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Author Spotlight
This month, I am excited to introduce to you a wonderful friend and fellow author, Lorilyn Roberts. Welcome, Lorilyn!
MaryAnn: Please tell us a little about yourself. Why do you write?
Lorilyn: I write because there is something magical about putting thoughts in my head on paper. I love to tell stories—life stories, stories I dream up, and stories that inspire. We live in times of uncertainty, and I believe God has given me a message to share with others—to bring hope to the hurting and truth to the wanderers.
Words have power, and when written with God-inspired wisdom, they can impact the world for good. Created in God’s image, we are ambassadors to a future world when God will rule with righteousness and justice.
Until then, we live in a world that is passing away. I look forward to the time when we will meet God face-to-face, and my goal is to give the reader a glimpse into God’s magnificent handiwork. I particularly like writing for children because their imaginations are so vivid. They can see things adults have forgotten how to see. And even if grown-ups have lost a little of that child-like quality, they can still see with their hearts. They only need to put aside the cares of this world and become like little children once again.
Even if I touch only one life, I’ve made the world a better place. And you never know how God might make that tiny seed grow into something beautiful that will be passed on and shared with others.
MaryAnn: What Project Are you Currently Working On?
Lorilyn: I’m working on an early reader book, Book Love: Young Readers Become World Leaders. My book artist is completing the illustrations now, and Book Love should be out in September.
I had difficulty learning to read and failed first grade because I couldn’t read. Out of that wretched beginning—I hated books as a result—God did an amazing thing, and I share that story.
I hope to encourage kids to fall in love with reading. The subtitle of the book is Young Readers Become Great Leaders. At a time when young people are reading less and less, I see at least one generation and maybe more that have lost the ability to think critically about the world, connect the dots, and understand cause and effect. These are mental skills caught, not taught. Critical stages in the development of the brain are being missed if reading is not a core component of a child’s education.
But reading is even more than that. It’s the key to the past, it’s the key to the present, and it’s the key for future generations to look back and understand their own history. Books leave written records of successes and failures, dreams and disappointments, eyewitness accounts, and much more. People’s words embrace feelings and thoughts and deep emotions that penetrate the reader’s mind. Books share the heart and soul of the people who wrote them.
Suppose we were to lose our channels of communication due to a cyberattack, books would survive. Written texts live on regardless of wars, catastrophes, changes in government, and even censorship. We’ve seen how easy it is for the Internet to be taken down. How hard it would be to burn every book on the planet.
If I can encourage kids to pick up a book and read for enjoyment, read for knowledge, read for ideas on creating, inventing, and making the world a better place, my writing will not have been in vain. I wouldn’t be the person I am today if I had not become a lover of books. And never would I have dreamed when I was young and struggling to read that I would ever become an award-winning, Amazon best-selling author.
MaryAnn: Praise God for the great work He has done in your life, Lorilyn, and continues to do! May your writing redound to His glory, and may many young children become readers, and then leaders, because of your faithfulness to your calling. Thank you so much for being with us today!
I urge you to check out Lorilyn's books, subscribe to her newsletter, and visit her website at LorilynRoberts.com.
BIO
Lorilyn Roberts is the author of twelve books, including the award-winning YA Seventh Dimension Series and memoir Children of Dreams. After scuba diving around the world and earning her college degree studying abroad, she settled into single motherhood, adopting two daughters from Nepal and Vietnam. She later earned a Master’s in Creative Writing and is currently president of the Gainesville, Florida, Chapter of Word Weavers International. Lorilyn has rescued many orphaned dogs and cats, and when she isn’t writing books, she provides broadcast captioning for television. She can be found at LorilynRoberts.com and http://twitter.com/LorilynRoberts.
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