A Week of Book Promotion in Malta and Gozo

Steve and I have just returned from a whirlwind visit to Malta and its smaller sister island, Gozo. As many of you are aware, we lived in Gozo up until April of this year.  The purpose of the visit was to promote my debut novel, Known to Social Services, which was the number one social work book on Amazon UK. Also to raise awareness for my new book, Gozo Is the Grass Greener? Which is an account of our move to Gozo from the UK in December 2010.

Monday 28th September

First stop was to the Lotus tal-Qalb Centre in Gharb, Gozo, where we received an enthusiastic welcome from a group of about 30 people. I am indebted to Sue Lister for extending the invitation to me, and to my dear friend Penny Dix for suggesting it in the first place. 

A warm welcome from Penny

Thank you to everyone who came along to listen

My dear friend Pat has her copy signed

I think this was a fairly orderly queue for books!

Thanks Janet!

Our Valda!

I know Jackie is one of many people who has read BOTH books

It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening, where we met old friends and new and were pleased to have some brisk book sales J

BIG thank you to Sue for organising the event

Many thanks to you all for your hospitality.

Tuesday 29^th September

We made the short trip over to Malta where I delivered an evening talk to the Maltese Association of Social Workers. This was a mutually informative evening where I shared information regarding social work in the UK, and learned how my colleagues in Malta work.

With Faraxa Director Joanne Micallef

Book signing with senior lecturer Charles Pace 

Known to Social Services proved very popular!

There is a marked difference in the way the two countries approach the issues within social work, which provoked a lively discussion. Again, the book was in demand, with other social workers bringing existing copies for me to sign.

Many thanks to the organisers for inviting me here.

Wednesday 30^th September

Wednesday saw us up bright an early for an 8am lift to the ferry, which took us back to Gozo for a morning talk at the Oasi Centre in Victoria. Oasi is a non-profit organisation which offers vital help and support to people struggling with addictions of drugs or alcohol.

The audience at Oasi - front seats filled up later!

Speaking to an audience of social workers, counsellors and teachers, as well as members of the public, I firstly addressed the issue of alcohol addiction and its negative impact on children and their families

Using real case examples in the form of genograms, I then spoke on both positive and negative case outcomes in families where drug addiction had been a major factor.

Again, there was relevant discussion and ideas from all parties, with great interest in the book.

This lady bought a copy for her son who is in the UK doing social work

Our dear friends Honor and Manwel get their copy signed

The Guidance Teachers in the Anti-Substance Abuse Service 

Julia Crosthwaite, Director of Jules Gozo Holidays gets her copy

 Kind thanks to the organisers for the invitation.

Please visit http://www.oasi.org.mt/ for more information about the good work carried out by Oasi.

Friday 2^nd October

Friday was a busy day; I was interviewed by Sarah Carabott of the Times of Malta. The article will appear in the paper in the very near future.

With Sarah Carabott of The Times of Malta

Later in the day, we went to the University of Malta where I delivered a talk to students and staff. Using exercises, I tried to demonstrate some of the issues faced by children who have to enter the Care System. I also gave another case example, where an accurate assessment of the presenting risks to the children had been essential to the case.

With Director of Faraxa Books Joanne Micallef and Sarah who helped to organise the event

I am grateful to the organisers for the invitation.

Book signings with students and staff. Here with the Head of the Social Work Department, Maureen Cole

This was a busy but successful week for us. We also had some time to catch up with good friends in Gozo, though we did not get to see as many people as we would have liked.

Waiting for our lift - see the cruise ship in the background

I would like to say a big thank you to my ever supportive husband Steve for all his help, and also to Joanne Micallef, the director of publishers Faraxa who are responsible for putting both books into print. Joanne’s assistance in getting around in both Malta and Gozo was essential to the smooth running of the itinerary, which I am pleased to say, cyclones and storms aside, went without a hitch J

Known to Social Services and Gozo Is the Grass Greener? Are both available via Amazon. They are also available in bookshops in Gozo and Malta or direct from Faraxa.

I am currently working on the sequel to Known to Social Services, which will be about child trafficking.

Freya

Visit to Malta and Gozo

As many of you are aware, we are now living in the South of France, where I am working on another book. I am extremely pleased to report that I have been invited to Malta to delivery several talks in regard to both my books - the bestselling social work book, Known to Social Services and my 2^nd book, Gozo Is the Grass Greener?

So pleased to visit Malta and Gozo to promote both my books, which were published by Faraxa Books 

Itinerary

Monday September 28^th at Lotus tal-Qalb Centre in Gharb, Gozo from 7 – 9pm; I will be giving a talk on both my books and signing books as well – All are welcome

Tuesday 29^th September from 6pm – I will be speaking to the Maltese Association of Social Workers

Wednesday 30^th September at 11am – I am guest speaker at Oasi in Victoria, Gozo - everyone is welcome

Invitation to Oasi - ALL ARE WELCOME











Friday 2^nd October at 12pm – for an interview by The Times of Malta

Friday 2^nd October from 4pm – I will be speaking to social workers and other professionals at The University of Malta

Many thanks to Joanne Micallef, the Director of Faraxa Books, for her hard work in supporting me in this visit and in organising most of the engagements.

I hope to see some of you at the events.

Freya

Share with Care - a cautionary tale about sharing unsolicited material on Facebook

Facebook; love it or loathe it? Come on, be honest, when you turn on your computer, laptop, tablet or phone in a morning, what’s the first thing you log on to? I bet its Facebook.  I’m no different - how we love to see the red alerts, which indicate that people have “liked” what we have had to say, or better still, they made a comment about it, or shared it with others. Best of all is the personal message – we all like to get those and so much easier than email.

For most of us, Facebook is a way to keep in touch with friends and family, and when used appropriately, it’s a great social medium. For others like me, it’s a fantastic platform to promote business or, in my case, my books. For me, Facebook was an absolutely invaluable place to promote and share what was going on in the process of getting published, and I am eternally grateful to all my friends, family and followers who “re-shared” my posts and supported me in making my books successful. 

My debut novel, the bestselling Known to Social Services

My recently released 2nd book

Like everything however, there is a downside to Facebook; take the dozens and dozens of posts that we plough through on a daily basis, often of no interest or particular value to us, but which sidetrack us with their demands on our time and attention as we trawl through. I don't really need to know what the weather is doing on the other side of the world. Neither is it really necessary for me to watch the hundredth video of the day about an amusing cat, dog, horse, hamster, parrot, elephant, piglet (Hands held up - I’m as guilty as anyone for putting those on from time to time) Despite this, we all find ourselves spending what can amount to hours, staring at the screen and then wondering where our day disappeared to!

Funny yes, but a bit to close to the truth for many of us!

I am not a fan of the games available via Facebook, but I have friends who love them. I don’t think though, that everyone realises that when you play a game via Facebook, it redirects you to an unsecure site, which can make you susceptible to being hacked. It can also become highly addictive. I have several friends who closed down their Facebook account for this reason – they became addicted to the games! 

Look familiar?

Yes, Facebook is here to stay, or so it would seem, and most of us, myself included, will continue to enjoy what it has to offer. There is one trend however, which I have noticed creeping in which disturbs me, and I say this with my social worker’s head on.  I have seen a few posts lately, in which the person posting is asking people to re-post and share.  Often I have no idea who these people are, but they get onto my page via friends re-posting. So why am I disturbed? Let me explain.

The last post of this nature concerned a little boy who looked approximately around four years of age. There was a cute picture of said child and a suitably heart rending story to go with it. It went something like this.

“Please help - this little boy is missing and we need your help to locate him. If you have seen this child, please send a me a pm and help reunite him with his family who are missing him”

Yep, that was it – so why the worry? Surely we should all rush to re-post that one, right?

Sad stories tug at our heartstrings, but wait ..... what's the REAL story?

Well, as I said, I had my social work head on, when I read it, which raised my suspicions about the post. Why was the child not named? Why were we not told where he had gone missing from or what he was wearing at the time? Why were the circumstances of his so called “disappearance” not shared? Why was there nothing on the news about him?

Having worked as a child protection social worker, I am sadly all too familiar with the necessity of removing children from their families for reasons of safety.  I am also all too aware of the (understandable) lengths parents will go to, to try and track down their children, and using social media is a favourite. My concern is, that the child in the photograph may well have been a child who was removed from his family for good reason. The child may well be in a foster placement, many miles from his original home. By using Facebook and telling a story similar to the one above, is a perfect way to glean information about the child’s potential whereabouts.

I have had to move children more than once, due to exactly this scenario. Parents have managed to track down their child through Facebook, and believe me, it does not end well for anyone, least of all the child.

I have known foster carers who have had angry and hostile parents at their door at all hours of the night, demanding that they hand over their child – the child who they traced via social media. Not good.

Here is a link to an excellent article in the Guardian more than 5 years ago - yes, it was happening then;

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2010/may/23/birth-parents-stalk-adopted-facebook

Another scenario is where a child is deemed to be safe with one parent but not the other. Let’s say that the mother has been a victim of serious domestic violence and the court has awarded her custody of the child, but denied the aggressor any visiting rights. The mother flees to start a new life, but the aggrieved and violent father traces the child using social media and in such a case, the results can be truly catastrophic.

The final scenario, which was of great concern, was a post about a beautiful young woman who was reported to have been killed overseas. The person posting the tale, said she was a close friend of the victims and accused the woman’s boyfriend of her murder. She asked for help in tracking him down and pleased with us to re-share the post. Again, there was no possible way of knowing if it was even true.  I Googled the story and found no news reports on it whatsoever; no mention of the so called murdered victim and yet ........... the story had over 150,000 shares!  

Facebook can be a wonderful way to maintain long distance relationships, share family photos and much more. However, please accept this word of caution and be very selective in what you share. Read the small print and ask yourself why this post is on Facebook and what exactly is it asking; more importantly who is asking and why?

Post Script

I am grateful to one of my social work colleagues for bringing her excellent blog to my attention. The same subject matter was discussed in this blog in June of this year, and can be read by following the link below.

http://barefootsocialwork.weebly.com/blog/the-dangers-of-social-media-for-missing-children 

Freya