GUEST POST BY TOM BLUBAUCH: An Interview with Lorilyn Roberts: “The World of Closed Captioning, Charles Dickens, and Writing Books”

 A Guest Interview with Lorilyn Roberts

The World of Closed Captioning, Charles Dickens, and Writing Books

As appeared on the blog of Tom Blubauch earlier this year

Question: What is the connection between you and Charles Dickens?

Lorilyn: First, thank you for allowing me to share a little bit about myself.

I like to imagine I have an edge on becoming the next Charles Dickens. Many people do not know that Dickens began his literary career as a court reporter. Of course, I probably won’t, but far-fetched dreams take us to places we would never go. I fancy someday writing that great court case or mystery. If I do, I will make the court reporter a significant character.

Question: I understand you no longer do court reporting but captioning. How did you make that transition?

Lorilyn: After twenty years of court reporting, I had an opportunity to become a subcontractor for the National Captioning Institute. I was probably the least likely person to switch to broadcast captioning because I was illiterate when it came to knowing what was going on in the world. I spent my days reading depositions and transcripts. But I passed an unusual exam and NCI provided the rigorous training. After five and a half months, I captioned my first live broadcast for a television station in New York City.

Question: What kind of test was it?

Lorilyn: I wrote a speech by President Bill Clinton without practicing it and sent NCI my raw notes. They wanted to see how clean my stenograph writing was, how many conflicts I had in my writing, that kind of thing.

Question: What type of training is required for becoming a broadcast captioner?

Lorilyn: Most steno broadcast captioners in the past began their careers as court reporters. When I went to court reporting school many years ago, I went to school two nights a week and worked full time in my parents’ map company. It took me twenty months to graduate. I was the first night student to pass the certification exam.

Many court reporting schools today allow students to choose their career path (court reporting or captioning) before graduating, thus enabling less on-the-job training later. There are distinct differences in the training. While both use the stenograph machine, the end result is different. Court reporting must be verbatim while captioning can be summarized when needed. Court reporting does not require the extensive dictionary that captioning does, meaning it takes longer to build a dictionary for captioning work.

Captioning, while not completely verbatim, needs to be cleanly written at extremely high rates of speed. Just listen to the news or sports and imagine writing it all down. It can be very challenging. The length of time it takes to complete the training varies for both court reporting and live broadcast captioning. It depends on how long it takes the student to reach 225 words per minute.

Broadcast captioners also must have a broad knowledge base to caption many topics, including news, sports, politics, geography, Hollywood, religion, and historical events. If a word isn’t in a captioner’s individually-built dictionary, he has to be able to fingerspell it on the fly. I know many names in the news by my brief. For example, Ahmadinejad, the current president of Iran, I write apblg/apblg.

Captioners have hundreds of briefs like this floating around in their head. It can be challenging sometimes to remember them all, especially if an old story crops up that hasn’t been around for a while.

Following completion of the court reporter/captioning training program, the student should take an entry-level test administered by the National Court Reporters Association, called the Registered Professional Reporter Exam, which has two sections: The first part is a knowledge test involving topics relevant to court reporting, and the second part is a written test, requiring a stenographer to write 225 words per minute for five minutes at 97 percent accuracy.

While this certification is sufficient for an entry-level court reporter, it is not for broadcast captioning. Captioning speeds often exceed 260 words per minute, and before captions begin to look really nice on a television screen, the captioner needs to be achieving a 99 percent accuracy rate. It can take many years to get to this high level.

The shorter answer to your question, what type of training is required, if a student works reasonably hard in school, he can expect to finish court reporting school in about two years, with another intense year of on-the-job training, though, of course, he will be earning a paycheck during his “apprenticeship.”

Question: Speaking of money, how much can a court reporter or captioner make?

Lorilyn: I have been out of court reporting for a long time, so I am not familiar with the rates today. Broadcast captioning rates have plummeted over the last few years because of competition from voice writers and computer translators. The newer, alternative methods are not as accurate, but sometimes the bottom line is not quality but cost. Still, if a captioner works hard, including nights, holidays, and weekends, and is willing (and qualified) to caption a wide variety of shows, he can make a comfortable income, upwards to six figures.

Examples of programming I have captioned include Fox News, CNN, ESPN, Versus, MSNBC, C-Span, Spike, The Weather Channel, A&E, HSN, QVC, MTV, Golf, Tennis, HIST, SUN, TLC, Bloomberg, Speed, CBS, NBC, and Animal Planet. It makes for interesting work. This week I am captioning the Tour de France, which has been intense but exciting.

Question: Sometimes the captions can be amusing. Is there anything you have written that you hoped no one would see?

Answer: I have had my share of boo-boos; four I will never forget. Years ago I was captioning a local channel out of Little Rock, Arkansas, and they were featuring a story about Point of Grace. The reporter talked about what great singers they were, and I captioned what great “sinners” they were. It was more comical because they were a Christian group.

Another time I was captioning a major news network (which shall remain a secret). I was supposed to start at 9:00 a.m. I had my stenograph machine all set up and ready to go and got up to get my cup of coffee. When I returned, I found one of my daughters, who was too young to know any better, writing a way on my machine imitating me. Her “captions” went out all over the world. I panicked. Fortunately no one important saw it and today I can laugh about it.

A third terrible boo-boo happened when I was captioning the weather on a major network. My word “current” came out as a no-no four-letter word. I spent the next two hours writing at least a hundred versions of the word “current” and entering it into my dictionary. Fortunately no one saw that either. The station could have been fined for that one (and I probably would have been fired).

The fourth memorable event was actually quite comical considering what our country experienced during the 2000 presidential campaign between former President Bush and Al Gore. If you remember, a major lawsuit was filed and the final ruling was made by the U.S. Supreme Court to leave it up to the states on how they conducted their campaigns. My translation came out that the United States Supreme Court ruled they should “Leave it to Beaver.”  I wrote the word “leave” twice, my brief for the movie that had just been released in theaters. I am sure a few folks got a laugh out of that one. I laughed later when I didn’t hear from my boss.

Question: How did you go from captioning to becoming an author?

Answer: I came to the point where I wanted to write my own stories rather than everybody else’s. But I am thankful for the background captioning as well as court reporting has given me. As I have pursued my dreams of writing, I have found captioning hundreds of stories over the last twelve years is not that different from writing my own. I published my first book a few years ago, children’s picture book, and knew then I wanted to pursue writing someday fulltime, but the seeds of aspiration go way back to when I was a young. My youngest daughter was still a preschooler at the time, however, and I knew I needed to postpone my writing dreams for a few more years until she was older.

I wrote my first full length book two years ago, Children of Dreams, about the adoptions of my daughters from Vietnam and Nepal. Using the stenograph machine, I wrote the first draft in about six weeks. I don’t think I could have finished it that quickly if I had written it the traditional way on the computer.

Do you plan to write more books?

Yes. I have a Young Adult fantasy book I am working on as part of my Masters in Creative Writing; but in the meantime, until I make my first million (just kidding), I will keep my day job broadcast captioning.

Question: If there anything else you would like to share?

Lorilyn: I would like to encourage readers to sign a petition I have started to ask the FCC to enact minimum captioning standards. Captions are important for the hard-of-hearing and enable them to live a normal lifestyle. 

By signing the petition, it will send a message to the FCC to pass legislation. We have all witnessed poor captions, and it’s frustrating to see the deterioration. Part of the reason is because there is no minimum standard for broadcast captioning. It’s basically whoever bids the lowest gets the contract. It would be like a lawyer practicing who never passed a bar exam; but he can get lots of work by charging less. If you don’t have a minimum standard, it allows companies who aren’t highly qualified to underbid those who are. And personally, it’s very discouraging to make less money today than ten years ago for the same amount of work.

Most states have licensing requirements for court reporters, but captioning has slipped through the cracks. Many excellent captioners have moved back into court reporting or are providing CART services for students in academic settings where the hourly rate is significantly higher.

Please take a moment and let the FCC know what it means to you to have quality captioning. A significant percent of the American population is either deaf or hard of hearing, meaning between nine and 22 out of every 1,000 people.

I have also produced an educational and entertaining captioning video, CAT Captions for Television, starring my cat. CAT stands for computer-aided-transcription. You can find the link at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw7MkTLmSYk

Again, thank you for letting me share. In the meantime, you might just “see” me streaming live on your television if I am not working on my next book.

Lorilyn has homeschooled her daughters for the past fifteen years. She has published two books, The Donkey and the King and Children of Dreams; is president of the Gainesville, Florida, Word Weavers Chapter; and the founder of the John 3:16 Marketing Network.

Lorilyn's personal website can be found at http://lorilynroberts.com. You can check out her Facebook fan page where she shares writing tips at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Author-Lorilyn-Roberts-Fan-Page/144049365650301 

GUEST POST BY DEBORAH MALONE: Book Review of ”Children of Dreams“ by Lorilyn Roberts

I really liked Deborah Malone's review of my book Children of Dreams. My hope is that, as she says, Christians will have a greater appreciation of what it means to be adopted by our heavenly Father, who loves us so much.

Review by Debbie Malone

When I received my copy of Children of Dreams in the mail I thought I would just open it and take a look. Before I knew it, I was on Chapter Eight and looking forward to reading the rest of Lorilyn's story. 

Even though this is a non-fiction book it reads like fiction. Lorilyn has put so much detail into her story you feel like you've been transported to the far regions of Nepal and Vietnam along with her. She tells of the trials and hardships she endured to adopt her children Manisha and Joy. Throughout the book, she relates the process of adoption with our adoption by our heavenly Father. You will not look at adoption the same after you read Lorilyn's book. You will not be sorry you read Children of Dreams whether you are adoptive parents or not.

For order your copy of Children of Dreams, click here.

I ALWAYS WANTED TO BE A WRITER: Devotional by Lorilyn Roberts

The teacher tossed my report on her desk. "I'm not going to read that,” she announced. “It's just copied work."

Thirty sets of eyes stared at me. What had been an engaging history review, reading class reports, was replaced with utter disdain. Whispers filled the silence and I sensed my face turning a crimson red.

The instructor shook her head in disbelief and proceeded to the next one.

I was devastated. My paper was not copied. I had used one source, the textbook, to verify a date. All the information came from my brain; I wrote it in an hour effortlessly while seated at my desk.

I was too upset to say anything—and for someone like me, who is outspoken to a fault, that didn’t happen very often.

When the school bell rang, I grabbed my books and ran home, replaying the humiliating scene over and over. I wondered how she could accuse me of such an injustice.

Later that evening, I told my parents what happened.

"Honey," Mom said to Dad, "You need to talk to that teacher. That's not right, to accuse Lori of plagiarizing in front of the class."

"Are you sure you didn't copy anything?" Dad asked.

"No,” I said. “I have never copied anything. I don't need to."

Besides that, I was a straight-A student. I wouldn’t want to receive a failing grade for cheating. My fragile self-worth was wrapped up in a perfect report card. To receive a “B” meant I had no value. My distorted self-image tainted my view of God, others, and myself.

 To be a high achiever was my way of dealing with the emotional baggage that I carried around for years until God freed me. My birthfather “left” my mother and me when I was little. I failed the first grade because I couldn't read. I was bullied for being a failure and ostracized for the first three years of school until we moved to a different district. I had no friends and felt out of place in a world that made no sense. I had all sorts of behavioral problems and was considered at-risk for juvenile delinquency. I was unhappy and lonely.

A psychologist tried to “straighten me out.”  He threw up his hands: “She's either a genius or retarded, I'm not sure which,” he told my mom, “though one thing I can say for sure, she has an undiscovered talent."

My mother told me that story when my love for writing became evident. I wrote short stories when I was eight, poems when I was ten, and nonfiction with gusto by the time I was in fifth grade. I wrote two fiction books by the end of middle school.

In high school, my writing took a back seat to music when I studied classical guitar, wrote songs, and was frequently asked to perform at major events, like the Georgia Honor Society, Kiwanis Club, and beauty pageants, after I was First Runner-Up in the Cobb County Junior Miss Pageant. 

Though insecurity kept me from becoming the person God created me to be, my passion to write took me to worlds where I could find hope and meaning, something my parents could not understand. In fact, they just didn’t understand me at all. They tried sending me to ”finishing” school, but I was bored. They would comment on my writing, "That's nice. Now go clean off the table."

Although my parents always stood up for me in important matters, when it came to choosing a career, they were practical.  They represented the American dream—entrepreneurial and hard-working. They started a map business that became the lifeblood of the family. Anyone raised in such a circumstance will understand how powerful the impact is on family dynamics.

But I took after my talented birthfather, a well-known photographer. My mother would point out his works in Life, Look, Southern Living, and National Geographic magazines. She always recognized his photographs before even checking the credits. But the compliments ended there. Her pain ran deep, and it prompted me to want to meet my birthfather many years later. I found Bruce Roberts to be much like me—creative, reflective, impulsive, unstructured, emotional, sensual, moody, and introverted. Most surprising was he understood me.

But because I valued my parents’ approval (I was adopted by my stepfather) I gave up what I wanted to do to become who they wanted me to be. Though part of me wilted on a vine, feeling cut off from the Great Gardener, it did mean I would be able to support myself later. Lest I sound ungrateful or angry, I am not.  Life is what it is, and as a parent, today I know they did the best they could. I didn’t turn into a drug addict, get pregnant out of wedlock, or make choices that society deems as “unacceptable.” I also now have a greater appreciation for how hard it is to parent, having raised my first one and still working on my second.

To this day, my mother's words still haunt me: "You never know what the future holds. You need to be able to put food on the table. Your father walked out on you and left me penniless."

While I was too young to remember much, I have one vivid memory that I shall never forget. I stood in front of the window and watched for hours for dad to come home (it was my second birthday). He never did.

Becoming a business major, a physical therapist or something that would meet my parents’ approval had no appeal to me. Following one year of college and a summer I would just as soon forget—I’ll spare the emotional details for brevity’s sake—I started court reporting college, and twenty months later, embarked on a court reporting career that spanned 20 years.

Did I like court reporting? No. I hated it. There were days I lashed out in uncontrollable rage over depositions that kept me up all night for an impending trial. The lack of control over my personal life was overwhelming. There were too many broken engagements to finish transcripts that wreaked havoc on an already strained marriage, which later ended in divorce. Frayed nerves dealing with irate attorneys who didn’t care a hoot about me caused me sleepless nights. Attorneys blew smoke in my face from cigars and cigarettes that made me sick. I took allergy shots for years to combat the health effects. The whole world of court reporting left me an angry woman. Even a once-caring doctor/husband couldn’t put me back together.

But court reporting did one thing: It made me self-supporting. After my husband “left” me, although devastated and broken, I had the freedom to choose my future. I recommitted by life to Jesus Christ in hopes of becoming the person He wanted me to be. God used those court reporting skills to prepare me for another career that would take me down a path toward dreams I had long forgotten.

Fast forward a few years—through heartbreak, counseling, and forgiveness. God redeemed much. I can now appreciate even more the life He has given me, and how He answered my prayers with two precious daughters from Nepal and Vietnam.

A profession that didn’t even exist when I was in court reporting school has allowed me to work fulltime from home—in a job I wouldn’t have if my parents had not been so adamant about being able to support myself.

Court reporting paved the way for closed captioning, and the journalistic nature of broadcast captioning gave me the self‑confidence to pursue my dream of writing.

I look back on the years that have passed since that day in fifth grade when I was accused of plagiarizing. What if life’s circumstances had been different? What if my parents had let me major in English? What if my husband had not left me?

We all have moments when we question monumental choices and outcomes that send us down one road rather than another. If God had made everything easy for me, I don’t believe I could have become who He wanted me to be. Those sought‑after accolades, striving for perfection, fear of failure, and overwhelming insecurity, made me too dependent on man and not on God. I needed to be independent of the world and others to find my security in the Creator.

In Jesus Christ, we live, breathe, and have our being—love unshackled, poured out, and overflowing. His love supersedes the injustices and the wrongs others have done to us and what we have done to them. We can embrace our passions and pursuits in the name of our heavenly Father who is never short on affirmation or long on remembering mistakes. No longer am I bound up in pleasing others or enslaved in co-dependent, unhealthy relationships, seeking approval to make me feel like I am “okay.” 

I also remind myself that we were created for heaven to be our home. The gifts God gives us, the temperaments we are born with, our strengths, and our eternal soul, were all intricately designed by the Creator for one purpose—to glorify Him.  That is the chief aim of man for our short time here, but more importantly, for all eternity. We are simply passing through on a journey, hopefully growing up in a way that will bring us closer to Him. 

Hebrews 11:13-14 states: All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own.”

God never promised that we will “arrive” here on earth to fame or fortune. We might sell thousands of books; we might not. Most of us will be like those saints who went to heaven without ever accomplishing everything that God set before them. Many were martyred, but they died living out their passion and serving God in a world that was not worthy of them.

According to library.thinkquest.org, each year fifteen million children die from hunger. In sub-Saharan Africa alone, every year eight million children die from aids and malaria. In quieter moments, I wonder what those children could have become if they had been given a chance.

Or what about, since 1973, the almost fifty million children who have been aborted? Or the 150 million orphans in the world who long to be loved? We can rest assured that God is in control. He has counted the costs and given everything He has on the cross. He knows each of us better than we know ourselves. He is mindful of the suffering and has not forgotten even the sparrow that falls from a tree. It’s just that He’s more patient than us for justice to have its perfect way.

If we trust in Him, God will give us everything we need to become all that He intends for us to be—but it may not be here. It may be in the world to come, an eternity that awaits us, where love reigns supreme and no tears are shed. I take comfort that the perfection of the gifts He has given us will be completed when we arrive. I am reminded of Timothy 6:6:  “...godliness with contentment is great gain.”

I am thankful for my parents’ human wisdom, for the stumbling blocks and untoward circumstances that made at times pursuing my dreams difficult. It’s in the struggle that we learn faith, faith that will grow us up if we don’t grow weary. The fires of this world humble us if we are strong in Him and prompt us to ask: Who am I when no one is looking? Is the stuff I am made of, in this jar of clay, just stubble, or is it precious and chiseled by the Creator’s hands?

Love is God’s choice to allow us to be free. Have we used our freedom to die to our wants to receive a heavenly reward that earth can’t take away? Will we still have our gifts to lay before the throne (the gifts He’s given us), or will we have squandered them and lost the blessing? Do we fight the good fight, or do we give in to sin and temptation? Do we refuse to forgive that hurt? What are we holding onto that is more precious than God Himself? Are we even worthy to receive the gifts God gives us, or will we selfishly use them to buttress our own ego?

It's never too late to dream big and it's always too soon to give up. As I continue to work on my Master’s in Creative Writing, scrambling for a few minutes here and there to finish this book or write that review or commentary, I remind myself that things that matter are never easy. The details are in the process.

If we keep our eyes focused beyond this world on our heavenly home, God will accomplish His perfect will in every nook and cranny of our lives. The years the locusts have eaten will be redeemed, if not here, in heaven. The what if’s and if only’s will be replaced with acceptance of the things we can’t change and the wisdom to know the difference. Jesus holds the deed to earth in His scarred hands, and with thankfulness, I write, from a healed heart, remembering from whence I came, and hopefully touching the lives of others. The outcome is always in God’s loving hands.

                                  

To read more of Lorilyn Roberts’ blog posts, visit her website at LorilynRoberts.com                     

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Lorilyn grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, and currently lives in Gainesville, Florida, with her two daughters, her dogs Sirius and Molly, and four cats. Lorilyn is a media professional and provides broadcast captioning for television. She makes time to pursue her passion for writing and will earn her Masters in Creative Writing from Perelandra College next year.

Lorilyn has homeschooled her daughters for the past fifteen years. She has published many books, including The Donkey and the King, Children of Dreams; and How to Launch a Best Selling Christian Book. Lorilyn is president of the Gainesville, Florida, Word Weavers Chapter; and the founder of the John 3:16 Marketing Network. 

LORILYN ROBERTS BOOK REVIEW: “Midheaven,” by Ken Kuhlken

As a Christian, I found Midheaven a fascinating read. The protagonist is a 17-year-old girl, Jodi, in her senior year of high school on the threshold of adulthood.  The story begins with her hiding in a cabin in the Toiyabe National Forest, barely surviving on cans of food brought to her by her longtime friend, Charley.

Her life is miserable, like a beastly animal, rather than the beautiful young lady attending Mount Rose High School the year prior.

Little by little, the reader is introduced to the people in her life: Her dysfunctional parents; Mr. Oswald, her favorite teacher; Charley, her friend but not “boyfriend”; Maggie, her best friend, who marries Geoff, a Christian “freak”; and other, less important characters in the plot but important in the development of the theme of the book.

The characters represent a type or archetype worldview that is flavored with a distorted understanding of Christianity. Each person in his own way has been either enriched or destroyed by the perversion of his beliefs that justifies his sinful actions.

We have all seen these “types” in our own life: The holier-than-thou Christian who judges and beats you over the head with the truth; the woman, as in the case of Mr. Oswald’s mother, who is the epitome of a Jezebel; Mr. Oswald, who will never accept Christianity because of his mother’s influence; and Charley, who doesn’t profess to be a Christian, but who is more a “Christian” than most; and Jodi, who longs to be loved and accepted. To gain that love, she compromises her virginity with a jock at school, who later taunts and bullies her.

Underlying the main plot are multiple subplots—each person struggling with his own sin, making poor choices, and hurting others in the process. The one thing that seems to be missing in everyone’s life is “love,” except for the forbidden love that arises between Jodi and Mr. Oswald.

When Jodi is shown a video of herself secretly taped by someone making love to Mr. Oswald, her world begins to unravel. She becomes shamed by her actions and conflicted in her newfound faith, knowing what she is doing is wrong, but unable to conquer her guilt or feel God’s forgiveness.

Mr. Oswald is a coward, and it’s his cowardice that destroys him—without God’s love, we will do cowardly things that ultimately hurt ourselves and others, shattering lives and dooming us to death.

The long-planned escape to Paris to live “happily ever after” never happens, and Jodi becomes a victim of everyone’s expectations for her, living in her own self-imposed solitary confinement.

But there is hope: She kills the charlatan who attempts to destroy her; she sees God’s beauty in the animals of the forest, in the trees and the flowers and the lake that bring her comfort and peace. And Charley is there, the always faithful friend and not her lover.  She asks herself, “Every day I wonder – what kind of man will sacrifice to help me please a God he doesn’t yet believe in?”

Jodi sees the berries in the forest, “still tiny and green.”  A dog attacks her that she fights off, and she discovers beneath his snarly teeth a scared creature, “whimpering and cowering.” She loves the unlovable and cleans the trash from the meadow.  The reader is left with hope for Jodi, and to ponder what it all means.

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Ken Kuhlken earned BA and MA degrees in English at San Diego State University and an MFA degree in Fiction Writing at the University of Iowa. He is the author of novels, short stories, feature stories, and book reviews. His stories have been honored with Pushcart Prize nominations, a National Endowment for the Arts Literature fellowship, as a finalist for PENs Ernest Hemingway Award for the best first published novel, as a finalist for the Shamus best novel award, and as the recipient of the Private Eye Writers of America/St. Martin’s Press Best First PI Novel Award. He has taught in the MFA program at the University of Arizona and in graduate and undergraduate programs at San Diego State University; California State University, Chico; University of San Diego; Christian Heritage College; and Azusa Pacific University. Ken teaches writing and literature at Perelandra College. Visit Ken at: www.kenkuhlken.net

LORILYN ROBERTS BOOK REVIEW: “Frankenstein, A Psychological Christian Thriller,” By Mary Shelley

When my professor asked me to read this book, my first thought was, “Why would I want to read Frankenstein? He is a monster and I don’t like those kinds of books.” But I downloaded it on my Kindle and began reading, expecting to be bored and thinking I probably would struggle to finish it.

Quite to the contrary, Frankenstein is a suspenseful, psychological thriller. As an author wanting to study and emulate the best classics ever written, I have attempted to highlight some of the strengths of Frankenstein and the techniques Mary Shelley used to draw the reader into the story, creating a book whose name 150 years later is still synonymous with the word “monster.”

Writing in the first person, Shelley’s words are descriptive and pregnant with feeling. The reader is immediately propelled into the story, wanting to learn who this eccentric protagonist is that’s planning a trip to the North Pole.

Shelley uses the technique of letters written by the protagonist, Walton, to his dear sister to set the stage and background. Later on the voyage, Walton meets up with Victor Frankenstein. The creator of the villain, Victor, pours out his tearful tale to Walton concerning the monster he created, where the reader is taken on a journey of emotions that vacillates between compassion and abhorrence.

What makes a good book is what the reader continues to ponder and reflect on afterward. I began to personalize Victor Frankenstein – what monsters have I created in my own life? What wreck have I made of others’ lives? What will follow me all the days of my life? What enticements have I pursued against the advice of others because I was foolish? What consumes me that is beguiling and evil? How much control does the devil have over my heart that sends me down lonely paths of destruction and despair?

The theme of this book is haunting. There is never a word spoken of Christianity or the Bible or Scripture; yet so much of the content is based on the nature of man and his need for redemption—the concept of man’s depraved nature, but also his unquenchable thirst for love.

Even the antagonist is a victim, and the reader has pity and compassion for the monster despite his demonic nature. It’s a shame that the name “Frankenstein” is so associated with the grotesqueness of the creature and not as an incredible classic that anyone aspiring to be a great writer should enjoy. 

Too few books today delve into the psychological nature of man and the condition of the human heart in such a profound way. My hope is to embrace the challenge of writing with a Christian worldview without the reader being told they are reading such a book. To show rather than tell, as is the case with this story, is the penultimate example of great writing.

Order Frankenstein from Amazon

JOHN 3:16 MARKETING NETWORK GUEST POST: “Lorilyn Introduces New Christian Author Cheryl Rogers”

I (Lorilyn Roberts) would like to introduce a very talented Christian author, Cheryl Rogers; she is not only an author but an artist and musician.

My friend Cheryl likes to write for children because they usually are very open to God. “Children have a special place in my heart. They have so many years ahead of them ... so many years to enjoy getting things right,” she says.

Her latest children's ebook is I Can See Christian Storybook Treasury, a unique book that helps defeat doubts about God that develop as a child grows. It begins with I Can See God's ABCs, a story that should be read to the child as he or she is learning about the world. From there, the short stories become increasingly complex, dealing with questions like how can we find a God we cannot see, why did Jesus come to Earth and why did Jesus have to die.

I Can See Christian Storybook Treasury is meant to be used through the years with each child and grandchild in the family," Cheryl says. "It can be used with younger and older children at the same time."

Another one of her books includes Making Choices: Life is Like Acorns, a Bible study aimed at children 5 to 10 years old.  The story is about a baby squirrel named Peepsy who is learning how to hunt for acorns. His mother teaches him not all acorns are good to eat -- things are not always what they seem to be.

Just Like Jonah Wail Tales, a storybook aimed at preteens and teens, teaches there is a price to pay when you disobey. The modern-day Jonahs make bad choices and land in a whale of trouble, just like the prophet Jonah in the Bible. But when they return to God, He is faithful to change their circumstances.

Her devotions book aimed at new and young believers, Fast Track to Victory, A Christian Guidebook, contains 40 short lessons that enable us to live the victorious Christian life, helping us really love and forgive others, set aside pride, deal with tragedy, and death and lots more.

Cheryl knew she wanted to be a writer as a child. She earned a journalism degree in college and honed her skills as a newspaper reporter, but it took a devastating illness for Cheryl to realize what she was supposed to write about. In 1993, she succumbed to a severe immune disorder, Environmental Illness, to which there is no physical cure. After undergoing extensive treatment to no avail, she surrendered her life to Christ and he miraculously healed her.

"My life was in shambles, but God gave me my life back. I learned he was real and well able to handle my problems," Cheryl says.

A Miami native who lives in Tampa, Florida, with her family, Cheryl currently publishes New Christian Books, a magazine featuring announcements about new kingdom-building books as well as book excerpts, a Bible-based living column, author marketing tips, and other features. She has authored a number of Christian titles as well as a couple of ebooks about self-publishing.

In addition to her Christian books, Cheryl designs Christian posters, mugs, cards, tees, and other products using her nature photographs and Scriptures from the King James Authorized Version. She also has self-produced three Scripture song CDs.

"It never was my idea to write Scripture songs," says Cheryl, "but when the first song was sung into my spirit on the second anniversary of my father's death, well, it got my attention. My father wanted my sister and me to write a song as children, but I couldn't come up with a melody. All I could do was the lyrics. And here I was getting a complete melody. I couldn't ignore it."

She discovered a music studio two blocks from her house and was able to complete the CDs with expert help and the knowledge she gained through childhood piano lessons and college voice classes.

"I realized I had better use the talent I had been developing for His purposes," she says, "and so I began sharing the lessons he taught me through Bible columns. These become the basis of my devotions book, Fast Track to Victory, A Christian Guidebook.

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

CREATIVE WRITING INSIGHTS: “Confessions on The Brothers Karamazov, Am I My Brother’s Keeper?” by Lorilyn Roberts

Lorilyn:  I feel humbled and chastised – things that bothered me about The Brothers Karamazov make more sense now, as the meanings are so much deeper than my superficiality; i.e., I didn’t like the ending. There wasn’t the redemption I was looking for. Dmitri was found guilty; thus, the court system failed.

I wanted to know what was going to happen to him. I felt like Dostoevsky didn’t know what to do, so he just left it open for the reader to conjecture—a cop-out. I didn’t agree with the theme of the book, that we are responsible for other’s people’s sins in the sense that he was so emphatic.

I felt like there were a lot of extraneous people in the book that served no real purpose; i.e., why did the little boy have to die?  What did that add to the story – you get the picture. I did like the book, it’s just I wanted it to be nice and tidy, and it wasn’t.

So now I am confronting my own set of doubts – maybe I am my brother’s keeper.  But you know what? I don’t want to be my brother’s keeper. That means I have to love some people that are quite unlovable. So that means I am a fake. I apply my own beliefs to loving those I choose to love, and that means I am no different from Ivan or Dmitri. That is disturbing.

Ken (my professor), I think I am having a crisis – sure, I can write a nice little script for the course that will satisfy the powers that be for the school certification, but suppose I don’t want to? Suppose I want to risk being real? Maybe I am in search of something that doesn’t exist and I have just been kidding myself. I felt like Alyosha was weak and Zosima was a dreamer out of touch with reality.

And freedom – Christ set men free, the opposite of that is totalitarianism. Perhaps the fight is greater than we realize. Maybe we really are so enslaved to sin in our thought process that we don’t even realize it.

I shall have strange dreams tonight.

This was Professor Ken Kuhlken’s comments back, with some personal references omitted.

Ken:  This is wonderful. If Dostoyevski could wish that his readers would come away with one message, I would bet it would be that if we want to see the world as a tidy place, we had better buy into the Grand Inquisitor's theory (which would soon, in Russia, be essentially the theory of communism).

I'm awfully proud of you for confronting yourself and your beliefs. 

The world truly needs more writers who are willing to tell what they see as the truth whether or not it fits into a comfortable package. And it needs fewer writers who tell comforting lies. 

About being our brother's keeper, for the past year, I've been reading Soren Kierkegaard who argues convincingly that Jesus called us to love without distinction all whom he puts in our way....... I start to find that the resentments and all simply don't matter. I hope to gradually learn to treat everyone this way. Partly because it sets me free from my self-centered emotions.

The Brothers Karamazov is available from Amazon by clicking here.

LORILYN ROBERTS BOOK REVIEW: Analysis of “The Grand Inquisitor,” by Fydor Dostoevsky

Analysis of The Grand Inquisitor

by Fydor Dostoevsky

Lorilyn Roberts

 

The Grand Inquisitor by Fydor Dostoevsky is a parable in his novel, The Brothers Karamazov. The story takes place in Seville, Spain, during the time of the Inquisition, when heretics were routinely burned at the stake. The first time I read The Grand Inquisitor I found it disturbing. There had been, according to Dostoevsky, during the sixteenth century, chatter among the masses about the fact that Christ had not returned, and many questioned if His miracles were real.

 

According to the parable, Christ came back once again, briefly, and appeared quietly in the midst of the people, healing those who came to Him. The crowds recognized Him and clambered to be near Him. Christ healed the blind and the needy bowed down to Him. But Christ was too good, too powerful, and the guards came and took Him away. The Inquisitor came to The Prisoner and asked, "Why, then, art Thou come to hinder us?"

 

There followed a conversation between the Prisoner and the Inquisitor which was disturbing. Christ’s thirty-three years on earth was distorted. The Inquisitor implied that Christ had failed at His mission; that He didn’t set men free, for example, and therefore it fell on the church to set men free. According to the Inquisitor, freedom meant bondage. The Inquisitor believed that men couldn’t be free, that they needed to be told what to do, and the church saved the masses by forcing them to cower in submission.

 

The Inquisitor twisted the meaning of Christ's three temptations in the wilderness; speaking as if he (the Inquisitor) was Satan incarnate, using twisted logic with a kernel of truth when carried to its logical conclusion.

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The parable encompassed more than a spiritual meaning and made a political statement; i.e., referencing the notorious conquerors of Timours and Ghenghis-Khan, who subdued men in the name of unity. The Inquisitor valued submission.

 

When one contemplates the ideology and the two choices presented in the parable—freedom versus bondage—and the Bolshevik Revolution that followed a few decades after Dostoevsky’s death, I wonder what Dostoevsky had in mind—who was The Grand Inquisitor? And surely he gave the Russian people more credit than what he opined. Did Dostoevsky not believe they could live in unity and freedom? Was the great experiment of American democracy in the 1800s not sufficient to persuade him?

Or was he prophetic? Did he believe the populace would be unable to handle the same freedom if given it? Or was he equating the Inquisitor simply with the time of the Great Inquisition and the depravity of mankind; that even if Christ had returned again, He would have been rejected? Did he accuse men after sixteen centuries of being just as wicked, concluding that Christ had failed once again? Could one surmise that the Inquisitor was Satan himself?

 

I read The Brothers Karamazov to understand the context in which the parable was written. The parable was told by Ivan, an intellectual, to his Christian mystic brother, Alyosha. Alyosha, in my opinion, was too weak but represented a moderating influence on the otherwise dark story that covered much of the book.

 

Toward the end of the parable, Alyosha stated to Ivan, "You don't believe in God." Those who don't believe in God take the most loving aspects of Christ—His salvation and death on the cross—and belittle it. Perhaps Alyosha was comparing his brother to The Grand Inquisitor. Alyosha kissed his brother Ivan on the lips, reminiscent of Judas's betrayal of Jesus with a kiss. But representing the opposite meaning—a feeble attempt at best.

 

Dostoevsky referenced the Masons in a less than glamorous way, accusing them of possessing the same mystery, perhaps in conflict with the Catholics' pursuit of unity.  

 

Dostoyevsky raised more questions than he answered. I felt a sense of hopelessness in the parable. Perhaps if Alyosha was more assertive and less passive, he could have countered the progressive mindset of Ivan—who attempted to intellectually provide answers to questions that did not require belief in a higher being.  Ivan’s tone was over‑reaching and intolerant. The two brothers represented types‑‑the intellectual versus the mystic (I will include the third brother when I analyze the entire book).

 

The parable provides no easy answers to the accusations of The Grand Inquisitor. Did Dostoevsky have an answer? Perhaps that’s the point—to give the reader the freedom to ponder, unlike the accusations of The Grand Inquisitor, who didn't give people enough credit to even do that.

                                          

Perspective is everything. Having had more time to consider the book, The Brothers Karamazov, I wonder if my early thoughts were flawed. Upon further reflection, I don’t believe Alyosha was weak. He was humble. His responses were much like Jesus’ response to those who criticized Him. He never lashed back, except at the money changers. And perhaps Dostoevsky was making a broader statement about life. Communism followed in Russia shortly after his death. Is that what will happen here in America? Do people really want to think for themselves, or would they rather have the government or some other entity tell them what to do?

 

If you cherish your freedom, don’t be like the masses who expect the government to take care of them. Don’t take that government handout. Don’t expect the government to do for you what you can do for yourself.

 

God gave us freedom in Christ. He knew there would always be tyrannical governments, like the Romans, Alexander the Great, and Hitler. If each person takes a leap of faith, trusts God, and becomes his brother’s keeper, we can prevent our country from going the way of others.

 

As my mother says, our country is going to hell in a handbasket. Little by little, The Grand Inquisitor will have his way in America because as a nation, we have turned our eyes away from God. And because God is love, He has given us the freedom to be conquered—and I ask, what or who will conquer us?

To purchase The Grand Inquisitor from Amazon, click here

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