BOOK MARKETING: Sunshine State Book Festival Makes Its Debut In Gainesville, Florida

Author Lorilyn Roberts 

Saturday’s inaugural Sunshine State Book Festival hosted by WAG (Writers Alliance of Gainesville) was a resounding success. I learned a lot about the rich literary history of Gainesville. World-renowned poet Robert Frost and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings once called Gainesville home. Today, over two hundred authors live in the Alachua County environs.

My book table was at the exhibit entrance; I was thrilled to greet book dabblers and story lovers, but no homeschoolers stopped by to check out my books. In hindsight, I should have reached out to that audience on social media before the fair. WAG promoted extensively on television and radio, but most homeschooling families don’t watch TV or listen to the radio.

The books I sold included three copies of my memoir Children of Dreams, one copy of my children’s picture book The Donkey and the King, and two copies of my cookbook Food for Thought. I also gave away dozens of postcards to download Seventh Dimension – The Door for free from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

I connected with a librarian who invited me to speak at a local school, and I helped an elderly couple who locked their keys in their car to call for roadside assistance using my AAA card. Most of all, I enjoyed mingling with the authors and learning about their writing pursuits.

If you have an opportunity to visit a book fair, don’t miss out. 

Click to tweet: Reading is a pleasurable pastime and print books are making a comeback—especially among young adults and teens—as the most eco-friendly, sustainable form of entertainment on the planet.

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WHAT NO EYE HAS SEEN: Devotional by Lorilyn Roberts

“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him.”—I Cor 2:9

Many years ago I traveled to Nepal to adopt my first child. Nepal, located between India and China, is one of the poorest countries in the world. I had waited many years to become a mother, and now as a single woman, I felt God leading me to adopt a three-year-old girl. Her mother had died and her father was unable to provide for her.

I arrived in Kathmandu trusting God to lead the way. I was sure He would go before me, and I had no reason to doubt I would go home with my new daughter. But after two weeks of bureaucratic delays and attempted bribery, the adoption was denied. My hope that God would give me a daughter seemed impossible now despite my prayers and those of my friends. After spending hours in a remote village in Nepal, I headed back to Kathmandu, lifting my sorrowful pleas before God. Was there any way to reverse what seemed like a final decision?

A pastor of a local church in Kathmandu had been helping me, and he had an idea—that we would appeal directly to the Home Minister. Only he and the Prime Minister had the authority to reverse the decision that had been made against me.

That day arrived. We took a taxi to the courthouse, and I waited outside and prayed as my friend went in to meet the Home Minister. Within a few minutes, the decision was reversed, allowing me to adopt Manisha. I praised God for touching the Home Minister’s heart. I had no doubt, without God’s intervention, I never would have become a mother.

A flurry of activity followed to get all the paperwork completed to bring her back to the United States. On one of the many trips we made through the Himalayan Mountains, I was sitting in the van with Manisha waiting for Pastor Silas to finish up inside. It was quiet and cool as the sun hung high in the sky, and I was struck by the immense beauty all around us. The mountains seemed to reach up into the heavens and touch the throne room of God.

The passage came to mind as I was admiring God’s splendor:  “…no eye has seen.. no ear has heard…no human mind has conceived  the things God has prepared for those who love Him.”

I felt caught up to heaven at that moment anticipating the greater eternal home that awaited us when we would walk with Jesus and live with Him forever when there would be no bureaucratic red tape or governmental bribery or endless forms to fill out; where God’s love would be known in the remotest regions of the world, and we would see all of God’s majesty and splendor that we can only dimly imagine now.

In reflective moments, I’ve thought about that experience many times. Recently, however, God revealed to me something I failed to grasp. That vision wasn’t for heaven—it was for the earth. God was showing me my future.

As I thought about God’s glory that day, I failed to see His glory revealed in me—the joy of adopting not one daughter but two, returning two decades later and bringing Christian books to Nepal, working as a kitchen helper at a camp for kids in Juneau, Alaska; visiting inmates in prison and giving them hundreds of books to review for Christian authors; donating devotional books to an organization helping women caught up in the sex trafficking trade—God had plans I couldn’t have fathomed at that time.

While it’s exciting to think about what awaits us on the other side, God gives us gifts and talents in furtherance of His kingdom here. People need the Lord—the rich, the poor, the downtrodden the homeless, the drug-addicted, the businessman, and the nomads in Africa. The needs are great and the workers are few.

God gives us inspiring examples of people in the Bible who were just like us. People no one would have guessed were destined for greatness in the kingdom of God. Moses was a young baby left in some reed bushes in the Nile River. Joseph was sold into slavery and spent years behind prison walls. Esther was orphaned and hid her identity to protect her adoptive family from persecution. Ruth had no Jewish lineage but became the bloodline for the King of kings.

These mighty men and women are only a sampling of those God used. They simply loved God and served Him.

We are God’s workmanship, His hands, and His feet. We are His heart in a world becoming more and more godless and more corrupt, where good is seen as evil and evil is seen as good. Jesus told His followers, “Pick up your cross and follow me.”

God has given us gifts to serve Him in His kingdom here. He has knitted us together to love, teach, admonish, and encourage, and He wants us to share His artistry that moves hearts and souls. Jesus prepared the way so that others could see His glory in us.

What gift has God given you? Use it. What calling has God put on your heart? Pray about it. What longing keeps you awake at night? Ask God to fulfill those desires. What inspires you to be more like Christ? Study His character. What grieves your soul? Ask God to show you wisdom—what can you do to make a difference? What grieves our hearts grieves the heart of God even more.

Until God’s work is done, we can’t escape the tares of sin, but we can work towards sharing His kingdom with others. Christ’s body is a formidable weapon, and He works through imperfect people like you and me. His vision is beyond measure, His dreams outlandish, and His redemption incalculable. God has destined all those who love Him with a destiny we can’t imagine. If you hear His clarion call and long to see His glory in your life, don’t delay in responding. No bribes, scandals, or sin can hold back His kingdom here for those who want to serve Him.

CLICK TO TWEET

To read my award-winning memoir, visit:  http://bit.ly/lpcod

To read more of Lorilyn Roberts’ blogposts, go to LorilynRoberts.com

MEMOIR AUTHOR LORILYN ROBERTS BEARS HER HEART IN CHILDREN OF DREAMS

When I took the introductory class for my Master’s in Creative Writing, one of the books I had to read was Writing for Story by Jon Franklin. The fourth chapter in the book, “Stalking the True Short Story,” was based on two famous stories he wrote, one of which was his Pulitzer Prize-winning entry, “Mrs. Kelly’s Monster.”

Because everybody would love to win a Pulitzer Prize, his comments are worth noting. To quote Jon Franklin on page 81: “One of the best ways to teach positive lessons while entertaining at the same time is to write stories about how people successfully cope with the world, endure, and even sometimes win.” 

I have thought a lot about that. Much of what I report as a television captioner is mundane news to a world that hardly blinks an eye at the everyday, run-of-the-mill, shoot ‘em up, rob-him blind, dope-addicted, shoddy moral, or over-spending bureaucratic figure news story which people scoff and ignore if it doesn’t affect them directly.

In contrast, Jon Franklin dug deep for the motivations, the conflicts, the resolutions, and the redemptive endings in his books and articles. In the same vein, when I wrote Children of Dreams, I wanted to share a part of me that no one else knew. I risked being venerable, revealing traits and values that I knew some would not understand. I am not perfect, and did I really want to reveal my failures, confess my doubts, and admit my flaws?

Our lives, particularly if we are memoir authors, must be real or we will come across every bit like the superficial news stories that I alluded to above—irrelevant to the reader. Too much of our time is lived at a frenzied pace with quick posts on Facebook and Twitter, or text messages written in code, risking little, and only recognizable enough to make us feel we have value in the world of cyberspace.

If you have been forsaken by your family, hurt by others, stuck in a job you hate, gone through a divorce, experienced major health issues, sacrificed your own lost dreams, or struggled in your Christian walk, I share unabashedly with profound honesty how God helped me through these tragedies. This is the “true story” within the story in Children of Dreams. There is no superficiality—only raw emotion and truth. I had to get permission from my kids and family. There are still open wounds that God will have to heal. There was a price to pay and I am still dealing with it now. Do I regret it? No. I know God will eventually redeem all which is broken.

The typical reader, much like a typical reporter, will see Children of Dreams as another adoption story; give it a cursory glance, and move on. The sensate reader, who reads for deeper meaning, will experience God’s profound love and redemptive hope, knowing without any doubt, God is the fulfiller of dreams.

My desire is that the reader will be stirred—emotionally renewed and batteries charged, believing if God can do the impossible for me, he can do the same for him. God can heal infected wounds, redeem broken dreams, and convince the skeptic to believe in miracles. None of us should live as though we have no hope, and Children of Dreams is a testimony to God’s grace, reassuring the reader that where there is God, there is always hope.

Children of Dreams won bronze in the 2016 Readers Favorite Book Awards for Memoir. To purchase from Amazon in Kindle, print, or audio format, click here.

MEDIA: HOW I BECAME AN AUTHOR: “50 Great Writers You Should be Reading 2016 Contest,” by Lorilyn Roberts

Lorilyn Roberts

I JUST ENTERED A CONTEST    

50 Great Writers You Should be Reading 2016 Contest

(contest closed but enjoy the post)

My love for writing began with a homework assignment in third grade. The teacher asked us to write a short story. Fifty-plus years later, on occasion, I’ll pull the old, faded, handwritten story out from underneath my bed and read it. I still remember writing the words.

In fourth grade, I wrote poetry.

In fifth grade, my teacher accused me of plagiarism in front of the class. My father went to the school and talked to her. He never once questioned my integrity.

By the time I was in ninth grade, I had written two unfinished books. Yeah—I didn’t know how to finish them.

When I was thirteen, my parents gave me a guitar for Christmas. For the next few years, my writing waned as classical guitar took up most of my time. I loved the attention and self-worth it brought me as I performed at many major events.

When I went to the University of Georgia my freshman year, I rediscovered my love for writing. Since I grew up in a family business, however, English wasn’t on the list of “qualifying” majors; maybe physical therapy or business administration, but not English. No starving authors were allowed in the Roberts family.

Then, as often happens, I fell in love.

I hit a crossroads. What was I going to do with the rest of my life? In a moment of insanity, I threw my college degree out the window, and at my parent’s urging, agreed to go to court reporting school. My future husband promised someday I could go back to college.

As a court reporter, I was writing, if you can count thousands of pages of depositions writing. I imagined how many books that would be, and I longed to write something different.

When my husband finished medical school, we moved to Gainesville, Florida, where he began his residency in radiation oncology. I enrolled in college and earned my two-year degree toward a bachelor’s in journalism. I took my first creative writing class, and my writing appetite was whet once more.

My life changed forever when tragedy struck. I discovered my husband was having an affair and had gotten his girlfriend pregnant. Not only was I devastated because I loved him, but I had sacrificed a lot for his career. My dreams were just beginning to be fulfilled, although my inability to get pregnant caused me great depression. My hopes of becoming a mother, earning my college degree, and writing books evaporated overnight.

I cried oceans of tears and didn’t want to live anymore, but God heard my desperate wails. I sought counseling, began to read the Bible, got involved in a local church, and started attending a prayer group. Most importantly, I recommitted my life to Jesus Christ.

Perhaps the hardest part was accepting God’s will. I had to go back to work as a court reporter since that was the only skill I had. I had dreamed of so much more.

While it took some time, God gave me new dreams and better opportunities. I obtained that elusive college degree, and in the process, did quite a bit of traveling that included studying in England, Israel, Italy, and Australia. On a whim, I got certified as a scuba diver and made over a hundred dives around the world.

However, my longing to be a mother remained unfulfilled for eight more years. Then, on May 8, 1994, on Mother’s Day, I arrived home with a three-year-old Nepali girl. Five years later, over Christmas, I adopted an infant girl from Vietnam.

Manisha a couple of months after arrival.

Joy in Vietnam When I Adopted her

Reading picture books to my daughters unexpectedly rekindled my love for books and writing. We made frequent trips to the library, and I would come home with armfuls of books. We read hundreds of books together, even into their teens—one of the best things about homeschooling.

Not surprisingly, the first book I wrote was a children’s picture book, The Donkey and the King. When I finished it, God told me something I didn’t expect. He wanted me to wait until my children were older before I wrote more books. My passion for writing was all-consuming. As a single mother, my daughters needed me when I wasn’t working—now as a broadcast captioner.

I waited four years to write my memoir Children of Dreams. I was afraid if I waited any longer, I would forget my daughters’ adoption stories. I wanted them to know how God had brought us together as a forever family.

After writing Children of Dreams, my passion for writing grew. However, I only knew how to write picture books and nonfiction. How could I learn to write fiction? I remembered those two books I wrote as a teen—the books I never finished.

At the Florida Christian Writer’s Conference, I heard about a Master’s in Creative Writing degree from an accredited online college. I later enrolled at the spry young age of 53. When I completed my Master’s, the book I wrote as part of my thesis became a best-selling book in Christian fantasy on Amazon. Three years later, Seventh Dimension – The Door is still listed in the top twenty Christian fantasy books (I eventually made it free on all eBook platforms).

Following Seventh Dimension - The Door, I wrote three more books in the series: Seventh Dimension - The King, Seventh Dimension - The Castle, and Seventh Dimension - The City. Currently, I’m working on the fifth book in the set to be published next year.

What drives me to write? I write for an Audience of One. God gives me the desire to write, and He gets all the glory. I feel God’s pleasure and spiritual insights I can’t explain.

As I look back, I’ve learned I needed to live a little so God can teach me much. God has shown me He never wastes anything and limits the feasts of the locusts. They can only eat what He allows. It is never too late to start writing, and it’s always too soon to quit. If we commit our way to our heavenly Father, God will multiply our time, effort, and ability. If my writing can change a life—even if it’s only my own—then I know I’m in God’s will, and really, isn’t that all that matters?

You can read more of Lorilyn Roberts’ blogposts at LorilynRoberts.com

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THIRTY YEARS AGO TODAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1986, MY LIFE CHANGED FOREVER: Devotional From Lorilyn’s Adoption Memoir “Children of Dreams”

It was thirty years ago today, September 4, 1986, that my life changed forever. I thought I would never be happy again. I couldn't imagine I would find joy or be able to move beyond my pain. 

While I hoped God would be sufficient to help me thrive after my failed marriage, I wasn't sure He would. I wasn't even sure God could heal my broken heart. Yet, when we trust God, there is hope, and despite my devastation and loss, I clung to that hope, the kind of hope referred to in Hebrews 11:1: Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.

My life has been full of blessings since that dreadful day when I walked out of the courthouse with a big "D" on my forehead. I can't imagine the blessings I would have missed had I stayed married. Marriage to a godless man is no substitute for God. God is my husband, my provider, my sustainer, my healer, my everything. 

If only I had known thirty years ago all the wonderful things God had planned for me. But without the pain of a failed marriage, without surrender to The One Who loved me enough to die for me, I don't believe I would have appreciated the cost. 

If you are going through a tough time, don't lose heart. Nothing is impossible with God, and all things, if we let go, He will use in a way we can't even imagine. If not completely in this world, He will use in the world to come. God can mold you and me into the person He longs for us to become. And what greater opportunity to serve Him is there than being His child?  

All the fame we amass, all the riches we accumulate, all the knowledge we learn, all the experiences we rack up, and all the prestige we earn, none of it comes close to what it means to be a child of God. 

The following is an excerpt from my memoir, Children of Dreams. Enjoy.

…the children of the promise

Romans 9:8

“I took away her dreams,” my husband told the judge on September 4, 1986. Humanly speaking, he might have thought so. In John 8:44, God describes Satan as the “Father of lies.” He desired to destroy me, to make me doubt God’s love and goodness. In my pain, I believed a lie, much like the children believed Aslan was dead in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

However, a higher law governs the universe, a law that supersedes every human sin and evil that attempts to corrupt God’s perfection. Our heavenly Father, who is full of grace and mercy, works out His purposes despite the evil that lurks in the shadows. No human being has the power to thwart God’s ultimate plan.

He works in spite of the prince of this world and uses everything for His glory. God wastes nothing, whether it is a disease, affliction, corruption, greed, lies, or betrayal. Jesus is our ultimate example of being perfect and commanded us in Matthew 5:48: “Be perfect, even as your heavenly Father in heaven is perfect.”

God’s incredible love for us is even more astounding when one considers He was under no obligation to adopt us. He could have treated us as angels, making us spiritually alive through regeneration, and justifying us under the law through His death and resurrection (Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, Grand Rapids, Mich., 1994, 738-739) To adopt us and call us His children, to call Himself our Father, displays an intimacy in our relationship that defies, in my limited understanding, all logic. Why would the Creator of the universe want to be our Father? Even Albert Einstein, for all his genius, could not understand God as a personal God (Hugh Ross, Ph.D., The Creator and the Cosmos, Colorado Springs, Col: Navpress, 2001, 75.)

Just as I signed a contract and made a down payment to adopt my children before I left for Nepal and Vietnam, God has given us “His Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.” (2 Corinthians 1:22).

On July 26, 2000, we made a memorable trip to the Alachua County Courthouse to finalize Joy’s adoption. A few years earlier, I had taken Manisha to the same place to finalize hers. Both of my children’s adoption decrees are now sealed and kept safe, just as God sealed my adoption and yours in heaven.

I renamed my children Hope and Joy, and God promises to give us a new name, “…known only to him who receives it.” (Rev 2:17). The adoption of my children represents a foreshadowing of what God has in store for all of us.

Much of the meaning of being a child of God has yet to be revealed. It is hard to comprehend the King giving me heavenly possessions that will never break, become outdated, cost too much, get lost, or that I don’t have to return because they are defective.

In my limited understanding, I have tried to imagine a world where there will be “no more death or mourning or crying or pain.” (Rev 21:4). Where the “dwelling of God will be among us, and He will wipe away every tear.” (Rev 21:4). Where every kind of “precious stone forms the foundation of the heavenly city that is paved in gold.”(Rev 21:19).

How can we envision perfection when all we have known is imperfection? God longs to be our Father, to share His inheritance with us, just as I longed to be an orphan’s mother. God planned us to be part of His family from the foundations of the world. He made us for His glory and “set eternity in the hearts of men.” (Ecc 3:11). He will give us new bodies that will never grow old or die but will be raised imperishable (I Cor 15:42).

I am sure if I told my children, “You can go back to Vietnam or Nepal and live your former way of life before I adopted you,” they would turn it down. Why would they want to go back to depravity, worms, and hunger? In our heavenly home, the old order of things will have passed away (Rev 21:4) and the former things will not be remembered (Isaiah 65:17).

Before I adopted my two beautiful daughters, it was hard to imagine what it would be like to be a mother. I dreamed about little girls and birthday parties, Christmas trees and toys, bear hugs and butterfly kisses, and my name transformed into the magical word “Mommy.” Through prayer and God’s faithfulness, what seemed impossible became real. So it will be someday with our heavenly Father and us.

Hebrews 11:1 says, “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” God knows how we are formed and remembers we are dust (Psalm 103:14). Jesus said when we pray, to call God “Our Father.” The Spirit testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children (Romans 8:16). God compares Himself to a father having compassion for his children (Psalms 103:13). Our heavenly Father loved us so much that He gave us His only begotten Son (John 3:16), and He has made us heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17).

Even creation itself will be liberated when we are brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God (Romans 8:21). Through adoption, God gave me my Children of Dreams and quenched the desires of my heart (Psalms 37:4). With God, our heavenly Father, before the foundations of the world, made us His Children of Promise (Romans 9:8 and Galatians 4:28).

Revelation 5: 9-10

“You are worthy to take the scroll and break open its seals.

You are worthy because you were put to death.

With your blood, you bought people for God.

They come from every tribe, language, people, and nation.

You have made them members of a royal family.

You have made them priests to serve our God.

They will rule on the earth.”

Children of Dreams was an award winner in the 2016 Readers Favorite Book Awards!