Lorry Lutz's Blog, page 4

THE DAY OF THE GIRL-OCT. 11

 

This will make you weep! Read these statistics from She Is Safe which focuses  on Preventing,  Rescuing, and Restoring  young women around the world in danger of being trafficked:

200 million girls are “missing” from the world today.
98% of sex slaves are female. Demand is rising for younger girls.
90% of poor families in India do not educate their girls.
52 million girls under the age of 18 are forced to marry each year.

On the other hand:

Girls will invest 90% of what they earn back into their families.
Girls who are safe, free, equipped and know their God-given value will raise the next generations of boys and girls to be safe, free, educated and contributing.

For more information contact : infor@sheissafe.org

And to read the story of a committed, persistent woman risking her life and reputation to expose”white slavery” (trafficking) in the 19th century, read my recently released Daughters of Deliverance and The Queen’s Daughters

 

Under the Banana Tree

Three days before I left Kenya this summer I made a short video about The Queen’s Daughters. Adams, who heads up the media equipment department at  Daystar University, brought his camera. I watched  him through my window, moving a chair from one spot to another — aah, he was looking for just the right spot.  He finally moved the chair part way up the side of the massive rock  behind the house, near a young banana tree (no bananas yet–the ones I’m holding aren’t from that little tree!) Once he was sure the background and the lighting was just right he called me to come.

That was the first problem– I’m  not good at climbing anything these days, though I didn’t tell him that.  I stepped carefully, trying to avoid stones and anything unstable. But I suddenly  jammed  my foot between two rocks , and I went down on my knees, screaming.  Of course Adams and Wekesa, a student working in the garden, came running to help–  “Mum Lorry!” But I didn’t want them to lift me up — I was afraid they’d drop me and all three of us would roll down the hill. They knew better. Each grabbed an upper arm and as though I was light as a bird, up I went.  No damage– just my pride.

Hence, the video I was about to show you is a little shaky from that experience, but will tell you how I learned some things while in Africa that made me even more thankful for the privilege of writing Dr. Katharine Bushnell’s story in The Queen’s Daughters  (released in September).

Hopefully by the next time I’ll have figured out how to import a UTube into my blog.  Any ideas?

‘

 

Tomorrow I’m having a “book-baby!”

This is my twelfth “book baby” and one was stillborn

The Setting of The Queen’s Daughters

I visited India for the first time  in 1979, but my memories are still vivid.  Most of the cars on the roads were black  Ambassadors, manufactured in India.  No bells and whistles, but the drivers cleverly maneuvered around cows in the road, and daring pedestrians forging ahead through the traffic.

One night we stayed in a guest-room across from a park  full of peacocks.  We looked forward to seeing them in the morning, especially the males, proud in their plumage of yellow,blue,and green feathers.  What we didn’t know when we laid our weary heads on the bumpy pillows and longed for a breath of moving air, was that our peacock neighbors couldn’t sleep either. They were awake at sunrise, greeting each other with the loudest, most raucous, ugly sounding calls you can imagine — and multiply that by one hundred or more birds.

India is a fascinating, colorful  land to visit, though the sight of beggars living along the side of the streets, or a mother in a bedraggled sari, standing in the middle of traffic, her hand outstretched  for food for the baby in her arms and the toddlers clinging  to her skirts, was always heart-breaking. As I traveled frequently to India over the years, beggars became less visible (perhaps by some municipal regulations?) and the cities looked more prosperous.

My early travels in India  were far less comfortable than today. We seldom had air-conditioning in the moderate guest houses where we stayed, and suffered frequent loss of electrical power.  We often rode on rickshaws drawn  by men whose powerful muscles in their arms and legs kept their bony frames moving through traffic with ‘seeming’ ease.

 I could go on, but I think this will help you to understand why I especially enjoyed researching and writing  Dr. Katharine Bushnell’s experience in India eighty-five years earlier.  The challenges were greater, but she was determined to expose the mistreatment of  young Indian women in the brothels of the military  during the British Raj, and to help free any she could.

A historical novel, The Queen’s Daughters is the second book about the life of Katharine Bushnell. It is set in Victorian England, British India, and the Far East.  There’s joy, victory and obedience to God’s call on her life, even though the subject matter may seem dark at times. If you like to read books about strong women who served God in unexpected places, you’ll enjoy getting to know Dr. Katharine Bushnell. The Queen’s Daughters  is available on Amazon, September 1, 2017,

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fifteen Days to Launch

My long hiatus is over.  I haven’t written you since May 19  from Kenya.  It was a God-given opportunity to live there with old friends while I wrote the story of the founding of Daystar University. Every day was a God-given experience– whether watching the monkeys trying to get into our garden,  whooshing a ‘Shongololo’ out of my bathroom, or finding a twist of words that energized the story more.  I worked with a team of gracious people,  and we were able to finish  the draft of Daystar Rising  by the time I had to leave. But that’s for another time.

Today I want to focus on my new book. Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolina’s will launch my twelfth book, The Queen’s Daughters, on September 1, 2017. I wanted   to introduce you to the beautiful cover. What comes to your mind when you see  this lovely face? What do you think she’s pondering? I ‘ll be very interested in your thoughts.

And even more grateful if you would read The Queen’s Dauighters and write a review on Amazon.

Blessings, Lorry

 

 

 

 

 

Something happened since I left the country…

This blog has been put off for three weeks — for good reason.  I’ve been in Turkey to spend time with my children and grandchildren.  Now I am in Nairobi, Kenya helping some old  friends write the story of their ministry in Africa. It’s the most unusual writing experience I’ve ever had.

My friend Faye has spent more than two years going through boxes and boxes of letters, papers, pictures, journals.  Out of this great source of memorabilia, going back to 1948 when she and her husband, Don, were engaged, she’s pulled out five hundred pages of key material.   These are mostly single-spaced, legal size pages– and thankfully mainly in chronological order and bound into a book that weighs at least four pounds.

I am working with a team of two Kenyan women, less than half my my age who  are very sharp.  Both of their husbands teach at the Christian University where I’m staying.  It’s a kind of tag team.  Rosie pulls all the pertinent, interesting features from the  resource book and forms then into a chapter.  I receive the chapter and add additional information, re-organize if necessary to keep the story flowing, edit and make comments of things to research and verify, After Rosie and I go through to fine tune a second time, the chapter goes on to Katie who has her MA in communications.  She reads through the material again, and stops to deal with the comments and edits as necessary.

Our hope is that in the next month we’ll be able to pass our draft to Don and Faye — hopefully they’ll recognize and verify that this is their life.

We are a good thirty miles from Nairobi, on roads that are lined  with massive ten-wheelers rolling along like a Colorado coal train– when is the end ever coming? But we sit out on the patio after dinner and watch the sunset and unique cloud formations in the west.  I have yet to see a sunset because this is the rainy season, and it is usually raining over in Nairobi — seldom here.  We watch the day disappear  at 6:30 pm every night here on the equator; the flickering lights of the city start to turn on,; the planes turn to land over at Jomo Kenyata Airport, and the streaks of gold and rose peek through the clouds for one last moment.  All is quiet — even the birds have stopped singing.And it’s grown chilly.

I’m not lonesome for home  but find the peace restoring. I have a deep sense of confidence that God has given me this opportunity at almost ninety years old, to serve Him in a unique way.  I believe Don and Faye’s story of their lives and the university that grew out of their service will bless those who read it. I’m thankful for the privilege, and honestly wonder why I should be so blessed.

Oh yes, something also happened to Daughters of Deliverance since I left hone.  Today it ranked thirty-two out of 100 best selling religious fiction books on Kindle.  It probably helps that more and more people are writing reviews — fifty-two to date.  If you haven’t read Daughters of Deliverance, or read it and haven’t written a review, there’ still time. You will admire Katharine Bushnell, the woman this historical fiction is based on.  The sequel The Queen’s Daughters, is due out Sept 1.

 

Have you ever written a review?

To be honest, until recently I had never written a book review. I can write some pretty vivid  reviews if the food in a restaurant is not well cooked or cold when it should be hot. And I’m pretty quick to complain if  a new printer doesn’t work properly But I guess I never thought that a review would encourage an author, or even help sell more books.

Today Daughters of Deliverance reached forty nine reviews. It’s been slowly climbing the Amazon rank.  It was listed #231 out of more than 200,000 books. I don’t know what that really means, but it’s better than being ranked near the bottom.  I suspect that reviews, whether conversations with a friend in the elevator about “the good book I just read,” or a written review on Amazon really does help promote a book.

I love the endorsement my 23-year-old grandson wrote. You’re probably thinking, “of course he’d tell his grandmother what she wants to hear.” But you’ve got to know that this grandson is a writer himself — and a philosopher who thinks deeply about the weight of words.  He’s honest “as the day is long” and wouldn’t perjure  himself to flatter me.  So when he wrote this endorsement, I was honored:

Katharine is a fascinating character.  She obviously trusts God immensely.  When she was struggling with the decision to leave David and her dreams of residency, to go to China, I shared in that struggle–feeling at least in part, the anguish, followed by rest in the Lord’s will.  It’s fascinating to see someone so determined to heal and fulfill her calling that she abandons the familiar. It strikes of yearning for more, for both herself and people she serves.  Joe

But before you give up even thinking of writing a review , please remember that there are as many evaluations of a book as  there are readers.  Some readers like Kate because she’s spunky; others might think she prays too much; or what do you think?

Join the growing number of readers and write a review at the bottom of Amazon’s page for Daughters of Deliverance.  Then you’ll be eager to read the rest of her fascinating life, The Queen’s Daughters, which launches on September 1. 2017.

 

 

How did I know I should write Daughters of Deliverance?

I was attending a conference — don’t remember what it was even about.  But I’ll never forget the conversation I had with my roommate one night..

“You’ve just got to write this woman’s story,” Mimi urged. “Katharine Bushnell has been lost to  history. She made a great contribution advocating for justice and equality for women, backed by years of study of the Bible and few people know about her.”

I laughed off Mimi’s suggestions. But the challenge had been planted in my mind.  I hadn’t acquiesced yet, but I wanted to know more about this women. When I began researching and reading about Katharine Bushnell, I couldn’t find personal  letters, or journals, or detailed accounts from people who had known her.

Discouraged, I made an  appointment with  a literary  agent  to ask his advice.  “Simple,” he said.  “Write it as historical fiction.” Voila! I could do that  I had all the facts of her life for the framework of the story — and fiction gave me the freedom to expand on that framework with how I think Kate would have acted.

Kate became so  real and alive, even my twenty-three-year-old grandson read the story and wrote: “Katharine is a fascinating character…It’s fascinating in part to see someone so determined to heal and fulfill her calling that she abandons the familiar.  It strikes of yearning for more, for both herself and people she serves”

Wow. Kate, as she has become to me, could even touch the heart of a young male adult. She was  was worth writing about. And your reading Daughters of Deliverance!

 

 

Bringing back the old

This week I was reminded to promote other books I’ve written.  If you go to Lorry Lutz on Google, nine of my eleven published books are displayed.  It’s almost embarrassing to note that some sell for as little as 48cents!  Of course as far as books go, they’ve been around for a long time, and face hundreds of thousands  of other books which have been published since.

Three of my books are on Kindle — The Soweto Legacy, When God Says Go, and Daughters of Deliverance.  I have to admit, I like them all– but then I am prejudiced.

The Soweto Legacy was published in the 80s, but it deals with subjects as current as today.   Set in South Africa when apartheid reigned, it tells the story of a mixed-race couple (a no-no under apartheid) and how their two families handled the delicate situation. Race and ethnic hatred contrasted with love, forgiveness and God’s care as the story comes to a dramatic conclusion.

When God Says Go resembles Daughters of Deliverance, in that it is about a brave,persistent, godly woman who spends her life relieving the suffering of others.  Mother Eliza George, a daughter of American slaves, serves the tribal people of Liberia, rescuing girls from early marriage to old men,  educating them in schools she’s founded, and starting churches with pastors she’s trained.  But that’s just the framework of this true story .  Her marriage to Mr. George — really out of convenience so she could stay in Africa–is just one of the quaint  stories that emerge out her rich and colorful life. At ninety-five she’s still traveling  through the jungle, carried in a hammock by porters, straddling across a log fallen over a  swollen river, to bring the message of God to one more village.

Katharine Bushnell’s story of courage, persistence and faith is told in Daughters of Deliverance.  She spent most of her life exposing  what we call trafficking today— in the streets of Denver and Chicago,  the forests of northern Wisconsin– and later in the  barracks of the British military in India.(see my recent posts for more)

Even old books can be enjoyed — and fortunately they are all on Amazon for your enjoyment.

 

Is Daughters of Deliverance being read?

 

I think I’m a pretty normal author.  I love writing and seeing my character develop. The launch of a book is a high point when I can actually hold the book in my hands or read it on my Kindle.  But then there’s the concern — is anybody reading my book?  Or was it just an ego trip, or something to keep me busy?

Royalties, of course, tell the story.  But it takes months before the reports and royalties come in.  In the meantime I wonder and wait. However, there is one indicator that gives me a hint that Daughters of Deliverance is being read.  Every day I open the  Amazon site where my book is offered.  I check the number of reviews which tells me what my readers think about my book.  Today I saw that 43 readers had written reviews (Thank-you for your response) and that Daughters of Deliverance received 4.8 gold stars out of 5. That’s soothing to my soul.

I scroll down the page  which includes all the details about the book, like the number of pages, the ISBN number– all those important things readers don’t  want to know.  And there’s a short bio of me beside my  ultra-glamorous picture . (I don’t look like that in the mirror.)

Finally at the bottom of the page Amazon lists the rank of 100 best-selling books in the Kindle store.  I’ve been shocked to see Daughters of Deliverance in the top 100 books in Inspirational fiction, Christian women’s fiction, and Inspirational.  Sometimes, like today it’s ranking 77, 84 and 90  out of 100.  Other days it’s been in the mid-30s or 40s. Considering that there are more than 42,000 books in these categories, I admit I’m pleased.  Right now the  Kindle edition of Daughters of Deliverance is being given away, so here’s your chance to put this “top-rated” book on your Kindle free!

And, kindly write a review.