Leaderboard

This was first posted on my blog at https://charleneedge.com on November 14, 2025 Greetings, readers! I hope you're all doing well. It's November already and one thing I celebrate in November is a birthday. Not my birthday but my first book's. Undertow is nine years old this month. I think most of you have read it, so thank you very much. If you haven't, I invite you to do that! It reads like a mystery and has a happy ending. Today I'm sending a little insider info to you on the book's progress in the world. This is relevant because I created this blog 10 years ago specifically to let subscribers like you know I was working on what became Undertow. Over the years, I also wrote a lot of blog posts about cults and fundamentalism which many folks tell me are helpful. In November 2016, we launched the book and sold it from my website for one month before it was available online at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc. It was a VERY exciting time. Actually, it still is an exciting time for the book. Read on... Undertow fun facts Undertow copies sell every month. Every single month since its publication in November 2016, copies of the book have sold in paperback and/or eBook to readers around the world. That tells me people are interested in understanding why people join cults. They're also keen to know my own first-person account of being a committed leader and Biblical researcher with The Way International and why I stuck with the cult for so long: 17 years. And how I escaped. You may have noticed that high-control groups like The Way are more prominently reported on these days, so the topic is still very relevant. How many copies have sold? As of today, IngramSpark reports that 1,844 copies have been sold by online booksellers since Undertow went on sale back in 2016. Libraries and indie bookstores can order copies using the ISBN and Library of Congress numbers. Also, I've sold about 100+ paperback copies in person. Who reads Undertow? Over the years, many readers have contacted me to share their own experiences in The Way or other cults, thank me for my story, and oh yeah, some try to convince me to join their church or otherwise convert to something that can "help" me. No matter the messages, I'm glad the book makes people think. Undertow has reached people not only in the USA but in other countries including Australia, New Zealand, the U.K., The Netherlands, Italy, France, Germany, and Chile. When I receive monthly sales reports from IngramSpark, the company that prints the book on-demand and distributes it, I'm humbled. I'm struck by the consistent interest in this book. It's an honor to have my story add to the conversation about what attracts people to controlling and abusive organizations and how followers can eventually resist them, reject them, and heal from them. I thought you might like to see the kind of folks Undertow readers are. Some wrote generous blurbs (praises) for Undertow, which appear on the book's front pages and cover: Family, friends, and neighbors, such as friend, Robyn Allers, author and journalist, who wrote a beautiful blurb. Childhood, high school, and college friends who knew me before I got into The Way. Some of my peers involved in The Way at the same time I was and who've also left it, such as Steve Muratore and Marty McRae, both former members of The Way Corps who provided invaluable former-insider blurbs for the book. And Buck Dopp, also a former Way Corps, who wrote this review here. Also, Stephen Spencer, former Way follower, wrote this review of Undertow, included here Kudos to fellow writer: Stephen J. Spencer | Charlene L. Edge Adult children of those peers. Some know my daughter! Adult children of peers who still adhere to Wierwille's teachings but in a Way offshoot group. At least one staff person at The Way International in New Knoxville, Ohio. I can't say who. :-) A minister in New Knoxville, Ohio near The Way International headquarters. Read his letter to me here. Religious scholars of Judaism and Christianity, such as Yudit Greenberg, PhD, and Philip Charles Lucas, PhD. Both contributed blurbs. Other authors who published Way stories, such as Karl Kahler, author of The Cult That Snapped and Kristen Skedgell, author of Losing The Way (currently out of print). They both wrote important blurbs. Authors who published memoirs about their confining and confusing religious experiences, such as Susan Campbell, author of Dating Jesus, and Julia Scheeres, author of Jesus Land. Both kindly provided blurbs for Undertow. Authors who write on the topic of cults such Jeff C. Stevenson, author of Fortney Road: Life, Death, and Deception in a Christian Cult. Jeff contributed a blurb, too. Also, Bart Stewart, who wrote a review published by the International Cultic Studies Association. Click here. Ex-members of other high-control groups. One in Canada contacted me. Emmy Award-winning television news producer, Rob Ruff, who provided a compelling blurb. A former leader in the Religious Right who wrote the blurb that appears on the front cover of the book. Read what he says here. Cult experts. Three are Michael Langone, PhD, Patrick Ryan, and Janja Lalich, PhD. All wrote insightful blurbs for Undertow. Some of my former college professors and the late Rita Bornstein, PhD, who was the president of Rollins College when I was a student there in the 1990s. She wrote a lovely blurb. Students at Rollins College who, for many years have been assigned Undertow in a religion class. I visit to discuss it with them. The professor, Dr. Todd French, provided an extensive blurb for Undertow. Mental health counselors, yoga teachers, and one of my own physicians. Librarians. In 2017, Undertow won an award from the Florida Authors and Publishers Association. Librarians were the judges that year. Fellow authors and poets across the country and in other countries—you know who you are. Thanks to all of you who share Undertow with interested readers. I'm proud of that book and grateful to everyone who helped me publish it, especially my husband, Dr. Hoyt L. Edge; my daughter and son-in-law, Rachel and Adam Chase; and the talented editors and book designer. In the Acknowledgments section of the book, you'll find a litany of folks who care about this story. Thanks for reading! Your writer on the wing, Charlene