SHINING AFTER RAIN

I have only read the first four chapters and I am all choked up. The power of God is amazing...how He transforms our lives into something beautiful, if only we allow Him in. Highest stars and again, I'll be back.
You've done so much in sharing your life...but I know you must know that!

Linda

Hello Lorne.

I hope you are doing well. There haven't been many comments recently. Because I like to skip around and often read back to front (I know strange right?) I've read the first, last, and something in between. I agree that your descriptions are well-written - but the tone is one of a wid-eyed child which is really interesting. I think the large number of exclamation points do this. I'm a Michigander, new believer, and spent years in the Japanese culture which was completely foreign to me. Take care brother. I hope you are able to get this published. It is hard work. Stacy Gleiss

I like your story of redemption. It is a classic tale that reveals the power of God's Word. Blessings to you.
Marjorie Wilhelmsen
Exact Places

I like your story of redemption. It is a classic tale that reveals the power of God's Word. Blessings to you.
Marjorie Wilhelmsen
Exact Places

Hello Lorne:

So far I have read the first chapter. Not only do you narrate a compelling story, but you do so with an amazingly polished writing style. I am impressed by your extensive, but nonetheless non-pretentious, vocabulary. You are truly a wordsmith!

Thanks for your transparency.

James

I couldn't resist taking a peek at a book that mentioned Saginaw. But, I kept reading, and reading. I like the emotion that comes through the book and the strong redemption message. One part I will remember is in Chapter 13 where you tell about the visit to the restaurant with your mother. Dee Farrell

Hi Lorne,

This is a very inspirational story and mostly well-written, though there are the odd missing commas. Also 'my self' should be 'myself' and you have a 'then' which should be 'than.

Unfortunately I have only had time to read the first two chapters but I like what I've read.

Ron

Hi Lorne,
You were able to rein in my sympathy for this MC immediately despite his unattractive behavior. The writing is well done, clean and compelling. I especially liked you phrase: time still wore leaden shoes. Because of my somewhat narrowed interests, as described in my profile, I would not normally select this type of book. I'm glad that I did today. Highly starred!
Thank you,
John B Campbell (Walk to Paradise Garden)

You always totally amaze me, Lorne, & big tears are in my eyes that your have again backing my memoirs/testimony book, to help me as I struggle to be in the top 5. :) May God open the windows of Heaven with kazillions of blessings. :) Love, Susie :)

Sometimes the worst experiences are necessary in order to bring people to a sense of their true condition. One may wish it were not so, but stories like this one make the point. I am reminded of Saul's experience on the road to Damascus, and of John Donne's famous sonnet asking God to treat him more roughly--to "break, blow, burn, and make me new" and to imprison and enslave him to make him free.

It's actually refreshing to read a jail/prison narrative that is not a tale of mere degradation and revenge. You show vividly the inner confusion and spiritual darkness that drives even a highly intelligent, potentially successful person into youthful criminality, and you show likewise how a person's real potential can shine out even under hideous circumstances. Shelved with pleasure. I have read the first two chapters and will have a bit more to say when I have read further.

Bill

Accomplished prose, an intriguing story and one senses, brutal honesty about the events of your life. This is indeed a book worth reading; I was drawn immediately into your story. Well done.

---Mary
The Qualities of Wood

Dear Lorne, I am going to write this in your comment page & here in your message page. :) I have not been able to get into my profile page to see my bookshelf, read my messages, or see my watchlist & I tried from my daughter's computer & still can't get in, but she can get into her profile page, so authonomy must have shut me out - I have written them over & over since Friday morning to no avail/no answer. I am able to get into all of the other authors' profile pages, but not mine. :(

I am so concerned that I'll slip out of the top 5 & have to keep doing this in February & endlessly - I've been reading & commenting on books all of my waking hours since 3-5-10, so really need to finish. :)

Could you please write me back in my comments because I can get into my book sometimes to read your answer & please let me know if you can get into your profile page to see your bookshelf & messages & watchlist? :)

Thank you from the bottom of my heart. :)

Love, Susie :)
please pray :)

Totally amazing, that's what your are, Lorne!!!! You make me cry sweet tears. ;( :) My heart goes out to you for your tenderness & help. :) You must have seen that I went to 5 with a red arrow. :( May God open the windows of Heaven on you for all of your help. :) Love, Susie :) The longer my book stays on your shelf, the more your books will move up because I have over 4000 comments & am on over 300 bookshelves. :)

You are amazing to back me again, Lorne!! Hope you'll keep my memoirs/testimony book on your bookshelf to move me onto the editor's desk :) - I am 9 from there & need to be in the top 5 :) - the longer my book is on your shelf, it will move us rapidly. :) Love, Susie :) Kellen went from 11/20 #284 to 11/19 #117& is on 20 bookshelves & Renn went from 12/12 #3632 to 12/20 #2517 & she is only on 6 bookshelves, so it really works. :)

How totally wonderful, you are Lorne!! :) Thank you so very much for again backing my memoirs/testimony book. :) May God richly bless you. :) Love, Susie :) p.s. I just looked to see if I had ******-ed all of your books & I have ******-rated (6 gold ******'s) :) - could you please ****** mine, too. :) Every ****** -ing & at least 24 hour backing moves our books up on authonomy lists. :) I want to ask you if you could please keep my book on your bookshelf as long as possible because I'm 8 from the editor's desk & trying to be in the top 5 to be chosen, the end of December :) - I had a mini-stroke Nov. 10 with slurred speech for an hour & numbness of tongue still & over 20 smaller ones where I couldn't speak since & I"d sure like to cross the finish line of the editor's desk after 9 months trying on authonomy. :) Thank you from the bottom of my heart for helping me :) - I have lost 3 sisters to strokes & my last sister, Mary had 2 heart attacks earlier this year.

This is professional quality prose, Lorne, and full of honesty about the headstrong and - let's face it - daft teenager you once were. Diving out of the second floor room was a bad mistake, but then removing his own plaster casts was ... well...

Being non-religious, myself, this is not a book I could read at any length, but you do keep the quality and interest at a high level, and I'll give it a high rating to reflect that.

Lorne - Shining After Rain is heartfelt - as someone below has written and extremely well written. Backed and starred by Valerie (Freckles the Fawn)

Very insightful. I think I can definitly identify with this. A lot of people have had hardships. We all should be so lucky to come out the other side a little more wiser.

Your writing style is excellent, filled with emotion and raw honesty.
Ranked and rated:)
Bron

Hi Lorne

I love you're style of writing. It drew me in, making me feel like I was actually there, observing all from the shadows. Brilliant stuff! loads of ***'s.

Alex
x

A heartfelt testimony which was obviously written as a labour of love. I felt I could sense your emotion even as you were writing it.

I would guess that this would be more suited to the U.S. market than the U.K.one?

J.S.Watts
A DARKER MOON

Lorne, you show us that God's Word has power to change lives and you do it very well. Backed.
Anna
Cats Diamonds & Antiques

Lorne
I have read the first chapter and hope to read more. Being a true account of jail and religious awakening, it makes interesting reading. I have only one criticism: I think the first chapter is too long.
Best wishes
William (The Caves of Caerdraig)

hi Lorne, you seemed to like my book and I really like yours so if you would take another look at You Turn it would be appreciated it I really like your book of redemption and I like that moody looking guy on the front, good luck ,lynne

Hi Lorne. I so understand the difficulty you describe in getting to read and understand the Bible, I think this is why so many younger people don't, which is a shame, though with the more basic writing style Bibles nowadays it should be easier. Well written and backed with pleasure.
lizzie Scott :-

Thanks for backing my memoirs book again, Lorne :) - hope you ****** 'd it too. :) I re-backed & ****** 'd all 3 of yours. :) Love, Susie :)

One cannot help but compare this memoir to other similar works - even, and perhaps especially, classics such as St. Augustine's "Confessions" and St. John-of-the-Cross's "The Dark Night of the Soul". This is the story of a soul close to death coming alive again - the story in effect of a form of resurrection. It is told honestly and unflinchingly, without the sappy pathos that sometimes characterizes works of this sort.

I also see an interesting analogy to "Tarzan of the Apes" - no, not the silly movies, but the original and excellent novel by the unjustly unpraised Edgar Rice Burroughs. In it a boy teaches himself how to read with no guidance from others (as in effect Lorne Thompson does in the prison cell), and rises from ignominy to become a brilliant and honorable man - the novel's Tarzan is no monosyllabic Johnny Weissmuller but a British peer who speaks at least a dozen languages. Likewise, Thompson goes from being unable to comprehend the written word to being able to write this eloquent personal history - indeed, another transformation, or even resurrection: the resurrection of not only soul but mind.

Disclaimer: I am a retired ordained minister in the United Church of Christ and have done a great deal of prison chaplaincy over the years... but my endorsement of this book is heartfelt.

There are a few usage errors which I hope the author will correct - one frequently repeated is the use of "affect" (which is a verb) as a noun ... "The affect" should be "the effect).

--James David Audlin

Very entertaining! I look forward to reading the rest of your books.

SHINING AFTER RAIN by Lorne F. Thompson

"Heaven lies about us in our infancy! Shades of the prison-house begin to close upon the growing boy." - William Wordsworth.* In 12 Chapters the author charts a young man's journey through crime, conviction, punishment and parole. The connective redemptive force is a mother's devotion to reading the Bible and her son's self-discovery through its influence and conveyed values. A first class version of religious/christian mentoring which the author conveys with just the right touch - in my view. There is no in-your-face preaching or condemnatory fundamentalism here, rather, a well written book and in a style that downplays the author's evident scholarship and pastoral experience. The principal character is definitely one the reader empathises with. "But he beholds the light, and whence it flows, he sees it in his joy;.." * - Ode on the Intimations of Immortaliity from Recollections of Childhood. There are no fewer than nine books by Lorne F.Thompson currently posted on Authonomy and if this one is typical of the breadth and quaulity of his writing, I would guess they are all well worth reading. Backed.

Tony Brady - SCENES FROM AN EXAMINED LIFE - Books 1,2, & 3.

Hi Lorne, checked out the first chapter of this book. Firstly, it is not something that I would normally read, my tastes tend towards sci fi, fantasy and horror. But I have to say that what I have read is very well written, and for people who like this type of genre I believe it would engage them and keep them writing, so well done.
Xavier

Dear Lorne, the patience spent writing this fantastic depiction, of another's torment. It must have been an emotional journey. Thank you again Lorne, and my best wishes for the future. Take care, Cicuta, [Carl, Arcane].

A most unusual book.
I felt guilty...like an eaves dropper or voyeur peering into someones life!
Great dialogue and written with brutal honesty.
Poignant and evocative. Lorne F Thompson is a talented writer.
Alison Butler

A plesant insight into how ones life can change for the god by the interpetation of the written word and belief.. This is insightfull and makes us question our own beliefs - or lack of them.

Knowing Liam Riley

Sue Mackender

Lorne -

Shining after Rain - Engaging indeed. A soul-searching inner journey that results in a wider perception of life. The chapter ... Now I see ... reads like a future, insightful self is forming the words. I like the voice.

Backed, Pia

Nicely written. Your story has the potential to raise the spiritual awareness of the reader. The blind acceptance of religion is spiritually harmful because in most cases it stops people from seeking further. Backed.
Bud Carroll - The City - All That Ends

I am backing this on the strength of your writing, which is smooth and apparently effortless. (That's meant to be a compliment!) I am not a user of religion myself, but I can appreciate that many people will take heart from this story.
Katy Christie
No Man No Cry

You're probably much older than me, so, I'm not really in your standards that I should comment. But you asked for it, so, here it is.

I love the first chapter and the pitch. If your pitch is good then you'll get more readers, like me. :)
A very interesting approach in religion, not many people go there and become successful but you're coming through with shining colors.

Love,
AmberSparks

interesting account of imprisonment and religious conversion

Lynne Ellison

The Green Bronze Mirror

A nice read and an example of why prisoners turn to God. One criticism I have, however, is that I don't think the prison is described in detail enough, so the reader doesn't really get a feel for where the story is set.

The Nomad

THE ISLAND EXPERIMENT

Hi Lorne! Thank you very much for your very kind comment (and for the backing). I read yours recently, and backed. Just to make sure it registered, I backed again I have had some troubles with sending comments and backing and then discovering they haven't stuck - so apologies, having problems on my end. I think your story is terrific - and you write with a terrific visual flair. I'm not a critic, just someone who loves true stories that I can sink myself into and simply enjoy the journey. Yours would make a terrific film. :-)

many blessings,
jim

I do wish it was as easy as it seems in this story to change people's attitudes, but I guess it takes a lot of time, effort, and intensive education and cooperation to achieve this. simply reading the Bible won't help most folks. However, this is a good try and nicely written. Backed. Cheers! -Liz (Meggie Blackthorn)

(I enjoyed this, good dialogue, well described emotional landscape, the narrative voice loud and clear, and well written. You obviously have a love of language, the prose even shading to purple at times! Remember Orwell's dictum - never use a long word when a short one will do - although he was prepared to make concessions for the sake of style
I did wonder about your target audience. If you are hoping to draw in unbelievers by demonstrating how Christianity can turn a person round, it may succeed, but I think they might be put off by the Biblical language. In what way, for example, is crime a sin (i.e. falling short of God's commands) if one does not believe in, or has serious doubts about, God. Likewise the Biblical references. You very soon go from quoting what is said (I was blind but now I see) to mere references (Psalm 40:2) when the person will not be familiar with the line , 'He brought me up out of the muddy pit, out of the mire and clay'. (New English Bible).
If, on the other hand you are merely hoping to encourage fellow believers, all that would be fine. A very interesting read. Backed Jaye

This is a well written piece of memoir and you convey the thoughts of your narrator very well too. Only suggestion might be to divide the chapters into shorter chunks, just for ease of reading.
Regards,
Jim Darcy

I am sure this is powerful testimony and will help many people, but I didn't feel inclined to continue after the first chapter as the writing is very dense and doesn't stand out as hugely original or different to what is already out there. Jake

HI LORNE SHINING AFTER RAIN;'

TH;IS IS A POWERFULLY WRITTEN BIOGRAPHY WITH A MESSAGE ABOUT CHRISTIAN VALUES.
read a few chapters and impresses with the story so far. so well laid out and crafted. a min e of information for families with a problem child and such like problems'
this book has great potential in it's genre and will do well good lluck
TOM BYE ' FROM HUGS TO KISSES'
please back / comment mine if you like it obliged thanks

I hope that this book, and all the others you have posted on the site, will reach the widest audience possible. Those who have 'ears to hear' will definitely want to listen! I wish that I had your knowledge of the scriptures, especially when drafting The Cross of Goa. Elaine Pagels's books and others helped me through some difficult times. I am now convinced that theologians like yourself and scholars such as Elaine and Marvin Meyer have much to offer to fill the spiritual void that exists today. Infants listen and experience 'the Nativity' and are captivated by it. Revealing what we know about the historical Jesus will bridge the gulf that develops once those infants reach their teens. I wish you the success that you deserve with all your books. Backed.
Laurence Winchester.
The Cross of Goa

Beautifully written and a thought provoking text - The impact of religion on a young imprisoned boy is obviously life changing for him.

Every success with this.

Clare
A Policeman's Lot

Hi,

This makes really good reading, though perhaps a little wordy for my taste. You paint a strong visual image, and raise thought provoking questions, I really enjoyed sharing your insights into your faith.

Thank you for your comments on my submissions, I really appreciate your compliments on my work.

Many Thanks,

Natalie.

You write with a sensitivity from the heart that touches the reader with a sense of emotion that is palatable but not overwhelming.

Jane.