasn’t difficult for God to come in and complete the healing. One day he visited me. I knew he had something on his mind that he wanted to talk about. He showed me the iron cages where I’d held my family in prison in my heart for so long.
Weeping, I said, “I let them all go like you told me, Father.”
“No, there’s still one person trapped and held captive in an iron cage in your heart.”
In the spirit, I looked closely and saw who it was: it was me! I had held myself in prison, in a little iron cage, punishing myself for all sorts of things that had gone wrong. I had not forgiven myself. I wept when God showed me this cage where I had been a prisoner for so long.
He also showed me that the blood of Jesus covers every sin. God continually forgives those who are born again. Whatever I had or had not done was under the blood and I just had to accept that fact and receive my forgiveness.
Even though God clearly showed me all these truths, I still found it harder to forgive myself than anyone else. Once I did, though, it was much easier to finally be healed completely of those lingering problems and issues I’d dealt with for so long. Once I truly forgave myself, I began to get completely free and walk out into the light of a brand new day.
During that two years, there was plenty of time to reflect on the years, the people and the events that had brought me to where I was. I learned so much about me, God and life in general. I began to figure out some very important truths about life. I searched my soul almost daily and found so many unusual and often amazing things there.
I truly got in touch with myself as a human being … not the person I dreamed of being or the person I longed to be, but my true nature and character. I learned extraordinary things that most humans never do learn about themselves or life. I saw things in my spirit that both startled and alarmed me about the human condition. We always think that evil and sin have gotten much worse in the last few hundred years but that isn’t so. We’ve always been like that as a race of beings. We have great potential but we rarely ever achieve greatness.
Instead, we wallow in sin and fleshly desires and that prevents us from truly knowing God and becoming the best version of ourselves. He still loves us though and even gives us gifts that no one else can give, such as time, good health or glimpses of eternity.
I journeyed into my innermost being and saw who I truly was and will always count that as an incredible gift from God.
I soon became aware that I’d spent my whole life always trying to get back there, to the country, to those memories of when life was simple, yet grand; beautiful yet serene. No distractions, no evil –no screaming parents or angry children. Just a little farm with trees and wildflowers and the scent of herbal grasses mingled with rich soil.
A great longing had always been present within me, a yearning to go back there, lay down on warm earth and inhale the beauty of a thousand oak trees and careless butterflies on a warm summer’s day. Lazy clouds drifting aimlessly across blue sky with no place to go.
That was always where I had belonged and what I’d spent my life trying to get back to. Perhaps because it was the closest thing I’d found here on earth to heaven itself.
