A CARD OF GRATITUDE - A HEART OF THANKFULNESS: Devotional by Lorilyn Roberts

Can we give thanks in all things? There is a time I would have said no. I used to ask with the wrong attitude, why didn’t God take care of this? Why did He allow that to happen? I felt smug in my self-righteousness. After all, I was a victim in many situations—receiving injustice when I didn’t deserve it. If God really loved me, He would fix this or solve that, unless He abandoned me, too. A thankless heart grieves the Holy Spirit, hurting not only our relationship with God but also others. We feel it in our emotions—bitterness, anger, and depression.

Gratitude is a strange gift. The more we are thankful, the more we remember things for which we are thankful. One of my most memorable moments of gratitude came when I was in the eighth grade. I lost my notes for a major term paper. I didn’t know the cards were missing until my final class and the bell rang to be dismissed. I panicked. I ran down the hall into one class after another, checking my desk for the missing notes. Each time when they weren’t there, more tears filled my eyes. The dozens of hours of work I had put into those cards flashed before me and redoing all that work sickened me. Inside the last desk I checked, I found my stack of notecards.

I wrapped my arms around them and smiled, thanking God for helping me to find them. Tears flowed—not tears of sadness but tears of joy. I was a straight “A” student and the thought of those cards being lost forever was enough to send me into a tailspin of deep depression.

Recently I got to thinking about those cards. Much has happened since that day almost forty years ago. Now that I am a little older and a little grayer, I have accumulated many notes—for different kinds of term papers. We are living notes for God’s Book of Remembrance. Some of those notes I didn’t want to write and would gladly have thrown them away. They were about topics I never would have chosen, but God had different plans.

My notecards have included lessons about disappointment, heartache, failure, worry, depression, fear, and insecurity. Why couldn’t God have given me easier topics—like how to live like a millionaire? I would have donated lots of money. I could handle that one. As the years have passed—and they go by faster the older I get—missing from some of those cards written long ago was one important word—gratitude. Did I really want to thank God for the husband who abandoned me and married his pregnant girlfriend? Did I really want to thank God for my barrenness? Did I really want to thank God for the twenty years I spent in a profession I hated?

God has taken me down many paths I didn’t like. During most of those years, I did not have a heart of gratitude. I needed to learn that before God could use me completely, I needed to surrender to Him completely. Anything we hold back in our lives and put before God is an idol. God can’t use us as He would like to if we don’t surrender all to Him in obedience. Otherwise, we will not be able to glorify Him fully but we will be too busy seeking our own selfish ambitions. We may not even realize it or do it intentionally.

Look at Hollywood, scan the self-help books, listen to the news, read the top stories on the internet—what blessings can the world give us with its self-centered, “I”-focused mentality? If I had continued to be like the world, to which I was drawn, I never could have glorified God, and you wouldn’t receive a blessing for God’s work in me.

I am thankful God didn’t give me all that I wanted when I was young. I would still be an insecure, fearful, performance-driven individual, seeking my self-worth from the world. How could God use me with that kind of mindset? The hard things God put in my life did great work once I surrendered to Him. He humbled me and showed me His omnipotent power and infinite wisdom.

I cringe when I think of what kind of a mother I would have been to my kids if God had given me children when I was married—a co-dependent, insecure wife seeking all her self-worth from her husband. Talk about dysfunctional in today’s psychological terms—I was clueless about what it meant to be a Christian wife or a Christian mother.

Today I thank God for the divorce that brought me to my knees. I honestly think I loved my husband more than I loved God. I just didn’t know it. I recommitted my life to Jesus Christ. God became my husband and my provider.

Growing up in a single family without a father was hard. Being fatherless opened the door for my stepfather to adopt me when I was ten. His adoption of me paved the way for a deeper understanding of what it means to be adopted by my heavenly Father.

My barrenness became a blessing—I adopted two beautiful daughters from Asia, and the only one who loves them more than I do is God Himself.

I could never see the value of my job as a court reporter. How would God ever use all of those words I wrote involving lawsuits that had no lasting or eternal value? Why didn’t God allow me to pursue my dreams of becoming an author? Did He not put those dreams in my heart? Only when I prayed to God to make me more thankful for the job I hated did God give me something more fulfilling. Those court-reporting skills gave me the foundation for a later career in broadcast captioning, allowing me to work from home while raising my two adopted daughters. Now that I have time to write, I can pursue the passion to write God gave me—but in His timing, not mine.

When I was young, I looked at the destination, not the process, but it is in the process we grow and become like God. If the process had no meaning, God could have snapped His fingers and made us perfect right away. Wouldn’t that have been much more efficient and saved a lot of time? But God didn’t want to do it that way.

Why? It’s in the process that we glorify God. What is more beautiful than to see a man or a woman who has overcome great adversity give praise to Jesus Christ? We’ve all seen it—and we stand amazed. How easy it is to forget God’s passion. He sacrificed His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, so why would God withhold anything good from us? There is a mystery in it, but at the center is God. The joy is in the journey itself and all the opportunities He gives us along the way to glorify Him.

If our attitude towards the hard things glorifies God, we will be fulfilled. As Paul says in Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” In the end, we are most content when we’re filled with God because our true joy can only be found in Him—not in this world. Everything else not of God will fade away and soon be forgotten.

It is in the struggle and my inability to do anything without God that I see His power at work. I am like a helpless worm, but God comes alongside and lifts me up when I fall. More than once, He has sent friends to me when I needed encouragement. Scripture instructs me each day, and prayer draws me into sweet communion.

When I enter heaven’s gates, God will wipe away my tears. Until then, I will write, hoping to use those cards of suffering to point people to the One who is the Source of all Hope and the Giver of all Joy. The cross is my symbol of remembrance. If I had not given my “all” to God, I never would have seen redemption in the hard things. Perspective is everything. God never wastes anything.

As it says in  Philippians 4:8, “…Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”

Only through God’s grace could I find hope when I had no hope. Thankfully, God never gave up on me even though I tried to give up on myself. He changed my perspective, showed me His unconditional love, and helped me to be thankful for even those things I hated. God lessened my pain and brought Godly friends into my life. In Jesus I found freedom to love and forgive. With a grateful heart, I found God at work in all those things I once despised, and for that, I am thankful. 

CLOSED CAPTIONING: “Captioning for the Deaf - Creation Station Contest Winner for the Jan/Feb 2013 Christian Women’s Voice Magazine,” Broadcast Captioner Lorilyn Roberts

I’d Rather be Writing Books but Captioning is What I do for a Living

by Lorilyn Roberts

I fire up the computer, turn on the modem, punch the TV remote control, hit the on-button on my other computer, flip the button on my stenograph machine, open the file—wait, I remember this is on iCap. I don’t need the modem for this show. I turn off the modem.

I am captioning golf tonight, 11:00 p.m. until 4:00 a.m., from Melbourne, Australia—the Talisker Masters. I’d better pull up the leaderboard on Google and check the spelling of those Asian names. I glance at Spark, the National Captioning Institute Messaging System – 37 captioners online captioning television shows all over the world. Only a handful will still be online when I finish my assigned show in the early morning.

I sit in my office chair in cotton pajamas alongside my bed, a candle burning on my dresser. A bag of Cheez-its and mug of coffee is close by—but not so close to my equipment that if I knocked it, it would be a disaster. I swallow a quick gulp in between strokes on my stenograph machine.

I have a long night ahead, but golf is easy to caption compared to hockey. I can see my captions on the Golf Channel without having to rely only on an audio feed (more commonly known as a telephone).

Such is the life of a closed captioner. I have been providing closed captioning for television for the last fifteen years. I work from my home—which has allowed me to stay at home and raise my two daughters—a good thing since I am a single mother by choice. I adopted my two daughters, 14 and 21, from Nepal and Vietnam. I also homeschooled them (my ninth grader is in a private school-home school program in high school now, which is nice).

I feel blessed to have the job I have, which pays well, but I hope to launch a new career as an author. I just finished my Master’s in Creative Writing and published my fourth book, Seventh Dimension – The Door, A Young Adult Christian Fantasy. Writing books is my passion, but closed captioning pays the bills. At fifty-seven, I continue to follow my dreams, knowing God will lead me and show me His perfect will, and for that, I am grateful.

To learn more about Lorilyn Roberts, visit http://lorilynroberts.com.

Be sure to check out my newest book, Seventh Dimension – The Door, a YA Christian Fantasy.

Seventh Dimension – The Door at Amazon, click here

REMEMBER: There is no pit so deep, no hurt so painful, no secret so horrid that God can’t cover it through the death of His Son, Jesus Christ. Open up your heart to the infinite possibilities of living a life of love, no longer warped by bullying or scarred by deceitful words. Where there is life, there is hope—and healing! 

BOOK REVIEW: SEVENTH DIMENSION – THE DOOR: A YOUNG ADULT FANTASY: A Critical Analysis Based on a Critical Review

The Reviewer is Stefan Vucak (3 stars). Here is her unedited review:

“With her mother divorced, foster father away and after a series of troubled experiences at school, Shale Snyder encounters a strange white dog who leads her through a portal into another dimension. In a strange kaleidoscopic world, she meets a talking donkey and a rabbit. Descending into a village, Shale is told that her real father is a powerful Roman official and she is transported 2000 years into the past. Always busy, her father doesn’t have much time for her, working to suppress an uprising in Jerusalem. Her foster mother is jealous of her, banishing a boy Shale was friends with, but ends up getting her comeuppance. Shale joins with the king, discovers God and returns to her own reality.

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.”

Here are my comments from Ms. Vucak’s review which I hope readers will find evocative. I welcome the opportunity to expound on some of the issues this reviewer raises. Be aware, that if you have not read Seventh Dimension – The Door, you might find this a spoiler.

Thank you for reviewing my book Seventh Dimension - The Door.

First, there are some important factual errors that are important in understanding the theme of Seventh Dimension – The Door.

Shale’s foster father was not away. In fact, there was no foster father at all. Shale was “abandoned” by her birth father when she was young. He left Shale’s mother penniless. Shale and her mother were forced to live with strangers for years and the young girl Shale lived with when the story begins was a bully and hated her.

Two years later, after the “accident,” Shale's mother remarried. The man she married became her stepfather, though he had not adopted her.

This is important, and crucial to the story because the theme of the book is: You are a daughter of the king.

I bring this up also because Shale's family was not “fixable” until something significant happened - mainly until Shale changed. This happened when she went back in time into the Seventh Dimension where she was forced to confront her own demons, her dysfunctional family, the father who left her, the boy who molested her, her wicked stepmother, her brother who needed healing, as well as meeting a young man from her future, and a powerful king.

You missed another very important point. Here is a quote from your review: “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.”

The animals are important. First, they represent parts of Shale’s personality – fearful, insecure, bossy, and yet pristine with a kind heart. Can you identify which animals these were? Worldly Crow was the betrayer – how you could think the animals have no relevance is strange to me.

The animals move the plot forward: The dog, in the beginning, spelled backward is symbolic of God reaching down and drawing her into His world. When we have a spiritual encounter, we enter into another world. I called it the seventh dimension. The animals introduced her to the King – her eternal heavenly father. The animals accepted her unconditionally and had faith in her. Shale gained strength from them and grew in maturity as she cared for them. She learned to put their needs ahead of her own. In the beginning, Shale was really very selfish and self-absorbed, as are all young adults who have been abused. It’s a matter of self-preservation.

I could say more about this. There is a lot of symbolism – the bird in the garden was the first to tell her she was a daughter of the king – like a prophetic foreshadowing. In the end, the king set the bird free, allegorical of Shale being set free.

Shale learned obedience through suffering, through imprisonment in her private quarters. You will remember toward the end, she locked herself in the room willingly. Obedience is part of the Christian life.

You made this statement in your review: “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.”

Sadly, many kids will never receive love from their families. They will receive judgment and conditional love. Conditional love comes in many forms.

To be honest, I would be hard-pressed to believe you could have known what would happen from the temptation in the wilderness until the end of the book. If you did know, you are a genius and you should be able to make some big bucks with that kind of intelligence. My utmost respect for you if that is true.

The biggest issue for Shale was she had to learn forgiveness to be able to receive the king’s unconditional love. When she returned home, she brought the rock into the house and took it up to her room, even though her mother didn’t understand. Shale at that point had enough self-worth to overcome her mother’s lack of understanding and begin anew. She was no longer bound by other people’s opinion of her. The word Ebenezer means “new beginnings.”

I get the impression, though I may be wrong, that you are not a Christian and do not understand the power of this story in Biblical terms. The message here for kids is one of hope – that you can rise above your circumstances and your difficult family situation and succeed in life, but you don’t have to do it all on your own. In fact, you can’t in human terms do it all on your own. The king of kings will help you. Shale entered into a search for answers and she found a Savior. She realized who her father was—a king who would never leave her or forsake her.

I hope my extensive comments here will help you to see this is more than just a story – it’s my life told in fable and allegory. I was Shale Snyder, and this is my testimony with lots of creative storytelling. And I will leave it to the reader to wonder which is true and which is fiction.

BOOK MARKETING: New Book Cover for Seventh Dimension - The Door: “Meet Great Book Cover Designer Lisa Vento”

Meet professional 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. 

What did Lisa do with my original photograph?  

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. 

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 Woods was our milk man when I was a little bitty squirt. And by milk man, I don’t mean he picked up those small 5 gallon milk cans. He drove a milk tanker and transported a gazillion gallons of milk every day.

We lived down a long dead-end country road, and I could hear a car coming from a mile away. So it was no wonder that I could hear Will comin’ long, long before he got there.

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.

Will picked up our milk every other day, but I was too young to process how often “tomorrow” really meant, so I’m sure I drove Mama crazy asking when Will would be there. But I was old enough to know that if Mama and Daddy were done with the milking, it wouldn’t be long before Will showed up.

I have a good imagination (I’m a writer, after all), and this is kind of hazy, but I seem to recall sitting on the cement steps at the barn many a morning on those off days, and then trudging to the house when I realized Will wasn’t going to show up that day.

One Sunday morning, Mama was getting us all ready for church, rushing around as only a farm mother can do after getting up at five am to milk a herd of Holstein cows, and next thing she knew, I came flying out of the back room like a wild cat. She made a grab for me, but I tore out of the house toward the barn, yelling “Will’s comin’! Will’s comin’!”

She hadn’t heard a thing. But I had.

I’d heard that big motor and those big wheels bringing my friend to me. And it didn’t matter that on some days all he brought was a tootsie roll or a piece of gum. He’d remembered me, and I was happy.

While I had a loving, Christian family with roots deep in the red clay hills of Mississippi, my friendship with Will reminds me of Jimmy Denton’s relationship with Slade and Buck Donovan in Claiming Mariah.

Jimmy’s home situation isn’t the best: His pa is a drunkard, and they live in a shack that is falling down around their ears. Slade and Buck Donovan see a bit of themselves in the little boy, and they befriend Jim. Eventually, the caring and acceptance of the Donovans touch the entire Denton family, allowing healing and family to mend. Jimmy’s story is not the main thread in Claiming Mariah, but it is an important part. Jimmy weaves himself into Slade and Mariah’s story and finds a home there. Right where he belongs.

Back to my friend, Will Woods. In my young mind, I assumed Will lived far, far away. As I wrote this blog post, I couldn’t remember his last name, so I called my mother. Mama told me she’d recently seen Will at a Wildlife Jamboree in our community. Over forty years after he ran the route as our milkman, some little nugget prompts me to write an article to honor the attention a man showed a little girl who lived on the backside of nowhere, only to find out he lives right here in my community, and not far, far away as I’d always thought.

That God. He’s amazing, isn’t he?

And so are the men and women who take time for a child.

~

Pam Hillman was born and raised on a dairy farm in Mississippi and spent her teenage years perched on the seat of a tractor raking hay. In those days, her daddy couldn’t afford two cab tractors with air conditioning and a radio, so Pam drove the Allis Chalmers 110. Even when her daddy asked her if she wanted to bale hay, she told him she didn’t mind raking. Raking hay doesn’t take much thought so Pam spent her time working on her tan and making up stories in her head. Now, that’s the kind of life every girl should dream of! Claiming Mariah is her second novel.

Pam is thrilled to announce the release of her second novel,

Claiming Mariah

Claiming Mariah

Pam Hillman’s Author page on Facebook and/or sign up for Pam’s newsletter.

***

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

 

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!

FREE ON ALL EBOOK PLATFORMS: “Seventh Dimension – The Door: A Young Adult Fantasy,” by Lorilyn Roberts

For every child who struggles with doubt, for every kid who has been bullied, for every teen who comes from a broken home, and for every young adult who longs to be understood - there is hope.


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.”

About Author

Lorilyn Roberts lives in Gainesville, Florida, with her two daughters from Nepal and Vietnam. Manisha’s and Joy’s adoption stories were told in her bestselling memoir Children of Dreams. Part of her family’s memoir was featured on Discovery Channel’s Monsters Inside Me.


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

BOOK REVIEW: “Seventh Dimension – The Door: A Young Adult Fantasy,” by Allbooks Reviewer Cecilia Lee

Genre: Young Adult Fantasy

Author: Lorilyn Roberts

Title: Seventh Dimension – The Door

This book is about our need for ultimate love and understanding. Set in today’s society where self-doubt, bullying, broken homes and brokenness is rampant, this book is a must-read.                  

Seventh Dimension – The Door is a touching story about a hurt young girl who finds the ultimate love of the king.

Meet Shale Snyder. She is an emotionally and psychologically injured girl – after many years of torment at school and abandonment at home, she is left empty and hollow inside. She feels misunderstood. She has an internal longing, but for what she doesn’t know!

One day, she is transported to a happy, peaceful garden. She meets up with two talking animals: a fat, apple-loving donkey and a cute, sweet rabbit, who tell her she is in the “king’s garden”. However, a hint of evil disrupts the serenity of the garden, and while trying to escape from the menacing presence, they, she and a dog whom she has known before get transported to another world in the 7^th dimension through a door, hence the title of this book, Seven Dimension – The Door.

Our heroine has several adventures in the 7^th dimension. There are many weird things there – like a boy who is also from her world, except 3 years into her future! She learns the king of the garden is there. She wants to find out more about him and wants to meet him. However, she has to deal with issues within herself as they stand in the way of her ability to receive the king’s love. Finally, the story builds to an ending climax where she is given the ultimate test.

You have to read this book to find out who the giver of this amazing love is; who can mend a broken heart, love unconditionally, understand unceasingly, and fill the void in our hearts. You will be surprised to find out what our heroine has been longing for all along. Also, read about all the curious circumstances in the 7^th Dimension.

You won’t be able to put this book down until you reach the end. The author, Lorilyn Roberts, has this incredible ability to build suspense until the climax in the end. Don’t cheat and read the ending first because the journey into the 7^th Dimension is just, if not, more compelling and spellbinding. Bon voyage!

Cecilia Lee, Reviewer, Allbooks Review International

Title: Seventh Dimension – The Door

Author: Lorilyn Roberts

Publisher: Rear Guard Publishing

ISBN-13:978-1480153905

Dec. 2012

To order Seventh Dimension - The Door, click here

BOOK REVIEW OF SEVENTH DIMENSION - THE DOOR: A Young Adult Fantasy, by Amazon Reviewer/Author Sandra McLeod Humphrey

What a great mix of ingredients inherent in this Christian allegorical novel for young adults! There’s plenty of drama and conflict inherent in the ongoing battle between good and evil with a sprinkling of romance and even a dash of political commentary. 

The animal characters are charming and the human characters are equally interesting. We immediately identify with the young protagonist Shale as she deals with her feelings of rejection, abandonment, and social isolation, and we can also empathize with Daniel and his conflicted feelings about just who the teacher really is--whether He is actually who Shale believes Him to be. 

I love the concept of “multiple realities” depending on the choices one makes, and I think this is really a novel for all ages. It’s a journey of self-discovery but so much more!


To listen to a free audio sample, click here


To purchase, click here

BOOK TRAILER: SEVENTH DIMENSION - THE DOOR, A YOUNG ADULT FANTASY, BOOK 1