Most Rewarding (and Surprising) Moment as an Author: Part 3 of 5

PART THREE OF FIVE:

Recently, I was asked this question: With over 50 writing awards and an Amazon bestselling memoir, there has clearly been external validation of your work, but what was the single moment as an author that meant the most to you personally? Not an award, a moment. A reader’s message, a review, a conversation that made you think: this is why I write.

AN AUTHOR’S JOURNEY

Lorilyn: Yes, one special moment will stick with me because it was totally unexpected. This was back during COVID. Everything was shuttered. You couldn’t go anywhere without a mask, and as a sports captioner for television, all the games on my calendar disappeared overnight.

To backtrack a little, before COVID, based on a vision I had returning from winning a writing award in Las Vegas, I became a prepper. My brother-in-law is also a huge prepper, even more than I am.

He never sends me any texts, but one day he did. When I read it, he had sent me a link to a handheld Baofeng radio on Amazon, sort of like a walkie-talkie, and recommended I get one. I knew nothing about ham radio. Nothing. But because he recommended it, I bought it.

A couple of days later, it arrived. After opening the package, I thought, “What do I do with this thing?” I could barely even figure out how to turn it on. After reading a couple of paragraphs of the information, I discovered I needed a license to use it. “Geez, where do I get one of those?”

The timing was perfect. Because of COVID, I didn’t have much captioning, so I had some extra time I wouldn’t normally have. I took a weekend online class to get my tech license, the entry-level one, to be legal, and passed the test with a “B.”  To say I was shocked is an understatement. I admit, I didn’t study for it. I took the class on a whim, just to be legal, and it gave me something to do. Because of COVID, I couldn’t go anywhere, didn’t have much work, and perhaps a radio might be useful in an emergency.

THE BEGINNING OF MY HAM RADIO JOURNEY

That was the beginning of my ham radio journey. Then I got serious about it. I took the General license exam a couple of months later, and three months after that, I took the Extra license exam. The Extra license is very difficult. Not many amateur ham radio operators have it, and it gives you access to more bandwidth. We were still under COVID restrictions, so I figured, why not go for it? Everything was online via Zoom, with limited interaction with others.

The test day arrived, and I was sitting in front of three examiners on a Zoom call. According to protocol, I must “prove” I don’t have any cheat materials in the testing room. You do that by scanning the room with your phone so the examiners can see what you see.

As I was zooming around my room (embarrassed that my bed was in view), I came to my desk, and a bunch of books were stacked underneath it. I commented to the Examiners, “Those aren’t ham radio books; I write books, and they are mine.”

I didn’t think any more about it. The three Examiners watched me on Zoom as I answered all 50 questions. I had plenty of time left, and they asked me if I was sure I was done.

“Yes,” I replied, relieved it was over, and submitted my answers. A couple of minutes later, one of them announced, “You have passed and now have your Extra license.”

THE SPECIAL MOMENT

I was thrilled. When I asked them what I made, they said a 93. So, I was even more ecstatic (side note: I’m a nerd at heart). While I’m basking in my accomplishment, one of the Examiners said, “When you were assigned to me to proctor your exam, I recognized your name, but I didn’t know why. When you said you wrote books, I looked up your name on my Kindle, and I have a bunch of your books.” He held up his Kindle for me to see.

That was the moment I felt like I had succeeded as an author. At least one person on the planet I could call a fan!

Seriously, the moment of satisfaction that someone I didn’t know recognized my name and had my books on his Kindle made me feel like I was a real author. And then, all I could think was, “Thank God I didn’t bomb the test. How embarrassing that would have been!”

GOD’S GIFTS

God gives us those moments when we least expect them. But we know they are from God because we can’t create them, fake them, or manipulate them, as some desperate authors do, to draw attention to themselves. And that makes those moments special.

I’ve continued to be active in amateur ham radio and now focus exclusively on CW (Morse Code), as I love sending dits and dahs over the air, which is different in some ways from captioning words for television, though similar in others. I am a communicator at heart.

Late at night, in the Extra portion of the bands, on low power, I will practice my CW skills through Bible verses. My most recent book, Frequency, blends ham radio, particularly CW, and YA Christian suspense into an epic story that questions where we come from: Do aliens exist? Are UFOs real? What is God’s sovereignty? How does it all fit together?

I’m working on book 2, Eighth Dimension – Counterfeit, now. I hope to publish it before the end of the year.

To order Eighth Dimension -Frequency from Amazon, click here.

To read Chapter 1 of Eighth Dimension – Counterfeit, click here.