Meg Tilly's promise to "Gemma"

Meg Tilly
Former actor Meg Tilly has now written a very graphic depiction of the kidnapping and sexual abuse of a 12-year-old girl. Tilly, who says she was abused by relatives when she was young, says it was a hard task, but she made a promise to the main character "Gemma" that she would see it through.
MPR Photo/Euan Kerr

A Duluth-based publisher just released Tilly's second novel, which is called "Gemma." It's a disturbing, at times graphic, story about a man called Hazen who kidnaps and sexually abuses a girl called Gemma.

Tilly says the book was born at a writers workshop. Organizers challenged her to write a story from the point of view of a man she didn't like. She immediately fixated on a relative who had abused her when she was a girl. She told Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr she was so terrified she couldn't write a thing.

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