LINKS TO BOOK PAGES TO ORDER
- Home
- Tails and Purrs for the Heart and Soul
- Seventh Dimension - The Door, Book 1, A YA Fantasy
- Seventh Dimension - The King, Book 2, A YA Fantasy
- Seventh Dimension - The Castle, Book 3, A YA Fantasy
- Seventh Dimension - The City, Book 4, A YA Fantasy
- Seventh Dimension - The Prescience, Book 5, A YA Fantasy
- Seventh Dimension - The Howling, Book 6, A Young Adult Fantasy
- Seventh Dimension Inspirational - Am I Okay, God?
- Children of Dreams, An Adoption Memoir
- Food for Thought: Quick and Easy Recipes for Homeschooling Families
- The Donkey and the King, a Story of Redemption
- Book Love - Young Readers Become World Leaders - An Early Chapter Book for 1st though 3rd Grade
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
CLOSED CAPTIONING: “Captioning for the Deaf - Creation Station Contest Winner for the Jan/Feb 2013 Christian Women’s Voice Magazine,” Broadcast Captioner Lorilyn Roberts
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
BOOK REVIEW: SEVENTH DIMENSION – THE DOOR: A YOUNG ADULT FANTASY: A Critical Analysis Based on a Critical Review
I liked the start to "Seventh Dimension". Lorilyn Roberts portrays Shale as a real person with real problems, and I was waiting to see how her life would develop. When she slips into another dimension and encounters talking animals with which she can converse, the story loses much of its appeal as the discourse with them often doesn’t have much relevance to anything. Shale is searching for something and I thought it was family and fatherly love. When she observes the ‘king’ being tempted by the devil with its allegorical reference to Christ’s life, the book turns into a twisted bible story and everything becomes predictable. Lorilyn Roberts has allowed her imagination to soar with the "Seventh Dimension", invoking haunting images of magic and childish delight. Her writing is evocative and the dialogue crisp, making it a pleasure to read. As a religious fairytale with magic thrown in, the book will have a big audience, especially young readers.”
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
BOOK MARKETING: New Book Cover for Seventh Dimension - The Door: “Meet Great Book Cover Designer Lisa Vento”
I was having difficulty uploading my book cover for Seventh Dimension - the Door to Create Space. I had recently "met" Lisa on another book project she did for me and so I asked her if she could help me.
Lisa had originally been recommended to me by Jerry Jenkins for How to Launch a Best-Selling Christian Book, and I was extremely pleased. My cover had recently been finished on Seventh Dimension - The Door by someone else, but I had some technical issues. The lettering was too close to the edge and Create Space kept rejecting my book. I had spent several hours ineptly trying to make it work and realized I couldn't, so to speak, put a round screw in a square hole. So I asked her if she could help me with it.
Lisa took my book and performed magic on the cover. I know I am partial, but I believe it's the best cover I have ever seen!
Making a good book cover is not easy. It takes skill and talent. Anyone who has some PhotoShop knowledge can make a simple cover cheaply, but it takes more than that to make a great one--and great artists in any creative field don't come cheap. I guarantee, however, that at least when it comes to book covers, you get what you pay for.
She put clothes on Shale Snyder, my protagonist (I didn't realize when I bought the licensing agreement that she wasn't wearing clothes. Someone pointed this out to me and that it might be problematic for observant Christian buyers. It really is a good thing I don't do my own book covers).
She made Shale's hair shorter.
She added the waterfall in the background. The original photograph had a white blurry background.
Lisa added the golden nuggets to the water (which is important to the story).
She added detail to the bird and made it more visible.
She added the sparkle.
She added plants.
She darkened the front of the photograph so your eye is drawn to Shale.
She made the color deeper in tone, more soothing.
She centered the cover so everything in the photograph is balanced.
And, of course, she chose the font for the title and my name, as well as the layout. She even added the little stars inside the word "door."
She sized the cover perfectly. I uploaded the book seamlessly to Create Space.
She also added extra touch-up work around Shale's face so if I ever wanted to blow up the cover for a banner, the girl wouldn't be blurry.
I know Lisa did even more than this, but hopefully, I have helped you to see how someone can make a beautiful book cover that will stand out above the rest.
In this case, I had already picked out the photo I wanted to use, but normally, Lisa will search the web and send samples to you and make suggestions. This is very helpful if you have no idea what you want or you haven't come up with any creative book cover ideas.
With my other book, Lisa took several photos from a website and merged them into a composite cover. I can't imagine how complicated that might get.
Lisa also designed the back cover of Seventh Dimension - The Door using a photo I found on the web (you must buy the license fee for the photograph or reimburse her for it), added some additional layers, and then edited my picture to make me look better (which was really nice).
I enjoyed working with Lisa on my book and now have a real appreciation for what's involved in making a great book cover. Lisa sent me sample covers for my second and third books in the Seventh Dimension Series. I immediately wanted to sit at my computer and start writing the second book.
God works in amazing ways, connecting us with people we need and otherwise probably would never meet. I always appreciate it when people take the time to help me make my books better.
If you would like to visit Lisa Vento’s website and see more of her book covers, go to LisaVento.com. You will find lots of other products she sells for authors like bookmarks and banners
I tell members of the John 3:16 Marketing Network: There are two things you shouldn't skimp on: Hire a professional editor and a good book cover designer.
Buyers are attracted to beautiful covers, and once they grab your book and open it, you want to make an impression in those precious few seconds you have. Whether you need a book cover today or in the future, bookmark Lisa's page for future reference.
Friday, January 4, 2013
GUEST POST BY PAM HILLMAN: For the Love of a Child: An Ode to Will
For the Love of a Child: An Ode to Will
By Pam Hillman
Will gave me my first tricycle. Mama said Will didn’t have kids at that time, so I don’t know where he got the tricycle, but I distinctly remember that he brought it to me in the cab of his tractor-trailer for my birthday. I loved Will with all the passion of a pre-schooler who didn’t see anybody other than my parents and older brothers all week. Since my parents both worked on the farm, I didn’t go to pre-school or daycare: the dairy was my daycare; my brother, the dogs, cats, and newborn calves my playmates.
Pam Hillman’s Author page on Facebook and/or sign up for Pam’s newsletter.
Sunday, December 30, 2012
BOOK EXCERPT OF SEVENTH DIMENSION - THE DOOR: A Young Adult Fantasy and INTERVIEW OF LORILYN ROBERTS
BOOK EXCERPT
Seventh Dimension - The Door: A Young Adult Christian Fantasy
I was enjoying the water too much to worry about underlings. After a few minutes, I got out and climbed up on a flat rock. As I lay on my stomach, I dangled my arms out over the river’s edge.
A blue bird darted up in front of me and danced over the water.
“She’s so cute,” I said, fascinated by the small-winged creature.
“They are terrible,” Baruch said.
“Not the bird, I mean the underlings. Most of the time, they don’t have real bodies. They shape shift, though they look similar to large black bats. The acrid stench always precedes their appearance. I smell them coming now.”
“I don’t smell anything,” I said absentmindedly.
“There’s the crackling again,” Cherios said. She nervously twitched her ear to one side.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lorilyn Roberts is a Christian author who writes children’s picture books, adult nonfiction, memoirs, and a young adult Christian fantasy series, Seventh Dimension. The first in the series, The Door, was just published (October 2012).
Lorilyn graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Alabama, which included international study in Israel and England. She received her Master’s in Creative Writing from Perelandra College and is a graduate of the Institute of Children’s Literature.
Lorilyn is the founder of the John 316 Marketing Network, a network of Christian authors who are passionate about promoting books with a Christian worldview.
To learn more about Lorilyn, visit her website at LorilynRoberts.com
INTERVIEW
QUESTION: What
Inspired You To Write Seventh Dimension - The Door?
LORILYN: I wanted to share my testimony, but I could never do it as a memoir, so I spent three years earning my Master’s in Creative Writing so I could learn how to write fiction. This story is allegorical and has been compared by reviewers to Alice in Wonderland, Pilgrim’s Progress, and The Chronicles of Narnia. Part of the story takes place in first-century Israel.
I was in Jerusalem studying at the Institute of Holy Land Studies when the Gulf War broke out in 1991. When people talk about “write what you know,” that’s what I did -- scarred, broken, abandoned, and on the road to juvenile delinquency, God took me to the mountains of Galilee and spoke to my heart. For every young girl (or man) reading this book, you will come away with this message -- you are a son or daughter of the king.
QUESTION: How
Did You Come Up With The Characters?
LORILYN: Some of the animal characters come from my children’s picture book, The Donkey and the King. Baruch, the donkey; Lowly the pig; Cherios, the rabbit; and Much-Afraid, the dog, all represent aspects of Shale’s complex personality. The battle between good and evil is represented throughout, with the underlings tormenting Shale unceasingly from the very beginning. She faces an ultimate test of life over death, as we all do in one form or another.
QUESTION: Will
There Be Another Book With These Characters?
LORILYN: The Door is the first book in the Seventh Dimension Series.
QUESTION: What
Genre(s) Do You Write In?
LORILYN: I write just about everything. I have a children’s picture, The Donkey and the King; a best-selling memoir, Children of Dreams; a nonfiction book for Christian authors to help them launch their books; and then this book, which is a YA Christian fantasy. You can learn more about my other books by visiting my website Lorilynroberts.com.
QUESTION: When
Did You Know You Wanted To Be A Writer?
LORILYN: I was writing short stories as young as eight. I have a couple of them packed away in a box under my bed. Writing has been the only thing in my life that’s come easily. That doesn’t mean I didn’t have a lot to learn, and I am still learning all the time. It just means it’s the one thing I crave, the one thing I’ve always wanted to do above all else, the one thing I would do for hours.
Even if I never got paid a dime, I would keep doing it. If only I didn’t have to work at a real job to pay the bills. My parents were very practical. They made me study something in college with which I could make money. So, my writing was put on hold until very recently. It’s never too late to start. I am fifty-seven and just earned my Master’s in Creative Writing.
Anyone that has ever achieved anything worthwhile, I believe, had to fight for it. So to be able to write at all is something I fight for, writing in the middle of the night, thinking about a story in the car while driving, asking God for direction. My kids care nothing about my writing. It all comes from deep within, this drive to write, to share my story. When I was in fifth grade, a teacher accused me of plagiarism. I suppose looking back, that should have told me I had a gift for writing. But instead, I felt humiliated and embarrassed. That scene is incorporated into this book. I love having the last word and bringing redemption to something that was unfair and hurtful.
QUESTION: What Kind of Background Do You Have, Other Than Writing?
LORILYN: I am a single mother by choice—I adopted my two daughters from Vietnam and Nepal. I provide closed captioning for television, so technically, my writing has been seen by millions all over the planet. On days when I am down that no one wants to read my books, I comfort myself with that thought. I studied classical guitar as a teenager and hope someday to get back to playing when I have more time.
We have four neurotic cats and two wacky dogs, all from the local humane society. I am an animal lover at heart. I have also scuba-dived all over the world, including the Great Barrier Reef and the Red Sea off the coast of Eilat. My worst experience diving was throwing up at 40 feet under, or maybe it was the time I got left behind by the boat and waited for hours to be found. I have lots of life experiences to draw from, which is one of the advantages of growing old in years but young at heart.
To buy Seventh Dimension - The Door, click: SEVENTH DIMENSION - THE DOOR
Thursday, December 27, 2012
CREATIVE WRITING INSIGHTS: “A Memoir or a Novel - How Does One Decide Which Way to Craft a Story Based on Real Life Events?” by Lorilyn Roberts
Recently on a Linked-In discussion group, someone made this comment:
“I’m strongly biased toward fiction unless you are trading on celebrity or some highly publicized event. Memoirs put out as imparting the wisdom of the elders or holding up your past mistakes as object lessons turn me off. The fact you were a moron yesterday doesn’t make you a genius today. Journals and memoirs may be great for family but most are less attractive to a general audience and often convey the message of pleading to be loved or admired. Make it fiction and you can be more candid and the reader can decide whether your experience was informative, moving or amusing based on its own merits.”
I strongly
disagree with his statement and share the following thoughts:
Memoirs are some
of the most powerful pieces written today, but people are shortsighted. They
don’t always see the value of first-hand accounts in the present. Without
memoirs, we have history written by partial observers who bring their own
worldview into play—maybe at the expense of writing with accuracy the way the
events actually happened. Second-hand accounts are never as factual as
first-hand stories and never as valuable for historical purposes.
Many people love
reading memoirs and will look for them in libraries and bookstores. Life
experiences written by people reveal more about society than any history book
or journalist covering a story. I am thankful for all the memoirs written today
by all sorts of people to give us a peek into the present and the past.
For example, the
world never would have known of Anne Frank if she had not written her diary.
She was an unknown 13-year-old kid before her father published her diary.
If you have a
compelling story to tell, tell it with passion, revealing your innermost
struggles and thoughts. Being “real” with the reader will make your story come
alive. In my memoir Children of Dreams about the international adoption of my daughters, I
was open and vulnerable. That was the right way to tell that story. I could
never have fictionalized it.
I just wrote
another book and this one is fiction, Seventh Dimension - The Door. In contrast with Children
of Dreams, I took certain events from my own life and turned them into
fantasy. I had a story to tell and the only way to tell it was as allegory and
to fictionalize it. The point being, do what the story calls for and write it.
Don’t let naysayers talk you out of writing your story the way you feel it
needs to be told. At the end of the day, you have to live with the result and
be happy with the story and the way you wrote it.
These are some thoughts I would
consider: Who is your target audience?
What is your purpose in writing your story? Can anyone be hurt or impacted
negatively if you write your book as a memoir? If you write your story as a
memoir in hopes of making money, you need to write your book as “creative
nonfiction,” using fictional techniques.
For example, you need a
beginning, a middle, and an end. You need to think in terms of “scenes” and “plot”
and “problems” that need to be solved. The reader needs a takeaway—what can he learn
from your memoir that would be meaningful or cathartic? No one wants to read
someone’s boring biography.
If you decide to write your book as
fiction, you will have more options and won’t run the risk of being sued or
worried about divulging something you might regret later. However, you need the
skills to write fiction. Writing fiction is harder than writing a memoir
because you have to create “story” out of fiction and make the plot enticing to
read. In a future piece, I will suggest some books for writing fiction that I
used in my Masters in Creative Writing that I found helpful.
I have written an award-winning piece on writing memoir that is posted on my website. Here is the link for anyone interested. Some might find it helpful. How to Write a Memoir in Twelve Easy Steps.
The most important thing as a
writer is to keep writing and to keep learning—whether you write fiction,
nonfiction, or memoir, and enjoy the journey!
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
FREE ON ALL EBOOK PLATFORMS: “Seventh Dimension – The Door: A Young Adult Fantasy,” by Lorilyn Roberts
Best-selling author Lorilyn Roberts shares once again the power of redemption in this Christian coming-of-age novel. Written in first-person, Seventh Dimension - The Door reads like a first-hand account by a young girl, Shale Snyder, who is treated unfairly by her family, school, and classmates. Fear distorts her sense of self-worth and she is enveloped with guilt because of a secret from her past.
While on a sojourn similar to Christian in Pilgrim's Progress, Shale discovers talking animals and a handsome young man with whom she falls in love. Her journey is one of self-discovery as she battles personal demons, family conflict, and wicked underlings, and comes face-to-face with a personal decision she must make - bound up in the king she meets in first-century Israel.
“I spent two years developing the plot,” says Roberts, “as part of my Masters in Creative Writing. I love the classics, particularly books by Charles Dickens, Fydor Dostoevsky, Emily Bronte, C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien. I hoped to provide an entertaining story that would evoke deep spiritual longing.”
Roberts adds, “I was a troubled child from a broken home on the road to juvenile delinquency - until I met the king.”
Seventh Dimension - The Door
A Young Adult Christian Fantasy
LORILYN ROBERTS
November 2012/Mass Market Original/Fiction
$11.77
ISBN 9781480153905
Seventh Dimension - The Door, A Young Adult Christian Fantasy
(Create Space, $11.77, 230 pages, 6 X 9, paperback, ISBN: 978-
1480153905), is available at neighborhood and online booksellers
(Amazon). For more information, visit
LorilynRoberts.com